Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show spotlights Pete Welding’s Testament label. Welding had a fascinating career; not only was he a writer of note, he was an A&R man for Epic, Playboy, and for many years at Capitol’s special products division. In 1994, the Hightone label bought the Testament label and reissued all of the blues albums that were available plus some unissued sessions. From Pete welding: “I started Testament Records in 1963 to issue some of the recordings of blues and black folksong I had been making over the previous four or five years. During that time I had recorded, first in my hometown of Philadelphia and then in Chicago where I moved at the beginning of 1962, a fair number of artists whose music, I felt, deserved to be heard. Having a good-paying job at the time, I didn’t have to worry overmuch about the records paying for themselves, so I put out what I thought was interesting and worthwhile. Come to that, Testament never had any commercial pressures behind its releases, so these were as irregular as they were unusual and, I hope, valuable in documenting a number of the music’s overlooked genres and performers. some unreleased sessions. ” You can find out more about Welding and Testament by visiting the Pete Welding pages. Testament issued quite a number of records and below I discuss some of the more interesting ones featured on today’s program.

Welding clearly thought highly of Robert Nighthawk and Johnny Young: “Another artist who served as talent scout was Johnny Young, a fine, vastly underrated singer-guitarist-mandolinist who, like Big Joe, I recorded fairly extensively over the years both as featured performer and as accompanist to others. I issued the first of the many Young recordings I made on the compilation album Modern Chicago Blues… Johnny Young and Friends…presents this fine traditional blues artist in the entirety of his multi-faceted talent, as singer, guitarist and mandolinist in settings that range from solo performances to small-amplified ensembles. It’s one of the albums I’m proudest of doing, and one that still gives me great listening pleasure… I was unable to record a whole album’s worth of performances by the peripatetic Nighthawk but I did manage to do most of one in a session that resonates in my mind as perhaps the single finest one I was ever privileged to do. The combination of Robert’s lightly amplified guitar and controlled intensity, Young’s acoustic rhythm guitar and Wrencher’s quietly probing unamplified harmonica is breathtaking, almost chamber music-like in the perfection of its interlocking parts. This is my favorite Testament session. I’m Gettin’ Tired, from the album Robert Nighthawk/Houston Stackhouse, is a good example of why I still feel so.” Young pops up on quite a number of Testament recordings including the excellent The Chicago String Band an ad hoc group consisting of Carl Martin, John Lee Granderson and Big John Wrencher. The aforementioned Johnny Young and Friends is good but he cut better records for Arhoolie and Bluesway. Better is Robert Nighthawk/Houston Stackhouse which is a classic and there are also several other fine Nighthawk sides scattered on other Testament compilations.

Like Nighthawk and Young, John Lee Granderson and Big John Wrencher could be heard most Sunday mornings during the warm weather months performing on Chicago’s Maxwell Street open-air market area. In addition to the full length Hard Luck John, he cut sides on other Testament compilations with further sides appearing on various anthologies. Hard Luck John is a real gem featuring him in solo performances, duets, trios, and small electric combos with sterling backup from musicians like Johnny Young, Jimmy Walker, Bill Foster, Carl Martin, and others. He was a wonderful singer, tackling a mix of originals and cover of Arthur Crudup and Sonny Boy Williamson. It’s too bad Welding didn’t get around to recordings an album by Wrencher who would have to wait until the 70’s for albums under his own name.

It’s Johnny Young we owe thanks again for the “rediscovery” of Carl Martin. In 1966, Pete Welding with the help of Johnny Young, recorded Martin resulting in the terrific Crow Jane with Young playing accompaniment. Martin plays guitar and mandolin, tackling with gusto traditional material like “Corrina, Corrina”, “John Henry”, “Liza Jane” and then there’s two takes of the remarkable “State Street Pimp.”

Among other artists Welding recorded more extensively were Johnny Shines and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Welding cut Johnny Shines: Masters of Modern Blues Vol. 1 in 1966, Standing At The Crossroads in 1971 and Johnny Shines with Big Walter in 1969. All are fine records but the standout is Standing At The Crossroads with Shines performing solo and ranks among his finest efforts. “I was excited to find Johnny. He was one of the people that I was looking for all the time I was in Chicago. …I thought he was a marvelous player and just a wonderful, soft-spoken, scholarly man. I had the luxury of recording him over a long period of time. He came up with some pieces that he hadn’t played in a long time. I would interview him and during the course of the interview, he would start remembering all those old songs he had played. He’d start reconstructing them, and when we got together, he would record them.” Welding record two albums by Fred McDowell in 1964: My Home Is In The Delta and the stunning Amazing Grace. “While most of Fred’s many recordings over the years were of traditional Mississippi blues, he was equally, convincingly adept at religious song. This is well illustrated here by the stunning “Jesus Is On The Main Line” on which he was joined by the Hunter’s Chapel Singers of Como, Miss with whom he performed on Sunday mornings when at home in Como. It’s one of the highpoints of the album of Mississippi Delta spirituals Amazing Grace I recorded with the group in February of 1966.”

Welding issued a nice mix of modern Chicago blues as well as some very fine traditional material. Among the traditional albums were fine one by Bill Jackson, Blind Connie Williams and Jack Owens. “I started off with an album by Maryland singer and 12-string guitarist Bill Jackson who I had first met almost a decade earlier and had recorded fairly extensively. …Bill was one of the foremost discoveries I made during these years… Long Steel Rail, the album from which it has been drawn, was the first sampling of the black folksong traditions of rural Maryland and, three decades after its release, remains one of the albums I am proudest of having produced.” Jack Owens was recorded by David Evans, who ran into him in Bentonia, Mississippi in 1966 resulting in the superb It Must Have Been The Devil with partner Bud Spires. Owens was a contemporary of Skip James and played in a similar style. “Blind streetsinger Connie Williams, originally from Florida where he attended the same school for the blind that Ray Charles did a few years later, is another Philadelphia find…he was a superlative guitarist in the highly musical East Coast style.” Welding recorded him in 1961 resulting in the album Philadelphia Street Singer.

There were several interesting compilations issued on the label including Modern Chicago Blues, Can’t Keep From Crying, The Sound of the Delta, Mandolin Blues, San Diego Blues Jam plus a few unissued collections issued later by Hightone such as Down Home Slide, Down Home Harp and Bottleneck Blues. Modern Chicago Blues is among the strongest with excellent sides by Nighthawk, Young, Maxwell Street Jimmy while Mandolin Blues features fine tracks by older generation artists like Willie Hatcher, Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Can’t Keep From Crying is a moving collection of 13 topical songs on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy cut in the weeks following his death.

Today’s show is just a small sampling of the great music Welding cut for his Testament label over the course of roughly a decade. Thankfully all the label’s records are available on CD thanks to the Hightone label. The only record that seems to be omitted is The Legendary Peg Leg Howell the comeback record of 75 year old Peg Leg Howell which was recorded in 1963.