Joe Callicott, better known as Mississippi Joe Callicott, born October 10, 1900 in Nesbit (De Sota county), Mississippi, died 1969 (unconfirmed), was an American Bluessinger..

His Love Me Baby Blues has been covered by various artists, e.g. (under the title of France Chance) by Ry Cooder.

Callicott first found his way on record in 1929 as the second guitarist on Garfield Aker's legendary two-parter "Cottonfield Blues" and a year later he recorded "Traveling Mama Blues" and "Fare Thee Well Blues" under his own name.

By the time Mitchell caught up with him Callicott had just recently taken up the guitar again and while he had slowed with age he was still an exceptional bluesman. Callicott plays a gentle propulsive style of blues that had close affinities to the music of Mississippi John Hurt. Callicott was also a wonderfully moving singer often employing effective falsetto.

Here is what Joe Callicott recorded in 1968 for Blue Horizon, in the series “Presenting the Country Blues”

1. You don’t know my mind

2. Dough roller blues

3. War time blues

4. Joe’s troubled blues

5. On my last go round

6. Hoist your window and let your curtain down

7. Married woman blues

8. Poor boy blues

9. Frankie and Albert (take 1)

10. Frankie and Albert (take 2)

11. Leavin’town blues

12. Going away blues

13. Worried now in Tennessee town

14. Lost my money in Jim Kinnane’s

15. Worreid blues

16.You don’t know my mind (alternative take)

Posted by Joski at 12:28 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Mississippi Joe Callicot

March 6, 1983 – September 14, 1981

Born March 6, 1899, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. At the age of seven he and his family moved to Memphis, where young Lewis took up the guitar under the tutelage of a man whose name he recalled as "Blind Joe." Blind Joe apparently was versed in nineteenth century song and taught his protégé "Casey Jones" and "John Henry," songs based around the exploits of heroic figures. Lewis would later record these two songs for the Victor and Vocalion labels respectively. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street.

Lewis hoboed around the country until 1917, when he lost a leg in a railroad accident. He returned to Memphis, playing in association with Jim Jackson, Gus Cannon (who would form Cannon’s Jug Stompers for recording dates), and Will Shade. Though primarily a solo performer, Lewis worked with this combination in a variety of clubs on Beale Street including the famous Pee Wee's (now the site of a Hard Rock Café) into the 1920s. The loss of a leg did not prevent him from touring during the early 1920s with the Dr. Willie Lewis Medicine Show, where he made the acquaintance of a young Memphis Minnie. His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Texas Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene.

In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded for the Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session that saw sides waxed by the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The recordings from these dates exhibit a nimble, clean, and versatile picking style that provides an excellent counterpoint to his complex verses. Several of his recordings (notably "Judge Harsh Blues" and "Cannonball Blues") display Lewis's bottleneck slide playing, a style in which he was proficient but not a master. His vocal range was limited but he compensated by composing humorous verses that were by turns bawdy, sly, boasting, and pleading.

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 brought Lewis's recording career to a halt. He continued to play Beale Street and became a frequent performer in W.C. Handy Park during the 1930s and 1940s. During the "Blues Revival" of the 1960s, Lewis was rediscovered by a younger generation of fans that appreciated his expressive lyrics, dexterous playing, and charismatic charm. He parlayed his delayed celebrity into a movie cameo (initially offered to Sleepy John Estes), a talk show appearance, and large hall shows with the rock and roll bands that were his musical progeny. Before he died in 1981 Furry opened twice for the Rolling Stones.

Furry Lewis died in Memphis September 14, 1981.

Here are his complete recordings 1927-1929

I also joined his recordings for Blue Horizon in 1969

Enjoy

Posted by Joski at 11:51 AM | 1 comments  
Labels: Furry Lewis

This is a survey of what the early country blues was about.

Each volume provides a dazzling, panoramic survey of artists both famous and obscure and covers every region known to have nurtured the music.

This is pure delight

Vol. One

1 High Water Everywhere, part 2 - Charley Patton
2 See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson
3 Cottonfield Blues, part 2 - Garfield Akers
4 James Alley Blues - Richard ''Rabbit'' Brown
5 I Had a Good Father and Mother - Washington Phillips
6 Travelin' Blues Blind - Willie McTell
7 Canned Heat Blues - Tommy Johnson
8 Minglewood Blues - Cannon's Jug Stompers
9 Nappy Head Blues - Bobby Grant
10 Third Street Woman Blues - Blind Willie Reynolds
11 My Black Mama, part 1 - Eddie James ''Son'' House, Jr.
12 Bull-Doze Blues - Henry Thomas
13 Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground - Blind Willie Johnson
14 Trouble Hearted Blues - Ishman Bracey
15 Honey in the Rock - Blind Mamie Forehand
16 Frankie - Mississippi John Hurt
17 Man Trouble Blues - Jaybird Coleman
18 How Long? - Frank Stokes
19 Future Blues - Willie Brown
20 Voice Throwin' Blues - Walter ''Buddy Boy'' Hawkins

http://lix.in/85fdab

Vol. Two

1. Devil Got My Woman - Skip James
2. When That Great Ship Went Down - William & Versey Smith
3. Jail House Blues, The - Sam Collins
4. Touch Me Light Mama - George "Bullet" Williams
5. Mother's Love - Blind Joe Taggart
6. Skin Man Blues - Hi Henry Brown
7. Lost Lover Blues - Lottie Kimbrough
8. Levee Camp Moan Blues - Texas Alexander
9. K.C. Moan - Memphis Jug Band
10. Paddlin' Madeline Blues - Gitfiddle Jim
11. Preachin' Blues - Robert Johnson
12. Billy Lyons And Stack O'Lee - Furry Lewis
13. Fryin' Pan Skillet Blues - Bessie Tucker
14. Dallas Rag - Dallas String Band
15. Crazy Cryin' Blues - Memphis Minnie
16. Woke Up This Morning - Roosevelt Graves
17. That's No Way To Get Along - Robert Wilkins
18. McAbee's Railroad Piece - Palmer McAbee
19. Gone Dead Train, The - King Solomon Hill
20. Hastings St. - Blind Blake & Charlie Spand

http://lix.in/3e022c

Peace

Posted by Joski at 4:52 PM | 1 comments  

During the mid-1920s, he further developed his skills by playing on street corners and at house parties. It is reported that in 1926 he suffered from ulcerated eyes and became partially blind; by 1928 he was completely blind. There is another story that explains his blindness, though. Supposedly, a jealous woman, perhaps a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend, blinded him with a mixture of household chemicals.

From around 1928 until the early 1930s, Fuller played anywhere he could, from tobacco warehouses to fish fries. He teamed up with Sonny Terry, a harmonica player, and sometimes Bull City Red and Gary Davis.

He spent a lot of time recording with ARC label group from 1935 through 1938. He also recorded with numerous other record labels up until 1940.

Fuller's repertoire included a number of popular double entendre "hokum" songs such as "I Want Some Of Your Pie", "Truckin' My Blues Away" (the origin of the phrase "keep on truckin'"), and "Get Your Yas Yas Out" (the origin of a later Rolling Stones album title), together with the autobiographical "Big House Bound" dedicated to his time spent in jail.

Though much of his material was culled from traditional folk and blues numbers, he possessed a formidable finger-picking guitar style. He played a steel National Resonator Guitar.

He was criticised by some as a derivative musician, but his ability to fuse together elements of other traditional and contemporary songs and reformulate them into his own performances, attracted a broad audience. He was an expressive vocalist and a masterful guitar player, best remembered for his uptempo ragtime hits including "Step It Up and Go." At the same time he was capable of deeper material, and his versions of "Lost Lover Blues", "Rattlesnakin' Daddy" and "Mamie" are as deep as most Delta blues.

Fuller’s life began winding down at this time, as he underwent a kidney operation in 1940. It is unsure how he died, but two possible causes are blood poisoning due to the effects of his kidney operation and/or pneumonia. He died at his home in Durham, NC, and was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery.

Fuller is remembered for his “countryman compositions”. Many of his songs centered on the daily worries and woes of black tenant farmers and their encounters with big East Coast cities such as New York.

"MAMA LET ME LAY IT ON YOU"
"Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" (learned from Eric Von Schmidt) is in fact a rewrite of "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" (recorded by Blind Boy Fuller, New York, NY, Apr 29, 1936), which Reverend Gary Davis claimed to have written.

There are, however, several recordings that predate Blind Boy Fuller's version:
Walter Coleman's Feb 8, 1936 recording (Chicago, IL; 90611-A-test), which remained unissued at the time (released version recorded Chicago, IL, 3 Jun 1936; 90611-C, both available on "Cincinnati Blues 1928-1936," Document CD 3519-2).
TONY RUSSELL, in "The Blues Collection, No. 52: Blind Boy Fuller," (p. 624) claims that Memphis Minnie recorded and released a duet version (with her husband Joe McCoy) as early as 1930.
Thus, Reverend Gary Davis' claim of authorship and his subsequent listing as the author of "Baby, Let Me

Follow You Down" on "The Last Waltz" is IMO unfounded and the song is most likely traditional.

As ERIC VON SCHMIDT points out (in his 1993 SongTalk interview):

What finally happened was that Manny Greenhill, who had been my manager back in the folkie days, also managed Gary Davis. He sat Gary down and asked. "What songs did you write?" Aside from the "Star Spangled Banner" and maybe "Moonlight Becomes You," it was every song that anybody heard of, Gary Davis wrote.
Reverend Gary Davis also claimed authorship of Blind Boy Fuller's "Step It Up And Go," covered by Dylan on "Good As I Been To You," 1992.

Here are these wonderful recordings by this great bluesman

Peace

Posted by Joski at 3:35 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Blind Boy Fuller

Floyd was one of those artists who fell foul of American musical apartheid, which entailed an insistence on knowing the race of any performer. Record companies could easily find themselves accused of sowing dangerous (i.e. commercially damaging) confusion, by not making clear enough the race of their artists. The Allen Brothers went so far as to sue Columbia for releasing one of their records in the company's 'race' series. As it happens, Floyd was part Cherokee; but, unlike Charlie Patton or Leadbelly, for instance, 'the rest' of him was white - and that, let's face it, is what really matters. That genetic indiscretion accounts for Floyd's status as a mild embarrassment in the Chess catalogue. It also justifies any current interest in him, now that the productive interaction between black & white musicians is finally acknowledged, and not automatically dismissed as either selling out or theft.

Floyd's other problem in the '50s was his archaic style. Some critics, apparently, recognised that his music was 'a good blend of black & white styles', but lamented that the styles in question were those of the '20s rather than the '50s. It's hardly surprising, then, that he did rather better as a 'blues rediscovery' in the early '70s, performing alongside black bluesmen of the same vintage. He toured as the only white member of The Memphis Blues Caravan. He had the advantage, then, of course, of having persistently failed in his efforts to become a recording star. He couldn't be accused of profiting by the influence of his black neighbours: not only had he been born (like Elvis Presley & others) into similar circumstances; he'd stayed there.

Floyd's biography is not only typical of bluesmen, but also, in some ways, an extreme example. His unmarried parents having separated in his infancy, he was cared for by semi-itinerant sharecropping grandparents, until his grandmother died, and his grandfather, who was a fiddler, took him on the road. One night in 1922, his grandfather died suddenly, leaving Frank adrift & rootless at the age of fourteen.

Apart from the occasional stint at farming or other settled work, Floyd spent most of the rest of his life as a travelling entertainer. Much of his youth was spent with carnivals and medicine shows, as labourer, clown & musician. His circus skills are said to have included fire-eating, hypnotism and make-up artistry. He performed as a bogus Hawaiian, and specialised in nonsense talk and farmyard noises. Having played harmonica since childhood, he took up guitar under the influence of Jimmie Rodgers' first records (an influence which is not conspicuously evident in this album except in the inclusion of Blue Yodels no.'s 6 & 7). Floyd's distinguishing gimmick was playing guitar & harmonica simultaneously, without a rack - he held the harp in his mouth like a cigar, and sang out of the other side of his mouth.

This background as an all-round entertainer shows in these recordings. My own immediate reaction to this album was that here was an undoubtedly impressive stage performer who was worth recording for historical purposes, but who hardly warranted a commercial release. It has grown on me somewhat, with repeated listening, but I'd still hesitate to recommend it to anyone not expressly interested in the peculiar branch of cultural history it represents. It's heavy on dated humour, cynical hilarity and cartoon voices, and correspondingly light, it seems to me, on genuine musical interest.

However, the June issue of Folk Roots included an enthusiastic review of this CD. Even the track 'Shampoo' was described as 'hilariously obscene', so I was apparently mistaken in supposing that only rugby players were likely to find it amusing. Lucille Bogan's alternative take of 'Shave 'Em Dry' is 'hilariously obscene', if you like; Frank Floyd's 'Shampoo' is viciously misogynous doggerel. (Unfortunately, it's also quite catchy, when you've heard it a dozen times).

A more puzzling oddity is the song 'Movement Like an Elgin'. If I've been wrong, all these years, in assuming that 'elgin' was a dialect rendering of 'elegant', I hope someone will let me know. Otherwise, I'm bound to wonder what on earth Frank Floyd imagined 'an Elgin' (which he pronounced 'Eljun') to be.

Here it is Brother

http://lix.in/4af087

Enjoy

Posted by Joski at 2:39 PM | 4 comments  
Labels: Harmonica Frank Floyd

Robert Williams, the son of sharecroppers, was born March 14, 1914 on Mr. Anderson's Place in Zachary, Louisiana. He was unschooled and worked as a farm hand. His first instrument was a home-made cigar box guitar he obtained in 1934. He worked frequently at local dances, country suppers, parties, and fish fries while continuing to work outside of music in the Zachary and Baton Rouge, Louisiana areas through the 1930's and into the 1950's.

Williams server time for murder at Angola State Prison farm in Angola, Louisiana from 1956 to 1959. While in prison he recorded for the Louisiana Folklore Society and Folk-Lyric/Arhoolie labels..

Oster and Allen recorded Williams performing several of his songs about life in prison and pleaded for him to be pardonned. The pardon was partially granted in 1959, when Williams was released, although he could not leave Louisiana until he received a full pardon 1964. By this time, Williams' music had achieved some favorable word-of-mouth reviews, and he played his first concert outside Louisiana at that year's Newport Folk Festival. Williams went on to tour the United States, and played a number of shows with Mississippi Fred McDowell..

His subsequent career included tours of clubs, universities, and festivals in both the U.S. and Europe. He recorded for both U.S. and European record companies and appeared in U.S. and European films. He died of heart disease on December 31, 1980 in Rosedale, Louisiana and is buried in Scotlandville.

Peace

Posted by Joski at 12:09 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Robert Pete Williams

This compilation was put together by noted guitarist and musicologist John Fahey. This 26-track set shows early Gospel music at its most brutal and intense.

Of note here are appearances by country blues legends Charley Patton and Bukka White under different names (Elder J.J. Hadley and Washington White, respectively), making this a must for any true blues collector.

Also interesting is the original version of "Down on Me," popularized by Janis Joplin in the 1960's. There's an incredible mini-sermon delivered in Elder Otis James' "Holy Mountain," and Austin Coleman's vocal-and-handclap "Good Lord (Run Old Jeremiah)" could give '80s hardcore band Bad Brains competition in terms of velocity and exuberance. Mastered from old 78s, the sound here is excellent, and the packaging and design are first rate.

1. I Believe I'll Go Back Home, Paramount 1926, (Blind Willie Davis)
2. Down on Me, Columbia 1930, (Eddie Head And His Family)
3. Honey in the Rock, Victor 1927, (Blind Mamie Forehand)
4. I'm Gonna Cross the River of Jordan Some O' These Days, Silvertone 1927, (Jaybird Coleman)
5. Oh Death, Vocalion (1934), (Patton and Lee (Charley Patton and Bertha Lee))
6. You Better Quit Drinking Shine, Vocalion 1928, (Rev. I.B. Ware with Wife and Son)
7. Been Listening All the Day, Paramount 1928, (Blind Joe Taggart)
8. Sinner You'll Need King Jesus, Paramount 1927, (William and Versey Smith)
9. This Time Another Year You May Be Gone, Vocalion (1928), (Rev. Edward Clayborn (The Guitar Evangelist))
10. Lord I'm the True Vine, Bluebird 1936, (Rev. Edward Clayborn (The Guitar Evangelist))
11. Woke Up this Morning (With My Mind on Jesus), Melotone 1936, (Eddie Head And His Family)
12. Holy Mountain (3:06), Bluebird 1936, (Elder Otis Jones)
13. I Wouldn't Mind Dying (But I Gotta Go By Myself), Vocalion 1928, (Rev. I.B. Ware with Wife and Son)
14. Everybody Help the Boys Come Home, Paramount 1927, (William and Versey Smith)
15. Everybody Ought to Pray Sometime, ARC 1926, (Dennis Crumpton and Robert Summers)
16. Tryin' To Get Home, Columbia 1930, (Eddie Head And His Family)
17. I'll be Rested (When the Roll is Called), Melotone 1936, (Blind Roosevelt Graves and Brother)
18. I'm On My Way to the Kingdom Land, Paramount 1926, (Bo Weavil Jackson (Sam Butler))
19. Troubled 'Bout My Soul, Paramount 1929, (Frank Palmes)
20. When That Great Ship Went Down, Paramount 1927, (William and Versey Smith)
21. I am in the Heavenly Way, Victor 1930, (Washington White (Booker White))
22. Good Lord (Run Old Jeremiah), Library of Congress Archive of American Folk 1934, (Austin Coleman (with Joe Washington Brown and Group))
23. Jesus is Getting us Ready for that Great Day, Columbia 1927, (Luther Magby)
24. I Believe I'll Go Back Home, Paramount 1929, (William and Versey Smith)
25. Prayer of Death: Part I, Paramount 1929, (Elder J.J. Hadley (Charley Patton))
26. Prayer of Death: Part II, Paramount 1929, (Elder J.J. Hadley (Charley Patton))

Enjoy these early masters

Posted by Joski at 11:55 AM | 3 comments  

In 1968 and 1969 Liberty Records released these two compilations of Rural Blues

(country and down home blues from the Aladdin & Imperial vaults). These compilations were selected by Bob Hite and Henry Vestine (of Canned Heat and famous record collectors) who loaned their priceless originals

The Cover art was by Henry Vestine

Here they are – sounding better than ever after forty years.

1. VOLUME 1 – GOIN’ UP THE COUNTRY

Side one

TAKE IT EASY – NATHANIEL TERRY

FORGIVE ME – MANNY NICHOLS

AVENUE BRAEKDOWN – COUNTRY JIM

DISGUSTED – LIL’ SON JACKSON

WEST COAST BLUES – THUNDER ‘N’ LIGHTNIN’

HOWLING WOLF BLUES – LIGHNIN’ HOPKINS

NOBODY KNOWS – SNOOKS EAGLIN

Side two

I DON’T KNOW WHY – NATHANIEL TERRY

WORRIED LIFE – MANNY NICHOLS

PHILLIPINE BLUES – COUNTRY JIM

THRILL ME BABY – LIL’ SON JACKSON

CAN’T DO LIKE YOU USED TO – THUNDER ‘N’ LIGHTNIN’

CAN’T GET THAT WOMAN OFF MY MIND – LIGHNIN’ HOPKINS

BY THE WATER – SNOOKS EAGLIN

2. VOLUME 2 – SATURDAY NIGHT FUNCTION

Side one

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN – PAPA LIGHTFOOT

TRAVELIN’ MOOD – SNOOKS EAGLIN

I AIN’T FOR IT – BOOGIE BILL WEBB

COUNTRY BRED (NOBODY LOVES ME) – CLIFTON CHENIER

A MAN IS CRYING – SLIM HARPO

COLD IN THE EVENING – J.D. EDWARDS

PAPER IN MY SHOE – BOOZOO CHAVIS

Side two

WINE, WOMEN, WHISKEY – PAPA LIGHTFOOT

SEE SEE RIDER – SNOOKS EAGLIN

LOVE ME MAMA – BOOGIE BILL WEBB

JUST A LONELY BOY – CLIFTON CHENIER

SOMETHING INSIDE ME – SLIM HARPO

CRYING – J.D. EDWARDS

BOOZOO STOMP – BOOZOO CHAVIS

Posted by Joski at 12:10 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Rural Blues

May 5, 1901 - August 15, 1959

Blind Willie McTell's music is characterized by his clear voice and twelve-string finger picking technique. His crisp, clean guitar lines intertwine with and underline his lyrics. Through his wide repertoire McTell was able to cater to his audience, being adept at playing blues, ragtime, gospel, pop, and country material. None of his records was a hit, however, he was able to record prolifically by creating a different pseudonym for each recording scout he encountered.

William Samuel McTell was born on May 5, 1901 in Thompson, Georgia. Despite lifelong blindness knew his way around several major cities, including New York City's subway system, and could distinguish between different denominations of bank notes. There was some confusion over his surname; some sources claimed his real name was "McTear" but a teacher at a blind school he attended inadvertently changed it to "McTell", misunderstanding Willie's diction. However, in a 1977 interview, his wife Kate McTell said that somebody on his father's side of the family disguised their name because they were "big whiskey still people."

Blind Willie McTell learned the guitar from his mother during his early teens. Through his teenage years and early twenties he played in various touring carnivals and shows, including the John Roberts Plantation Show. During this time he also attended various schools for the blind in New York and Georgia where he learned to read Braille. He recorded his first sides for the Victor company in 1927 in Atlanta. These would be the first of many recordings by McTell under various names.

During the late twenties and thirties, McTell appeared before every recording scout who came to Atlanta with his guitar and a new persona. He recorded as "Blind Sammie" for Columbia, "Georgia Bill" for OKeh, "Red Hot Willie Glaze" for Bluebird, and "Blind Willie" for Vocalion. He also recorded and interviewed with John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1940, but that session remained unreleased because the Lomaxes didn't care for McTell's style. Most of Willie's records were solo vocal numbers with his own guitar accompaniment; he also recorded with Curly Weaver, Buddy Moss, and Ruth Day.

Blind Willie McTell married Ruth Kate Williams in 1934. Willie traveled constantly, while Kate stayed home pursuing a career as an army nurse. In a 1977 interview, Kate McTell recalled Willie's response when she asked why he traveled so frequently, "He said 'Baby, I was born a rambler. I'm gonna ramble until I die, but I'm preparing you to live after I'm gone'. He sure did. I retired with thirty-two years of nurse training at Fort Gordon."

Between 1937 and 1948 McTell made a living playing for tips in various cities across the Eastern seaboard rather than recording. In 1949 McTell went to Atlantic Records' studios in New York City, where Atlantic founder and blues enthusiast Ahmet Ertegun recognized him from records in his own collection. Atlantic released a single pairing two songs McTell recorded years earlier, "Kill It, Kid" and "Broke Down Engine Blues", under the name "Barrelhouse Sammy". Billboard's January, 1950 Rhythm and Blues Record Review column gave the disc a good review. The reviewer considered "Kill It, Kid", "an engaging, raggy blues...with vitality and humor and a jivey guitar accompaniment." "Broke Down Engine Blues" was considered "more conventional", possibly because the updated version is slower, more confident, and more haunting than the original version recorded over twenty years before.

In 1950, Fred Mendelson of Regal Records was scouting for blues talent in Atlanta. Appropriately, Blind Willie McTell found him and recorded a session as Pig n' Whistle Red, named for a barbecue joint where he played requests for tips. This would be his last recording session with his occasional partner Curley Weaver.

Blind Willie McTell did not live to be "rediscovered" during the early 1960's folk-blues revival. However, he did leave behind a durable body of work that has been appreciated by many blues and rock fans; his song "Statesboro Blues" was exposed to millions via a cover versions by Taj Mahal and the Allman Brothers Band. For listeners who crave the original recordings, most of his work is back in print.

Here is the Yazoo LP that started it all for me

http://lix.in/452713

Peace

Posted by Joski at 11:19 AM | 3 comments  
Labels: Blind Willie McTell

Born: 1887-08-11 / Died: 1949-10-20

Born in 1887 Sam Collins was one of the earliest generation of blues performers. He grew up in McComb, Mississippi, just over the border of his native state Louisiana.

By 1924 he was performing in local barrelhouses in the weekends. He was an intermittend partner of King Solomon Hill, who on his turn was an associate of Willard Thomas.
Some of the elements of Willard Thomas's style influenced Sam and he shared the use of falsetto singing and slide guitar with Hill.

Sam recorded a lot of numbers, most of it unfortunately never were issued, except for his debut single "The Jail House Blues". As a blues guitarist Sam Collins never became a major name. He often was out of tune, but he provided a steady beat for dancing, and his bottleneck playing, ranging freely through the treble and bass registers was an effective foil to his eery singing. So he was advertised as "Crying Sam Collins and his Git-Fiddle".
His rural bottleneck guitarpieces were among the first to be compiled on LP when the country-blues reissue era was just beginning.

He migrated to Chicago in the late '30s, and in 1949 he died there of heart disease.

Sam Collins developed his style in South Mississippi (as opposed to the Delta). His recording debut single ("The Jail House Blues," 1927) predated those of legendary Mississippians such as Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson .

Collins did not become a major name in blues -- in fact his later records appeared under several different pseudonyms, most notably the name Jim Foster -- but his rural bottleneck guitar pieces were among the first to be compiled on LP when the country-blues reissue era was just beginning.

Sam Charters wrote in The Bluesmen: "Although Collins was not one of the stylistic innovators within the Mississippi blues idiom, he was enough part of it that, in blues like 'Signifying Blues' and 'Slow Mama Slow,' he had some of the intensity of the Mississippi music at its most creative level.

Here are his complete recordings

http://lix.in/32695a

Peace

Posted by Joski at 11:05 AM | 0 comments  
Labels: Sam Collins

Robert Johnson was both the most influential and most demonstrably influenced blues guitarist of his time. This anthology features recorded works by artists throughout the South that most influenced Robert Johnson's own repertoire: from the slide stylings of Son House (My Black Mama), Kokomo Arnold (Milk Cow Blues) and Hambone Willie Newbern (Roll And Tumble) to the urbane approach of Lonnie Johnson (Life Saver Blues), Leroy Carr (When The Sun Goes Down) and Scrapper Blackwell (Kokomo Blues).

Here are these great musicians and singers that inspired Robert Johnson's legendary performances. These are the sources of both his powerful performing style and his compositional vision

http://lix.in/980567

Peace

Posted by Joski at 11:33 AM | 0 comments  
Labels: Robert Johnson

Bo Carter / Banana in your fruit basket

Bo Carter was born Armenter Chatmon way back in the early 1890s. He and his brothers (and sisters) grew up listening to their parents singing and playing music while living on the Gaddis & McLaurin plantation in Mississippi. The first known Carter recording is from 1928, with him backing another artist named Alec Johnson. However, he soon found his calling as a blues singer. He did fairly well as a solo act (he recorded over 100 sides — think sides of a record — in the 1930s, more than any other artist except Memphis Minnie), but he did even better with his brothers as the Chatmon Family String Band and then as the Mississippi Sheiks.

Because Bo wasn't as heavy a drinker as the other band members (and most of the artists of the time), he became the manager — having a clear head at the end of the night came in handy when settling up with the owner or manager of the juke or barrel house/bar/whatever you'd like to call it. Money was always tight back then and it wasn't unusual for an owner to get the performers too drunk to remember their pay.

At some point in the 30s, Bo went blind or partially blind. He settled himself into farming for a while, occasionally performing with his brothers, but more often than not hitting the streets on his own.

By the 50s, Carter was still trying to make music, auditioning for record companies. One company, Trumpet Records, was led by a short-sighted businessman who turned Carter down and destroyed the audition tapes. Somewhere along the way, someone had collected enough of Bo's recordings and began releasing his work, albeit after his death in 1964. Sadly, he died destitute.

Although Bo Carter covered a wide range of music, he was famous for sexually taboo blues material.

Bo Carter didn't invent "dirty blues", but he sure as hell had a good time with them. His humor, the rawness, the playfulness inherent in these tunes is a sly nod to fun of sex and intimacies of all sorts often missing in music today. It's the difference between a 360° 'erotic' portrait and a close up of only one part of the female anatomy. One's business only and the other is about pleasure and enjoying sex.

BANANA IN YOUR FRUITBASKET

I got a brand new skillet¹, I got a brand new lead,
all I need is a little woman, just to burn my bread
I'm tellin' you baby, I sure ain't gonna deny,
let me put my banana in your fruit basket, then I'll be satisfied

Now, I got the washboard, my baby got the tub,
we gonna put 'em together, gonna rub, rub, rub
And I'm tellin' you baby, I sure ain't gonna deny,
let me put my banana in your fruit basket, then I'll be satisfied

Mmmmm, gonna let my banana spoil now,
mama, gonna let my banana spoil, now
I can see the way you carryin' on,
you don't want my banana no how

Now I got the dasher², my baby got the churn³,
we gonna churn, churn, churn until the butter come
Then I'm tellin' you baby, I sure ain't gonna deny,
let me put my banana in your fruit basket, then I'll be satisfied

Now my baby's got the cloth, and I got the needle,
we gonna stitch, stitch, stitch, 'til we both will feel it
Then I'm tellin' you baby, I sure ain't gonna deny,
let me put my banana in your fruit basket, then I'll be satisfied

Mmmmm, gonna let my banana ruin, now,
mmmmm, gonna let my banana ruin, now
I can see the way you carryin' on,
you don't want my banana no how

Now my baby's got the meat, and I got the knife,
I'm gonna do her cuttin', this bound to solve my life
And I'm tellin' you baby, I sure ain't gonna deny,
let me put my banana in your fruit basket, then I'll be satisfied

Note 1: skillet, a small kettle or pot usually having three or four often long feet and used for cooking on the hearth OR a metal pan with a handle that is used for frying foods, called also fry pan;
Note 2: dasher, a device having blades for agitating/stirring a liquid or semisolid
Note 3: churn, a vessel for making butter in which milk or cream is agitated in order to separate the oily globules from the watery medium.

Peace

Posted by Joski at 8:11 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Bo Carter

One of the facets of the blues which adds appeal for many people (and certainly did to me as an adolescent when the blues first caught my ear) is the fact that they are riddled with double entendres.

Part of the appeal was that these sexual references are just innocently tucked away in the body of a song and they were hidden partly by the scratches on the record and the indistinctness of the deep Southern accent of the singer.

In fact, it is ironic that the digital "cleaning up" process that has given us back perfect tracks without scratches or hiss has actually revealed more dirt than some people bargained for!

Robert Johnson had quite a lot of these little references. The most famous one of his was " Squeeze my lemon until the juice runs down my leg" which was hijacked by Led Zeppelin in the "Lemon Song" but actually first appeared in Johnson's Travelling Riverside Blues:

Squeeze my lemon
'Til the juice runs down my leg
Squeeze it so hard
I'll fall right out of bed
Will you squeeze my lemon
'Til the juice runs down my leg
I wonder if you know what I'm talkin' about
Oh, but the way that you squeeze it girl
I swear I'm gonna fall right out of bed

In the 1920s and the 1030s, them dirty blues were very popular and one or two artists had more than a smattering of dodgy songs in their repertoires.

Probably the one who was best known for innuendo in his lyrics was Bo Carter who was an active member of the Mississippi Sheiks, best remembered for their hit, "Sitting on Top of the World.
To quote the Yazoo web site: "Bo Carter's great lyrics, musical range and conspicuously inventive accompaniments made him one of the most commercially successful bluesmen to come out of Mississippi. His repertoire extended from pre-blues dance and song to poignant and rowdy blues to inspired double-entendre."

How inspired his double entendres were can be gained from a quick study of some of the titles of his songs: Banana in your Fruit Basket (1931), Please warm my wiener, Pussy Cat Blues (1936), etc.

This collection shows you what the real blues was about

http://lix.in/862bf3

http://lix.in/619b20

Enjoy

Posted by Joski at 8:01 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Dirty Blues

This collection contains some of the classic recordings in the ragtime blues tradition.

The eight tracks by William Moore, his only issued recordings, have long been favourites with collectors of this genre. Moore (1894 - 1948) was a barber in Tappahannock, Virginia, and performed ragtime songs and gentle blues to his own beautiful guitar accompaniments. Tarter and Gay provide two sophisticated ragtime duets from 1930, while Chicken Wilson & Skeeter Hinton offer more rural entertainment with some lively ragtime numbers for guitar, harmonica & washboard from 1928. Bayless Rose performs three ragtime - influenced blues in the East Coast tradition & one classic rag, "Jamestown Exhibition".

The final performers are better known.

The great Blind Blake is represented with a typically virtuoso rendition of "Dry Bone Shuffle", with appropriate percussion. The final three tracks are the only issued recordings by the legendary South Carolina guitar genius Willie Walker. His breathtaking guitar playing, which Josh White likened to Art Tatum's piano style, still impresses today.

Peace

Posted by Joski at 7:34 PM | 3 comments  
Labels: Ragtime Blues

Memphis Minnie - vocal, guitar ( 1897 - 1973)

Why has this musician who recorded over two hundred sides and was well-loved by the Black blues audiences of the '30s and '40s been comparatively ignored by later audiences? Perhaps it's because Memphis Minnie doesn't fit the myth of the young, tragic, haunted blues singer and she is too complex of a character to be easily marketed. She shaped a life very different from the limited possibilities offered to the women of her time. She lived a long life, was at her best in middle age, and would spit tobacco wearing a chiffon ball gown. Memphis Minnie's music remained popular over two decades because it was lyrically and instrumentally in tune with the lives of Black Americans. It remains vital and influential today because of her inventive, rhythmic guitar playing and her songs, which capture people and events and bring them to life across the years

Lizzie Douglas was born before the turn of the century in Algiers, Louisiana, close to New Orleans. By the year 1910 she had learned to play the banjo and guitar and had run away from home and joined the Ringling Brothers circus, where she performed in tent shows throughout the Southern states into the 1920s. By 1929, Douglas had married another guitar-player, Joe McCoy, who was a good singer and guitarist. Minnie and Joe began a steady series of recording dates in New York, and Memphis, first for Columbia, later for Vocalion, Decca, Okeh and Bluebird. Kansas Joe,and Minnie were guitarists of equal ability, and the interplay of their instruments is like a great conversation: with both of them switching between treble and bass. Minnie was quick to embrace the latest technologies in order to be heard above the crowds She was one of the first blues players to use a National in 1929, and to play an electric wood body National and various electric guitars in the '40s and '50s.

Joe and Minnie based themselves in Chicago throughout the early '30s, playing clubs like the DeLisa and the Music Box, recording both together and separately. Their marriage and musical partnership fell apart in the mid-thirties, around the same time Minnie became increasingly featured as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.

In 1939 she married Ernest “Little Son Joe” Lawlars, a Memphis based guitarist who was her partner for the next 23 years. She moved to Chicago in the early forties and went in partnership with famed blues musician St. Louis Jimmy with whom she operated a blues club in Indianapolis, Indiana. She did sessions for Vocalion and Okeh and some of her better known records were “ Bumble Bee,” “Black Cat Blues,” “Me And My Chauffeur,” and “In My Girlish Days.”

In late 1947 she recorded with Blind John Davis on piano with the tunes “Three Times Seven Blues” and “Shout The Boogie” on Columbia. “Daybreak Blues” and “Million Dollar Blues” was released the following year. In 1949 “Jump Little Rabbit” and “Tonight I Smile On You,” was issued followed later in the year by “Tears On My Pillow” and Sweet Man.” Even though sales of their recordings slowed down by the end of the forties, their audience remained available to them in the clubs. Styles were shifting toward jump blues bands and by the mid '50s the record industry had changed irrevocably with the fabrication of rock and roll. The major labels pulled out of the blues market, and Minnie's last recordings were for Regal in 1949.

Memphis Minnie continued to play club dates in Chicago and Detroit in 1951, but late in the year returns to Memphis. In early 1952 in that city she records with Lil' Son Joe & his band which includes Joe Hill Louis for the Checker record label. The sides were never released.

The great Lady in May 1973

By the year 1955, Minnie had returned to Memphis and retired from the music business. Lil' Son Joe passed away in 1962 and soon Minnie became ill and battled various ailments until she passed away in August of 1973 in her adopted home town.

Although Memphis Minnie is gone, her music is still full of life, and her influence can be heard in the music of the many Chicago blues players who came up during her reign in the thirties and forties. Her guitar playing embodies the best of blues: it takes a simple form and makes each interpretation fresh and inventive

A big thank you to www.memphisminnie.com and DelRey

http://lix.in/013ef6

Peace

Posted by Joski at 7:26 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Memphis Minnie

BORN: January 11, 1924, Lobdell, LA
DIED: January 31, 1970, Baton Rouge, LA

James Moore, later known as Slim Harpo, was the most famous Louisiana harp player in the "swamp blues" tradition. Born in Lobdell in West Baton Rouge Parish in 1924, he taught himself guitar and harmonica, which he played in a neck rack, as a child. When he was in tenth grade his mother and father both died, and he had to leave school to support his family. He got work as a dockhand, and, already a good harp player, started sitting in on local gigs.

By the 1940’s he was appearing under the name Harmonica Slim, and in1948 he married and began performing full time. In the mid fifties, he started playing with Otis "Lightnin’ Slim" Hicks and soon came to the notice of producer Jay Miller of Excello Records. Miller got him to change his stage name to Slim Harpo and to sing in a somewhat nasal fashion rather than his previous, more natural, style. By now, Harpo had developed a sound modeled on Jimmy Reed’s successful approach-spare but tasty harp licks with and low-key vocals over a laid-back accompaniment.

His 1957 single "King Bee" was a hit for Excello. In 1961, his "Raining in my Heart" was even bigger, scoring not only on the R&B charts but reaching number 34 on the pop charts also. "Scratch My Back," released in 1966, reached the R&B number one slot.

After the Rolling Stones recorded "King Bee" on their 1964 debut album, Harpo began to play for white rock audiences. He started to record with psychedelic overtones in the mix, and was playing the Electric Circus and the Fillmore East by 1969. A European tour was planned, and commercial success perhaps around the corner, when he died of a heart attack in early 1970.

Peace

Posted by Joski at 7:18 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Slim Harpo

These are the Library of Congress sessions taped in 1963. This was only the second time John had performed professionally, the first being in the 1928 sessions for Okeh.

John was 70 years old at the time and died only 3 years after these recordings were made. Present during the recordings was Dick Spottswood who along with Tom Hoskins rediscovered John in 1963.

Over a period of a week he recorded dozens of songs - including remakes of his classic recordings and many others he learned as a young man.

Many titles here are well-known, and ones which soon became part of his standard repertoire: Candy Man, Coffee Blues, Stackolee and so on, but in most cases they are the first documented examples after his rediscovery.

Posted by Joski at 6:51 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Mississippi John Hurt

Avalon Blues - The Okeh recordings 1928

Posted by Joski at 6:45 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Mississippi John Hurt

Sorry Folks,

This is not what it seems to be.

Rap is considered today's modern urban music, but its roots reach far into the past as this provocative project shows. The rapping technique has been present in many American musical genres, for 100 years or more, including early rural music, both black and white, religious songs, blues, ragtime, vaudeville, and hokum. This album features rap precursors by such legendary figures in American music as Blind Willie Johnson, Pine Top Smith, Memphis Jug Band, Butterbeans and Susie, Seven Foot Dilly & his Dill Pickles, Dixieland Jug Blowers, Jimmie Davis, Blind Willie McTell and more! A highly entertaining and provocative exploration into early American musical history.

1 Blind Willie Johnson / If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down
2 Luke Jordan / Cocain Blues
3 Allen Brothers / Bow Bow Blues
4 Frankie (Half-Pint) Jaxon / Jive Man Blues
5 Henry Thomas / Jonah In The Wilderness
6 Willie Walker / South Carolina Rag
7 Memphis Jug Band / Whitewash Station
8 Red Henderson / Automobile Ride Through Alabama
9 Speckled Red / The Dirty Dozen No. 2
10 Butterbeans and / "Tain't None O' Your Business
11 Beale Street Sheiks / It's A Good Thing
12 Jimmie Davis / She's A Hum Dum Dinger
13 Leroy Carr / Papa's On The House Top
14 Reverend Edward W. Clayborn / Let That Liar Alone
15 Frank Hutchinson / Back In My Home
16 T.C.I. Section Crew / Track Linin
17 Blind Willie McTell / Atlanta Strut
18 Lonnie Glosson / Arkansas Hard Luck Blues
19 Kansas City Kittie & Georgia Tom / How Can You Have The Blues?
20 Seven Foot Dilly & His Dill Pickles / Pickin' Off Peanuts
21 Pine Top Smith / Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
22 Dixieland Jug Blowers / When I Stopped Running I Was At Home
23 Memphis Minnie / Frankie Jean

Posted by Joski at 9:49 AM | 3 comments  

The artists represented on this album - Son house, Tommy Johnson, Bukka White, Ishmon Bracey and others - are masters of the Delta blues; all recorded in the vintage period of the 1920s and early 1930s. Their work stands today as some of the finest blues ever documented and many of the musicians here are recognized as giant figures in blues history. This is perhaps the finest compilation of historical blues ever assembled by the most brilliant artists of their day.

1.Kid Bailey / Rowdy Blues
2.Tommy Johnson / Big Fat Mama Blues
3.Bukka White / I Am In the Heavenly Way
4.Willie Brown / Future Blues
5.Ishmon Bracey / Brown Mama Blues
6.Louise Johnson / On the Wall
7.Son House / Walking Blues (unissued test)
8.Tommy Johnson / Canned Heat Blues
9.Bukka White / Promise True and Grand
10.Kid Bailey / Mississippi Bottom Blues
11.Tommy Johnson / Maggie Campbell Blues
12.Son House / My Black Mama (part 1)
13.Son House / My Black Mama (part 2)
14.Bertha Lee / Yellow Bee
15.Louise Johnson / Long Way From Home
16.Willie Brown / M and O Blues
17.Tommy Johnson / Button Up Shoes (take 1, unissued test)
18.Bertha Lee / Mind Reader Blues
19.Tommy Johnson / Lonesome Home Blues (take 1, unissued test)
20.Son House / Dry Spell Blues (part 1)
21.Son House / Dry Spell Blues (part 2)
22.Son House / Preachin' The Blues (part 1)
23.Son House / Preachin' The Blues (part 2)

Posted by Joski at 9:00 AM | 0 comments