Big Road Blues

We left off our look at Alice Moore with two sessions she cut in 1934. After 1934 Henry Brown and Ike Rodgers no longer accompanied Alice on record with the piano chair filled for most of the remaining sessions by the popular Peetie Wheatstraw. Moore cut two sessions in July 1935 for a total of six songs with Wheatstraw on the piano for the first session, switching to guitar on the second session as Jimmy Gordon sits behind the piano stool. Once again Moore revises her signature song, this time titling it “Blue Black And Evil Blues.” One of the session’s best numbers is the typically mournful but lovely “S.O.S. Blues (Distress Blues):”

And I can’t use hoodoo, don’t know no tricks at all (2x)
And I will do anything lord, to get that mule back in my stall
Spoken: Oh if I only was a gypsy. Oh babe I could read his mind. Play ‘em Peter, play ‘em for me now.
Yes to lose my love, is putting me in distress (2x)
And I’m not ashamed to tell you, I’m sending out and S.O.S.

“Death Valley Blues” is a cryptic and dark number:

Let me go down in death valley, and hear the death bells ring (2x)
And holler, death oh death, oh death where is thy sting
And it’s please don’t, take this pillow out from under my head (2x)
For I live hard I die hard, tell you I would rather be dead

There a few St. Louis artists who use this theme, although they differ lyrically, including Lonnie Johnson on his “Death Valley Is Just Half Way To My Home”, Lee Green’s “Death Alley Blues” and Bessie Mae Smith’s “Death Valley Moan.” Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup also cut “Death Valley Blues.”

As Guido Van Rijn notes: “One year later Peetie was back at the piano. On 22 May 1936 James “Kokomo” Arnold (1901-1969) played the guitar. While Wheatstraw continues his continuous melodic lines, Arnold keeps the volume of his guitar somewhat down during the singing, and comes back full force to fill the gaps.” Arnold’s bold playing works exceptionally well on their six song collaboration with Moore sounding particularly forceful and confident as evidenced on the salacious “Grass Cutter Blues:”

And I woke up this morning, and the rain was falling fast (2x)
And I began to wish that, ask some good man to cut my grass
And it’s daddy, daddy, what am I going to do (2x)
Can you see for yourself, Alice don’t want ‘nother grass cutter but you

The themes of rootlessness and trying to latch on to a good man to keep her from going astray are perfectly summed up in the evocative “Dark Angel Blues” where she also gives Peetie some good natured ribbing:

And I’m a little dark angel, and I’m drifting through this land (2x)
And the reason I’m driftin’, trying to find a real good man
They call me little dark angel, I am my mama’s baby child (2x)
But I want a good man ,to keep me from runnin’ wild
Spoken: Well, well, well. People look who is here. Here comes Peetie drunk again. Boy when are you gonna stop drinkin’ whiskey? Just stay drunk all the time, all the time. Oh someday you’ll quit.

1937 was a productive year but there’s been some confusion as to who plays on these sessions. Guido Van Rijn offers the following account: “The last Alice Moore recordings were made during four sessions in 1937. There is an unknown string bass on these recordings who accents the first and third beats and plucks and slaps mainly in a four to the bar rhythm. All these recordings are credited to ‘Jordan’ so we may safely assume that Charley Jordan was present. The accompanists are not very audible. The guitar is probably played with a flat-pick. The melody of the piano is followed with single string runs on the highest strings, frequent choking of the blue notes and an occasional lower bass string run. Sometimes there is a chordal intermezzo on the highest strings. The guitarist must have known Peetie’s playing very well as the two form a real team. I think Charley Jordan is the guitarist on the 1937 Alice Moore dates. …On 26 March 1937 Alice recorded “Don’t Deny Me Baby” on which Peetie’s name is mentioned again. On the tenth session of 26 October 1937 the piano is certainly not by Peetie Wheatstraw. In the solos the right hand switches from higher to lower octaves, uses tremolos and sliding notes. There is a simple octave bass in the left hand and now and then the melody is retarded. This session is clasped in between two Roosevelt Sykes sessions. I have no doubt about the presence of Roosevelt Sykes here. The bass player is far more interesting than his colleague of the eighth and ninth sessions. He has more rhythmic variations and a far greater propulsive power thanks to the use of dotted eighth notes. The guitarist plays hardly audible chords and boogie runs on the lower strings in the first position.”

Among the notable songs were “Hand In Hand Woman” which finds Moore kinder to men but overtly aggressive towards women:

I’m gonna get me partner, just to run hand in hand (2x)
But I ain t gonna get no woman, gonna get me partner man
I just came here to tell you girls, I don’t run hand in hand (2x)
Please take my advice, get yourself another man
Because that’s my man, and he is just my type (2x)
And the clothes he wears on his back, they cost me ten dollars a yard
I’m tired of telling you girls, I don’t run hand in hand (2x)
The last girl I run hand and hand with, is the girl that stole my man
These hand in hand woman, they’s ain’t no friend to you (2x)
They will take your good man, leave you with these hand in hand blues

More typical are tales of no good men as in “Too Many Men:”

These men, these men, they just won’t let me be (2x)
I’m gonna pack my suitcase, and beat it back to Tennessee
If you got too many men, they will stay right on your trail (2x)
They will get you into trouble ,and no one will go your bail
When you got too many men, you can’t even sleep at night (2x)
Every time you step on the street, some of them want to start a fight
When these men get mad, you don’t know what to do (2x)
They will hypnotize or beat you, and keep you in trouble too
So take my advice girls, don’t have too many men (2x)

While “Midnight Creepers” takes a more ominous viewpoint:

These times is so dangerous, til’ a woman can’t walk the streets (2x)
There is some dangerous man, trying to make a low down sneak
I’m going to buy me bulldog, he’ll watch me while I sleep (2x)
Just to keep these dangerous men, from making a midnight creep

Better watch your step girls, when you goes out at night (2x)
Because these dangerous men, they sure has got to be too tight
I was scared last night, and the night before (2x)
But I got me good man, don’t have to be scared no more

Moore’s demise is sketchy as Guido Van Rijn notes: “In 1960 Henry Townsend stated that Alice Moore had died ten or twelve years previously. This would mean that she died c. 1950. Early in 1954 reports came in that she was still in St. Louis, but no trace of her was found. In 1969 Mike Stewart confirmed that Alice Moore was dead.” Alice Moore’s complete output can be found on the following Document collections: St. Louis Bessie & Alice Moore Vol 1 1927 - 1929, St. Louis Bessie & Alice Moore Vol 2 1934 - 1941 and Kokomo Arnold Vol 3 1936 - 1937.

Sources:

-Rijn, Guido Van. Lonesome Woman Blues: The Story of Alice Moore, Blues & Rhythm, No 208 (2007), p. 20-21.

-Townsend, Henry and Greensmith, Bill. A Blues Life. University of Illinois Press, Urbana & Chicago, 1999.

-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.

-Oliver, Paul. Conversation With The Blues. Horizon Press, New York, 1965.

S.O.S. Blues (Distress Blues) (MP3)

Hand In Hand Women (MP3)

Midnight Creepers (MP3)

Too Many Men (MP3)

Grass Cutter Blues (MP3)

Dark Angel (MP3)