Here’s another wonderful old-time country tune from the 78rpm era, courtesy of Archive.org. The song is ‘Cocaine’, recorded by Dick Justice in Chicago on May 20, 1929. The song was previously recorded by Luke Jordan in 1927 (from whom Tangleweed learned their version of Spoonful). Justice’s version follows Jordan’s version pretty faithfully.

Justice was a West Virginian, a contemporary of the equally excellent Frank Hutchison. His sole recorded output consists of ten sides cut for Brunswick records at the aforementioned session on May 20, 1929.

Cocaine.mp3

Justice’s work has been collected by Document records as part of their 8000 series, now sadly out of print. The volume, Old-Time Music from West Virginia, now sells for a premium on the second hand market.

For more on Luke Jordan, including some hot record collector porn (i.e. photos of rare old records), go here: http://www.wirz.de/music/jordlfrm.htm