Real Music: Jack Owens - 
"It Must Have Been the Devil" 

From the album It Must Have Been 
the Devil, Mississippi Country Blues 
by Jack Owens and Bud Spires, used 
by permission of Hightone Records 
and David Evans. 
http://www.hightone.com

A black cat stares out from the front porch of blues singer Jack Owens as he plays his dark and haunting blues with harmonica accompanist Bud Spires. Owens, whose canon of songs comes from the minor-keyed Bentonia tradition made famous by the delta legend Skip James, sings in his signature song, "It must have been the devil, changed that woman's mind/ I'd rather be the devil than to be that woman's friend." Songs in the Bentonia tradition are suffused with brooding images of the supernatural. Robert Johnson drew from this tradtion in composing his most haunting blues, "Hellhound on my trail."