Sin-Killer Griffin - Wasn't That A Mighty Storm

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2012Oct 23

This song actually sung by Griffin's song-leader in the Darrington Prison, April 1934 Field Recordings: Louisiana, Texas, Bahamas The last major storm that smashed directly into Galveston, in 1900, was the deadliest hurricane in American history, which among many other things made it inevitable someone would write a song about it. Actually, there were many songs. But the one that has endured, deservingly, is called "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" - which, from what we know, began life as a spiritual in the black church. At least the church seems to be the first place it surfaced into public view. Back in those days, almost every major public event inspired songs, which spread like text messages spread today, so the precise origin of songs is often hard to pin down. But "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" fit perfectly into the black spiritual tradition - a tale of hardship and trouble and the sometimes inscrutable hand of God with which we troubled sinners in this hard mortal world simply had to live. Part of it went like this: Galveston had a seawall To keep the water down, But the high tide from the ocean Washed water over the town. Wasn't that a mighty storm! Oh, wasn't that a mighty storm with water! Wasn't that a mighty storm That blew all the people away! Their trumpets gave them warning, "You'd better leave this place." They never thought of leaving Till death looked them in the face. Death like a cruel master, As the wind began to blow, Rode out on a train of horses. Death calls, you gotta go. It was not a happy song. But then, it was not a happy event - and topical songs of the early 20th century thrived on unhappy events. There were literally hundreds of songs about the sinking of the Titanic, dozens about the killer Mississippi floods of 1927. The song was apparently first recorded in 1934 by Library of Congress folk song collector John Lomax on a visit to Darrington State Farm, a prison in Sandy Point, Tex. Lomax's recording was by a preacher named Sin-Killer Griffin, with the prison inmates serving as his congregation. Sin-Killer was a well-known preacher, with a mesmerizing delivery and full confidence in the name he had given himself. Death was a subject on which he preached frequently. Relatively little is known about his life, which makes it all the more intriguing that back in 1889, in Denton, Tex., a "Sin-Killer Griffin" tried to organize black Americans to invade Africa. There is some evidence this was the same Sin-Killer Griffin who resurfaced before John Lomax 45 years later, though we have no way of knowing for sure. In any case, Griffin told Lomax he'd written "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" years earlier, and the lyrics suggest that someone did, since one verse references the flood happening "fifteen years ago." The song largely stayed in the church, however, until the late 1950s, when folk song revivalists were roaming through 20th century musical history to find the songs that the folks had sung. The particularly diligent Eric Von Schmidt found that one in the Library of Congress collection, and with his friend Rolf Cahn put together a compelling folk arrangement with powerful guitar chords and a bluesy melody. Von Schmidt handed it off to his fellow New England folkie Tom Rush, who recorded it on a popular album in the early 1960s. It was revived again in 1972 by a late incarnation of the country band J.R. Mainer's Mountaineers, who may have performed it back in the 1930s when they started. From there it was plucked some years later by Nanci Griffith, who is from Texas herself. Somewhere along the way Sin-Killer Griffin's "fifteen years" became "50 years," suggesting the song was written around 1950, which it wasn't. But most of the other lyrics remained the same, even though several later singers credited themselves with an "adaptation" of "traditional" lyrics, usually cutting out Sin-Killer. Since the world and popular music culture don't work today like they did a century ago, it's not likely we will get a ballad of Hurricane Ike. But once upon a time, popular songs were part of our mainstream media - and "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" reminds us that at their best, they told a tough story well. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainm...