| ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
|---|---|---|
| Garfield Akers | Cottonfield Blues Part 1 & 2 | Blues Images Presents Vol. 14 |
| Robert Wilkins | Rollin' Stone Part 1 & 2 | Robert Wilkins: Memphis Blues 1928-1935 |
| Mississippi Sheiks | Sitting On Top Of The World | Blues Images Vol. 2 |
| Beale Street Rounders | I'm Sitting On Top Of The World | Memphis Harp & Jug Blowers 1927-1939 |
| Little Brother Montgomery | The First Time I Met The Blues | When The Sun Goes Down |
| Buddy Guy | First Time I Met The Blues | The Complete Chess Studio Recordings |
| Sweet Papa Tadpole | Have You Ever Been Worried In Mind? Part 1 & 2 | Cincinnati Blues |
| Son House | My Black Mama Part 1 & 2 | American Epic: The Collection |
| Walter Davis | M & O Blues | The Essential |
| Lucille Bogan | I Hate That Train Called The M & O | The Essential |
| Little Brother Montgomery | Louisiana Blues Pt. 1 & 2 | Little Brother Montgomery 1930-1936 |
| Paramount All Stars | Home Town Skiffle Part 1 & 2 | Blues Images Vol. 6 |
| Harlem Hamfats | Oh Red! | Harlem Hamfats Vol. 1 1936 |
| Harlem Hamfats | New Oh Red! | Harlem Hamfats Vol. 1 1936 |
| Kansas Joe McCoy | Oh! Red's Twin Brother | Kansas Joe McCoy 1934-1944 |
| Smokey Hogg | Penitentiary Blues Pt. 1 & 2 | Good Morning Little School Girl-1945-1951 |
| Bob White | Hastings Street Opera Part 1 & 2 | Rare 1930s & '40s Blues Vol. 3 |
| Saunders King | S.K. Blues | Saunders King 1942-48 |
| Saunders King | S.K. Jumps Part 2 | Saunders King 1942-48 |
| Saunders King | S.K. Blues, Part 1 (New S.K. Blues, Part 1) | Saunders King 1942-48 |
| Baby Face Leroy | Rollin' And Tumblin' Part 1 & 2 | Baby Face Leroy 1948-1952 |
| Mississippi Sheiks | You'll Work Down to Me Someday | Bo Carter & The Mississippi Sheiks |
| John Henry Barbee | You'll Work Down to Me Someday | Memphis Blues 1927-1938 |
| Lightnin' Hopkins | Mr. Charlie Part 1 & 2 | Mojo Hand |
| J. T. "Funny Paper" Smith | Tell It To The Judge Part 1 & 2 | The Original Howling Wolf 1930-1931 |
| 'Crippple' Clarence Lofton | I Don't Know | Cripple Clarence Lofton Vol.1 1935-1939 |
| Willie Mabon | I Don't Know | Chess Blues Piano Greats |
Show Notes:
Today’s show is something of a sequel to a show we did a few weeks back devoted to blues answer songs. Today’s program is a bit looser constructed but also deals with related blues songs; whether they are two-part songs (often both sides of a 78), covers of earlier songs or sequels to a popular hit record. I suspect many of the two-part blues songs in the pre-war era were due to the time limitations of 78 records which was around three minutes. We hear some classic two-part records today including Garfield Akers’ “Cottonfield Blues”, Robert Wilkins’ “Rollin’ Stone”, Son House’s “My Black Mama” and Baby Face Leroy’s “Rollin’ And Tumblin'” among others. Many artists, particularly in the pre-war era, did sequels to their big hits so we get, for example “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues” part 1 through 4, Little Brother Montgomery’s “Vicksburg Blues” part 1 through 3, Leroy Carr’s “How Long, How Long Blues” parts 1 through 3 and so on. Other ways artists did this were like the Harlem Hamfats who’s big hit “Oh! Red” spawned “New Oh Red!” and numerous covers, the Mississippi Sheik’s massive hit “Sittin’ on Top of the World” and the inevitable “The New Sittin’ on Top of the World” and for good measure Sam Collins’s “I’m Still Sitting On Top Of The World.” Saunders King did a similar name game with his popular two-part “S.K. Blues” reworked into the two-part “S.K. Jumps.” You get the point. Others were straight covers or with a slight twist like Walter Davis’s “M & O Blues” turned into the fine “I Hate That Train Called The M & O” by Lucille Bogan, ‘Cripple’ Clarence Lofton’s “I Don’t Know” which was transformed into a hit decades late by Willie Mabon to give a couple of examples. There’s plenty of these songs which should give us enough material for a fine part two which is only fitting for a show like this.
There are numerous classic two-part songs, spanning both sides of a 78. We hear iconic two-parters by Son House, Garfield Akers, Robert Wilkins, the Paramount All Stars, Baby Face Leroy, Saunders King, Smokey Hogg, Bob White (Detroit Count) among others. In 1930, Arthur Laibley who had produced Charley Patton’s last session for Paramount, stopped in Lula to arrange another session with Patton. Patton told Laibley about Son House and about two other musicians Willie Brown and Louise Johnson, setting the stage for one of the blues most legendary recording sessions. The group headed to the Paramount studios in Grafton, WI, where House recorded six songs at the session: three of which were long enough to fill both sides of a 78: “Dry Spell Blues,” “Preachin’ The Blues,” and “My Black Mama.”
Garfield Akers recorded just four sides. His debut cut on September 23, 1929, “Cottonfield Blues”, was a duet with friend and longtime collaborator Joe Callicott on second guitar. Akers lived in Hernando, Mississippi most of his life, working as a sharecropper and performing during off-hours at local house parties and dances. He toured with Frank Stokes on the Doc Watts Medicine Show. Akers was reportedly active on the south Memphis circuit throughout the 1930’s. Akers and Callicott played together for more than twenty years, parting in the mid-1940’s. Blues historian Don Kent praised “Cottonfield Blues,” saying “only a handful of guitar duets in all blues match the incredible drive, intricate rhythms and ferocious intensity.” At the beginning of 1930 Akers recorded Dough Roller Blues/Jumpin’ and Shoutin’.”
The Paramount All Stars was a credit was not used on the Paramount label, which merely reads “Descriptive Novelty: Featuring Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Will Ezell, Charlie Spand, The Hokum Boys, Papa Charlie Jackson”. The record was made by Paramount as a kind of ‘sampler’ of some of the blues singers who were recording for them during this period. The artists performed excerpts from some of their recorded titles. An ad for this record appeared in the February 22, 1930 Chicago Defender. John Tefteller wrote the following for his 2009 Blues Images calendar: “Paramount, however, told a lie on this one – claiming on both the record label and the ad that Blind Lemon Jefferson appears on this record. Not true! Collectors long suspected that Blind Blake simply imitates Jefferson’s guitar licks and they are correct! Newly discovered test pressings of other takes of the song reveal this. We include one of those complete tests on this year’s CD so you can clearly hear for yourself that Jefferson was not in the room for these sessions.”
Hambone Willie Newbern recorded “Roll and Tumble Blues” on March 14, 1929, in Atlanta for Okeh Records. It shares several elements of “Minglewood Blues”, first recorded in 1928 by Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers. “Roll and Tumble Blues” is one of six songs Newbern recorded during his only recording session. Robert Johnson adapted “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” with the title “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” during his third recording session in San Antonio in 1936. In 1950, Muddy Waters recorded two early versions of “Rollin’ and Tumblin'”. On a session for the Parkway label, he provided the guitar with Little Walter on vocal and harmonica and Baby Face Leroy Foster on drums. The Parkway released the song as a two-part single and listed the artist as the Baby Face Leroy Trio. For Aristocrat Records, Waters sang as well as played guitar with bass accompaniment by Ernest “Big” Crawford.
Smoky Hogg made his first recordings in 1937 for Decca in Dallas. Between 1947 and 1957 Hogg recorded prolifically for a host of labels, mostly West Coast, such as Combo, Ebb, Exclusive, Fidelity, Imperial, Jade, Meteor, Ray’s, Recorded in Hollywood, Show Time and Specialty, but also Bullet in Nashville and Macy’s, Mercury and Sittin’ In With in Houston. The company which recorded him most heavily was Los Angeles-based Modern Records. His two-part “Penitentiary Blues” (1952) was a remake of the prison song “Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos.”
Pioneering R&B guitarist Saunders King had his first hit in 1942 with the two-part “S.K. Blues” (later reissued as New S K Blues on RPM). It also features one of the earliest examples of electric blues guitar, the style for which T-Bone Walker would soon be famous. King recorded for the Aladdin, Modern, and Rhythm labels. “S.K. Jumps” was issued in 1949. The two-part “New S. K. Blues” was released in 1952. Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon cut covers of “S.K. Blues” among others.
Sunnie Wilson, owner of Forest Club, recalled: “I had local pianists play for my customers in the lounge. A local character, pianist and signer, Detroit Count came in my place about every night. His 1948 piano-rap hit “Hastings Street Opera” talked about me an all the people along the avenue.” Joe Von Battle recorded the song in his studio on Hastings Street and leased it to King Records. It became a local hit. The Count cut only eight other sides the same year none of which are well remembered.
Regarding covers and sequels, we hear from artists such as the Mississippi Sheiks, Little Brother Montgomery, Walter Davis, Harlem Hamfats among, ‘Cripple’ Clarence Lofton others. The Mississippi Sheiks were the most commercially successful black string band of the pre-war era and made close to one hundred records between 1930 and 1935. In February 1930 the OKeh field unit called at Shreveport, Louisiana, to do some recording at the request of a local radio station. While there, they recorded a small black group (Bo Carter was with the duo at the time ) who called themselves the Mississippi Sheiks. The group cut their two biggest hits at this session: “Sitting On Top Of The World” which spawned many cover versions and “Stop And Listen” derived from Tommy Johnson’s “Big Road Blues.” The sheiks followed with “The New Sittin’ on Top of the World” and “The New Stop And Listen.” Following a recording for Bluebird Records by Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, the song became a staple in the repertoire of country and bluegrass artists, such as Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and Bill Monroe. In the pre-war era the song was covered by the Beale Street Rounders and Sam Collins. Howlin’ Wolf reworked the song for Chess Records who issued it as a single in 1957.
I remember listening to “Narrow Way” from Bob Dylan’s 2012 album Tempest and hearing the lyric “If I can’t work up to you/You’ll have to work down to me someday” which is a line from the Mississippi’s Sheik’s “You’ll Work Down to me Someday” from 1934. John Henry Barbee recorded a version in 1938 but it was unissued at the time.
Walter Davis was born on a farm in Grenada, Mississippi. He ran away from home at 13 or 14 years of age, landing in St. Louis, Missouri. He started singing with pianist Roosevelt Sykes and guitarist Henry Townsend. Davis made his first recordings, including the successful “M&O Blues”, in 1930, as a singer accompanied by Sykes on piano. The Bogan version of “M&O Blues” was titled “I Hate That Train Called The M & O.”
The Harlem Hamfats was a Chicago jazz band formed in 1936. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon, for Decca Records. Their first record, “Oh! Red”, became a hit, securing them a Decca contract. “New Oh Red!” followed a few months later. Casey Bill Weldon and the State Street Swingers both cut “Oh, Red!” in 1936, Blind Boy Fuller cut “New Oh Red!” in 1937 by the same title by Same Price in 1940 and in 1941 Kansas Joe McCoy waxed “Oh! Red’s Twin Brother.” In the post-war era it was covered by Howlin’ Wolf, Speckled Red, Jimmy Wilson, Smiley Lewis and others.
“I Don’t Know” was recorded in October 1952 by Willie Mabon. Mabon is credited as the songwriter, although it was clearly inspired by Cripple Clarence Lofton. Lofton cut the song in 1939 and again in 1943 although the latter session was unissued at the time. In 1952, the Chess single reached number one in the U.S. on Billboard’s R&B chart in December 1952.
perform. Chess Records released the album on November 15, 1960.
