Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

Our classic Americana pick this week comes from Norman Blake, who celebrated a birthday on March 10.

Blake was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., and was strongly influenced by the roots music he heard on the radio by such artists as the Carter Family, Roy Acuff, and Bill Monroe.

A multi-instrumentalist, Norman Blake is a skilled player of mandolin, fiddle, banjo and viola, but he’s perhaps best known for his style as a flatpicking guitarist.

In 1976, Norman Blake released the album Whiskey Before Breakfast on Rounder Records, and it remains a classic must-have album for any fan of acoustic folk and bluegrass. Although the record includes some traditional songs like “Arkansas Traveler,” Blake wrote his own songs that have now become standards in folk, old time and bluegrass circles. We’re going to listen to one of those Blake-penned songs — in fact, it’s a song that is now much more closely associated with Blake’s friend and colleague Tony Rice, thanks to Tony Rice’s 1983 recording of the song on his album by the same name — but here is Norman Blake’s 1976 rendition of his original song “Church Street Blues.”

Before and after his landmark Whiskey Before Breakfast album, Blake has been a frequently sought session musician. He played on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album, and he worked with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, as well as with his wife, Nancy Blake. Later in his career, Blake contributed to the highly influential O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. In 2021, Blake released Day by Day on Smithsonian Folkways, a collection of original and traditional tunes that both the label and Blake have described as his final album.

Classic Americana Playlist

External Link

Norman Blake – Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum