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SPEAKER 1: You guys just cut a record today, right?

SPEAKER 2: Yeah, right. So there's--

CHRIS ROBERTS: March 23, 1963 must have been a heady, exhausting day for "Spider" John Koerner. He was in Milwaukee, along with his partners, Dave Ray and Tony Glover. Earlier, they had spent 10 hours laying down the tracks for what eventually would become a seminal folk blues album, "Blues, Rags and Hollers."

They played a gig that night at a local coffeehouse. At around midnight, Koerner showed up at a Milwaukee radio station for an interview and performance.

JOHN KOERNER: This song is called "Duncan and Brady," about two guys. One guy's name was Duncan. The other guy's name was Brady.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Koerner doesn't remember the radio appearance and nobody knows whether it even aired. Credit Mark Trehus for discovering it 47 years later. Trehus, owner of Treehouse Records in Minneapolis, found it while sifting through the late Dave Ray's personal archive, which he had acquired from Ray's widow. As owner of the local label, Nero's Neptune Records, and a devoted admirer of Koerner, Trehus knew immediately it was something people had to hear.

MARK TREHUS: Just the idea that there was unreleased recordings by the guy I consider to be possibly the greatest living practitioner of American folk music in America today was just exciting beyond belief for me. I mean, in my world, that was about as good as it gets.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Trehus and Koerner are sitting at Koerner's favorite hangout on the West Bank, Palmer's Bar. To Trehus, the radio tape of "Spider" John is a treasure. It's one of the few well-recorded snapshots out there of Koerner playing by himself outside the studio.

MARK TREHUS: You know, this is John, very spontaneously relaxed in the studio after a long day. And it's amazing how much energy is still there. I would be just dead-tired.

JOHN KOERNER (SINGING): I got the rhythm and blues now moving all the time

Hold on, I got something

Something on my mind

Something on my mind

Something on my mind

Yeah, now hold on, I've got something on my mind

CHRIS ROBERTS: Koerner cringes when he hears old recordings of himself. And he has yet to listen to the CD of that Milwaukee Radio interview entitled March 1963. It's familiar material, though. Koerner wrote most of the songs, several of which are on the folk classic, "Blues, Rags and Hollers," and all of which spring from the same source.

JOHN KOERNER: Most of it is traditional American folk songs, which I got plain and simple by getting some of the collections, like, Lomax Collections. And just looking through them to try and find songs that one way or another struck me.

[JOHN KOERNER, "SOUTHBOUND TRAIN"] I'm going down to the station, going to catch that southbound train

I'm going down to the station, going to catch that southbound train

You know, when I heard the whistle, I did not see no train

CHRIS ROBERTS: How do you take a tradition as strong as the one that you're mining and somehow come up with songs that are your own and aren't just duplicates of songs you've heard and loved?

JOHN KOERNER: If you get your head into the traditional material, that's a lot help. You get phrases you can use and just sort of an attitude that comes through them that you get to use, experiences that they portray that you get to use. So that's real helpful. And the rest of it, like I say, is just your own artistic vent.

[JOHN KOERNER, "GOOD TIME CHARLIE"] Gonna get me a gun as long as my arm

I'm gonna shoot every man ever done me harm

The Good Time Charlie's back in town again

CHRIS ROBERTS: When you listen to Koerner's music, pay attention to his guitar playing. Some, like Mark Trehus, feel Koerner's system of plucking and strumming, which he invented, is in a class of its own. Koerner thinks his guitar technique is crude but effective.

JOHN KOERNER: Well, it started out trying to understand and maybe even play a little like the old country blues guys. A lot of those guys had their own style that you can pick up on real quick. That set me free in a way. I realized it didn't make much sense to go around copying anybody and just to steal from whatever sounded good to you or from whoever or whatever.

CHRIS ROBERTS: The other "Spider" John Koerner recording Nero's Neptune Records is putting out, is a re-release of Koerner's 1972 album called, "Music is just a Bunch of Notes."

[JOHN KOERNER, "RAMBLE, TUMBLE"] I put on my hat, walked out the door

I ain't gonna sit around this town no more

Ramble and tumble

CHRIS ROBERTS: Koerner recorded it with another West Bank Blues legend, Willie Murphy, and his band, The Bumble Bees. It's always been one of Mark Trehus's favorite Koerner records.

MARK TREHUS: And it's got one of my all-time favorite John's songs on there, the one solo piece, "Everybody's Going for the Money," which is-- John will disagree with me on this, I think, a little bit. But I just think it's an absolute stone-cold classic.

[JOHN KOERNER, "EVERYBODY'S GOIN' FOR THE MONEY"] Everybody's goin' for the money

Thinkin' it makes the world go round

But this whole world keeps turning on and on

Well, when you're layin' underneath the ground

CHRIS ROBERTS: "Everybody's Going for the Money" is the closest the album gets to Kerner's early '60s' more traditionalist approach. The vibe on the rest of the songs fed by Willie Murphy's honky-tonk piano and the Bees' horn section is looser and more spontaneous. There's even some short, spacey spoken word tracks thrown in by a local comedian.

SPEAKER: I wonder if I had to go down to the [INAUDIBLE] and get myself a [INAUDIBLE]

CHRIS ROBERTS: Music is just a bunch of notes. It also contains a DVD of The Secret of Sleep, a cult film Koerner produced in 1970. It will be screened tonight at the Cedar. "Spider" John says, the package reflects an era.

JOHN KOERNER: This was experimental times. And to me, it shows what was going on in the late '60s on the West Bank, with West Bank attitude, and the performers were readily available around here.

CHRIS ROBERTS: "Spider" John Koerner, according to Mark Trehus, is in that category of musicians whose influence greatly exceeds their fame. Trehus lists a slew of artists who've been touched by Koerner, from Dylan, Lennon, and Bowie, to Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams. But Koerner seems happy with the attention he's received.

JOHN KOERNER: I feel I've gotten my due, as Mark was listing off a bunch of people who made it public that my work was interesting and useful. And I have lots of people where I perform, who appreciate what I do. I get a lot of young people who don't know who I am and what kind of music it is I'm playing, who come up and get interested in it.

I got no problem with all that. I mean, you could always ask for a little more money, but-- [LAUGHS] not much. But outside of that, things are fine.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Koerner says, if his notoriety were any greater, people might come down to Palmer's Bar on the West Bank and bug him, and he wouldn't like that. Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.

[JOHN KOERNER, "THE SKIPPER AND HIS WIFE"] Skipper and his wife traveled all their life

Leaving their friends to wonder

For many long days and many long nights

And they turned to one another

They cried

All I had in this world done gone

Sitting on a hillside, a moonlight night

A young girl and her lover

For many long hours until the come sunrise

And they turned to one another

They're crying

All I had, but in this world done gone

A very old man with money in his hand

Looking for a place to hide

Along come a young man, a gun in his hand

They both sat down and cried

And they're crying

All I had in this world done gone

Well, getting ahead is harder than you think

But getting behind is easy

When everybody's going for the same damn thing

Getting behind is easy

Your crying

All I had in this world done gone

And nothing in your hands, nothing in your head

All you got, borrowed

Nothing in your hands is how you feel today

Nothing in your head tomorrow

Your crying

All I had in this world done gone

Skipper and his wife travelled all their life

They're leaving their friends to wonder

For many long days and many long nights

They turned to one another

And they cried

All I had in this world done gone