I have written about this album at length elsewhere, but I think it's always a good time to spread the word of the washboard.
Sonny Terry, a blind blues harmonica player and singer, recorded an album of washboard band music (a clanking junkyard rhythm sound made of found objects such as pots, pans, brooms and of course washboards) in 1955 for the Folkways record label.
The percussion on these songs is incredible. Beats between beats between beats are layered together in intricately simplistic patterns which create a clattering metal safety net for Terry's leaping impassioned blues howls and yelps.
It's charming, raucous yet intimate, and utterly unique sounding. Makes you wonder (well- kind of) why the washboard has faded from popular music.
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