Black Label Blues - Gamble Rogers

Gamble Rogers is a fascinating folk singer. Gamble's engaging ballads and humanistic insight influenced performers like Jimmy Buffet and his early troubadouring ilk. In addition to being a regular commentator to NPR's All Songs Considered (during the late 1970s) he's also credited with creating a sub-genre known as Southern Gothic. That's not surprising since some of his best material leans toward the macabre side (The Great Maitland Turkey Farm Massacre of 1953, Blood Mountain, etc.). In 1991 Rogers died heroically while rescuing a little girl's drowning father off the Florida coast. The park was later renamed the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach in his honor.

"Black Label Blues" is from his 1977 God Gave Me Grace, The Devil Gave Me Style LP. It's a whiskey sippin' story that I'm intimately familiar with. Enjoy.


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Here's Gamble performing "Black Label Blues" for the Heartworn Highways documentary.