I was coming home late from school one night and NPR (WYPR in Baltimore, to be exact) was playing a country/folk tune. The female singer sounded like she was in her 70’s and the guitar playing was better and more technical than anything I’ve ever heard. I remember the lyrics being conversational with a man and a woman, and the woman kept singing “I can’t sit down.”
I got busy and forgot about it at the time, but I’d really like to hear that song again. Does anyone have any clue what it could be?
Well there’s a country duet called “I Can’t Sit Down”; it’s a call-and-response style tune.
If it was bluegrass style, I’da thought it was the White Top Mountaineers, even tho Martha Spencer is in her late 20s or early 30s.
If it was in a more Appalachian style, I’m gonna guess it was Wade and Julia Mainer. Wade passed away a few years ago, at the ripe age of 104; Julia is still alive AFAIK.
I think you’re right! The Wade and Julia Mainer piece sounds exactly like the singing I heard in NPR. Though the video I found doesn’t have the same guitar playing. Maybe NPR’s version was different?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe had a song called “Sit Down” that repeated the phrase “I can’t sit down”, but I don’t recall that it was a duet, just her and an acoustic guitar.
I’m sure that whatever you heard on NPR was different than that shitty live recording from a fair. I know that when Wade died they did a show about him: he was a banjo-picking pioneer, after all, as well as the man who fused banjo and gospel music.
I’m not sure when you were in school, but Wade died almost exactly 3 years ago on 12 September 2011.
ETA: Oh, you’re welcome. Always happy to help someone find music they love or might love.