Charlie Patton was small man, weighing perhaps only 135 pounds, but, by his own account, he had a fast mouth that often got him into fights he was ill-equipped to win. Patton's parents settled on the Dockery Plantation in Cleveland, Mississippi. Born in either 1887 or 1891 (depending on whether one believes his sister or his parents), Charlie was a troublesome child, and the move had been made in order to remove him from certain undesirable influences, but he quickly took up with Henry Sloan, possibly the first recognisable blues player.³

Throughout the 1920s, Patton travelled Northern Mississippi and the surrounding states, more often than not in the company of Willie Brown (who despite only recording a handful of sides, eventually came to occupy his own unique position in the history of the blues). By 1927, Charlie had become a well-known figure and was approached by a scout for Columbia records to record for them. Astonishingly, given the success already being enjoyed by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie turned them down and returned to his life as a travelling man. Patton was the epitome of the travelling musician. Along the way, Patton's muscular blues-playing attracted a number of younger musicians � amongst those that were taught or influenced by Patton were Son House, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and a young Roebuck (later 'Pops') Staples, all of whom would go on to occupy their own places in the history of American music.

Patton advertised himself as the 'Delta Dandy' and did his best to live up to his reputation by dressing as well as he could afford at all times, normally sporting an expensive suit, spats and a bow tie. According to a contemporary, Charlie was a showman of some note, throwing his guitar in the air, playing it behind his head and introducing many tricks that were later to be associated with rock guitarists the world over. During these exhausting shows (juke joint players could play for upwards of six or seven hours at a time), it was Willie Brown who kept rhythm for the dancers.

By 1929 Patton had changed his mind about recording and a letter was written on his behalf (like most early blues artists, Patton was totally illiterate) and he recorded his first session for Universal records in June 1929 in company, with the ubiquitous Brown playing on some of the tracks. Patton's success was immediate, and there is good evidence to suggest that his second release (under the name of 'The Masked Marvel', part of a promotional competition), his signature tune, 'Pony Blues,' sold in excess of 10,000 copies.

Patton had three further recording dates in October 1929, May 1930 and January 1934. The quality of the final session was severely affected by the fact that in the four years since Patton had last been in a studio, he had been involved in a bar fight during which his throat and vocal chords had been slashed. In addition, it was the coldest winter in New York (where the sessions took place) for many years, and Charlie had a severe cold. He returned to Mississippi and died only a matter of months later due to heart failure at the age of 43.

By all accounts, Charlie Patton was not an easy man to like. A compulsive womaniser (and woman-beater), a drug addict and tireless egoist (it appears he is at least partly to blame for Willie Brown's lack of recorded material), Patton nonetheless left an indelible mark on the history of popular music. His wild, slashing, rhythmic guitar style was to be the norm for delta blues players until the present day, and many of his songs became standards amongst his contemporaries and those that followed him. Perhaps there was only one other man who can be said to have exercised equal influence over his immediate circle of acquaintances, and that was failed preacher and convicted murderer Eddie 'Son' House.

Here is what I gathered

01 - Down The Dirt Road Blues

02 - It Won't Be Long

03 - High Water Everywhere - Part 1

04 - High Sheriff Blues

05 - Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues

06 - Lord I'm Discouraged

07 - Shake It And Brake It

08 - Rattlesnake Blues

09 - Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues

10 - A Spoonful Blues

11 - It Won't Be Long

12 - Pony Blues

13 - Magnolia Blues

14 - Moon Going Down

15 - Revenue Man Blues

16 - I'm Goin' Home

17 - Elder Green Blues

18 - Jim Lee Blues - Part 1

19 - Banty Rooster Blues

20 - Jersey Bull Blues

21 - I Shall Not Be Moved

22 - Going To Move To Alabama

23 - Pea Vine Blues

24 - Green River Blues

25 - Bird Nest Bound

Peace

Posted by Joski at 5:12 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Charlie Patton

Despite the enormous amount of recording that took place in Chicago and New York most of the sessions for rural country blues artists took place in their hometowns with portable equipment. This volume presents a wide cross section of artists both internationally famous or hopelessly obscure recorded all across the Southern States of America.

Recordings from Memphis, Tennessee, Nashville, Alabama and Georgia made for legendary labels Gennett, Paramount, Vocalion and Brunswick can be found in this essential Blues primer.

1. Mamlish Blues performed by Ed Bell ,
2. Gone Dead on You Blues performed by Blind Lemon Jefferson,
3. Nappy Head Blues performed by Bob Grant ,
4. Cocaine Blues performed by Luke Jordan ,
5. Three Woman Blues performed by McTell, Blind Willie ,
6. Superstitious Blues performed by Hattie Burleson ,
7. Bull Doze Blues performed by Henry Thomas ,
8. Lonesome Trail Blues performed by Emma Wright ,
9. Gonna Tip Out Tonight performed by Pink Anderson ,
10. Rolling Mill Blues performed by Peg Leg Howell,
11. Pennsylvania Woman Blues performed by Six Cylinder Smith,
12. Shelby Country Workhouse Blues performed by Hambone Willie Newburn,
13. South Carolina Rag performed by Willie Walker ,
14. Atlanta Moan performed by Barbecue Bob ,
15. Howling Wolf Blues Part 1 performed by Funny Pappa Smith,
16. Diddle-Da-Diddle performed by Georgia Cotton Pickers ,
17. Katy Crossin' Blues performed by Texas Alexander ,
18. B.D. Woman's Blues performed by Lucille Bogan ,
19. Rag, Mama, Rag performed by Blind Boy Fuller,
20. Ninth Street Stomp performed by Bernice Edwards ,
21. Sundown Blues performed by Blind Norris ,
22. Sweet Woman Blues performed by Georgia Slim ,
23. Fannie Mae Blues performed by Pinetop Burks ,
24. Alberta performed by Hammond, Stick Horse ,
25. If You Change You Ways Woman performed by Cool Papa Smith

Enjoy

Posted by Joski at 4:44 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Rural Blues

Can blue men sing the whites ? Can White men sing the Blues ?

Here is the answer.

I tried to make a compilation of what is on my mind when I think of the old folks.

1. The Carter Family – Wabash Cannonball

The original group consisted of Alvin Pleasant “AP” Delaney Carter, his wife Sara Dougherty Carter, and his sister-in-law Maybelle Addington Carter. Maybelle was married to A.P.'s brother Ezra (Eck) Carter, and was also Sara's first cousin. All three were born and raised in southwestern Virginia where they were immersed in the tight harmonies of mountain gospel music. Maybelle's distinctive and innovative guitar playing style became a hallmark of the group.

The influence of this group on traditional American music and beyond is immense.

2. Charlie Poole – White House Blues

Born in rural North Carolina in 1892, Poole packed several lifetimes of hard and fast living into his 39 years. Textile mill worker, semi-pro ballplayer, and hell raiser supreme (he died in 1931 of alcoholism), Poole won his place among the giants of American roots music with his pathfinding work on the banjo and for heading the innovative North Carolina Ramblers.

The North Carolina Ramblers, a banjo-guitar-fiddle trio with Poole's plain-spoken tenor voice in the lead, in great part created the musical templates for two giants: Bill Monroe and Hank Williams.

3. Fiddlin’ John Carson – My old Cabin Home

In the spring of 1922, Georgia's "Fiddlin' John" Carson, at the age of fifty-four, became the first genuine old-time country musician to broadcast genuine old-time country music over a radio station. A year later, on June 14, 1923, the country-music recording industry was launched when Carson made his first phonograph record.

4. Sam and Kirk McGee – Salty dog blues

The McGee brothers grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, where Sam learned to pick guitar from local black musicians. The use of alternating bass and playing the melody on the treble strings had more in common with black blues than local string band playing, where a guitar kept time with bass runs while backing the fiddle.

5. Fiddlin’ Doc Roberts – Shortenin’ Bread

Doc Roberts was born in 1898 near Kirksville, Madison County, Kentucky and recorded recorded over 80 traditional tunes over a course of 10 years with Gennett, ARC, and Paramount. He played in a bluesy style which is attributed to his mentor, Owen Walker. He was a black fiddler born in 1857 and taught Roberts most of his tunes.

6. Grayson & Whitter – Tom Dooley

Fiddler/singer Gilliam Banmon Grayson was born in Ashe Country, NC. As a young man, he made his living as a minstrel, traveling through mountain towns playing at fairs and dances. An excellent fiddler, Grayson was also an exceptional singer, and after teaming up with Whitter frequently sang lead vocals on their recordings.

Guitarist/singer Henry Whitter was born in Fries, Virginia; while not an exceptional musician or singer, he was devoted to promoting old-time music and was able to arrange many recording sessions

They sang together for only three years during the late '20s and early '30s, but they had a tremendous effect on country music; even contemporary performers continue to cover their songs, which include "Handsome Molly" (recorded by Bob Dylan), "Cluck Old Hen," "Tom Dooley," "Rose Conley" and "Lee Highway Blues (Going Down the Lee Highway)."

7. Gid Tanner – Soldier’s Joy

American musician James Gideon “Gid” Tanner was one of the earliest stars of what would come to be known as “country music”. His band, the Skillet Lickers, was one of the most innovative and influential string bands of the 20’s and 30’s. Its most notable members were Clayton McMichen (fiddle and vocal) and the blind Riley Puckett (guitar and vocal).

8. Clarence Ashley – The House Carpenter

From the time of Tom Clarence Ashley's birth, he was surrounded by the old-time music and the ballads that had travelled the Atlantic along with America's early settlers. The Ashley family came to America from Ireland before the turn of the eighteenth century and settled in eastern Virginia.

Ashley made his first recordings with Garley Foster and Doc Walsh in 1928. Throughout the late '20s and early '30s, Ashley recorded with Gwen Foster, The Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers and Byrd Moore & His Hot Shots. He also made solo banjo recordings.

9. Fiddlin’ John Carson – Cripple Creek

He was the first country artist to be recorded by field recorder Ralph Peer. “Cripple Creek” was first issued on 500 unlabelled discs.

In his later life an elevator operator, he died in 1949.

10. The Coon Creek Girls – Poor Naomi Wise

An all girl string band. They were extremely popular in the 30’s.

11. Blind Alfred Reed – How can a man stand such poor times and live

Recorded on December 4, 1929 in New York City With Blind Alfred Reed on fiddle and vocals and Arville Reed on guitar. Arville was Alfred's son.

Blind Alfred was something of a protest singer, as one can gather from this selection recorded while the Wall Street crash was still fresh. However, he also had a conservative bent. In "Why Do You Bob Your Hair Girls?" he scolded flappers in light of biblical prohibitions.

12. Edith & Sherman Collins – I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

A husband and wife recording duo. The husband and wife team Sherman Collins and Edith Hall made one single session for Decca in March 1938 and no biographical information has so far been uncovered. This is a vocal duet accompanied by their own two guitars. Breathtaking.

13. Dock Boggs – Country Blues

14. The Dixon Brothers – Didn’t hear nobody pray

From Caroline. They and their family all worked in the mills of Darlington, Lancaster, and Greenville. Music was an outlet from the long hours, lousy pay, and miserable factory conditions, with the workers often picked on by their bosses for being so-called hillbillies, and persecuted by local police for being so-called communists. Perhaps a career in country music was inevitable for hillbilly communists.

15. Frances Farmer – Aura Lee

"Aura Lee" (also known as "Aura Lea") is an American Civil War Song song about a maiden. It was written by WW Fosdick (words) and George R Poulton (music).

The Presley song "Love me Tender” is sung to the same tune as "Aura Lee".

There is also a marching band version of "Aura Lee" called "Army Blue".

Aura Lee was memorably sung by Frances Farmer and a male chorus in 1936's movie “Come and Get It”

This is the original version recorded in 1936.

The version of the Shelton Brothers was recorded in 1938..

.

16. Frank Hutchinson – Farmer Blues

Frank Hutchison was a white coal miner in Logan, West Virginia who could associate with the hard-luck tunes of his black coworkers. The miners, both black and white worked side by side in a dangerous, low paying job. They knew the blues as well as any share cropper in Mississippi. Hutchison learned the guitar at an early age, listening to a black railroad worker named Henry Vaughn, that he had made friends with when he was 8 years old. He played and traded licks with Bill Hunt, a crippled black guitarist who lived nearby and his neighbor, Dick Justice, both accomplished musicians also. Hutchison usually played his guitar lap style and used a pen knife as a slide.

17. Dock Boggs – Pretty Polly

He was a miner for forty years. He had a very special technique, which he learned from his black tutor. He employed two fingers and a thumb instead of the normal one finger and thumb claw hammer method)

18. Sam & Kirk McGee – Railroad Blues

They were one of the very first close-harmony Brother Acts in country music. The McGee Brothers were also a couple of primary hired members of the Grand Ole Opry, playing with such legends as Bill Monroe and Uncle Dave Macon. Sam and Kirk McGee turned old chain gang railroad songs into beautifully harmonic Traditional Country.

19. Sam McGee – Buck Dancer’s Choice

One of the McGee brothers. He is the granddad of the guitar-pickers. “Buck Dancer’s Choice” was recorded in 1926 and is still a must for every guitar player.

20. Frank Hutchinson – Stackalee

Noted author, historian, and ethnomusicologist, Charles K. Wolfe calls Hutchison the "first real white bluesman to record". His successful recording career spanned from the early '20s until pressure from his record company, Okeh, to add a fiddler and play more honky tonk tunes ended it in 1929, when he returned to Lake, West Virginia where he owned and operated a grocery store.

21. Uncle Dave Macon & Sam McGee - Down the old plank Road

Uncle Dave Macon and Sam McGee : the clash of the masters of old time music.

22. Vernon Dalhart – Golden Slippers

A popular singer in the 20’s.

He was the author of “the wreck of the old ‘97”

23. Vernon Dalhart – My blue Ridge mountain home

Vernon Dalhart was one of the most productive and versatile figures of the early recording industry, who by chance slipped into the role of a singer of hillbilly songs and became by far the most prolific recorder of such material in the 1920s.

24. Alfred and Orville Reed – The old fashioned Cottage

Alfred Reed is one of the rare fiddlers who sings and plays along with his singing. Reed's songs are the cries of the Appalachian world as modernization came up the creeks and hollows in the 1910s and 1920s with the depression following it in the 1930s.

Some of them are pretty bad in their conservative anti-womanism: "Why do you Bob your hair girls, your hair belongs to men" was Reeds biggest hit, a tune he actually recorded twice!

25. The Carter Family – Wildwood Flower.

I close the compilation with my favourite tune by the Carters.

http://lix.in/b9e22b

Peace

Posted by Joski at 3:24 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Merlin, Rural Country

Bawdy and vaudeville-inspired light-hearted songs and routines make up the thrust of the fine performances found in this compilation.

Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendoes. This trope goes back to early blues recordings and is seen from time to time in modern American blues and bluesrock.

After the First World War the fledgling record industry split hokum off from its Minstrel Show or Vaudeville context to market it as a musical genre, the hokum blues.

Early practitioners surfaced among the Memphis, Tennessee Jug Bands heard in Beale Street’s saloons and bordellos. The light-hearted and humorous jug played good time, upbeat music on assorted instruments such as spoons, washboards, fiddles, triangles, harmonicas, and banjos, all anchored by bass notes blown across the mouth of an empty jug.

Their blues was rife with popular influences of the time, and had none of the grit and plaintive "purity" of the nearby Delta Blues. Cannon's classic composition "Walk Right In", originally recorded for Victor in 1930, resurfaced as a Number One hit 33 years later, when the Rooftop Singers recorded it during the Folk Revival in New York.

Hokum blues lyrics specifically poked fun at all manner of sexual practices and preferences and eroticized domestic arrangements. Compositions such as "Banana In Your Fruit Basket" written by Bo Carter of the Mississippi Sheiks used thinly veiled allusions which typically employed food and animals as metaphors in a lusty manner worthy of Chaucer. The hilariously sexy lyric content usually steered clear of subtlety. "Bo Carter was a master of the single entendre.

Subtitled "Old Time Hokum Blues," this Yazoo LP offers a mixture of good time, suggestive numbers recorded originally recorded between 1928 and 1935. Artists and titles include Rufus and Ben Quillian doing Satisfaction Blues, Memphis Minnie singing Banana Man Blues, Butterbeans & Susie performing Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama, The Hokum Boys with I Had To Give Up Gym, and Papa Charlie Jackson on You Put It In, I'll Take It Out. Fun stuff, 14 cuts in all.

The sound quality varies, with most numbers pretty heavy on hiss and others dubbed from well-worn, rare originals, but even they might help you chase some prudish relatives out of the house some late evening.

1 Howe, Whistling Bob and Griggs, Frankie / Coldest Stuff In Town
2 Quillian, Rufus and Ben / Satisfaction Blues
3 Memphis Minnie / Banana Man Blues
4 Butterbeans and Susie / Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama
5 Bradley Tommy and Cole, James / Adam and Eve
6 Hicks, Robert and Charlie / Darktown Gambling - The Crap Game
7 Hokum Boys, the / I Had To Give Up Gym
8 Carter, Bo / Please Warm My Weiner
9 Jackson, Papa Charlie / You Put It In, I'll Take It Out
10 Yazoo All Stars, the / Hometown Skiffle Part 1
11 Yazoo All Stars, the / Hometown Skiffle Part 2
12 Burton, Buddie / Ham Fatchet Blues Part 1
13 Leola B. and Kid Wesley Wilson / Uncle Joe
14 Georgia Tom (Thomas A. Dorsey) and Tampa Red / Alley Crap Game

http://lix.in/3ae6b4

Have fun while it lasts

Posted by Joski at 3:20 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Dirty Blues

1. Tommy McClennan - I'm a guitar king

That’s what he was.

2. Robert Petway - Catfish Blues

This was Tommy McClennan’s buddy. From the Mississippi Delta.

3. Tampa Red - It Hurst Me Too

From Georgia but raised in Tampa (Florida). He was known as the “Guitar Wizzard” Playing a metal-bodied National Tricone guitar and sliding a bottleneck along the strings, he created a clear and pure sound, marked by deft single-string solos. His session work appears on many recordings by other artists, including Sonny Boy Williamson and Memphis Minnie. His urbane musicianship stood in sharp contrast to earlier slide-guitar blues and would help set the direction for the PostWar style.

4. Charlie Patton - Spoonful Blues

The Master with one of his masterpieces “Spoonful Blues”

5. Leroy Carr - Midnight Hour Blues

From Nashville, he grew up in the black section of Indianapolis. Teamed up with Scrapper Blackwell.

6. Bo Weavil Jackson - Devil and my Brown

Recorded as one of the first black bluesmen on the Paramount label.

7. Tommy Johnson - Maggie Campbell Blues

One of the pioneers from the Mississippi Delta. He was a hell of a guitar player.

8. Willie Brown - Future Blues

He played with Charlie Patton and Son House and recorded by himself only a few (disputed) songs. Brown’s style is very sofisticated, inspired by the rythmic versatility of Charlie Patton and influenced by Son House’s stunning use of syncopes.

9. Kid Bailey - Rowdy Blues

He recorded two songs in Memphis in 1929. Here’s one of them.

10. Ishman Bracey - Left alone blues

He was an early figure of the Mississippi Blues Delta movement. he was playing in local dance halls, juke joints, fish fries and other events in rural Mississippi. In February 1928 h went to Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded with Charlie McCoy on the Victor Record Label. In August 1928, he returned to Memphis once again to record some more material for Victor.

11. Texas Alexander - Broken Yo-Yo

From Texas, of course

He started performing at local parties and picnics in the early 1920s, sometimes working with Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1927 he started recording and made some very good Blues records with some Jazz luminaries.

12. Papa Charlie Jackson - I`m Alabama Bound

He played an hybrid banjo-ukelele. He played around Chicago in the early twenties, and recorded with Blind Blake

13. Funny Papa Smith - Hungry Wolf

"Funny Papa" Smith. Or was it "Funny Paper" Smith?

14. The Beale Street Sheiks - It's a good thing

The Masters of the Memphis Blues.

15. Yas Yas Girl (Merline Johnson) - Love With A Feeling

Merline Johnson was from Mississippi. She was the aunt of LaVern Baker. "Yas Yas" is a common euphemism in blues hokum songs for "ass"

16. Tommy Johnson - Big Road Blues

Tommy’s Big Road Blues inspired Canned Heat's song “on the road again”

Well - I ain't goin' down - big road - by myself

Now don't you hear me cryin' 

Ain't goin' down that - big road by myself

If I can't carry you

Carry somebody else

Well - who is that yon' - coming - down the road

Now don't you hear me talkin'

Who's that yonder - coming down the road

Says and walk like Maddy

Swear she walk too slow

Well - never let - one woman - worry your mind

Now don't you hear me cryin'

Never let - one woman worry your mind

Say you think she's lovin'

Leavin' all the time

Well - tell me babe - who your - regular be

Now don't you hear me cryin'

Tell me baby - who your regular be

Say ain't got nobody

Please make room for me

Well - tell me honey - where you - stayed last night

Now don't you hear me cryin'

Tell me baby - where you stayed last night

Say your hair all down

Clothes ain't fittin' you right

17. Bayless Rose - Black Dog Blues

Recorded four sides for Vocalion, was a companion of Willie Moore

18. Robert Johnson - Little Queen Of Spades

Robert Johnson, what else is there to say.

19. Bukka White - Parchman Farm Blues

Bukka’s memories of Parchman Farm where he served (White shot an assailant in the thigh)

20. Tommy McClennan - Bottle it up and go

Tommy McClennan’s “Bottle up and go” was the first record to use the word “nigger” in it.

21. Blind Gary (Davis) - You Got To Go Down

The Reverend when he was Blind Gary

22. Bo Carter - Corrine Corrina

Bo Carter singing this beautiful blues Corrina.

23. Hambone Willie Newbern - Roll And Tumble Blues

The Original Roll and Tumble Blues

24. Blind Willie Johnson - Nobody's Fault But Mine

The Blind preacher at his wonderful best.

25. The Memphis Jug Band - Strealin' Stealin'

Dylan’s original.

Enjoy the Masters

Posted by Joski at 3:08 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Merlin, Rural Blues

During the first half of this century, there are perhaps no location that produced more Country Blues Artists than the Mississippi Delta. Historians can argue over the true birthplace of the Blues, whether it may be the Delta, the Piedmont or Texas, but for the sheer numbers of outstanding performers, there is no comparison. The Delta has produced so many very distinguishable voices, especially in the earlier years. Among those voices are the truly frightening Howlin' Wolf and the gravelly Charley Patton (which became even more so after a botched murder attempt left him with a slit throat). Equally powerful and just as possessing was the whisky-charcoaled singing of Tommy McClennan, whose urgent and rough sound was able to hide the fact that he was not a very accomplished guitarist. Though little information was believed to exist as late as the early 1960s, McClennan was a contemporary of Big Bill Broonzy and Honeyboy Edwards, and was remembered vividly by each in their respective biographies. He was also perhaps the last of the great country performers to record for Lester Melrose and the Bluebird label.

Tommy McClennan was born on the J.E. Sligh Farm near Yazoo City, Mississippi, on April 8, 1908. While growing up, he taught himself to play guitar influenced by Delta masters Rubin Lacy, Charley Patton, Ishman Bracey and Tommy Johnson. At a young age he began to play on the streets of Greenwood, Miss. for nickels and dimes, while working the cotton fields during the day. Later he worked in juke joints and for dance parties, playing both the guitar and the piano (an instrument that Honeyboy Edwards claims he only knew three or so numbers on, and those not too well). It was during this time that the young Honeyboy was first learning the guitar, and he began to follow McClennan and his running-partner Robert Petway every chance he could.

McClennan was a small man, standing just 4 feet 10 and weighing somewhere around 133 pounds; a size that definitely belied the powerful voice he possessed. Petway was approximately the same size, and Honeyboy Edwards claimed that when they were together, it appeared as if two midgets were walking down the street. Honeyboy also states that Tommy was unable to find a hat that would fit him due to his size; most of which hung down over his ears. McClennan was married to a woman by the name of Ophelia and they had two children, Bubba and Carrie Mae. Throughout his life, he was also a sickly man, who may have suffered from tuberculosis, and he was definitely plagued by chronic alcoholism.

In 1938, Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records in Chicago, working on a tip from Big Bill Broonzy, went to the Delta in search of Tommy McClennan. Despite Broonzy's warnings about plantation owners and Northerners who appeared to be seeking new employees from the fields for their factories in the big cities, Melrose made the trip on his own. When he began to ask of McClennan's whereabouts, he was run off the plantation sans his automobile. Eventually he did locate McClennan, and in 1939 they laid down the tracks of Tommy's first recording session in Chicago on November 22nd.

This session would prove to be McClennan's most important, solely due to the inclusion of his signature piece, "Bottle It Up And Go". Though the song was most likely a common theme throughout the South before this session, it made quite a commotion among the African-American audiences of the North with its inclusion of the term "nigger". Big Bill Broonzy had attempted to heed McClennan to avoid using the word, warning him about the attitudes of the North and what was deemed acceptable. However, Tommy refused to abide the warning, declaring he would record and sing the song his own way. In one fabled story, Broonzy recalled attending a party with McClennan. The place had reached a jovial pace when Tommy decided to sing "Bottle It Up And Go". Upon hearing the lyrics, the crowd became irate and reportedly threw McClennan and Broonzy out a window. Luckily for them, they were on the first floor.

There would be four more sessions with Bluebird over the next two years. Tommy found a great deal of success with jukeboxes in the South, scoring hits with "Cotton Patch Blues", "Cross Cut Saw Blues", "Whisky Head Woman" and "Deep Sea Blues" (a reworking of his friend Robert Petway's acclaimed "Catfish Blues"). But, musical tastes began to change and the advent of the second World War brought about restrictions on the materials used to make records. After recording 41 sides of his own, McClennan's final recording was on Petway's "Boogie Woogie Woman" on February 20, 1942. At this point, Melrose had decided to release McClennan from his services, citing his unreliability and alcoholism. McClennan seemed to disappear from the public's attention soon afterwards, with an occasional club performance here and there in Chicago. Petway's career had also reached its zenith, after only 14 recorded sides for Bluebird (but unlike McClennan, this was due more to the change in record buyers' musical tastes).

Honeyboy Edwards would later recall in his biography running into McClennan again, in 1962. Destitute and living in a truck trailer he had converted into a makeshift house, Edwards attempted to bring McClennan back to the stage. His unskilled guitar playing was now clearly absent, but his mighty vocals remained. And McClennan's constant desire for alcohol had not diminished either; a fact that rekindled the word of his unreliability and ultimately brought forth an end to this second opportunity at fame. Edwards returned him to his life in the slums, and shortly afterwards, McClennan took sick and was hospitalized. Unable to speak at all, McClennan died there, alone and penniless in 1962.

In retrospect McClennan's music can now be considered as some of the most compelling and important of its period, alongside the recognized legends, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Charley Patton. His classic "Bottle It Up And Go" also remains one of the true classics of Country Blues, covered many times by numerous artists. His recordings of "Cross Cut Saw Blues" proved to be an influential number for the West Memphis guitar legend Albert King, as did his "New Highway 51" for a young folk musician named Bob Dylan. All 42 recordings, including Petway's "Boogie Woogie Woman", have been remastered and are available on the excellent release, "The Bluebird Recordings 1939 -1942".

McClennans's voice is strong, raspy and loud -- his style has been described as "hollering" rather than singing. On several tracks, he uses two voices in a call-and-response technique. He sings in one voice and speaks in a second, spoken voice between phrases, sometimes between breaths, encouraging, cajoling and commenting on what the first voice is singing. It sounds spontaneous, but Honeyboy Edwards said McClennan often practiced performing in front of a mirror for hours.

My personal favorites include "Baby, Don't You Want to Go?" laid-back and swinging, plus the mournful "New Highway 51" and the legendary "Bottle Up and Go," which he sings with an exuberance and enthusiasm that makes me wish I had been there to watch him. His charisma comes right out through the speakers and fills the room. He must have given some amazing live performances.

Edwards described McClennan's style: "He just play the blues. Play straight blues. There wasn't nothin' betwixt nothin'. Just straight go."

http://lix.in/ce6c8b

http://lix.in/a4cb1a

Peace

Posted by Joski at 2:52 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Tommy McClennan

Hi Blues Brothers,

this is an album of prewar blues rarities that I have put together.

Because he is my fellow blues-crusader, I would like to dedicate this to my friend JT Catfish.


I have tried to put together some rarities with some really big ones.

Here they are :

1. The Dallas String Band : Dallas Rag

The group has been referred to as the only black string band in history and an early Texas country band. Left behind as key evidence are the dozen recordings the group made for Columbia beginning in the late '20s.

2. Frank Stokes : How Long

From Tennessee. Possessed of a powerful voice and driving guitar style, Stokes busked on the streets of Memphis playing a variety of minstrel tunes, early blues, ragtime numbers, breakdowns, and popular songs of the day. His breadth of musical knowledge made him the embodiment of the rural black musical tradition up to the early twentieth century.

3. Lulu Jackson : You’re gonna leave the old home, Jim

A parlour singer doing 8 cuts accompanied by her own very amateurish guitar.

4. Robert Wilkins : I’ll go with her blues

The “reverend Robert Wilkins” was the author of “Poor boy, long way from home”, the original to the Rolling Stones‘ “Prodigal Son”

5. Blind Alfred Reed : How can a man stand such hard times and live

Recorded on December 4, 1929 in New York City With Blind Alfred Reed on fiddle and vocals and Arville Reed on guitar. Arville was Alfred's son. Blind Alfred was something of a protest singer, as one can gather from this selection recorded while the Wall Street crash was still fresh. Recorded by Ry Cooder. Blind Alfred is the guitar player on the right.

6. The Mississippi Sheiks : Sitting on top of the world

The Mississippi Sheiks were the most popular blues artists of the 30s. Their repertoire drew upon all facets of black and white rural music: hard-edged blues, pop music, hokum, white country and traditional songs. Their rendition of "Sitting on Top of the World" has become an enduring standard.

7. Peetie Wheatstraw : No good Woman

The Devil’s Son in Law. He was overwhelmingly popular throughout the 1930s, and he is credited in some quarters with being the artist who carried the blues from its lowly status as rural "devil's music" into the cities where, in time, it would grow, thrive and change to suit the needs of a new, urban audience.

8. Texas Alexander : Don’t you wish your baby was build like mine ?

As his name implied, Blues singer Texas Alexander was from the Lone Star State. He recorded a dozen sides for Paramount. In 1939 he murdered his wife and went to prison until 1945.

9. Vera Ward Hall : Poor Lazarus

Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1948, the Dylan Original

10. “Blind” Willie Walker : South Caroline Rag

From South Carolina . The late guitarist, Josh White, said, "Willie Walker was certainly sophisticated and his clear, almost minstrel-like vocal delivery went perfectly with his delicate yet strong-structured guitar lines." His whole life was music, and on his death certificate he was named a musician, it was all he knew. He died in 1933.

11. Blind Boy Fuller : Rag Mama Rag

From North Carolina. The Master of the Piedmond Style. This was later covered by the Band.

12. Gabriel Brown, John & Rochelle French : Po’ Boy long way from home

Recorded in 1935 on a field trip to Florida conducted by Alan Lomax

13. Blind Boy Fuller : Mama let me lay it on you

Again, the Master with the Dylan original, which “he learned from Rick Von Schmidt”

Thanks JT. (you’re forever in my heart).

14. Kid Prince Moore : Honey dripping Papa

Moore was one of the last Piedmont blues artist to record in the Piedmont, as Decca closed their recording studio in late 1938. Moore is a fantastic and unique guitar player.

15. Bo Carter : Banana in your fruit basket

One of those “risqué blues” songs

16. Charles Segar : Key to the highway

The original recording of this classic. Pianist from Pensacola, FLA who stayed in Chicago . This was recorded two months before Jazz Gillum and a whole year before Big Bill Broonzy. Segar plays the piano.

17. Blind Joe Reynolds : Outside woman blues

The original of the Cream Recording. Recorded for Paramount in 1929.

18. Henry Thomas : Bull Doze Blues

The original for Canned Heat’s “Going up the Country”. He was probably the oldest recorded bluesman (born in 1874)

19. Fidlin’ John Carson : I’m gonna take the train to Charlotte

The music of Fiddlin' John Carson from Fannin County, Georgia, was the first of what we know today as "country music" to be broadcast by radio and recorded for phonograph. Recorded in 1923 for Okeh.

20. Luke Jordan : Cocain Blues

From Virginia. Recorded in 1927 in Charlotte, NC

21. Will Bennett : Railroad Bill

This is a real story. There once was a Railroad Bill, his name was Morris Slater. Worked as a day laborer in the harsh terpentine plantations in the south Alabama woods. In 1893 he killed a police man and escaped by jumping on a train. From then on he ambushed the L&N line with raids and murders. In 1895 he shot a sheriff

Railroad Bill, the "notorious Negro desperado" of Escambia County, Alabama, stepped into Tidmore and Ward's general store in the small railroad community of Atmore on March 7, 1896; he left the store dead, his body riddled with bullets, his face and right hand mangled. "About fifteen pistol, rifle and gunshot wounds were found," the local Pine Belt News reported.”

Officials had to carry his dead body from town to town to prove he was really dead. The stuff where legends are made of. The picture shows Railroad Bill dead.

One of the oldest murder ballads

22. Barbecue Bob : Motherless Chile

He was the most heavily recorded Atlanta bluesman of the late 1920s.

His name and reputation established, Hicks recorded for Columbia every time they came through Atlanta and was frequently brought to New York. His "Motherless Chile Blues" was covered by Eric Clapton

23. Mississippi Mathilda : Hard Workin’ Woman

Matilda Witherspoon, who recorded as Mississippi Matilda, has three tracks here, her entire surviving recorded output, all cut in New Orleans on one October day in 1936. Unfortunately it's difficult to judge her "A&V Blues" fairly, since the recording quality is so poor. Such is not the case, however, with "Hard Working Woman," on which the sound is quite good. Matilda's voice is high and feminine, with little of the gutsy quality that the more popular female blues singers of the era had. It's rather high and squeaky, making these surviving recordings artifacts rather than treasures.

Matilda was married to the wonderful guitar player Sonny Boy Nelson (Eugene Powell) who backed her this song, Hard Workin’ Woman, which details her job has a house worker

24. Memphis Minnie : I’m going back home

Memphis Minnie (generally considered to be the best female blues guitarist of her day) recorded prolifically for almost 40 years. Minnie was as tough a drinker and blues singer as any man.

Lizzie Douglas, we all love her

25. Texas Alexander : Risin’ Sun Blues

Alexander didn't play an instrument so he always performed with accompanists or in a band setting. In the late 1930s he worked with Lowell Fulson and Howlin' Wolf among others.

Posted by Joski at 3:15 PM | 3 comments  
Labels: Merlin

The music of left-handed ,one-man band Doctor Ross, who has recorded for Sun, Chess, Fortune, and Testament since 1951 (he was born Charles Isaiah Ross on October 21, 1925 in Tunica, Mississippi), has as much to do with the development of Memphis Rock as any artist around.

Although singles chart success never came his way, just listen to Cat Squirrel and Chicago Breakdown for some of the most energetic, infectious boogie you're apt to hear anywhere and from any artist.

A triple-threat guitarist, harp blower, and vocalist, Dr. Ross decided to fire his sidemen and carry on as a one-man band, a tradition that also includes Joe Hill Louis, Daddy Stovepipe, and Jesse Fuller.

Ross' music did not depend on novelty effect, yet it had a distinctly recognizable sound, in part because he learned to play his own way and essentially played everything backwards. His guitar was tuned to open G (like John Lee Hooker and other Delta artists), but Ross played it left-handed and upside-down. He also played harmonica in a rack, but it was turned around with the low notes to the right. As an instrumentalist, Ross perfected the interplay between guitar and harmonica.

Unlike other Delta artists who tune in G, Ross didn't use slide, preferring a series of banjo-like strummed riffs, a percussive approach reminiscent of Atlanta 12-string guitarist Barbecue Bob. A strong vocalist and excellent songwriter, Ross gained early experience playing Delta jukes and eventually landed radio shows in Clarksdale and Memphis, where he also recorded for Sam Phillips's Sun label.

At the peak of Ross's career, he quit Sun, concerned that his royalties were being used to promote Elvis Presley's recordings. Relocating in Michigan, he recorded for his own label and for several Detroit labels, while working for General Motors. Returning to music as a recording artist, he worked the festival circuit. Ross' music retained the spirit of his live radio and juke-joint work.

Different, yes, but very good. Ross died May 28, 1993, and was buried in Flint, MI.

Here are the “Breakdowns And Blues By Mississippi One-Man Band Dr. Isaiah Ross” which is what he recorded in 1965 for Testament Records

http://lix.in/87a015

Peace

Posted by Joski at 3:05 PM | 2 comments  
Labels: Dr Isaiah Ross

Peg Leg Howell was born Joshua Barnes Howell on March 5, 1888 in Eatonton, Georgia. Howell was a self-taught guitarist who was said to have connected early country blues and the 12-bar styles.

Over time, he learned to be skilled in finger picking and slide techniques. The nickname “Peg Leg” was acquired from an incident with a shotgun in 1916, where his brother-in-law allegedly shot his leg off. After this incident, he could not work on a farm anymore, so he packed his things and left for Atlanta, where he pursued a full-time music career.

He started off playing on street corners for change. When this wasn’t enough, Howell started bootlegging liquor. In 1925, he was sentenced to one year in prison because he was caught bootlegging. While serving his time, Peg Leg wrote the song “New Prison Blues”

Shortly after his release, he signed with the Columbia record label, and recorded “New Prison Blues”.For the next several months, Howell recorded everything from ballads, such as “Skin Game Blues”, to dance numbers, such as “Beaver Slide Rag”.

Howell even recorded some jazz, such as “New Jelly Roll Blues”. Although many of his earlier recordings were solo, Howell was later backed by “the Gang”, which included guitarist Henry Williams and fiddler Eddie Anthony.

Finally in 1929, Columbia decided to drop Howell from its record label. At this time, Peg Leg was forced to work the streets of Atlanta, while Williams was imprisoned. Anthony had died in 1934. Howell fell into a slump and disappeared from the blues scene. In 1952, diabetes had taken Howell’s other leg.

In 1963, things started to change for the better. The Testament label took Peg Leg in and recorded his first new material in over 40 years. Peg Leg Howell died in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966.

One of the most important parts to "Peg Leg" Howell's music is hearing the bridge between the influences of plantation work songs and traditional Blues music. It is a recorded link between the two forms. We are all fortunate that the phonograph was invented. It gives us the chance to walk down the halls of musical history listening to the music of this century, and allows future generations to do the same.

Remember : Books and writings are a great form of documentation, but the pleasure of reading about these early Blues masters can never match hearing even the scratchiest recordings of their works.

Peg Leg Howell and his Gang:
Howell on the right, with Henry Williams and Eddie Anthony. On (probably) Decatur St. c.1928

Here are the recordings from 1928

http://lix.in/cdc8bf

Peace

Posted by Joski at 2:56 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Peg Leg Howell

b. Dec. 5, 1899, Glendora, MS, d. May 25, 1965, Helena, AR

Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim, and simply wrote, played and' sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into black phonograph records.

His delivery was sly, evil and world-weary, while his harp playing was full of short, rhythmic bursts one minute and powerful, impassioned blowing the next. His songs were chock-full of mordant wit, with largely autobiographical lyrics that hold up to the scrutiny of the printed page. Though he took his namesake from another well-known harmonica player, no one really sounded like him.

A moody, bitter, and suspicious man, no one wove such a confusing web of misinformation as Sonny Boy Williamson II. Even his birth date (either 1897 or 1909) and real name (Aleck or Alex or Willie "Rice"-which may or may not be a nickname-Miller or Ford) cannot be verified with absolute certainty.

Of his childhood days in Mississippi absolutely nothing is known. What is known is that by the mid '30s, he was travelling the Delta working under the alias of Little Boy Blue. With blues legends like Robert Johnson, Robert Nighthawk, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Elmore James as interchangeable playing partners, he worked the juke joints, fish fries, country suppers, and ball games of the era. By the early '40s, he was the star of KFFA`s King Biscuit Time, the first live blues radio show to hit the American airwaves. As one of the major ruses to occur in blues history, his sponsor-the Interstate Grocery Company-felt they could push more sacks of their King Biscuit Flour with Miller posing as Chicago harmonica star John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In today's everybody-knows-everything video age, it's hard to think that such an idea would work much less prosper.

After all, the real Sonny Boy was a national recording star, and Millers vocal and harmonica style was in no way derivative of him. But Williamson had no desire to tour in the South, so prosper it did, and when John Lee was murdered in Chicago, Miller became-in his own words-"the original Sonny Boy." Among his fellow musicians, he was usually still referred to as Rice Miller, but to the rest of the world he did, indeed, become the Sonny Boy Williamson.

The show was an immediate hit, prompting IGC to introduce Sonny Boy Corn Meal, complete with a likeness of Williamson on the front of the package. With all this local success, however, Sonny Boy was not particularly anxious to record. Though he often claimed in his twilight years that he had recorded in the '30s, no evidence of that appears to have existed. Lillian McMurray, the owner of Trumpet Records in Jackson, MS, had literally tracked him down to a boarding house in nearby Belzoni and enticed him to record for her. The music Sonny Boy made for her between 1951 to 1954 show him in peak form, his vocal, instrumental, and songwriting skills honed to perfection. Williamson struck paydirt on his first Trumpet release, "Eyesight to the Blind," and though the later production on his Chess records would make the Trumpet sides seem woefully underrecorded by comparison, they nonetheless stand today as classic performances, capturing juke-joint music in one of its finest hours.

Another major contribution to the history of the blues occurred when Sonny Boy brought King Biscuit Time guest star Elmore James into the studio for a session. With Williamson blowing harp, a drummer keeping time, and the tape machine running surreptitiously, Elmore recorded the first version of what would become his signature tune, Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom' " By this time Sonny Boy had divorced his first wife (who also happened to be Howlin' Wolf's sister) and married Mattie Gordon. This would prove to be the longest and most enduring relationship of his life outside of music, with Mattie putting up with the man's rambling ways, and living a life of general rootlessness in the bargain. On two different occasions Sonny Boy moved to Detroit, taking up residence in the Baby Boy Warren band for brief periods, and contributed earth-shattering solos on Warren sides for Blue Lake and Excello in 1954.

By early 1955, after leasing a single to Johnny Vincent's Ace label, McMurray had sold Williamson's contract to Buster Williams in Memphis, who in turn sold it to Leonard Chess in Chicago. All the pieces were finally tumbling into place, and Sonny Boy finally had a reason to take up permanent residence north of the Mason-Dixon line; he now was officially a Chess recording artist. His first session for Chess took place on August 12, 1955, and the single pulled from it, "Don't Start Me to Talkin'," started doing brisk business on the R&B charts. By his second session for the label, he was reunited with longtime musical partner Robert Jr. Lockwood. Lockwood-who had been one of the original King Biscuit Boys-had become de facto house guitarist for Chess, as well as moonlighting for other Chicago labels. With Lockwood's combination of Robert Johnson rhythms and jazz chord embellishments, Williamson's harp and parched vocals sounded fresher than ever and Lockwood's contributions to the success of Sonny Boy’s Chess recordings cannot be overestimated.

For a national recording artist, Williamson had a remarkable penchant for pulling a disappearing act for months at a time. Sometimes, when Chicago bookings got too lean, he would head back to Arkansas, fronting the King Biscuit radio show for brief periods. But in 1963 he was headed to Europe for the first time, as part of the American Folk Blues Festival. The folk music boom was in full swing and Europeans were bringing over blues artists, both in and past their prime, to face wildly appreciative White audiences for the first time. Sonny Boy unleashed his bag of tricks and stole the show every night. He loved Europe and stayed behind in Britain when the tour headed home. He started working the teenage beat club circuit, touring and recording with the Yardbirds and Eric Burdon's band, whom he always referred to as 'de Mammimals'. On the folk blues tours, Sonny Boy would be very dignified and laidback. But in the beat club setting, with young, White bands playing on eleven behind him he'd pull out every juke-joint trick he used with the King Biscuit Entertainers and drive the kids nuts. "Help Me" became a surprise hit in Britain and across Europe. Now in his mid-60s (or possibly older), Williamson was truly appreciative of all the attention, and contemplated moving to Europe permanently. But after getting a harlequin, two-tone, city gentleman's suit (complete with bowler hat, rolled umbrella and attache case full of harmonicas) made up for himself, he headed back to the States-and the Chess studios-for some final sessions. When he returned to England in 1964, it was as a conquering hero. One of his final recordings, with Jimmy Page on guitar, was entitled "I'm Trying to Make London My Home"

In 1965, he headed home, back to Mississippi one last time, and took over the King Biscuit show again. Still wearing his custom-made suit he regaled the locals with stories of his travels across Europe. Some were impressed, others who had known him for years felt he could have just as well substituted the name "Mars" for Europe in explaining his exploits, so used were they to Sonny Boys tall tales. But after hoboing his way around the United States for thirty-odd years, and playing to appreciative audiences throughout Europe, Sonny Boy had a perfectly good reason for returning to the Delta; he had come home to die He would enlist the help of old friends like Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis to take him around to all the back-road spots he had seen as a boy, sometimes paying his respects to old friends other days just whiling away an afternoon on the banks of a river fishing.

When Ronnie Hawkins' ex-bandmates, the Hawks, were playing in the area, they made a special point of seeking out Sonny Boy and spent an entire evening backing him up in a juke joint. All through the night, Williamson kept spitting into a coffee can beside him, When Robbie Robertson got up to leave the bandstand during a break, he noticed the can was filled with blood. On May 25, 1965, Curtis and Stackhouse were waiting at the KFFA studios for Sonny Boy to do the daily King Biscuit broadcast. When Williamson didn't show, Curtis left the station and headed to the rooming house where Sonny Boy was staying only to find him lying in bed, dead of an apparent heart attack He was buried in the Whitfield Cemetery in Tutwiler, MS, and his funeral was well-attended. As Houston Stackhouse said, "He was well thought of through that country."

Here's "Nine below zero"

http://lix.in/303af5

Peace

Posted by Joski at 3:10 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Sonny Boy Williamson

John "Johnny" Ned Shines was born April 25, 1915 in Frayser (Frazier), Tennessee. He moved to Memphis at the age of six. An accomplished slide and finger-style player, as well as emotional vocalist, Johnny spent most of his youth in and around Memphis and the Delta area playing Jukes and parties. His first musical influence was Howlin’ Wolf which earned him the nickname of "Little Wolf" at the start of his career. Shines met Robert Johnson (who eventually became his biggest influence) in Memphis in 1934 and traveled with him through the South, there also playing with Dave 'Honeyboy' Edwards, and north into Canada until Johnson's death in 1938.

After Johnson's death Shines settled in Chicago in 1941. His first recording session for Columbia in 1946 remained unissued for 25 years. He recorded for, among others, Chess Records; many of which were unreleased as Johnny Shines and some cuts which were released under the name "Shoe Shine Johnny". He was a frequent accompanyist at recording sessions and local gigs in Chicago in the 1950's. His early fifties recordings for the JOB label include one of the finest bottleneck blues ever recorded. Shines worked with Sonny Boy Williamson (Alex Miller) in the mid 50's. In 1958, He pawned all his equipment and quit the music business, after wrangling with the musician unions over royalties.

Shines was "rediscovered" working as a photographer in a blues club and ended up recording for the Vanguard label. The 1966 Vanguard release, "Chicago: The Blues Today", put his music career back on path. Shines began touring with the Chicago All Stars which included Walter Horton and Willie Dixon.

Shines moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the late sixties. He continued to play Delta blues and remained one of the last living Delta blues artists. In the late seventies Johnny Shines toured and recorded with Robert Jr. Lockwood. He suffered a stroke in 1980 that hampered his playing, but still left him as a formidable performer.

In the early 1990's he appeared and played in the documentary "The Search For Robert Johnson" with Honeyboy Edwards, presented by John Hammond Jr. Johnny Shines died April 20, 1992, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Here is what he did best : the country blues

“Breathtaking. Anyone who wants to hear the real delta stuff, wants to see how guitar can accent and intertwine with the voice and wants a course in feeling the blues should listen to Johnny Shines ”

http://lix.in/bdf218

Peace

Posted by Joski at 2:57 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Johnny Shines

"Walter “Buddy Boy” Hawkins is a mystery of a blues singer - most commonly associated as being from Mississippi, there is not much biographical information about him available. Hawkins has a great low moan singing voice and he moans his way through this wonderful blues track “Jailhouse Fire Blues” as he pleads to the jailer to let his woman go free before the jailhouse burns today. His pleading an moaning and then his sudden anger by the end of the song reminds me a lot of a mix between Charley Patton and Sam Collins."

Although serious field-work in blues research has been conducted for well over a score of years there are many gaps that remain to be closed. Walter Hawkins is a case in point-hardly a thing is known about him even though his recordings have been of considerable interest to blues enthusiasts for many years. It has been stated on more than one occasion that he came from Blythesville, Arkansas, but nothing is really sure.

Almost nothing is known about the singer; various attempts to determine his date and place of birth have resulted in countless chronological and geographical inconsistencies, although the consenus places him as a product of either Alabama or the northern Delta region.

Hawkins does not mention Blythesville on his records, but he does mention Jackson, Mississippi several times on “A Rag Blues”, stating that the piece comes from there. On Snatch It Back Blues he says "Listen here people, these my blues I brought 'em all the way from Birmingham." If he did not come from either city he does show some awareness of them. There are some elements in his singing, particularly the rather strident, barking tone that he employs, that do suggest a link with other Alabama singers, though such speculations are highly subjective.

Between 1927 and 1929, Hawkins recorded a dozen tracks for Paramount, many of them portraits of trains and life on the railroad (another possible piece of the puzzle); in any case, these sessions are the only surviving document of his music, and his subsequent activities remain a mystery.

While recording for Paramount in 1927 the producer recalls : “He'd look up at you just like a monkey...He didn't have a speck of sense...He didn't even have brains enough to get back to the train (after recording).”

If Buddy Boy Hawkins had been a youthful hobo, and had worked on the railroad as a casual itinerant labourer, he would have been in a position to have picked up a variety of songs and instrumental pieces from other bums on the road.

Apart from his blues which, in the case of Jailhouse Fire in particular, were quite original, he also played a number of ragtime dances and songs from the vaudeville and tent shows. In the latter category are How Come Mama Blues, a country version of a popular vaudeville song, How Come You Do Me Like You Do? which had been recorded by Edith Wilson, Trixie Smith with the Original Memphis Five and many other singers and groups. Snatch It and Grab It is of this genre and is of the same tune family as Henry Thomas's Fishing Blues, among many other songs of similar type.

It seems likely that Hawkins was himself an entertainer, possibly on the medicine shows, where Voice Throwing Blues would have been a good crowd-fetching act.

But whatever his sources, Buddy Boy Hawkins was a major figure in black country music.

Here are his complete recordings 1927-1929

http://lix.in/540af5

Peace

Posted by Joski at 2:29 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Buddy Boy Hawkins

Here’s to the Street Walkin’ Ladies

Homage to the oldest profession

1. Hustlin' Woman Blues - Memphis Minnie

2. Good Time Flat Blues - Maggie Jones

3. I've Got What It Takes - Virginia Liston

4. New Shave 'Em Dry - Lil Johnson

5. She Skuffles That Ruff - Sam Theard

6. I'm in the Racket - Billie Pierce

7. Street Walkin' Blues - C. Williams, C. Williams

8. Crowing Rooster Blues - Lonnie Johnson

9. Walking the Street - Georgia White

10. Hustlin' Blues - Ma Rainey

11. Kitchen Mechanic Blues - Clara Smith

12. Must Get Mine in Front - Irene Scruggs

13. Street Walker Blues - Bertha "Chippie" Hill

14. Shave 'Em Dry - Lucille Bogan

15. You Can't Proposition Me - Lucille Bogan

16. Bring Your Greenbacks - Ethel Waters

17. Save Me Some - Palooka Washboard Band

18. St. James Infirmary - Cab Calloway & His Orchestra

19. Nobody's Sweetheart - Cab Calloway & His Orchestra

20. Electric Man Blues

21. State Street Blues - Lovin' Sam Theard, Lovin' Sam Theard

22. She's Givin' It Away - Lovin' Sam Theard, Lovin' Sam Theard

23. It Must Be Good - Al Miller

24. For Sale (Hannah Johnson's Big Jack Ass) - Clara Smith

25. Your Love Is Cold - Lonnie Johnson

Have fun

Posted by Joski at 3:17 PM | 0 comments  

March 5, 1929 – April 29, 1967.

Newcomers to his considerable legacy could be forgiven for questioning J.B. Lenoir's gender upon first hearing his rocking waxings. Lenoir's exceptionally high-pitched vocal range is a fooler, but it only adds to the singular appeal of his music. His politically charged "Eisenhower Blues" allegedly caused all sorts of nasty repercussions upon its 1954 emergence on Al Benson’s Parrot logo (it was quickly pulled off the shelves and replaced with Lenoir's less controversially titled "Tax Paying Blues").

J.B. (that was his entire legal handle) fell under the spell of Blind Lemon jefferson as a wee lad, thanks to his guitar-wielding dad. Lightnin’ Hopkins and Arthur Crudup were also cited as early influences. Lenoir spent time in New Orleans before arriving in Chicago in the late '40s. Boogie grooves were integral to Lenoir's infectious routine from the get-go, although his first single for Chess in 1951, "Korea Blues," was another slice of topical commentary..

Lenoir waxed his most enduring piece, the infectious (and often-covered) "Mama Talk to Your Daughter," in 1954 for the Parrot label. Lenoir's 1954-55 Parrot output and 1955-58 Checker catalog contained a raft of terrific performances, including a humorously defiant "Don't Touch My Head" (detailing his brand-new process hairdo) and "Natural Man

Scattered singles for Shad in 1958 and Vee-Jay two years later kept Lenoir's name in the public eye. His music was growing substantially by the time he hooked up with USA Records in 1963 (witness the 45's billing: J.B. Lenoir & his African Hunch Rhythm). Even more unusual were the two acoustic albums he cut for German blues promoter Horst Lippmann in 1965 and 1966. Alabama Blues and Down in Mississippi were done in Chicago under Willie Dixon’s supervision, Lenoir now free to elaborate on whatever troubled his mind ("Alabama March," "Vietnam Blues," "Shot on James Meredith").

Little did Lenoir know his time was quickly running out. By the time of his 1967 death, the guitarist had moved to downstate Champaign -- and that's where he died, probably as a delayed result of an auto accident he was involved in three weeks prior to his actual death.

Here is Alabama Blues from 1965

Posted by Joski at 2:43 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: JB Lenoir

Easily the most important harmonica player of the pre-war era, John Lee Williamson almost single-handedly made the humble mouth organ a worthy lead instrument for blues bands -- leading the way for the amazing innovations of Little Walter and a platoon of others to follow. If not for his tragic murder in 1948 while on his way home from a Chicago gin mill, Williamson would doubtless have been right there alongside them, exploring new and exciting directions.

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson was born in southwest Madison County on March 30, 1914, to Ray Williamson and Nancy Utley. John Lee's father died when he was a baby, and he was reared by his mother. At age eleven, he received his first harmonica as a Christmas gift form his mother. According to his half-brother, T. W. Utley, when he was not chopping cotton, milking cows, or doing other farm chores, he was teaching himself to play the harmonica by listening to and playing along with records on an old wind-up record player. By the time he was sixteen, Williamson was jamming around Tennessee and Arkansas with guitarist "Sleepy John" Estes and mandolin demon James "Yank" Rachell.

In 1934, Williamson moved to Chicago, where a thriving blues scene was in full swing. An experienced artist, he immediately made his imprint, first as a much-recruited accompanist and, when he began to play his own compositions, as a much-sought-after headliner. Three years after he moved to the "Windy City," Williamson made his first recording, Good Morning, Little School, for Victor's subsidiary Bluebird label. This recording introduced his unusual, individualistic, and widely influential instrumental style of "squeezed" notes and "crossed-harp" playing--his distinctive style was imitated by many other musicians. From 1937 to 1945, Williamson recorded for the Bluebird label, sharing many sessions with guitarist Big Joe Williams. From 1945 to 1947, he recorded on the Victor label. When he started recording in 1937, he still maintained his southern roots. With his distinctive vocal style and fluent harp, he sounded like a country boy. "He played with all the rhythmic subtlety of the best country blues, slurring and wailing the harp notes, making the harmonica almost a single entity....But gradually the rural sound changed, as if the country boy was wising up to city ways," wrote Giles Oakley, author of The Devil's Music: A History of the blues.

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson helped propel the country blues of his native Southland toward a more exhilarating, urban-blues sound with his blend of originality, country intensity, and the electrification of his sound with the piano, bass, and drums. His tempo was so overpowering that he placed a pillow under his feet during recording sessions to silence the sound of his feet keeping time to the beat. Pete Welding, on Blues Classic's Album 21, described Williamson as "a forceful singer, popular recording artist, and the first truly virtuoso blues harmonica player, whose rich, imaginative solo flights resulted in completely re-shaping the playing approach and the role of his humble instrument in the blues." Many of his songs are considered today as blues classics.

In the wee hours of the morning, on June 1, 1948, the blues world lost one of its most influential harmonica players when John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson was beaten to death as he left one of Chicago's nightclubs. In keeping with the lyrics he often sung in life, "Now I want to bury my body, 'way down in Jackson, Tennessee," Williamson's body was conveyed to the city of his birth. For forty-two years, his body rested in an unmarked grave, sheltered by the deep shadows of the Jackson woods and covered with a verdant blanket of kudzu. On June 1, 1990, city officials, family members, friends, recording executives, and blues enthusiasts gathered to celebrate "John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson Day" and to dedicate a Tennessee historical marker, placed on Tennessee Highway 18 and Caldwell Road, near the site of the musician's birthplace. RCA Records, whose corporate history includes the Bluebird and Victor labels on which Williamson became famous, presented a rose granite gravestone to mark the resting place of the forgotten blues great.

Since 1937, Williamson's first commercial recording, Good Morning, Little School Girl, has been recorded numerous times by artists who include The Grateful Dead and Canned Heat.

Here are his best recordings

Posted by Joski at 2:25 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Sonny Boy Williamson

November 12, 1909 – February 26, 1977

Born on a farm near Houston, Mississippi, November 12, 1909, and named for the famed black educator, Bukka White was interested in music from an early age. His father taught him guitar at the age of nine, and a chance meeting with Charley Patton convinced the young White to "come to be a great man like Charley Patton." The son of a railroad worker, White was exposed to the sound of trains from an early age and was not afraid to hobo a train. He rode the rails from the Mississippi Delta to St. Louis, where he played poolrooms, barrelhouses, and parties for food and tips during the 1910s and 1920s.

During a 1930 stay in Memphis, White recorded fourteen songs, including three gospel numbers with Memphis Minnie supplying background vocals. Two 78s were released from the session, one containing two gospel sides and the other containing two blues numbers. Neither met with commercial success, but during this session White received the designation "Bukka" from a white record producer who had never heard of his famous namesake Booker T. Washington. He continued to travel during the 1930s, working as a professional boxer in Chicago and as a Negro League pitcher with the Birmingham Black Cats. During the summer of 1937, White shot an assailant in the thigh and was sentenced to Parchman Farm. Before beginning his sentence, he recorded two blues for the Vocalion label, including "Shake 'Em On Down," which sold in excess of 16,000 copies. Bluesman Big Bill Broonzy recorded "New Shake 'Em On Down," and scored another hit on that theme while White toiled at Parchman. Making the best of a bad situation, he recorded for folklorist Alan Lomax in 1939, while the latter was at the notorious prison recording for the Library of Congress.

Upon his release from prison in 1940, White traveled to Chicago for a follow-up session to "Shake 'Em On Down." The resulting twelve songs transcend blues as music, becoming powerful ruminations on imprisonment, isolation, loneliness, Jim Crow justice, and the freedom of the rails. White's post-Parchman success was short-lived, however, as a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II curtailed his playing. During the 1940s, he occasionally played juke joints with Memphis legend Frank Stokes after the latter had moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi. White later settled in Memphis, playing occasional gigs and influencing his young guitar-playing cousin BB King. Like Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and Son House, White was rediscovered during the 1960s "blues revival," and was once again celebrated for his slide guitar, throaty holler, and inspired compositions.

Bukka White died in Memphis, Tennessee, February 26, 1977. He is buried in Memphis.

Here are his best recordings

http://lix.in/24fdbb

Peace

Posted by Joski at 2:04 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Bukka White

Jo Ann Kelly (born January 5, 1944, in Streatham, South London; died October 21, 1990).

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all -- Jo Ann Kelly -- seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favored the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her.

But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen. Born January 5, 1944, Kelly and her older brother Dave were both taken by the blues, and born at the right time to take advantage of a young British blues scene in the early '60s.

By 1964 she was playing in clubs, including the Star in Croydon, and had made her first limited-edition record with future Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee. She expanded to play folk and blues clubs all over Britain, generally solo, but occasionally with other artists, bringing together artists like Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe into her own music.

After the first National Blues Federation Convention in 1968 her career seemed ready to take flight. She began playing the more lucrative college circuit, followed by her well-received debut album in 1969. At the second National Blues Convention, she jammed with Canned Heat, who invited her to join them on a permanent basis. She declined, not wanting to be a part of a band -- and made the same decision when Johnny Winter offered to help her.

Throughout the '70s, Kelly continued to work and record solo, while also gigging for fun in bands run by friends, outfits like Tramp and Chilli Willi -- essentially pub rock, as the scene was called, and in 1979 she helped found the Blues Band, along with brother Dave, and original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning. The band backed her on an ambitious show she staged during the early '80s, Ladies and the Blues, in which she paid tribute to her female heros.

In 1988, Kelly began to suffer pain. A brain tumor was diagnosed and removed, and she seemed to have recovered, even touring again in 1990 with her brother before collapsing and dying on October 21. Posthumously, she's become a revered blues figure, one who helped clear the path for artists like Bonnie Raitt and Rory Block. But more than a figurehead, her recorded material -- and unreleased sides have appeared often since her death -- show that Kelly truly was a remarkable blueswoman.

Here is her Epic record from 1969

Posted by Joski at 12:13 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Jo Ann Kelly