Mick Softley (born in 1941 in South Woodford, Essex) was a close friend and associate of Maddy Prior, Clive Palmer, Davy Graham and Jack Elliott. He was a major inspiration to Donovan, who saw him play around England's folk clubs as a young man and covered a couple of his songs early in his career.

Songs for Swingin' Survivors, his 1965 debut for EMI, is a simple and stripped-down singer-songwriter album in the vein of Bob Dylan's work from the same time period.
Softley's more-than-capable writing shines through on protest tunes, love songs, ramblin' road ballads, and a pair of subtly virtuosic acoustic guitar instrumentals.



Comparisons with early period Donovan are also perhaps inevitable. Donovan cited Mick Softley as a major influence and Softley actually wrote a few songs, which were covered by Donovan. Notably 'The War Drags On', which Donovan included on his 'Universal Soldier' EP, and which is featured here in its original version.



Also included on this album are Softley's interpretations of the Billie Holiday favourite, 'Strange Fruit', and Woody Guthrie's 'The Plains of the Buffalo'.



Rarity value aside, this album also represents an integral piece of the whole UK 60s folk-rock jigsaw. In its way as important as debut albums by Donovan, Bert Jansch and Jackson C Frank. And this album, more than any, conveys the spirit of those first guitar-strumming pioneers.
Softley does not look back on this time favourably claiming during production he had gone "through a lot of hells and no heavens, a terrifying amount of personal pain" to the extent that he quit the music business for over four years. During this time, he returned to life on the road until late 1967.

Due to contractual issues he never received any royalties in the later years.

Posted by Joski at 11:49 AM | 1 comments  
Labels: Mick Softley

Unlike blues artists like Big Bill or Memphis Minnie who recorded extensively over three or four decades, Blind Boy Fuller recorded his substantial body of work over a short, six-year span.




Nevertheless, he was one of the most recorded artists of his time and by far the most popular and influential Piedmont blues player of all time. Fuller could play in multiple styles: slide, ragtime, pop, and blues were all enhanced by his National steel guitar. Fuller worked with some fine sidemen, including Davis, Sonny Terry, and washboard player Bull City Red.

Initially discovered and promoted by Carolina entrepreneur H. B. Long, Fuller recorded for ARC and Decca. He also served as a conduit to recording sessions, steering fellow blues musicians to the studio.




Harmonica player Sonny Terry was one of the initial bluesmen who crossed over into areas not normally associated with the genre before he came along. Along with his partner, guitarist Brownie McGhee, Terry played on numerous folk recordings with the likes of Woody Guthrie, developed an acting career showcased on television and Broadway, and never compromised his unique high-pitched penetrating harmonica style called whoppin'


Blind Boy Fuller’s long-lasting partnership with Sonny Terry started in 1937. They met in Wadesboro whilst Terry was playing mouth organ on one side of the street, and Fuller was on the opposite side playing guitar.

After that the two musicians travelled around - sometimes accompanied by the Reverend Gary Davis and Bull City Red - until Fuller took Terry with him to Durham. Blind Boy Fuller recorded around 140 songs in the 5 years of his recording career for ARC. His last session was in 1940 for the OKeh label in Chicago with Sonny Terry and Bull City Red.

Blind Boy Fuller died shortly afterwards on the 13th February, 1941 in Durham in North
Carolina.

Amongst his greatest admirers were such musicians as Brownie McGhee, who was sold
at the beginning of his career as "Blind Boy Fuller II" and who became, along with Sonny
Terry, one of the most successful musicians of the Chicago music scene after Fuller's death. .
Blind Boy Fuller's name is synonymous with the so-called Piedmont blues and inspired in
spite of his early death following generations of blues guitarists and singers.





Here are the tracks :


New York City. December 12. 1937
1. Bye Bye Baby Blues - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry
2. Mistreater, You're Going To Be Sorry - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry



New York City. April 5, 1937
3. Mean And No Good Woman - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry
4. Pistol Slapper Blues - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry




Columbia. October 29. 1937
5. Stop Jivin' Me Mama - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry
6. Big House Bound - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry



New York City. December 28. 1937
7. Train Whistle Blues - Sonny Terry
8. New Love Blues - Sonny Terry



Memphis July 12. 1939
9. I'm A Stranger Here - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red
10. I Want Some Of Your Pie - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red
11. I Don't Care How Long - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red




New York City. March 05. 1940
12. Blues And Worried Man - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red




New York City. March 05. 1940
13. Harmonica And Washboard Breakdown - Sonny Terry/Oh Red
14. Harmonica Blues - Sonny Terry/Oh Red
15. Somebody's Been Talkin' - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red



New York City. March 06. 1940
16. Harmonica Stomp - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red

New York City. March 07. 1940
17. Twelve Gates To The City - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red


Chicago. June 19. ]940
18. I Don't Want No Skinny Woman - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red
19. You Got To Have Your Dollar - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red



Chicago. June 19.1940
20. Blowing The Blues - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red



Chicago. June 19. ]940
21. Bus Rider Blues - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red
22. Precious Lord - Blind Boy Fuller/Sonny Terry/Oh Red


New York City. January 24, 1944
23. Lonesome Train - Sonny Terry/Woody Guthrie


Chicago. June 19. 1940
24. Shake Down Blues - Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee


New York City. 1944/45
25. Sweet Woman - Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee
26. Fox Chase - Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee


http://lix.in/-35a225



Peace

Posted by Joski at 11:04 AM | 3 comments  
Labels: Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry

The Harlem Hamfats was a Chicago (Jazz) band band formed in 1936. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon for DECCA Records, but when their first record "Oh Red" became a hit, it secured them a DECCA contract for fifty titles. They launched a successful recording career performing danceable music.

The group were not from Harlem, and nor were they "hamfats". The name 'hamfat' derives from early 20th century slang in which the word was used to designate something as second-rate or a poor substitute. There is some disagreement about the roots of the word. Some believe it refers to a 'hamfat' cut of meat, which was cheaper and of poorer quality than the lean part of the ham. Others hold that it refers to a method black face comedians had of adhering burnt cork makeup with hamfat. Regardless, the name was most likely adopted in a spirit of facetiousness, since by all measurable standards the band members were talented musicians. Despite their name, the Hamfats were based in Chicago, and were put together by record producer and entrepreneur J. Mayo Williams simply for the purpose of making records - perhaps the first group to be so created.

None of the members of the band were actually from New York. "Kansas" Joe McCoy (guitar, vocals) and his brother "Papa" Charlie McCoy (guitar, mandolin) were from Mississippi; Herb Morand (trumpet, vocals), John Lindsay (bass), and Odell Rand (clarinet) were from New Orleans; Horace Malcolm (piano), Freddie Flynn (drums) and Pearlis Williams (drums) were from Chicago. The diverse geographical backgrounds of the musicians played a strong role in the band's sound, which blended blues, dixieland and swing jazz. Led by Morand and Joe McCoy, the main songwriters, the group initially provided instrumental backing to Williams' stable of artists, including Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon, Rosetta Howard, and Johnny Temple. They were perhaps the first example of a studio recording band becoming an act in their own right and recorded extensively.

Their first major hits were "Oh! Red", recorded in April 1936, and "Let's Get Drunk And Truck" (originally recorded by Tampa Red), recorded in August of the same year. "Oh! Red" was popular enough to be covered by Count Basie, The Ink Spots, Blind Willie McTell and, later, Howlin' Wolf. Some of their other recordings, such as "We Gonna Pitch A Boogie Woogie", more clearly presage the later rhythms of rock and roll.

Their most recognizable work may be the modern jazz tune "Why Don't You Do Right?", which was written by Joe McCoy and included on their 1936 record under the title "The Weed Smoker's Dream". The song had numerous drug references. The lyrics were later changed and the tune refined. Lil Green recorded it as "Why Don't You Do Right", a tune about a conniving mistress and her broke lover, in 1941, and it was later recorded by Peggy Lee with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. By 1939, singer Morand had returned to New Orleans, and changing fashions had made their sound less commercially attractive.

The Harlem Hamfats were not thought to be the most innovative group of the time, and many of the band's original works dealt heavily with sex, drugs and alcohol, which may have hindered their music from being more widely available. However, as a small group playing entertaining music primarily for dancing they are considered an important contributor to 1930s jazz, and their early riff-based style would help pave the way for Louis Jordan's small group sound a few years later, rhythm and blues, and later rock and roll.

Fill your ears with the masters

Posted by Joski at 7:15 PM | 3 comments  
Labels: Harlem Hamfats

Over the guitar introduction to “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” Bob Dylan told of meeting Eric Von Schmidt “in the green pastures of Harvard University.”

"Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" is a traditional folk song popularised in the late 1950s by blues guitarist Eric Von Schmidt. The song is best known from its appearance on Dylan’s debut album.

What are the origins ?

The song was adapted by Eric Von Schmidt, a blues-guitarist and singer-songwriter of the folk revival in the late 1950s. Von Schmidt was a well-known face in the east coast folk scene and was reasonably well-known across the US. His chronicles of the Cambridge Folk era, are titled "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down", and describe the evolution of the song. Eric had first heard a song by Blind Boy Fuller called "Baby, Let Me Lay It On You." Eric von Schmidt credits Reverend Gary Davis for writing "three quarters" of this song. At least that’s what the Reverend says.

And do Reverends cheat or lie ?

Anyway the recording of Cincinnati based Walter Coleman in 1938 was first. It anticipates Blind Boy Fuller’s recording of the same song by two months.

It was changed to Baby, Let Me follow You Down around 1959 and became a feature in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. The song was sung by local heroes such as Dave Van Ronk. The song was later picked up by the young and up-and-coming folk singer Bob Dylan who made the song famous.

Another famous recording of the song was performed by The Animals in 1964, who changed the title to "Baby let me take you home". This song was probably based on the Hoagy Lands version of 1963.

But let’s dig a little deeper…..

Reverend Gary Davis (or "Blind Gary Davis", as he used to be called on his earlier recordings) was born on Apr 30, 1896 in Laurens, SC; he died on May 5, 1972 in Hammonton, NJ.

Either blind at birth or partially blind and losing his eyesight completely during his teens (details about his early life are rather sketchy), he taught himself to play harmonica, banjo, and guitar, performing for parties and picnics in his hometown area before moving to Durham, NC, where he played blues on streetcorners. In the early 1930s, he turned to religious music and was ordained as a baptist minister in 1933.

In the mid-1930s, he teamed up with Blind Boy Fuller in Durham. Both artists travelled to New York City and recorded several sides for the ARC (=American Record Company) label (a subsidiary of Columbia) in 1935.

In 1940, Gary Davis made New York City his permanent residence and subsequently made numerous recordings for the Folkways, Stinson, Riverside, and Prestige-Bluesville labels, while also preaching the gospel and playing his songs in the streets of Harlem.

With his ragtime-flavored blues fingerpicking style, Gary Davis influenced a lot of artists, most notably Stefan Grossman, Dave Van Ronk, Taj Mahal, Dave Bromberg and Ry Cooder. He became a well-known figure in folk circles and performed at all the major festivals in the early 1960s.

The Dylan recording of “Baby let me follow you down” (as 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.

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.

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).

Walter Coleman recorded two versions of the song : one with an unidentified accompanist on guitar, and another with piano.

“Don’t tear my clothes” is probably an earlier version of the song, or is Walter Coleman’s song a later adaptation of this song.

“Don’t tear my clothes” is in any way prior to the Coleman song. It was recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, Washboard Sam (Reputedly the half-brother of Big Bill Broonzy) and Jazz Gillum (“State Street Swingers” or “State Street Boys”).in 1935.

The State Street Swingers were once one of several blues combos that recorded in the late 1930's in the wake of the phenomenal success of the Harlem Hamfats. The Hamfats recorded ''Oh! Red'' for Decca Records in April, 1936, and other artists and record companies were not long in responding with a similar type of sound, featuring lead trumpet and clarinet played in New Orleans jazz style, one or two guitars, piano, bass, and drums.

The State Street Swingers began recording in July of 1936 and were basically Vocalion Record's answer to the Hamfats. As the Hamfats claimed Harlem as their turf, the Swingers would claim one of Chicago's main streets for entertainment. The Swingers were, in fact, from Chicago, as indeed were the Hamfats, and together these bands helped to lay the foundation for a later blues band sound. Both bands were essentially studio recordings groups rather than working bands in the community, and there is even a possibility that they had some personnel in common.

Just who the State Street Swingers were is to some degree a mystery. The trumpet player is thought by some to be Herb Morand, who was also the trumpeter with the Harlem Hamfats. This remains uncertain, however, and it should be noted that Morand did not other wise do a lot of studio work during his tenure with the Hamfats. It does seem likely, however, that the clarinet player was the prolific session musician Arnett Nelson. Black Bob generally held down the piano chair, though Myrtle Jenkins substituted no at least one session. The guitar and washboard seem generally to have been Big Bill Broonzy and Washboard Sam, while the bass player and drummer remain unknown, though some think they were borrowed from the Hamfats.

The Harlem Hamfats

The group were not from Harlem, and nor were they "hamfats". The name 'hamfat' derives from early 20th century slang in which the word was used to designate something as second-rate or a poor substitute. There is some disagreement about the roots of the word. Some believe it refers to a 'hamfat' cut of meat, which was cheaper and of poorer quality than the lean part of the ham. Others hold that it refers to a method black face comedians had of adhering burnt cork makeup with hamfat. Regardless, the name was most likely adopted in a spirit of facetiousness, since by all measurable standards the band members were talented musicians. Despite their name, the Hamfats were based in Chicago

They also recorded a version of the song “Baby don’t you tear my clothes” but a year later (1937)

Funny enough, Vaudeville singer Georgia White recorded an answer-version to the State Street Boys version in 1936 :

Daddy, Let Me Lay It On You - Georgia White w Richard M. Jones on Piano, Les Paul on Guitar & John Lindsay on Bass.

So is that all ?

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.

In the liner notes to the Yazoo Record “Mama let me lay it on you” (Yazoo 1040) we read : “Although Walter Coleman and his anonymous accompanist are associated with Cincinnati, their “Mama let me lay it on you” anticipates Blind Boy Fuller’s recording of the same song by two months. It’s ultimate source is probably the 1930 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe Duet “Can I do it for you”.

Thus, Reverend Gary Davis' claim of authorship is unfounded and the song is most likely a spinoff of this first recording by the great lady of Blues.

So Memphis Minnie asked us “What can I do for you ?”

I return the question “What can we do for Memphis Minnie ?” I think the answer is plain to see. We must give her the credits for this song.

Here is what I gathered :

1. Memphis Minnie - Can I do it for you (part one)

1. Memphis Minnie - Can I do it for you (part two)

2. The State Street Boys - Don't tear my clothes

3. Chicago Black Swans - Don't Tear My Clothes

4. Walter Coleman (piano) - Mama Let Me Lay It on You

4. Walter Coleman - Mama Let Me Lay It on You

4. Walter Coleman - Mama Let Me Lay It On You (Take A)

5. Blind Boy Fuller - Mama Let Me Lay It On You

5. Reverend Gary Davis - Baby, Let Me Lay It On You

6. Georgia White - Daddy let me lay it on you

7. Washboard Sam - Don't Tear My Clothes

8. Harlem Hamfats - Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes

9. Snooks Eaglin - Mama Don't You Tear My Clothes

10. Lightnin' Hopkins - Baby Don't Tear My Clothes

11. Eric Von Schmidt - Baby, Let Me Lay It On You

12. Bob Dylan - Baby, Let Me Follow You Down

13 . Hoagy Lands - Baby Let Me Hold You Hand

14. The Animals - Baby Let Me Take You Home

15 Dave Van Ronk - Baby, Let Me Lay It On You

16. Mance Lipscomb - Mama, Let Me Lay It On You

17. Jonathan King - Baby Let Me Follow You Down

18. Dan Phelps - Let Me Lay It On You

18. Etta Baker - Baby, Let Me Lay It on You

19. Etta James - Honey, Don't Tear My Clothes

19. James Cotton - Baby, Don't You Tear My Clothes

20. Peppermint Harris - Baby Don't Tear My Clothes

21. Ida Sand - Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes

http://lix.in/-2deac7

Fill your ears

Posted by Joski at 10:14 AM | 5 comments  
Labels: Baby let me follow you down, Merlin, Study