Make Me a Pallet on the Floor
Encyclopedia
"Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" (also recorded as "Make Me a Pallet on your Floor", "Make Me a Pallet" and "Pallet on the Floor") is a blues
/jazz
/folk
song now considered as a standard
. The song's origins are somewhat nebulous and can be traced back to the 19th century. Various versions of the lyrics were first published in 1911 in an academic journal of ethnomusicology
. Some sources attribute the modern score to W. C. Handy
who later modified into a song known as "Atlanta Blues".
The song's first recordings are by Mississippi John Hurt
(as "Ain't No Tellin'") and Bunk Johnson
.
American musicians. The following is an incomplete and roughly chronological list of interpretations.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
/jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
/folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
song now considered as a standard
Standard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
. The song's origins are somewhat nebulous and can be traced back to the 19th century. Various versions of the lyrics were first published in 1911 in an academic journal of ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
. Some sources attribute the modern score to W. C. Handy
W. C. Handy
William Christopher Handy was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues"....
who later modified into a song known as "Atlanta Blues".
The song's first recordings are by Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
(as "Ain't No Tellin'") and Bunk Johnson
Bunk Johnson
Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....
.
List of cover versions
Make Me a Pallet on the Floor has been recorded or performed by a number of artists, mostly blues, jazz, folk and countryCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
American musicians. The following is an incomplete and roughly chronological list of interpretations.
- Jelly Roll MortonJelly Roll MortonFerdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
(1920s) - Memphis Jug BandMemphis Jug BandThe Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s. The band featured harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards, kazoo, and jugs blown to supply the bass; they played in a variety of musical styles...
(1920s) - Big Bill BroonzyBig Bill BroonzyBig Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
(1930s) - Willie BrownWillie Brown (musician)Willie Brown was an American delta blues guitarist and singer.- Life and career :Born Willie Lee Brown in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Brown played with such notables as Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson. He was not known to be a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians...
- Sidney BechetSidney BechetSidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
- Louis Armstrong and His All StarsLouis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
on the 1954 album Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy - Ottilie PattersonOttilie PattersonOttilie Patterson was a Northern Irish blues singer best known for her performances and recordings with the Chris Barber Jazz Band in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
- Brownie McGheeBrownie McGheeWalter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...
- Odetta and the BluesOdetta and the BluesOdetta and The Blues is an album by folk singer Odetta, released in 1962.Recorded as the 1950s/'60s American folk music revival was getting underway, the album is notable for Odetta's use of a jazz band on the record....
on her 1962 album Odetta and the BluesOdetta and the BluesOdetta and The Blues is an album by folk singer Odetta, released in 1962.Recorded as the 1950s/'60s American folk music revival was getting underway, the album is notable for Odetta's use of a jazz band on the record.... - Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
on the Billy FaierBilly FaierBilly Faier is an American banjo player. He, along with Pete Seeger, was one of the early exponents of the banjo during the mid-20th century American folk music revival....
Show (1962) - Sandy DennySandy DennySandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
(late 1960s) - Gus CannonGus CannonGus Cannon was an American blues musician, who helped to popularize jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s. There is doubt about his birth year; his tombstone gives the date as 1874....
(1963) - Jo Ann KellyJo Ann KellyJo Ann Kelly was an English blues singer and guitarist. "To many American performers", an obituarist wrote, "Jo Ann Kelly was the only British singer to earn their respect for her development of what they would be justified in thinking as 'their' genre".-Life and career:Kelly was born in...
- Doc WatsonDoc WatsonArthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
on the 1975 album MemoriesMemories (Doc Watson album)Memories is the title of a recording by Doc Watson, released in 1975. It was originally released as a double-LP by Capitol Records. It peaked at No. 47 on Billboard Country Albums charts and No... - David BrombergDavid BrombergDavid Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...
(1976) - Mike Wilhelm (1976)
- Rahsaan Roland Kirk Rahsaan Roland KirkRahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
on the 1977 album Boogie-Woogie String Along for RealBoogie-Woogie String Along for RealBoogie-Woogie String Along for Real is the final album recorded by jazz multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk featuring performances by Kirk with string section and orchestra. It was recorded in 1977 following a stroke which left him partially paralysed.The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek states... - Lucinda WilliamsLucinda WilliamsLucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
on her 1979 album Ramblin'Ramblin'Ramblin' is a cover album by Lucinda Williams, her first professional release. It was released in 1979 .-Side one:#"Ramblin' On My Mind" #"Me And My Chauffeur"... - Archie SheppArchie SheppArchie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
and Horace ParlanHorace ParlanHorace Parlan is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.He is noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots....
on the 1980 album Trouble in MindTrouble in Mind (album)Trouble In Mind is an album by Elkie Brooks and Humphrey Lyttelton named for a classic eight-bar blues song "Trouble in Mind".Recorded in 2002 at Woody Bay Studios, the album was released on CD in 2003 by Classic Pictures.-Track listing:... - Sharon, Lois & BramSharon, Lois & BramSharon, Lois & Bram is the name of a Canadian children's musical trio composed of Sharon Hampson , Lois Ada Lilienstein , and Bramwell "Bram" Morrison .-Group formation:Sharon Hampson, Lois Lillenstein, and Bram Morrison began their singing...
on the 1980 album Singing 'n' SwingingSinging 'n' SwingingSinging n Swinging is the third album by popular children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram, originally released in 1980.-Releases:The album has been re-designed and re-released once throughout the trio's career... - Jim PostJim PostJim Post is an American folk singer-songwriter, composer, playwright and actor. In 1968 his pop song "Reach out of the Darkness" charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks, peaking at number 10.-History:...
on the 1987 album Jim Post & Friends - Mike SeegerMike SeegerMike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary...
on the 1996 album Way Down In North Carolina - Sue FoleySue FoleySue Foley is a Canadian blues singer and guitarist.-Career:Foley has been writing and playing professionally since 1984. She has recorded ten albums, for both Antone's Records and Shanachie Records. She has spent over fourteen years on the road as a bandleader, lead vocalist, guitarist and...
(2000) - Gillian WelchGillian WelchGillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...
on her 2003 album Soul JourneySoul JourneySoul Journey is the fourth studio album by Gillian Welch. As with all of her previous releases, it is a collaboration with David Rawlings.... - EntranceEntrance (musician)The Entrance Band is a band started by Guy Blakeslee . Their style of music has been described as psychedelic rock or stoner rock....
on the 2004 album Wandering Stranger - TangleweedTangleweedTangleweed is a four-person acoustic Americana band from Chicago, Illinois. They have four full-length CDs, and were included on the "Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Series, Volume 2", on Bloodshot Records...
on the 2005 album Just a Spoonful - Irma ThomasIrma ThomasIrma Thomas is an American Grammy Award-winning soul and rhythm and blues singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans"....
(2006) - Eddie AdcockEddie AdcockEddie Adcock was born in Scottsville, Virginia, USA, on June 21, 1938. His professional musical career as a 5 string banjoist began in 1953 when he joined Smokey Graves & His Blue Star Boys, who had a regular show at a radio station in Crewe, VA. His exposure with Graves led to jobs with other...
- The Wood BrothersThe Wood BrothersThe Wood Brothers are musician siblings Chris and Oliver Wood from Boulder, Colorado. Chris is a founding member of Medeski Martin & Wood, and Oliver played second guitar with Tinsley Ellis before forming King Johnson....
on the 2008 album LoadedLoadedLoaded may refer to:In music:* Loaded * Loaded * Loaded * "Loaded" * "Loaded" * "Loaded"... - North Mississippi AllstarsNorth Mississippi AllstarsNorth Mississippi Allstars is a Southern rock/blues jam band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is composed of brothers Luther Dickinson and Cody Dickinson , and Chris Chew...
- Perform the song in their live repertoire - Emma Beaton & Celtic Chaos on 2008 Pretty Fair Maid