For those of us in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain (the countries in which the brilliant streaming music service Spotify is available) I just ran a search of Nat Riddles and discovered a (very short) track of his appearing on an album called The American Folk Blues Festival '83 (released 2009). Or at least he accompanies Larry Johnson on a song called "I Got The Blues".
I thought it notable here, considering the scarcity of Nat Riddles recordings.
You're right: there's very little Nat Riddles available in digital form--
EXCEPT: the double album, for digital download, that I personally recorded on a Walkman Professional, edited, sequenced, and have for sale on this very website:
The sound is a little crunchy, I'll admit. (I've learned quite a bit about digital transfers since then. Doing it over today, if I had the time for that large task, I wouldn't save the files at 64 kb/s, or use a tiny Olympus voice recorder to process the transfers.) But it is the only extant collection of recordings that feature Nat live, on the street, which is where his personality and musicianship truly shown through.
Last Edited by on Jun 25, 2009 12:00 PM
I downloaded Adams double album of Nat's and love it. Wonderful music backed up by police sirens, traffic, pedestrians,etc.. and Nat engaging with it all. Close your eyes and give it a listen. Very cool.
And I have to say, this recording at The American Folk Blues Festival doesn't hold a candle to the playing that you'll hear on the album Adam's referring to. Sound quality is infinitely better, but it's over before the harp player even gets to stretch his legs.
Definitely, the track that started this thread is only for people too poor/cheap to buy the album, or those who already have the album and are looking for extra material on Nat Riddles.
I bring it up because today I watched this lesson, perhaps my favourite of Gussow's youtube offerings:
Very much recommend the recording Adam just mentioned. Its all great, and all the better for the crunchiness. Nat's version of St. James Infirmary is worth the price alone.
I have a vinyl of Larry Johnson & Nat Riddles. After watching Ebay for a long time a record came up in Germany, and I bought it. I have converted it to mp3s so I can play it on the computer.
My question is to anyone who knows the answer, would it be illegal/unethical for me to share this with other Nat Riddles fans here on the forum? I'm not sure of the legalities etc. It was recorded in 1982, distributed by International Sound Service West Germany. I guess someone owns the rights, or are the defunct???
The vinyl has 12 tracks, one is an instrumental by Nat, the others are a layed back 'country style' blues where he is accompanying Larry, with a few solos. It is very different to the recording of Nat that Adam has available, which is blow your doors off stuff with the lot. ( Adams is much better IMO apart this has better sound quality).
Anyway given how difficult it is to come by digital stuff of Nat, I would like to share if someone can tell me if its Legal to do so.
Tyharp: "would it be illegal/unethical for me to share this with other Nat Riddles fans here on the forum? I'm not sure of the legalities etc. It was recorded in 1982, distributed by International Sound Service West Germany. I guess someone owns the rights, or are the defunct???"
I'm not a fan of North American copyright laws - they tend to fuck over artists in favor of publishers. They also have ridiculously long terms (about 100 years).
German copyright law seems to be a bit better - Wikipedia article. The transfer of copyright seems to be limited. But I don't know if it even falls under this law since it was distributed by a company in west Germany before 1990.
So is it legal? I don't know. Is it ethical? That's up to you to decide. I certainly would have no problem sleeping at night if I had a copy of this and shared/distributed it freely. I don't think you would be taking food form anyone's mouth (certainly not anyone important to Nat Riddles, I dare say.) The only practical issue I can think of is whether someone would come after me, looking to collect royalties.
There is not a lot of Nat Riddles stuff available on the internet.
Last Edited by on Jun 27, 2009 4:23 AM
I dont think Nat would care, actually I htink he would probably love it.
As far as someone coming after me, I dont care, let em come. I have done a few illegal things in my time, and this wont be one I'm losing sleep over!!!
I sort of just dont want to step on anyones toes. There's a lot of musicians here and if I distribute copyright material, I might get pasted for doing it.
My thinking is this:
Ive read Adams 'Mister Ssatans Apprentice' where Adam talks about Nat a fair bit. I've listened to Adams download 'El Cafe St' which is awesome, and and Nats charisma shines through.
I dont know Larry from a bar of soap, but I dont think he would mind either.
Adam has the El cafe St download for sale, and if I offer this for free, it might cut Adams sales ( which I dont want to do )
Maybe, I could send the files to Adam and he could charge a fee he deemed fit for handling etc for a tradebit download?
You are not considering distributing the same recordings as Adam - that would be direct competition. You are considering distributing a completely different recording, in a completely different style. Any fan of Nat Riddles would probably want both, no?
Your distribution of the material may even increase sales for Adam. I think this has already been proven in the case against music sharing sites. Although I can't remember the source, I believe the numbers have shown that as the number of downloads of an artist's obscure recordings increase, the legitimate sales of that artist's works also increase.
That may be hearsay, or anecdotal evidence, though. As I said, I don't remember the source. I'm not an expert or anything...
...not to mention that Adam *selling* this recording that may have rights attached to it would certainly be unwise.
Last Edited by on Jun 27, 2009 5:46 AM
