I heard the Big Mo Blues Show last night and the Big Mo Pod Show today. I can say that the Garage Show title refers to a get together during the Covid pandemic that Big Mo threw and held in his garage and featured local Blues artists including Bryce Janey, who is number 5 on the list of songs with “Down Home Blues.”
Anyway, the most interesting part of the podcast was the 3rd song, “Coal Black Mare” (misspelled as “Cold Black Mare”) which was produced by Bob Corritore and released as part of historical album released October 17, 2025 entitled “Bob Corritore and Friends—Early Blues Sessions.” It includes songs recorded between 1984 and 2007. Corritore was on harmonica and blues artist Clarence Edwards sang the song (he died in 1993).
I looked up Clarence Edwards on Wikipedia and he was born in Louisiana in 1933 and became more widely known in the 1980s when he performed on a national blues festival circuit. I found a version of Coal Black Mare recorded in 1961 by Edwards.
The song “Coal Black Mare” has a very interesting history all by itself. Most internet articles say Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, was probably best known for writing the song “That’s All Right” in 1946 which Elvis Presley make famous later. Some say “That’s All Right” was the first rock and roll song. The Blues Hall of Fame says that Crudup was the “The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
I found references that say Crudup wrote “Coal Black Mare” and released it in 1962 or 1965 (the Fire Sessions) depending on which web site you read. I also found a song entitled “Black Pony Blues” which on most web sites is the same as “Coal Black Mare” and was recorded in 1941 under Crudup’s name. They both sound like the same song.
Opinions differ about the meaning of the song “Coal Black Mare.” While I think most would say that it’s about a black race horse that won a lot of races, I think the “gold earrings” and “gold teeth” lyrics could make some people wonder if this is a metaphor for a woman. I found a web reference hinting at this, speculating that Charley Patton’s 1929 “Pony Blues” might have inspired the song and say that in all versions, including Crudup’s, the black mare stands for “…a black lover.”
I got lost in the internet forest on this one and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have the first idea of whether or not “Coal Black Mare” was inspired by Charley Patton’s “Pony Blues.” And while I think gold earrings and teeth would look odd on a horse; I also suspect Crudup was probably singing about a race horse.
Your thoughts?
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