Big Road Blues

Sun 22 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/22/12: Mix Show

Posted by Jeff under Playlists
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ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Dave Alexander	Love Is Just For Fools	Oakland Blues
Dave Alexander	Cold Feelin'	The Dirt On The Ground
Dave Alexander	The Rattler	The Rattler
Joe Dean	Mexico Bound Blues	Down In Black Bottom
Charlie Spand	Rock And Rye	Roots N' Blues: Booze & The Blues
Walter Coleman	Carry Your Good Stuff Home	Rare Country Blues Vol. 3
Pete Johnson & Joe Turner	Lovin' Mama Blues	Boogie Woogie And Blues Piano
Ramp Davis	Rampart Street Blues	California Jump Blues
Lucky Enois Quartet	KC Limited Pt. 2	California Jump Blues
Etta James	Something's Got A Hold On Me	Etta Rocks The House
Etta James	You Know What I Mean	The Complete Modern and Kent Recordings
Sleepy John Estes & Hammie Nixon	Your Best Friend's Gone	Lost Blues Tapes: More American Folk Blues Festival 1963-65
Memphis Slim	Blues Everywhere	Lost Blues Tapes: More American Folk Blues Festival 1963-65
Johnny Otis	New Orleans Shuffle	Midnight At The Barrelhouse
Johnny Otis	I Believe I'll Go Back Home	Cold Shot /Snatch And The Poontangs
Eli Framer	Framer's Blues	Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Clifford Gibson	Ice And Snow Blues	Clifford Gibson 1929-1931
Louis Lasky	Teasin' Brown Blues	Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Eddie Boyd	Life Gets To Be A Burden	Chess Piano Greats
Eddie Boyd	Got Lonesome Here	Chess Piano Greats
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson	Cleanhead's Blues	The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey
Pee Wee Crayton	The Things I Used To Do	The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey
Rosa Henderson	Low Down Daddy Blues	Rosa Henderson Vol. 3 1924-1926
Josh White	How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone?	Freedom: The Golden Gate Quartet & Josh White At The Library Of Congress
Blind Willie McTell	Southern Can Is Mine	The Classic Early recordings 1927-1940
Johnny Otis	Johnny Otis Radio Show Signature Tune	Rock Me Baby: The Mercury And Peacock Sides
Johnny Otis	All Night Long	Midnight At The Barrelhouse
Etta James	Soul of a Man	Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice

Show Notes:

It's already starting out to be a bad year for the blues with the recent deaths of Dave Alexander, Johnny Otis and Etta James. We pay tribute to all three on today's show as well as featuring twin spins of Eddie Boyd, a pair of cuts from the American Folk Blues Festival and some fine pre-war blues numbers.

Read Liner Notes

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1938, Dave Alexander (he later changed his name to Omar Shariff) grew up in Marshall, Texas and moved to Oakland, California, in 1957. There played with Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins. Later in 1968, he recorded his first songs for the World Pacific label release called Oakland Blues, a compilation album of artists from that city. This is a great collection that has never been issued on CD featuring fine cuts from Lafayette Thomas, L.C. Robinson as well as Alexander. We open the show from that album with "Love Is Just For Fools" featuring backing from Albert Collins and George "Harmonica" Smith.

Alexander performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1970, and played at the San Francisco Blues Festival, many times from 1973 onward. He recorded a pair of albums, The Rattler (1972) and The Dirt on the Ground (1973), for the Arhoolie label. In the 90's he recorded a trio of albums for the small blues label Have Mercy. In the 2000's Alexander lived and performed mostly in the Sacramento area. He died on January 8, 2012.

Etta James died Jan. 20th in Riverside, Calif. She was 73. Etta James began her professional recording career in 1954, auditioning at the age of 14 for bandleader Johnny Otis before recording her first singles for Modern Records in Los Angeles with her vocal group, The Peaches. Her first single, "The Wallflower" (aka "Roll With Me Henry"), an answer song to Hank Ballard's 1954 #1 R&B hit "Work With Me Annie," hit #1 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1955, and "Good Rockin' Daddy" reached #6 on the chart the same year. When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, the name was changed to “The Wallflower.” In 1960 she was signed by Chess Records and quickly had a string of hits, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “Trust in Me” and “At Last,” which established her as Chess’s first major female star. She remained with Chess well into the 1970s, reappearing on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with “Tell Mama.” In the late ’70s and early ’80s she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.

We stick mainly to the early years spinning a fine early Modern number "You Know What I Mean" and her bruising "Something's Got A Hold On Me" from Etta Rocks The House which has to rank as one of the greatest live blues record. The set was cut at Nashville's New Era club in 1962 in front of a raucous crowd. We close the show with the impassioned "Soul Of A Man", a previously unissued cut that can be found on a 3-CD Chess box set.

The following comes from Midnight at the Barrelhouse a biography of Johnny Otis written by George George Lipsitz who I interviewed back in 2010: "From the moment Johnny Otis first arrived in Los Angeles in 1943, everyday seemed to offer a marvelous new experience. He led the house band at the club Alabam and later opened his own nightclub, the Barrelhouse, in Watts. As a recording artist, he succeeded in placing fifteen songs on the best-seller charts from 1950 to 1952. Otis had one of the biggest pop music hist of all time with "Willie and the Hand Jive" in 1958. He composed top-selling songs that became successes for other artists as well including "Every Beat of My Heart" for Gladys Knight and then Pips, "So Fine" for the Fiestas, "Roll With Me Henry", which became the "Wallflower" for Etta James, and "Dance With Me Henry" for Georgia Gibbs." As a promoter, producer, and talent scout for Savoy, King , Duke. and other independent record labels, Otis discovered and launched the careers of Etta James, Hank Ballard, Esther Phillips, Jackie Wilson, Big Mama Thornton, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Linda Hopkins, and Little Willie John, among others. He produced big hits for Little Esther, Etta James, and Johnny Ace, as well as less commercially successful but even more artistically triumphant recordings by Charles Williams, Barbara Morrrison, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris.

As a musician, Otis played the drums on Big Mama Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog", on Illinois Jacquet's "Flying Home", and Lester Young's "Jammin' With Lester." Otis provided the hauntingly beautiful vibraphone accompaniment to Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love", played vibes on his own recording of "Stardust", featuring Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, and he played piano and tambourine on Frank Zappa's Hot Rats album. When the occasion demanded it, Otis could also play harpsichord, celesta, and timpani. As an artist, promoter, disc jockey, and television host, he brought Black music to new audiences, in the process inspiring some of his listeners to become performers themselves.

Johnny Otis with his son Shuggie

…For all his immersion in African American life and culture, Johnny Otis was not actually Black. He was a white man born as John Alexander Veliotes into an immigrant Greek family. He had grown up among Blacks and had lived much of his life as if he were Black. …At an early age Johnny felt captivated by Black culture, by the spiritual, moral, and intellectual richness he encountered in the sanctified churches that he attended with his Black playmates, by the music of gospel choirs, jazz bands, blues singers, by the way Black people dressed, danced, and talked."

We spin a couple of early numbers plus sides from the albums Cold Shot! and The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey. Though Johnny's 1969 album Cold Shot! wasn't much different from the straightforward R&B he'd been doing for years, it did have some updated rock, soul, and funk influences, due in large part to the presence of his teenage guitarist son, Shuggie Otis. Otis cut another album that year credited to Snatch and the Poontangs. Both albums were combined onto one CD on an Ace reissue in 2002, with the addition of two previously tracks. Live At Monterey was an R&B oldies show in 1970 that featured artists Johnny had worked with back in the early days and they were still in fine form. The disc stars Otis, Esther Phillips, Eddie Vinson, Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roy Milton, Roy Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, and Johnny’s guitar wielding son, Shuggie.

Among the tributes we find some time to play some terrific pre-war blues from Charlie Spand, Joe Dean, Clifford Gibson and R0sa Henderson among others.

Charlie Spand was one of several heavy-hitting blues, boogie-woogie and barrelhouse pianists who performed on Brady and Hastings Streets in Detroit, MI during the '20s. In 1929 Spand moved to Chicago where he began hanging out and gigging with guitarist Blind Blake. Between June 1929 and September 1931 Spand recorded 24 sides for the Paramount label. The only other Charlie Spand recordings known to exist are eight sides cut for the Okeh label in June of 1940. Our cut, "Rock And Rye", come from the latter session and features some nice interplay between Spand and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy.

Joe Dean recorded one great 78 in 1930: “I'm So Glad I'm Twenty-One Years Old Today b/w Mexico Bound Blues.” Dean was born in St. Louis on April 25, 1908. He remained musically active on a part-time basis into the 1960's. He eventually became the Rev. Joe Dean and died on June 24 1981. He was interviewed by Mike Rowe for Blues Unlimited magazine in 1977.

Rosa Henderson started out in carnival and tent shows around 1913 and moved to New York in 1923 where she made her recording debut. She recorded a hundred odd sides throughout the 1920’s and made her final record in 1931. She was a fine singer who often suffered from some rather lackluster accompanists. 1925's "Low Down Daddy" was a good one with some tough words about her man:

I had a dream one night, my daddy laid down and died (2x)
The devil wouldn't own him, cause he couldn't burn his hide

Clifford Gibson left behind a small batch of superb, highly creative recordings that deserve wider attention. Gibson cut ten sides (four have either never been found or were never issued) in June 1929, four sides in November 1929, eight sides in December 1929 and two sides in 1931. In addition he did some session work and lasted long enough to wax a few scattered post-war sides in the 1950's and 60's.

Tags: Charlie Spand, Clifford Gibson, Dave Alexander, Eddie Boyd, Eli Framer, Etta James, Hammie Nixon, Joe Dean, Johnny Otis, Josh White, Louis Lasky, Memphis Slim, Pee Wee Crayton, Pete Johnson, Ramp Davis, Rosa Henderson, Sleepy John Estes, Walter Coleman

Sun 15 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/15/12: Fence Breakin' Blues – Great Country Blues Guitar Duets

Posted by Jeff under Playlists
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ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Willie Walker & Sam Brooks	South Carolina Rag	Ragtime Blues Guitar
Blind Boy Fuller & Gary Davis	Rag Mama Rag	Blind Boy Fuller: Remastered 1935-1938
Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley	Every Day In The Week Blues	Times Ain't Like They Used to Be Vol. 4
Charley Patton & Willie Brown	Moon Goin' Down	Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues
William Harris & Joe Robinson	I'm Leavin' Town	The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
Willie Ford & Lucious Curtis	Times Is Getting Hard	Mississippi: Saints & Sinners
Buddy Moss & Fred McMullen	Jealous Hearted Man	The Slide Guitar Vol. 2
Blind Willie McTell & Curley Weaver	Bell Street Blues	The Classic Years 1927-1940
Jim & Bob (The Genial Hawaiians)	St. Louis Blues	Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Shreveport Home Wreckers	Fence Breakin' Blues	Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Tommy Johnson & Charlie McCoy	Bye, Bye Blues	Legends of Country Blues
Ishman Bracey & Charlie McCoy	Left Alone Blues	Legends of Country Blues
Johnny Temple & Charlie McCoy	Lead Pencil Blues	Legends of Country Blues
Hattie Hart w/ Willie Borum & Allen Shaw	Coldest Stuff In Town	Memphis Blues 1927-1938
Geechie Wiley & Elvie Thomas	Pick Poor Robin Clean	I Can't Be Satisfied Vol. 1
Sylvester Weaver & Walter Beasley	Bottleneck Blues	The Slide Guitar Vol. 1
Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie	My Wash Woman's Gone	Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Garfield Akers & Joe Callicott	Cottonfield Blues Pt. 1	Mississippi Masters
Ruth Willis w/ Fred McMullen & Curley Weaver	Man of My Own	Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Curley Weaver & Fred McMullen	Wild Cat Kitten	Atlanta Blues
Famous Hokum Boys	Pig Meat Strut	The Complete Chess Recordings
Casey Bill Weldon	You Shouldn't Do That	Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters
The Beale Street Sheiks	Beale Town Bound	Masters of Memphis Blues
The Beale Street Sheiks	You Shall	Masters of Memphis Blues
Hi Henry Brown & Charlie Jordan	Preacher Blues	Charley Jordan Vol.2 1931-1934
Big Joe Williams & Henry Townsend	Somebody's Been Borrowin' That Stuff	Big Joe Williams Vol. 1 1935 - 194
Two Charlies	Don't Put Your Dirty Hands On Me	Charley Jordan Vol.3 1935-1937
Long ''Cleve'' Reed & Little Harvey Hull	Original Stack O' Lee Blues	Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Tarter & Gay	Brownie Blues	Southwest Virginia Blues
Sleepy John Estes & Son Bonds	Little Laura Blues	I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More
Georgia Cotton Pickers	She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day	Good Time Blues: Harmonicas, Kazoos, Washboards & Cow-Bells
Georgia Browns	Decatur Street 81	The Slide Guitar Vol. 2
Lonnie Johnson & Eddie Lang	Blue Room Blues	Lonnie Johnson Vol. 5 1929-1930

Show Notes:

On today's show we feature some of the greatest country blues guitar pairings of the pre-war era. The styles of playing fall roughly into a few distinct patterns. One is where one partner is doing intricate treble string runs and the other ornate bass notes and patterns. The arrangements weave back and forth with one guitar then the other taking the lead.

Then there's the "Boom-Chang" type, like the Beale Street Sheiks (Frank Stokes and Dan Sane), Frank Brasswell and Big Bill Broonzy (Famous Hokum Boys) and Memphis Minnie and Little Son Joe. In these the lead guitar plays a normal sort of tune while the other adds supporting bass notes and runs and strummed chords. In this type the lead guitar part can be played as a arrangement by its self, which is not the case with the case mentioned above where neither part played alone would.

Another is the sort of arrangement found in Johnnie Temple and Charlie McCoy's "Lead Pencil Blues." Here the singer (Temple) plays a boogie pattern like Robert Johnson on the bass string with interspersed treble runs. The McCoy part consists of treble notes and runs. Here, unlike the Boom-Chang type, it's the bass part that can be played separately not the treble part.

Delta guitar duets like Charlie Patton and Willie Brown and Ishman Bracey and Tommy Johnson (both accompanied by Charlie McCoy) are sort of like two guitarists playing the same song together. Different parts, but either could probably make an adequate accompaniment by its self. Another is the "Together" style, like Joe Callicott and Garfield Akers. Often in their duets, like the great "Cottonfields Blues", it doesn't sound like two guitars, only one.

Geographically we move around a bit; Areas where the guitar duet style seemed prevalent was Memphis (by way of Mississippi) in the recordings of Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe, Frank Stokes & Dan Sane and Garfield Akers & Joe Callicott, in Atlanta in the recordings of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver, Buddy Moss and Fred McMullen and South Carolina in the records of Blind Boy Fuller, Gary Davis and Simmie Dooley with Pink Anderson.

As a youth Frank Stokes learned to play guitar before moving to Hernando, Mississippi, home to guitarists Jim Jackson, Dan Sane and Robert Wilkins. In Hernando, Stokes worked as a blacksmith, traveling to Memphis on the weekends to play guitar. Stokes joined forces with fellow Mississippian Garfield Akers as a blackface songster, comedian, and buck dancer in the Doc Watts Medicine Show, a tent show that toured the South during World War I. During the 1920s he teamed with guitarist Dan Sane, joining Jack Kelly's Jug Busters to play white country clubs, parties and dances, and playing Beale Street together as the Beale Street Sheiks. All told, Stokes was to cut 38 sides for Paramount and Victor Records.

Memphis Minnie's duets with Kansas Joe drew inspiration from the guitar teamwork of Frank Stokes and Dan Sane as well as from her own early partnership with Willie Brown. Her marriage and recording debut came in 1929, to and with Kansas Joe McCoy, when a Columbia Records talent scout heard them playing in a Beale Street barbershop.Between 1929 and 1934 Minnie and Joe cut around one hundred sides together.

Garfield Akers was born in Brights, Mississippi in 1901 and was already performing locally when he moved to Hernando as a teenager. He stayed in that area most of his life and worked as a sharecropper, playing at weekends at house parties and dances, although he toured with Frank Stokes on the Doc Watts Medicine Show. Akers met up with Joe Callicott in the 1920's and they became lifelong friends and partners, the two of them taking turns to play lead and second guitar as they sang blues. Garfield made his first recording, "Cottonfield Blues Parts 1 & 2", in Memphis in 1929 with Callicott on second guitar. Akers and Callicott played together for more than 20 years finally going their own ways in the mid 1940's. Nothing is known about Akers after the pair split although it is believed that he died around the end of the 1950's or the beginning of the 1960's, possibly in Memphis. Callicott was rediscovered and made recordings in the late 60's.

Employing a second guitarist was particularly prevalent on the recordings of the Atlanta bluesmen who seemed to be a particularly tight knit group. Notable was among them was the underrated Curley Weaver. When he was nineteen years old Weaver partnered up with harmonica player Eddie Mapp and moved to Atlanta. There he teamed up with his old boyhood friends (Barbecue) Bob and Charley Hicks. The three guitarists, along with Mapp, played the streets around Atlanta. Barbecue Bob was the first to record and arranged for his brother and Curley Weaver to make their recording debuts. Weaver's successful debut led to more recordings, both solo and with Eddie Mapp and Barbecue Bob. It was also through the recording studio that Weaver met up with Buddy Moss, and the two went on to work together for the next ten years. It was during this period that Weaver met up with Blind Willie McTell. The two went on to play and record together for 20 years or more.

Bruce Bastin called Fred McMullen "a superb guitarist with a delicate touch." Virtually nothing is know of him. He made recordings under his own name in 1933 and backed artists Ruth Willis as heard on today's cut "Man Of My Own", Buddy Moss, heard on our track "Jealous Hearted Man", worked with Curley Weaver, heard on the rousing "Wild Cat Kitten", and was in a group called the Georgia Browns alongside Buddy Moss and Curley Weaver of which we spin "Decatur Street 81."Buddy Moss recalled him a little while Kate McTell who claimed McMullen introduced Blind Willie to Buddy Moss:"Buddy saw (McTell and Weaver) playing together …and he was playing with Fred McMullen, I believe. Buddy Moss was at the 81 Theater. The Willie asked him …would he like to record some records. …That's how he met him, through Fred McMullen."

"Blind" Willie Walker spent most of his life was spent in and around Greenville, South Carolina. on December 6, 1930 Walker had his only recording session. He cut four sides for Columbia in Atlanta with Sam Brooks on second guitar (two sides were never issued). He was described by blues musicians such as Reverend Gary Davis and Pink Anderson as an outstanding guitarist, Josh White called him the best guitarist he had ever heard, even better than Blind Blake.

Rev. Gary Davis only backed Blind Boy Fuller on two numbers for a 1935 session. Many of Fuller's records were played with his own guitar while others feature second guitar by Floyd “Dipper Boy” Council and Sonny Jones.

In 1916 in Spartanburg, SC Pink Anderson met Simeon "Blind Simmie" Dooley, from whom he learned to be a blues singer, this after experience in string bands. Anderson and Dooley would play to medicine shows in Greenville, Spartanburg, and other neighboring communities. They recorded four tracks for Columbia Records in Atlanta in April, 1928, both playing guitar and singing.

Moving to Chicago we spin tracks featuring Big Bill Broonzy and Casey Bill Weldon. The Famous Hokum Boys consisted of Georgia Tom, Frank Braswell, Big Bill Broonzy and singer Jane Lucas (Mozelle Alderson).The group specialized in raunchy blues numbers, recording some two-dozen sides in 1930 including some blistering twin guitar romps on numbers like our featured cut "Pig Meat Strut" as well as others like "Saturday Night", "Guitar Rag" and "Black Cat Rag."

Despite several busy years in the recording studio and a couple of medium-sized hits, very little is known about Casey Bill Weldon. Between 1927 and 1935 he cut just over 60 sides for Victor, Bluebird and Vocalion. He was also an active session guitarist, appearing on records by Teddy Darby, Bumble Bee Slim, Memphis Minnie, Peetie Wheatsraw and others. His first recordings were with Peetie Wheatsraw which clearly inspired his vocal style. His guitar style owes a clear debt to the Hawaiian guitarists and was even billed as the Hawaiian Guitar Wizard. 1937's "You Shouldn't Do That" with an unknown guitarist finds Weldon playing in a super fast, swinging, up-to-date style.

Also featured today are a trio of recordings featuring second guitar by Charlie McCoy. McCoy ranked among the great blues accompanists of his era and his accomplished mandolin and guitar work can be heard on numerous recordings in a wide variety of settings from the late 1920's through the early 40's. Jackson, Mississippi in the 1920's was a city with a vibrant blues scene including artists such as Tommy Johnson, Walter Vincson, Ishman Bracey, Johnnie Temple, The Chatmon Brothers (Bo, Lonnie and Sam were the most prominent) Skip James and Rube Lacey. Lacey recalled McCoy being among the best of this talented group: "But I really believe Charlie got to be a better musician than I was. He was young, but he got to be about the best musician there was in our band, Charlie McCoy. He was wonderful. He could play anything pretty well you sing. …He was good as I ever want to see." Today we spotlight McCoy behind Tommy Johnson, Ishman Bracey and on Johnnie Temple's classic "Lead Pencil Blues."

Worth mentioning are a few all time favorites by Sylvester Weaver, Jim & Bob and Oscar Woods. On October 23, 1923, Weaver recorded in New York City with the blues singer Sara Martin "Longing for Daddy Blues b/w I've Got to Go and Leave My Daddy Behind" and two weeks later as a soloist "Guitar Blues" b/w Guitar Rag". Both recordings were released on Okeh Records. Th later recordings are the first known recorded songs using the slide guitar style. Weaver recorded until 1927, sometimes accompanied by Sara Martin, about 50 additional songs. On some recordings from 1927 he was accompanied by Walter Beasley and the singer Helen Humes. Beasly and Weaver made a fine team, heard in sublime from on thier masterpice, "Bottleneck Blues."

Jim Holstein and Bob Pauole were a musical duo known as Jim and Bob, the Genial Hawaiians. They performed on the radio in Chicago and made a handful of impressive recordings that were released in the 1930's. Their instrumental take on "St. Louis Blues" is a knockout.

Oscar "Buddy" Woods was a Louisiana street musician known as "The Lone Wolf" and a pioneer in the style of lap steel, bottleneck slide guitar. With partner Ed Schaffer they recorded four songs in 1930 and 1932 as the Shreveport Homewreckers and under that name also backed country singer Jimmie Davis. In addition, Woods cut around a dozen sides between 1936 and 1940. The duo's "Fence Breakin' Blues" is one of my all time favorite numbers.

Tags: Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Moss, Casey Bill Weldon, Charlie Jordan, Charlie McCoy, Charlie Patton, Curley Weaver, Eddie Lang, Elvie Thomas, Famous Hokum Boys, Fred McMullenm, Garfield Akers & Joe Callicot, Geechie Wiley, Georgia Browns, Georgia Cotton Pickers, Hattie Hart, Ishman Bracey, Kansas Joe, Lonnie Johnson, Memphis Minnie, Pink Andersonm, Rev. Gary Davis, Shreveport Home Wreckers, Simmie Dooley, Sylvester Weaver, Tartar and Gay, The Beale Street Sheiks, The Down Home Boys, The Genial Hawaiians, Tommy Johnson, Two Charlies, Walter Beasley, Willie Brown, Willie Walker

Sun 8 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/8/12: Stuff You Gotta Watch – Muddy Waters & His Band

Posted by Jeff under Chicago Blues, Playlists
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ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Son Simms	Rosalie	The Complete Plantation Recordings
Sunnyland Slim & Muddy Waters	Fly Right, Little Girl	Sunnyland Slim 1947-1948
Muddy Waters & Sunnyland Slim	Little Anna Mae	The Aristocrat Of The Blues
Little Johnny Jones	Shelby County Blues	The Aristocrat Of The Blues
Muddy Waters	Where's My Woman Been	The Aristocrat Of The Blues
Jimmy Rogers	Ludella	Sunnyland Slim: The Classic Sides 1947-53
Othum Brown & Little Walter	I Just Keep Loving Her	Blues World Of Little Walter
Leroy Foster	Muskadine Blues (Take A Walk With Me)	Leroy Foster 1948-1952
Leroy Foster	Rollin' And Tumblin' - Part 1	Leroy Foster 1948-1952
Muddy Waters	Stuff You Gotta Watch	The Complete Chess Recordings
Little Walter	Can't Hold Out Much Longer	The Complete Chess Masters 1950-1967
Muddy Waters	They Call Me Muddy Waters	The Complete Chess Recordings
Jimmy Rogers	Act Like You Love Me	The Complete Chess Recordings
Muddy Waters	Gone to Main Street	The Complete Chess Recordings
Junior Wells	Tomorrow Night	Blues Hit Big Town
Muddy Waters	She's All Right	The Complete Chess Recordings
Walter Horton	Off The Wall	Blues Harmonica Giant: Classic Sides 1951-1956
Jimmy Rogers	If It Ain't Me (Who Are You Thinking Of)	The Complete Chess Recordings
Pat Hare	I'm Gonna Murder My Baby	Sun Records:The Blues Years 1950-1958
Muddy Waters	Good News	The Complete Chess Recordings
Muddy Waters	Don't Go No Further	The Complete Chess Recordings
Otis Spann	I'm Leaving You	Chess Piano Greats
Otis Spann	It Must Have Been The Devil	Complete Candid Otis Spann/Lightin' Hopkins Sessions
James Cottom	West Helena Blues	Chicago The Blues Today
Muddy Waters	My Dog Can't Bark	The Complete Chess Recordings
Luther Johnson	Lonesome Day Blues	Piano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
George "Harmonica" Smith	I.C. Train Blues	The Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Otis Spann & Victoria Spivey	Diving Mama	The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2
Otis Spann & The Muddy Waters Band	She's My Baby	The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2
The Muddy Waters Band	Chicago Slide	The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 1
Mojo Buford	Watch Dog	Chicago Blues Summit

Show Notes:

Muddy Waters was a larger then life figure who became a star in the late 1940's and remained a huge presence on the blues landscape until his death in 1983. When Muddy arrived in Chicago from the Delta in 1943 he was just another struggling musician trying to establish himself. Pete Welding described his early years: "After several years of playing to slowly increasing audiences, first at houseparties and later in small taverns dotted throughout Chicago's huge, sprawling South and West Side black-belt slums, he had begun to record. …After several exploratory recordings made in the company of pianist Sunnyland Slim and bassist Ernest "Big" Crawford which made absolutely no impression on the record-buying public, Waters suddenly scored with the single "I Can't Be Satisfied/I Feel Like Going Home." And it is with this record that the history of the modern Chicago blues properly begins. Over the next few years, Waters gathered around him a group of like-minded, country-reared musicians with whom he proceeded to make blues history." On today's feature we deflect the spotlight away from Muddy to shine on some of the remarkable bluesman who apprenticed in Muddy's band. Among those featured today include Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Otis Spann and others. Along the way we'll also contrast a few sides under Muddy's name that prominently feature his bandmates.

An early edition of the Muddy Waters Band, with Waters (left),
Otis Spann (piano) and Jimmy Rogers (far right)

Our opening track, "Rosalie", goes way back to 1942 when Muddy Waters was recorded for the Library of Congress alongside Son Simms. Delta bluesman Henry "Son" Sims is best known as the fiddler who played with Charley Patton and Muddy Waters. Born in Anguilla, Mississippi in 1890, Sims played the violin, mandolin, guitar and piano. Although he led a rural string band called the Mississippi Corn Shuckers for several years, the first recording that Sims did was with Patton, who asked him to come along to Wisconsin for a 1929 Paramount session. Sims also recorded under his own name on two separate occasions; during the Patton session when he cut four songs, and several years later with McKinley Morganfield AKA Muddy Waters backing him or his first session in 1941, again in 1942 and with Muddy backing him on a session listed by the Son Simms Four in 1942.

Muddy Waters with one of his Library
of Congress recordings

Muddy and Sunnyland Slim first recorded for Aristocrat together on four songs in1947, each taking the vocals on two numbers resulting in classic s"Gypsy Woman" and "little Anna Mae" sung by Muddy and "Johnson, Machine Gun" and "Fly Right, Little Girl" sung by Sunnyland. Both appeared again with each other on 1948 sessions. Both Sunnyland and Muddy together also backed St. Louis Jimmy and Jimmy Rogers during this period.

Muddy backed Little Johnny Jones on his first record "Big Town Playboy b/w Shelby County Blues" in 1949. During the same period Jones backed Muddy on a three song session including the track we feature, "Where's My Woman Been." Jones and Muddy can also be heard backing Jimmy Rogers on another featured cut, "Ludella", cut for Regal in 1949 and unissued at the time.

Little Walter made his debut for the tiny Ora-Nelle logo ("I Just Keep Loving Her") in the company of Jimmy Rogers and guitarist Othum Brown. Walter joined forces with Muddy Waters in 1948. He arrived in Chicago in 1946 and joined forces with Muddy Waters in 1948. Along with Rogers and Baby Face Leroy Foster, this talented group became informally known as the Headhunters. They would saunter into Southside clubs, mount the stage, and proceed to calmly "cut the heads" of whomever was booked there that evening. By 1950, Walter was firmly entrenched as Waters' studio harpist at Chess (long after Walter had split the Muddy Waters band, Leonard Chess insisted on his participation on Muddy's records). Walter cut his breakthrough 1952 R&B hit "Juke" at the tail-end of a Waters session. Suddenly, Walter was a star on his own. From 1952 to 1958, Walter notched 14 Top Ten R&B hits.

Leroy Foster was first cousin to Little Johnny Jones and Little Willie Foster and came up to Chicago in 1945 in the company of Jones and Little Walter. Muddy and Foster first teamed up together backing Homer Harris and James "Beale Street" Clark at 1946 sessions. Foster aslo plays on several of Muddy's sessions during 1948 and 1949. Muddy is also is heard on vocal on the classic two-part "Rollin' And Tumblin'" at a 1950 Foster session which also features Little Walter.

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers settled in Chicago during the early '40s and began playing professionally around 1946, gigging with Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim, and Broonzy. Rogers was playing harp with guitarist Blue Smitty when Muddy Waters joined them. When Smitty split, Little Walter joined the group and Rogers switched over to second guitar. He first played with Muddy Waters on an Aristocrat 78 in 1949 and remained his rhythm guitarist on record into 1955. Rogers began cutting his on records for Chess in 1950 and stayed withe label through 1959.

In 1950 Junior Wells passed an impromptu audition for guitarists Louis and David Myers at a house party on the South Side, and the Deuces were born. When drummer Fred Below came aboard, they changed their name to the Aces. Little Walter left Muddy Waters in 1952 (in the wake of his hit instrumental "Juke"), and Wells jumped ship to take his place. That didn't stop the Aces (who joined forces with Little Walter) from backing Wells on his initial sessions for States Records in 1955 with Muddy also moonlighting on guitar. On record Wells only backed Muddy on one 1952 session and a one off song in 1955 called "Mannish Boy."

Walter Horton played on a 1953 session backing Muddy, including the number we spin today,"She's All Right", and reunited with Muddy for the 1978 album I'm Ready. Horton recorded several sides for Sam Phillips in 1951, which were leased to Modern/RPM. The following year he recorded with longtime friend Johnny Shines, and was invited to settle permanently in Chicago by Eddie Taylor. In early 1953, not long after arriving, Horton got a chance to record and tour with Muddy Waters, since regular harpman Junior Wells had been drafted into military service. However, he was fired by year's end for breaking band commitments or due to excessive drinking or playing too many side gigs, depending on the account.

The first recorded glimpse of Pate Hare occurs when he showed up at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service sometime in 1953 to play on James Cotton's debut session for the Sun label. After working with Cotton and numerous others around the Memphis area, Hare moved North to Chicago and by the late '50's was a regular member of the Muddy Waters band, appearing on the legendary Live at Newport album and numerous sessions backing Muddy between 1956 and 1960. After moving to Minneapolis in the '60's to work with fellow Waters bandmate Mojo Bruford, Hare was convicted of murder after a domestic dispute, spending the rest of his life behind bars. In one of the great ironies of the blues, one of the unissued tracks Pat Hare left behind in the Sun vaults was entitled, "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby."

Otis Spann migrated to Chicago from Mississppi in 1946 or 1947. Spann gigged on his own and with guitarist Morris Pejoe before hooking up with Waters in 1952. His first Chess date behind Muddy began on the 1953 number "Blow Wind Blow." His own Chess output was limited to a 1954 single, "It Must Have Been the Devil," that featured B.B. King on guitar, and sessions in 1956 and 1963 that remained in the can for decades. Spann looked elsewhere and recorded prolifically for labels like Candid, Prestige, Storyvill, British Decca, Bluesway, Vanguard and others. He finally turned the piano chair in the Waters band over to Pinetop Perkins in 1969, but fate didn't grant Spann long to achieve solo stardom. He was stricken with cancer and died in April of 1970 at the age of forty.

James Cotton had some big shoes to fill when he stepped into Little Walter's slot as Muddy Waters' harp ace in 1954, but for the next dozen years, he filled the role in fine fashion. Cotton made his debut for the Sun label in 1953, "Straighten Up Baby" and "Cotton Crop Blues." When Waters rolled through Memphis minus his latest harpist (Junior Wells), Cotton hired on and went to Chicago. Unfortunately for Cotton, Chess Records insisted on using Little Walter on the great majority of Waters' waxings until 1958, when Cotton blew behind Waters on "She's Nineteen Years Old" and "Close to You." At Cotton's suggestion, Waters had added an Ann Cole tune called "Got My Mojo Working" to his repertoire.

Luther "Georgia Boy/Snake Boy" Johnson played for a while with Elmore James and was a regular fixture in the Muddy Waters band by the mid-'60s. Johnson cut two albums in the late 60's backed by Muddy Waters and members of Muddy's band. During this period he also backed Otis Spann and George Smith on sessions.

George Smith played in a number of bands including one with a young guitarist named Otis Rush, and later went on the road with the Muddy Waters Band after replacing Henry Strong. In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip) heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith. In 1966, while Muddy Waters was on the West Coast, he asked Smith to join him and they worked together for a while. Smith's first album on World Pacific, A Tribute to Little Walter, was released in 1968 backed by members of the Muddy Waters band and Muddy himself. Smith also spent some time on the road with Muddy in the early 70's, popping up on some live recordings from this period.

We devote a set today to some interesting records made by the late 60's Muddy Waters Band made for the Spivey label. The band cut two albums for Victoria Spivey's Spivey label: The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band (1966) and The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2 (1968). These records have been issued on CD on the Japanese P-Vine label with several extra tracks. Thalbums feature the following lineup:

Vol 1: Victoria Spivey, voc; Otis Spann, voc, p, org; George Smith, voc, hca; Luther Johnson, voc, g; Samuel Lawhorn, g; Francis Clay, dr

Vol 2: Otis Spann, Lucille Spann, Luther Johnson, Sammy Lawhorn, Little Sonny Wimberley, S.P. Leary, Paul Oscher, Pee Wee Madison, Willie Smith

Mojo Buford spent several stints in the employ of Muddy Waters and was his harpist of choice in the final edition of the Waters band. Buford played with Muddy Waters as early as 1959, but a 1962 uprooting to Minneapolis to front his own combo, and cut a couple of solid but extremely obscure LPs for Vernon and Folk-Art, removed him from the Windy City scene for a while. Buford returned to Waters' combo in 1967 for a year, put in a longer stint with him during the early '70s, and came back for the last time after Jerry Portnoy exited with the rest of his mates to form the Legendary Blues Band. Buford passed in October of 2011. Our selection by Buford, "Watch Dog", comes from the excellent 1979 album Chicago Blues Summit which features Muddy bandmates Pee Wee Madison, Sammy Lawhorn, and Sonny Rogers.

Tags: George Harmonica Smith, James Cotton, Jimmy Rogers, Junior Wells, Leroy Foster, Little Johnny Jones, Little Walter, Luther Johnson, Mojo Buford, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Pat Hare, Son Simms, Spivey Records, Sunnyland Slim, Victoria Spivey, Walter Horton

Sun 1 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/1/12: I Was Playing The Blues …Just Whippin' That Ivory, Boys, Like A Fool – Forgotten Piano Greats

Posted by Jeff under Piano Blues, Playlists
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ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Sparks Brothers	Louisiana Bound	The Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Sparks Brothers	East Chicago Blues	Twenty First. St. Stomp: The Piano Blues Of St. Louis
Sparks Brothers	4-11-44	Twenty First. St. Stomp: The Piano Blues Of St. Louis
Peetie Wheatstraw	Third Street's Going Down	The Essential
Peetie Wheatstraw	Meat Cutter Blues	Peetie Wheatstraw Vol. 3
Peetie Wheatstraw	Shack Bully Stomp	The Essential
Andy Boy	Evil Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Andy Boy	Too Late Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Andy Boy	House Raid Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Black Boy Shine	Sugarland Blues	Black Boy Shine & Black Ivory King 1936-1937
Black Boy Shine	Dog House Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937
Black Boy Shine	Back Home Blues	Black Boy Shine & Black Ivory King 1936-1937
Jesse James	Southern Casey Jones	Piano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Jesse James	Sweet Patuni	Piano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Sparks Brothers	Down On The Levee	Down On The Levee: The Piano Blues of St. Louis Vol. 2
Sparks Brothers	Chicago’s Too Much For Me	Down On The Levee: The Piano Blues of St. Louis Vol. 2
Sparks Brothers	Tell Her About Me	The Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Peetie Wheatstraw	Gangster's Blues	Peetie Wheatstraw Vol. 7 1940-1941
Peetie Wheatstraw	Working On the Project	The Essential
Peetie Wheatstraw	Peetie Wheatstraw Stomp	The Essential
Andy Boy	Church Street Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Andy Boy	Jive Blues	Joe Pullum Vol. 2 1935-1951
Black Boy Shine	Married Man Blues	Black Boy Shine & Black Ivory King 1936-193
Black Boy Shine	Dallas Woman Blues	Leroy Carr & Black Boy Shine: Unissued Test Pressings & Alternate Takes 1934-37
Black Boy Shine	Brown House Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937
Jesse James	Highway 61	Piano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Jesse James	Lonesome Day Blues	Piano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Sparks Brothers	I.C. Train Blues	The Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Sparks Brothers	Everyday I Have The Blues	The Modern Recordings Vol. 2
Joe Pullum w/ Andy Boy	Dixie My Home	Joe Pullum Vol. 1 1934-1935
Walter ''Cowboy'' Washington w/ Andy Boy	Ice Pick Mama	The Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937

Show Notes:

On today's show we spotlight five superb blues pianists active in the 1930's and who remain largely forgotten today. Peetie Wheatstraw is by far the most well known artist featured today and one of the most popular and influential artists of the 1930's. Wheatstraw recorded in every year of the 1930's save 1933, cutting over one hundred and sixty sides. The Sparks brothers were based in St. Louis, Aaron on piano and Marion on vocals, and cut four sessions between 1932 and 1935. Andy Boy was a terrific pianist and expressive singer from Galveston, Texas who cut only eight sides under his own name as well as backing singers Joe Pullum and Walter 'Cowboy' Washington. Almost nothing is known of fellow Texas pianist Black Boy Shine, aka Harold Holiday, except that he was based in a section of Houston (which may have been his home) called West Dallas. In 1936 and 1937 he recorded for Vocalion in San Antonio and Dallas, and left behind 18 sides. Jesse James was a rough, two-fisted barrelhouse pianist probably based in Cincinnati. His legacy rest on four sides he cut in 1936.

Peetie Wheatstraw

Peetie Wheatstraw was born William Bunch and during his recording career was also know under the colorful sobriquets the Devil's Son-in-law and the High Sheriff from Hell. In fact he may have been one of the key links in the identification of the blues singer and the devil. He recorded over 160 songs, usually accompanied by his own piano and provided accompaniment on records to numerous others. Between 1930 and his death in 1941 he remained immensely popular for buyers of race records and was a fixture on the vibrant St. Louis blues scene of the 30's. St. Louis chronicler Henry Townsend emphasizes this point: "Around town he was pretty well busy; his name was ringing." Popularity is one thing but influence was another and his biographer Paul Garon makes no bones about Wheatstraw's enormous influence: "His style of blues singing was magnetically influential… It is no exaggeration to say that blues singing in the late 1930's bore the mark of Peetie Wheatstraw." Those cited as being influenced by Wheatstraw ("oooh, well, well" being his signature phrase) were a diverse lot including Robert Johnson, Champion Jack Dupree, Smokey Hogg and Big Joe Williams among others.

Wheatstraw died in 1941 when the car he was riding in slammed into a standing freight car. He was virtually ignored by blues researchers after his death (prior to Garon's book, The Devil's Son-In-Law: The Story Of Peetie Wheatstraw & His Songs, the only substantial writing on him was an article by Paul Oliver in Jazz Monthly from 1959) . Garon's insightful book makes an eloquent case for Wheatstraw' place in blues history. He was perhaps the most popular urban bluesman of his era and as Garon sums up "should be judged by the majesty of his own performances…"

Wheatstraw was a solid piano player who uses his playing to adorn his songs, usually not stretching out much outside of a few more boisterous pieces such as "Shack Bully Stomp" and "Peetie Wheatstraw Stomp", both featured today. On other numbers he gives plenty of room to his talented guitarists, most notably Kokomo Arnold and Lonnie Johnson. He was also an imaginative lyricist as we hear on some fine topical numbers such as "Working On The Project" and "Third Street's Going Down" (the street, which was being torn down, ran through a tough section of East St. Louis called the "Valley" known for its gambling houses, saloons and brothels and was also where Wheatstraw lived):

We used to have luck in the Vally, but the girls had to move out of town (2x)
Some moved in the alley, oooh, well, well, because Third Street is going down

The city hired Mr. Keeler to put a highway through that part of town (2x)
And the law told the girls to move, oooh, well, well, 'cause we're tearing Third Street down

Aaron and Marion (he changed his name to Milton in 1929) were twins born to Ruth and Sullie Gant in Tupelo, Mississippi. Soon after the twins were born Ruth married Carl Sparks. According to Cleveland Sparks, uncle of Aaron and Marion: "Piano player Aaron he learned how to play piano before he could holler and shout…it was a coloured fellow teaching him. He had a joint y'know selling bootleg whiskey back in the corner. He just had a crowd there all the time and he just learned to play." Henry Townsend, who often accompanied Marion, had this to say: "He just kept getting better and better and got to playing for illegal joints y'know. …Pinetop was doing a lot of house-party playing and uh 'cause this was a trend then. We would go from house-party to house-party and make some money to pay the rent. …Now at that time Milton wasn't singing, Pinetop was the star when it come to singing. And so just out of nowhere Milton decided he was going to sing and he'd start. …Aaron got the name Pinetop because "He was very good at the number that Smith made [Pinetop Smith's "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie"]. Yeah he was very good with that number and as most guys do he just started to call himself Pinetop himself y'know. The nickname "Lindberg", Townsend suggests, was probably due to Milton's prowess in dancing the Lindberg or Lindy Hop.

The brothers cut four sessions, the first for Victor and the other three for Bluebird, between 1932 and 1935. Milton cut two songs for Decca in 1934 under the name Flyin' Lindberg. Aaron backed a number of St. Louis artists at their second session: Elisabeth Washington, Tecumseh McDowell, Dorotha Trowbridge, James "Stump" Johnson and Charlie McFadden. The brothers' led rough and tumble lives reflected in songs that dealt with gambling, jail, alcohol, woman, hoboing and railroads. In spite of their lyrics and rough background, the music the brothers made was surprisingly tender and wistful. They excelled at thoughtful, mid-tempo blues such as "East Chicago Blues", "Down On The Levee" and "4X11=44" a reference to number combination for playing policy.

Milton possessed a strong, nasal voice that is extremely appealing while Milton had a warm, sensitive vocal that occasionally dips into a mellow falsetto. Aaron was an exceptional and versatile piano player as Chris Smith appraises: "Aaron's playing features the steady chordal basses typical of St. Louis, and a very inventive right hand, endowed with melodic grace and propulsive energy. He was also a capable boogie player, with a singing line and a fondness for medium tempos." Aaron's fine abilities as an accompanist extend to his backing a trio of St. Louis ladies. Elisabeth Washington was an appealing, slightly nasal singer with a good sense of delivery; "Riot Call Blues" and "Whiskey Blues" (1933) are particularly tough blues with the latter opening with the line "Everyday I have the blues" a song that the brothers would debut two years later.

Andy Boy, from Galveston Texas, was part of a group of Texas pianists dubbed the Santa Fe group who acquired their name not only because they rode the Santa Fe from job to job, but also because, according to the Houston Pianist Robert Shaw, "anyone inquiring the name of a selection was invariably told, "that's the 'Santa Fe'." As blues scholar Paul Oliver wrote: "…There is a broad stylistic and thematic similarity in the music of the pianists who followed the Santa Fe through the barrelhouses of Ford Bend, Houston and Galveston counties, and down in the Brazos Bottoms. …Immediately recognizable with its rolling basses, its often ragtimey blues accompaniments, its anticipatory beat—this is the Santa Fe group." This group travelled the branches of the Santa Fe line to the lumber camps, oil fields and towns. In the cities "they were to be heard in the red light district of Galveston's Post Office Street or Church Street, on Houston's West Dallas Street or in Richmond's Mud Alley."

Among the best of the Santa Fe group were Rob Cooper of Houston, and Andy Boy of Galveston. Both men show the influence of Hersal Thomas and both men's style share strong ragtime elements. Stylistically, Oliver notes, "Andy Boy (Boy was his surname) and Rob Cooper were a few years older than Hersal Thomas" and "careful listening to the playing of Andy Boy reveals hints of the connection between them; in spite of the themes that he sang and played with their somewhat more modern sound, Galveston born Andy Boy was a pianist whose formative years were spent in the company of Hersal and his fellow pianists."

Andy Boy had a rough, expressive voice offset with his sprightly blues piano laced with ragtime flourishes. Andy Boy's songs are filled with vivid imagery, humor, clever wordplay and a times a deep pathos. Along with pianist Rob Cooper, Andy Boy plays prominently on the records of Joe Pullum, one of the era's most distinctive and imaginative vocalists. Andy Boy cut only eight sides under his own name as well as backing both Pullum and the obscure Walter 'Cowboy' Washington.

One of his most memorable numbers was the rollicking "House Raid Blues" (a close cousin to Little Hat Jones' "Kentucky Blues") as Andy Boy wittily describes a police break-in at Charlie Shiro's Galveston club: "

Then out the widow I did hop
Followed closely by a cop
Then around the corner I did run
I heard the shot from some law's gun
Said it ain't no use in shooting, ‘cause I ain't gonna be here long

Then I was long gone, from Kentucky, long gone
Got away lucky and I left so keen
I left like a submarine, couldn't hardly be seen

The vigorously sung "Church Street Blues" was perhaps his finest number where he evocatively sang: "Going down to the Gulf/Watch the waves come in . . ." and "I was born and raised in that good old seaport town/Where we all had fun and stomped The Grinder down." In the sombre "Evil Blues" he sang: "I got the evil blues, prejudicy on my mind" and was in quite a different frame of mind on the bouncy "Jive Blues" where he sings "Now the good book says thou shall not break the ten commandment law/I'm gonna break the ten commandments on you're jaw."

Harold Holiday, known as Black Boy Shine, was one of the acknowledged leaders among the Santa Fe group of pianists. He recorded more prolifically then the rest; cutting 18 issued sides in 1936 and 1937 as well as leaving a batch of unissued sides in the can. As Paul Oliver noted: "He played in a mellow style, with a subtler release than the sharp snap favoured by several of the piano men, and he sang in a slightly world-weary voice of the days when the "Chophouse" operated on West Dallas Street. It was a haven for pianists down on their luck, where the proprietor would prepare soup and sandwiches for them, and cook any rabbits they'd managed to club on the waste lots that still dotted the black wards of the city." He describes this vividly in one of his best numbers, "Dog House Blues: "

Well I'm going to the Dog House, down On West Dallas Street (2x)
When I get broke and hungry, I know I can get a feed

"When times were better", Oliver wrote, "and the barrelhouses were open again, Shine was to be found at Sugarland, near the sugar refineries and the State Farm Unit, or way out at Richmond. The latter is a run-down, predominately black township still, an unlovely place of old buildings fronting on the railroad tracks close to the Brazos River. Behind the tracks the roads fall back steeply for a couple of blocks to the old haunt of hustlers and whores, Mud Alley. There on Mud Alley was the Brown House, Shine's base when he wasn't travelling…" Both places feature in Shine's songs; In "Sugarland Blues" he sings "I dump sugar all day/Clean until broad daylight/I done everything for that woman/Still she don't treat me right" and in "Brown House Blues" he sings "Woke up this morning with the muddy alley blues/ I lost all my money and my alley shoes/I was playing boogie-woogie and having my fun" and then goes on describe a raid in detail, obviously a common occurrence in these kind of joints. In general his lyrics vividly reflect the harsher side of black life such as songs like "Hobo Blues" and "Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues.”

It was once believed that Jesse James was a convict, brought to the studio under guard to make his four recordings in 1936. This "information" was originally given to Paul Oliver by Sammy Price in 1960 who was a member of Decca's A&R staff in the 30s. This romantic idea probably came from the lyrics of "Lonesome Day Blues:"

I'm going to the Big House and, I don't even care
Don't you hear me talking to 'em, scolding to my death
I'm going in the morning and I don't even care
I might get four, five years, Lord and I might get the chair

Some got six months, some got a solid year
You hear me talking to ya buddy what made you stop by here
Some of them got six months partner, and some got a solid year
But I believe my partner, Lord got lifetime here

James was probably Cincinnati-based, as he accompanied titles by Walter Coleman on the same date as his own session, June 3, 1936. James was a rough, two-fisted barrelhouse pianist, with a hoarse, declamatory vocal delivery, equally suited to the anguished "Lonesome Day Blues", a robust version of "Casey Jones" as "Southern Casey Jones", "Highway 61" and the ribald "Sweet Patuni", which was issued much later on a bootleg party single.

Tags: Andy Boy, Black Boy Shine, Jesse James, Joe Pullum, Peetie Wheatstraw, Sparks Brothers, Walter ''Cowboy'' Washington

Tue 20 Dec 2011

Big Road Blues Show 12/18/11: Mix Show

Posted by Jeff under Playlists
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ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Myra Taylor	I'm In My Sins This Morning	Swinging Small Combos - Kansas City Style Vol. 3
Myra Taylor	Tell Your Best Friend Nothin'	Swinging Small Combos - Kansas City Style Vol. 3
Myra Taylor	The Spider And The Fly	Swinging Small Combos - Kansas City Style Vol. 3
Blind Lemon Jefferson	Long Lonesome Blues	The Complete Classic Sides
The Mississippi Moaner	It's Cold In China Blues	American Primitive Vol. II
Jesse Thomas	Double Due Love You	Jesse Thomas 1948-1958
Mr. Bo & His Blues Boys	If Trouble Was Money	45
Fenton Robinson	Directly From My Heart To You	Somebody Loan me A Dime
Geechie Wiley	Skinny Leg Blues	Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-35
Margaret Thornton	Texas Bound Blues	Barrelhouse Mamas
Mary Johnson	No Good Town Blues	Twenty First St. Stomp: The Piano Blues Of St. Louis
Sippie Wallace	I'm A Mighty Tight Woman	When The Sun Goes Down
Howlin' Wolf	I'll Be Around	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters
Howlin' Wolf	Who Will Be Next	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters
Hubert Sumlin	No Title Boogie	American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965
Big Joe Williams & Mary Williams	Oakland Blues	Hear Me Howling! Blues, Ballads & Beyond
Juke Boy Bonner	Goin' Back To The Country	Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection
Charlie Patton	Magnolia Blues	Times Ain't Like They Used to Be Vol. 4
Cannon's Jug Stompers	Viola Lee Blues	When The Sun Goes Down
Kokomo Arnold	Back To The Woods	Bottleneck Trendsetters
Lee Shot Williams	Drop Your Laundry	Chicago Blues & Deep Soul Legend
Lee Shot Williams	I'm Tore Up	Chicago Blues & Deep Soul Legend
Lee Shot Williams	Hello Baby	Chicago Blues & Deep Soul Legend
J.B. Lenoir	I've Been Down For So Long	J.B. Lenoir 1951-1958
Eddie Boyd	Baby What's Wrong With You	Complete Recordings 1947-1950
Jimmy Yancey	Rollin' the Stone	Hey! Piano Man
Rudy Foster	Black Gal Makes Thunder	Juke Joint Saturday Night
James ''Boodle It'' Wiggins	Gotta Shave 'Em Dry	Juke Joint Saturday Night
Lafayette Thomas	Standing In The Back Door Crying	The Modern Recordings Vol. 2
Jimmy McCracklin	Night And Day	Jimmy McCracklin 1951-54
Sonny Boy Williamson II	I Got to Cut Out	American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965\Disc 4\American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965
Wild Child Butler	Gravy Child	Wild Child
Little Mac Simmons	Woman Help Me	Chicago Blues Harmonica Wizard
Howard Tate	How Blue Can You Get?	Get It While You Can: The Legendary Sessions

Show Notes:

We close out the year on a somber note as we pay tribute to several recently passed blues artists: Kansas City legend Myra Taylor, blues and R&B singer Lee Shot Williams, legendary guitarist Hubert Sumlin and singer Howard Tate. Also on tap are great pre-war blues including Blind Lemon Jefferson and a couple of his admirers, a quartet of fine blues ladies and a batch of superb piano players. We also spin more contemporary blues including a trio of ace harmonica blowers and some hard hitting sides form the 60's and 70's.

Myra Taylor and Charlie Parker (left)

Myra Taylor, one of the final links to Kansas City’s heyday as a jazz mecca, died December 9th in Kansas City. She was 94.In the 1930's, she became a regular in the clubs in the 12th and Vine, 18th and Vine and 12th and Woodland districts, where she performed along with musicians as a dancer. There, she mingled with the likes of Big Joe Turner, Pete Johnson, Bennie Moten, Lester Young, Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie. Her career as a singer began in the early 1930s in Kansas City, which led to a stint through the Midwest with Clarence Love and his band. In 1937, she moved to Chicago, where she worked with jazz greats Warren “Baby” Dodds, Lonnie Johnson, Roy Eldridge and Lil’ Hardin Armstrong. She recorded ten sides at two sessions in 1946 and 1947. We open the show with a trio of her 40's sides: the silky "I'm In My Sins This Morning", "Tell Your Best Friend Nothin'" a reworking of "Don't Advertise Your Man" (a 20's anthem sung by Clara Smith, Sippie Wallace and Rosa Henderson) and the swinging "The Spider And The Fly."

The death of Hubert Sumlin made a bigger splash than Taylor's, garnering obituaries in many major papers. Sumlin died Dec. 4 at the age of 80. Sumlin began appearing on Howlin’ Wolf’s recordings in 1954, first appearing on "Baby How Long? b/w Evil Is Goin' on" alongside fellow guitarist Jody Williams. Sumlin’s partnership with Howlin’ Wolf lasted until the singer’s death in 1976. Speaking of their collaborations in a 1989 interview with Living Blues magazine, Sumlin said: “Hubert was Wolf, Wolf was Hubert. I got to where I knew what he wanted before he asked for it, because I could feel the man.” He met Howlin’ Wolf while still a teenager, when Mr. Sumlin was performing in and around West Helena, Ark., with the blues harmonica player James Cotton, and first recorded with him, under the supervision of Sam Phillips, at Sun Studios in 1953. Sumlin also made more than a dozen albums under his own name; the first was recorded in Europe in 1964, and the last in 2007. Today we showcase a pair of early numbers with Wolf, "I'll Be Around" (1954) and "Who Will Be Next" (1955) plus Hubert's own "No Title Boogie" recorded at the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival when he was touring Europe with Wolf.

Hubert Sumlin and Howlin' Wolf

In recent years Lee Shot Williams was best known for such raunchy songs as “Meat Man” and “Starts With a P,” but he had a long career as a blues and R&B singer in Chicago where he first recorded in 1962 with a style similar to Bobby “Blue” Bland. His best known hits were “You’re Welcome to the Club” (1962) and “I Like Your Style” (1967). We spin a pair of blistering early sides, "I'm Tore Up" (1963)" featuring Bobby King on guitar and "Hello Baby" (1962) featuring Freddie Robinson on guitar and Mack Simmons on harmonica and the from the 70's his raunchy "Drop Your Laundry" (he updated the number on his stellar 1995 album, Cold Shot, released on the Black Magic label.

We close out the show with a soulful rendition of "How Blue Can You Get?" (1966) by Howard Tate. Tate, who in collaboration with producer and songwriter Jerry Ragovoy, recorded such late 1960's soul classics as “Ain’t Nobody Home,” “Stop” and “Get It While You Can,” died Dec. 2 at 72. After struggling with cocaine addiction and homelessness, Tate became a preacher only to re-emerge in 2003 with the critically acclaimed album Rediscovered.

It's hard to overestimate the influence and popularity of Blind Lemon Jefferson who began recording in 1926. His records made him nationally known among the black audiences who bough race records as influencing many blues artists. In December 1925 or January 1926, he was taken to Chicago to record his first tracks. Jefferson's first two recordings from this session were gospel songs ("I Want to be like Jesus in my Heart b/w "All I Want is that Pure Religion"), released under the name Deacon L. J. Bates. This led to a second recording session in March 1926. His first releases under his own name, "Booster Blues" and "Dry Southern Blues," were hits; this led to the release of the other two songs from that session, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues," which also became hits. The latter number reworked by two of our featured artists; The Mississippi Moaner and Jesse Thomas. The Mississippi Moaner was the name used by Isaiah Nettles when he recorded five sides for Vocalion Records in Jackson, MS, on October 20, 1935. Only one 78 from the session was ever released, "Mississippi Moan" b/w "It's Cold in China Blues" (the song title was a lyric used in Blind Lemon's song). Jesse Thomas remarkable 1948 number, "Double Due Love You" opens with a tongue twisting run of words (taken from the Blind Lemon song) that is sort of a vocal equivalent to his knotty guitar phrases.

We spin several rather obscure blues ladies today including Margaret Thornton, Mary Johnson, Geeshie Wiley plus the better known Sippie Wallace. Thornton cut one lone record for the short-lived Black Patti label in 1927, "Texas Bound Blues b/w Jockey Blues." Thornton was a wonderful singer backed by the fine barrelhouse playing of the equally obscure Blind James Beck. St. Louis singer Mary Johnson is in superb form on "No Good Town Blues" backed by pianist Judson Brown. Brown who cut just one side under his own name for Brunswick in 1930 as well as backing singers such as Jenny Pope and Mozelle Alderson. Don Kent wrote in the notes to Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-35 that "If Geeshie Wiley did not exist, she could not be invented: her scope and creativity dwarfs most blues artists. She seems to represent the moment when black secular music was coalescing into blues." We feature her haunting "Skinny Leg Blues" which is worth quoting in full:

And I’m a little bitty mama, baby and I ain’t built for speed
Cryin’ I’m a little bitty mama, baby and I ain’t built for speed
Aaaaaaah and I ain’t built for speed
I’ve got everything that a little bitty mama needs

I’ve got little bitty legs, keep up these noble thighs (2x)
Aaaaaah, keep up these noble thighs
I’ve got somethin’ underneath them that works like a bo' hog's eye

But when you see me comin’, pull down your window blind (2x)
You see me comin’, pull down your window blind
So your next door neighbor sure can hear you whine

I’m gonna cut your throat baby, gonna look down in your face (2x)
Aaaaaaaaa, gonna look down in your face
I’m gonna let some lonesome graveyard be your restin’ place

Among the triumvirate of boogie-woogie pioneers, which include Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, Jimmy Yancey is my favorite. Yancey had a more delicate and subtle style then his hard driving peers as heard to good effect on the marvelous "Rollin' The Stone" from 1939. Far more obscure are Rudy Foster who cut one 78 for paramount in 1930. "Black Gal Makes Thunder" is a driving barrelhouse romp with the enigmatic lyric "black gal makes it thunder, yellow gal makes it fall down rain." James "Boodle It" Wiggins was a wonderfully expressive, heavy voiced singer who cut eight issued sides for Paramount in 1928 and 1929. His "Gotta Shave 'Em Dry" is an infectious number with terrific backing from pianist charlie Spand. As Paul Oliver noted in his Screening The Blues: "Shave 'Em Dry" …seems to have been favored by women though a number of men also sang it on record. As a term 'shave 'em dry' appears to have layers of meaning; at one level it refers to mean and aggressive action but as a sexual theme it refers to intercourse without preliminary love-making. Big Bill Broonzy put it succinctly: 'Shave 'em dry is what you call makin' it with a woman; you ain't doin' nothin', just makin' it.'" Among those who cut versions were Lucille Bogan, Ma Rainey, Lil Johnson and Papa charlie Jackson.

Tags: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Eddie Boyd, Fenton Robinson, Geechie Wiley, Howard Tate, Howlin' Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, J.B. Lenoir, Jess Thomas, Jimmy Yancey, Kokomo Arnold, Lee Shot Williams, Little Mac Simmons, Margaret Thornton, Mary Johnson, Mississippi Moaner, Myra Taylor, Rudy Foster, Sippie Wallace, Wild Child Butler

Sun 4 Dec 2011

Big Road Blues Show 12/4/11: Cool, Cool Blues – Blues From Trumpet Records

Posted by Jeff under Playlists, Record Labels
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ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Eyesight to the Blind	Cool Cool Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Cool, Cool Blues	Cool Cool Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Crazy About You Baby	Cool Cool Blues
Luther Huff	1951 Blues	Delta Blues-1951
Luther Huff	Bull Dog Blues	Delta Blues-1951
Elmore James	Dust My Broom	Cool Cool Blues
Willie Love	Vanity Dresser Boogie	Greenville Smokin
Clayton Love	Shufflin' With Love	Strange Kind Of Feelin'
Big Joe Williams	Delta Blues	Delta Blues-1951
Big Joe Williams	Whistling Pines	Delta Blues-1951
Big Joe Williams	Mama Don't Allow Me	Delta Blues-1951
Willie Love	Everybody's Fishing	Greenville Smokin
Willie Love	Take It Easy Baby	Greenville Smokin
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Mr. Down Child	Cool Cool Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Come On Back Home	Cool Cool Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Nine Below Zero	Cool Cool Blues
Big Joe Williams	Overhauling Blues	Delta Blues-1951
Big Joe Williams	Bad Heart Blues	Delta Blues-1951
Big Joe Williams	She Left Me A Mule	Delta Blues-1951
Willie Love	Nelson Street Blues	Clownin' With The World
Willie Love	Seventy Four Blues	Delta Blues-1951
Willie Love	21 Minutes To Nine	Delta Blues-1951
Arthur Crudup	Gotta Find My Baby	Cool Cool Blues
Sherman Johnson	Lost In Korea	Cool Cool Blues
Tiny Kennedy	Have You Heard About The Farmer's Daughter	Strange Kind of Feeling
Tiny Kennedy	Strange Kind Of Feeling	Strange Kind of Feeling
Sonny Boy Williamson II	She Brought Life Back To The Dead	Cool Cool Blues
Sonny Boy Williamson II	Going In Your Direction	Cool Cool Blues
Jerry McCain	East Of The Sun	Cool Cool Blues
Jerry McCain	Stay Out Of Automobiles	Cool Cool Blues
Wally Mercer	If You Don't Mean Business	Cool Cool Blues

Show Notes:

Trumpet Records was the first record company in Mississippi to achieve national stature through its distribution, sales, radio airplay and promotion. Willard and Lillian McMurry launched the label from their retail store, the Record Mart, at 309 North Farish Street, in 1950, and later converted the back room into a recording studio. The first releases by Mississippi blues legends Sonny Boy Williamson II, Elmore James, and Willie Love appeared on Trumpet in 1951. “Dust My Broom” by Elmo (Elmore) James was the only Trumpet record to reach the national rhythm & blues charts of Billboard magazine (in April 1952), but other records by Williamson and Willie Love appeared on regional charts as far away as California and Colorado. Among other artists who recorded for Trumpet were bluesmen Jerry McCain, Big Joe Williams, Tiny Kennedy, Luther Huff, Arthur Crudup, Clayton Love, Wally Mercer, and Sherman Johnson; gospel groups such as the Southern Sons Quartette and the Blue Jay Gospel Singers; and country singers, including Lucky Joe Almond and Jimmy Swan.

The story has its roots in 1949, when McMurry and her husband purchased a hardware store on Farish Street, then a location on the boundary between the city's white and black business and entertainment districts. While taking inventory of the original stock and renovating the building, she discovered a stack of unsold records, including Wynonie Harris' recording of "All She Wants to Do Is Rock." Curious, Mrs. McMurry played it on the store's record player and became so inspired that she decided to record more music like it. "It was the most unusual, sincere and solid sound I'd ever heard", she recalled. In short order a record mogul was born and "for more than five years the blues and ballads, jumps and boogies flowed on" with McMurry always looking for that elusive hit.

McMurry probably didn't know it but the black music that so enthralled her was in abundance around Jackson and it's outlying areas and it wasn't long before word spread about the fledgling label bringing every would-be-star in the region to her door. After inaugurating the label with some gospel releases in 1950 it was 1951 when McMurry began recording blues in earnest. Her uncanny instincts led her to the elusive Sonny Boy Williamson who was already a celebrity in the delta, well known from his program King Biscuit Time which had aired on KFFA since 1941. Eventually Sonny Boy was tracked down and signed to an exclusive contract. This was a fortuitous start for the young label as not only did Sonny Boy become the label's number one hit maker (his first single "Eyesight To The Blind" was the label's first hit) he also brought along some of the delta's best talent. His first release, "Eyesight To The Blind" was recorded twice – fire destroyed stocks of the first pressing. The record sold well. A further nine sessions took place, Thee last in November 1954. There were twelve releases. One, "No Nights By Myself", was leased to Johnny Vincent's Ace label.

For more than three decades Sonny Boy, he was an itinerant musician, working as a solo act and in association with a host of other now-famous bluesmen, especially Sunnyland Slim, Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf Burnett, and Robert Lockwood Jr. He traveled throughout the South, working carnivals and lumber camps as well as juke joints and street corners in Mississippi, Arkansas. In November 1941, Williamson began playing with Robert Lockwood Jr. on King Biscuit Time, where he starred on and off for more than twenty years. It was on this show, apparently, that he first unveiled his “Sonny Boy Williamson” moniker.

Among Sonny Boy's cohorts included pianist Willie Love and guitarists Elmore James and Joe Willie Wilkins all who would be involved in numerous sessions through the years. The raw, immediate sound these men laid down was "pungent with the whiff of the jukes" as Marc Ryan wrote in Trumpet Records: Diamonds On Farish Street. Willie Love is second in importance only to Sonny Boy in the label's fortunes cutting some tremendous sides that "captured perfectly the raucous mood of the jukes" before his untimely death in 1953. Elmore James would have a prickly relationship with Trumpet but did record his immortal "Dust My Broom" in 1951, his sole record for the label.

Sonny Boy Williamson, first encountered pianist Willie Love in Greenville, MS, in 1942. The duo played regularly on Nelson Street, the main drag of the Black section of Greenville. And it was Williamson who brought Love into the fold at Trumpet Records. He played piano on several of Sonny Boy Williamson's Trumpet sessions. Love cut three sessions as leader in 1951 and a final session in 1953. Love passed four months after this last session.

Elmore James began recording with Trumpet Records in nearby Jackson in January 1951, first as sideman to the second Sonny Boy Williamson and also to their mutual friend Wille Love and possibly others, then debuting as a session leader in August with "Dust My Broom". It was a surprise R&B hit in 1952 and turned James into a star. He then broke his recording contract with Trumpet Records to sign up with the Bihari Brothers through Ike Turner.

In late August 1952 Sony Boy arrived to the Record Mart with Arthur Crudup. Crudup was likely under contract with RCA so he was recorded under the pseudonym “Elmer James” a reference to Elmore James who scored big with “Dust My Broom” on the label but broke contract and never recorded a follow-up. Only one 78 by Crudup was issued.

Luther Huff and his and younger brother Percy learned how to play guitar from an older brother named Willie, and a cousin Donnee Howard. Soon they were playing at fish fries and picnics with their older relatives. Luther bought himself a mandolin in 1936 and taught himself how to play it. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942 and served in England, France & Belgium. After being discharged from the Army he moved to Detroit, MI. in 1947. Percy stayed in Jackson where he was employed as a taxicab driver. On a visit to Jackson in 1950, Luther ran across Sonny Boy Williamson, and told him he needed train fare to get back to Detroit. Sonny Boy hooked Luther and Percy up with Trumpet Records where they recorded four sides in January & February of 1951. Luther went back to Detroit, working at the Chrysler factory and later for Plymouth, giving little thought to playing any music. In 1968, The Brothers Huff, Luther, Percy and Willie were recorded by Adelphi but the recordings were never issued.

By the post-war era Big Joe Williams' style of music was something of an anachronism and opportunities to record, even for a wheeler-dealer like him, began to dry up. One exception was a single for Bullet, "Jivin'Woman b/w She's A Married Woman" waxed in 1949. But it was two years before he recorded again, this time for McMurry's Trumpet label. She got him in her studio twice during the autumn of 1951, when "Mama Don'tAllow Me", "Delta Blues", "Overhauling Blues", the poetic "Whistling Pines", "She Left Me A Mule" and "Bad Heart Blues" were cut.

Other artists featured today include Tiny Kennedy, Jerry McCain and Clayton Love. Kennedy made his debut with Jay McShann in 1949 and by 1951 singing with Tiny Bradshaw's band. Kennedy cut three songs for Trumpet on Oct. 22, 1951 backed by Elmore James, a four song session cut in 1952 and two numbers cut in1953 that remained unissued. McCain made his debut for Trumpet label in 1954, with "East of the Sun b/w Wine-O-Wine" with his brother, Walter McCain, playing drums on the sides. McCain's 1954 Trumpet encore yielded "Stay Out of Automobiles b/w "Love to Make Up." Pianist Clayton Love was a prominent member of Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm during the mid-'50s, making some of his finest records with the band. But Love made his first appearance as leader on Trumpet in 1951 with his own jump band, the Shufflers.

Tags: Arthur Crudup, Big Joe Williams, Elmore James, Jerry McCain, Lillian McMurry, Luther Huff, Sherman Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Tiny Kennedy, Trumpet Records, Wally Mercer, Willie Love

Big Road Blues airs on Sundays 5 to 7 PM (EST) on WGMC Jazz90.1 and streams live on the web. The show is an exploration of traditional blues spanning the 1920’s through the 1970’s. In addition to classic artists, the show focuses an equal amount of time on those forgotten blues figures from the past; from the once popular artists who are now a memory to the obscure artists who may have only cut a handful of 78's or 45's. This site is updated regularly with playlists, show notes, blues articles and reviews.

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