Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

In his memoir, Big Bill Blues, Broonzy called Sleepy John Estes’ way of singing the blues “crying the blues.” As Tony Russell noted: “The 25-year old man who sat down to record “The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair” for a traveling Victor unit in Memphis would prove to be one of the company’s most striking finds in a city full of distinctive blues artists. High, blurred, plaintive, his voice sounded like that of a man on the verge of tears; sometimes it would even break, momentarily as if overwhelmed by emotion.” While Estes would become for his finely wrought personal songs, these initial numbers were local standards or common themes like “Divin’ Duck Blues” (“If the river was whiskey and I was a divin’ duck”). His storytelling is evident on early numbers like “Street Car Blues” but it wasn’t until signing with Decca in 1937 that he cut his most enduring compositions. Today’s program spotlights  Estes recordings before his comeback, spotlighting the remarkable recordings he made between 1929 and 1941. In addition we feature some of the fine musicians from the Brownsville area who worked and recorded with Estes including Son Bonds, Yank Rachell, Hammie Nixon, Charlie Pickett, Noah Lewis and Lee Brown.

John Adam “Sleepy John” Estes, was born in Ripley, Tennessee, around 1900. Estes first learned to play guitar from his sharecropper father at age twelve. Soon thereafter, while working in the cotton fields with his family, he crafted his own cigar-box guitar and began to hone his skills at local house parties and fish fries. His nickname “Sleepy” stemmed from a chronic blood pressure disorder that gave him fits of narcolepsy. Around 1915, the Estes family moved to Brownsville, Tennessee, which served as Sleepy John’s base residence periodically for the rest of his life. Brownsville was also home to “Hambone” Willie Newbern, an important early influence, as well as Yank Rachell and Hammie Nixon–musicians with whom Estes partnered at local venues and on professional recordings. Other Brownsville musicians who Estes worked with were pianist Lee Brown and guitarists Son Bonds and Charlie Pickett, all who recorded in the 30’s and all who backed Estes on record. Estes teamed with Rachell to play house parties, picnics, and the streets in the Brownsville area from 1919 to 1927. He also partnered with local harmonica player Hammie Nixon, hoboing Arkansas and southern Missouri with him from 1924 to 1927. At this time jug band music was wildly popular, so Estes started the Three J’s Jug Band with Rachell and jug player Jab Jones. The Three J’s played Memphis, where they competed for exposure in a competitive scene dominated by the Memphis Jug Band.

When the Victor recording company sent a field recording unit to Memphis in September 1929, Estes recorded several sides backed by the Three J’s, with Jones playing piano instead of the jug. Other acts to record for Victor on this trip included the Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, and Cannon’s Jug Stompers. He was invited to record again for Victor in May 1930. This session yielded the uptempo “Milk Cow Blues,” a tune Robert Johnson would later record as “Milkcow Calf Blues.” In all the group cut fifteen sides, three were unissued, over the course of eight session in 1929 and 1930. Estes gave the following account of his recording debut: “Well, it was the guy who recorded the ‘Kansas City Blues’, Jim Jackson. We were coming down the street , me and Yank Rachell. He said ‘Boys, that was a mighty good peice you sang on the street the other day.. You can really sings. I can tell you how to make some money.’ Yank said, ‘John we can go ’round ourselves. We don’t need him to carry us.’ I went around to the Ellis Auditorium and we talked to Mr. R.S. Peer of New York City. he told us., ‘Boy’, he was recording two or three other boys there, they’d hit two pieces in an hour. ‘We got some more boys here but I want to see you before you go. I want you to come back late in the afternoon so I can hear what you can do.’ We went back then and we recorded.”

Estes and Nixon moved to Chicago in 1931 where they played parties and the streets. The Depression hit the recording industry hard, and the Estes/Nixon team did not record until a July 1935 date with the Champion label where the duo cut six sides at two sessions. Among the sides recorded were “Drop Down Mama” and “Some Day Baby Blues,” tunes that became staples for a later generation of bluesmen. As Tony Russell remarks: “Nixon is the nightingale of blues harmonica and his parallel melodies echoing Estes singing on “Someday Baby Blues” and “Drop Down Mama”, to mention just the most famous of their duets, are beautiful in their understated melancholy.” They left Chicago in the late 1930’s to travel the country playing lumber camps, parties, and street corners for four years. The Decca label brought Estes to New York City to record in 1937 and again in 1938 where he cut eighteen songs, laying down some of his most enduring songs. He was backed by Charlie Pickett on guitar and Hammie Nixon on harmonica. Among the songs were vivid depictions of the Depression in songs like “Down South Blues”, riding the blinds in “Special Agent Blues (Railroad Police Blues)”  and “Hobo Jungle Blues.” On the latter he sings:

Now, when I left Chicago, I left on that G & M (2X)
Then if I reach my home, I have to change over on that L& N
Now, came in on in that Mae West, and I put it down at Chicago Heights
Now, when I came in on that Mae West, I put it down at Chicago Heights
Now, you know, over in hobo jungle, and that’s where I stayed the night
Now, if you hobo through Brownsville, you better not be peepin’ out (2X)

Now, Mr. Whitten will git you, and Mr. Guy Hare will wear you out
Now, out East of Brownsville, about four miles from town (2X)
Now, if you ain’t got your fare, that’s where they will let you down

He sang many celebrated songs about hometown life in Brownsville including “Lawyer Clark” (“He said if I just stay out of the grave, he’d see that I wouldn’t go to the pen”), he sings about Martha Hardin’s house burning down in “Fire Department Blues”, he describes race relations in the south in “Clean Up At Home” (“I played for the colored, I played for the white/All you got to do, act kinda nice, you got to”) and the personal narrative “Floating Bridge” where describes a near brush with death after falling off a car ferry crossing a river:

Now I never will forget that floating bridge (3X)
Tell me five minutes time under water I was hidW
hen I was going down I throwed up my hands
Now, when I was going down, I throwed up my hands (2X)
Please, take me on dry land
Now they carried me in the house and they laid me ‘cross the blank’t (3X)

“Bout a gallon-and-half muddy water I had drankThey dried me off and they laid me in the bed
Now, they dried me off and they laid me in the bed (2X)
Couldn’t hear nothin’ but muddy water runnnin’ through my head

Estes was paired with younger guitarist Robert Nighthawk, perhaps to modernize his sound, for his last six song Decca session in 1940 which lack the spark of his collaborations with Nixon. A year later he recorded for the Bluebird label backed by kazoos and a tub bass in a swinging session with the Delta Boys (Son Bonds and Raymond Thomas), who echoed Estes’s jug band sensibilities. All three men variously take the lead on exuberant numbers like “Don’t You Want To Know” , “You Shouldn’t Do That” both sporting a vigorous kazoo solo from Bonds who takes the lead on “Black Gal Swing.” On September 24, 1941 the trio made their final sides together, a three song session for Bluebird including the aforementioned “Lawyer Clark” and “Little Laura.” Little Laura, according to Don Kent’s notes to the Yazoo Sleepy John Estes CD, was a neighbor of Sleepy John’s and the Jimmy referred to in the lyrics is Sleepy John’s name for Yank Rachell. This song is essentially the one Sonny Boy Williamson I  recorded for Bluebird a couple of months earlier as “She Was A Dreamer.”

Estes returned to sharecropping in Brownsville in 1941. In 1948, he and Nixon recorded again for the Ora Nelle label (“Harlem Bound” and “Stone Blind Blues”) but the records went unreleased. Estes went completely blind in 1950 and elected to try his hand at recording again. In 1952 he cut four sides for the Sun label. Estes was rediscovered in 1962 during the blues revival. He cut several albums for Delmark and returned to touring with Hammie Nixon before health problems confined him to Brownsville. Sleepy John Estes died June 5, 1977.

After recording with Sleepy John Estes in  1929 and 1930 Yank Rachell decided to try his hand at farming and also worked for the L&N Railroad. During a stopover in New York Rachell teamed up with guitarist Dan Smith and laid down 25 titles for ARC in just three days, though only six of them were issued. Shortly before the ARC date, Rachell had discovered a kid harmonica player that he believed had real talent, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. They worked together at the Blue Flame Club in Jackson, Tennessee starting in 1933. In 1934 Williamson went north to Chicago. With the success of Williamson’s first Bluebird dates of 1937, Rachell decided to join Sonny Boy in Chicago for sessions in March and June of 1938. Yank Rachell also contributed four sides of his own to each session, and then 16 more in 1941 with Sonny Boy backing him up. After Sonny Boy Williamson’s murder in 1948, Rachell drifted away from music and relied solely on straight jobs to make his living, settling permanently in Indianapolis in 1958. His wife passed away in 1961, and afterward he began to resume performing. In 1962, Rachell was re-united with Nixon and Estes, and the three of them began playing college and coffeehouse circuit, recording for Delmark as Yank Rachell’s Tennessee Jug Busters. Estes died in 1977, and from that time Rachell worked mainly as a solo act. He recorded only sporadically in his last years and passed in 1997 at the age of 87.

Sleepy John Estes, American Folk Blues Festival, 1964

Noah Lewis was born in Henning, Tennessee, and raised in the vicinity of Ripley. He played in local string bands and brass bands, and began playing in the Ripley and Memphis areas with Gus Cannon. When jug bands became popular in the mid-1920s, he joined Cannon’s Jug Stompers. He cut seven sides under his own name at sessions in 1929 and 1930. Recording as Noah Lewis’ Jug Band, he was backed on two numbers by Sleepy John and Yank Rachell with just Estes backing him on two other numbers cut a couple of days apart. Lewis died in poverty of gangrene brought on by frostbite in Ripley, Tennessee, in 1961.

Harmonica player Hammie Nixon was born on January 22, 1908, in Brownsville, TN. He began his career as a professional harmonica player in the 1920s, but also played the kazoo, guitar, and jug. “I used to hear a lot about him, John Adam”, Nixon recalled, “and I was just a kid, living out on my parent’s home near Ripley.  …And he heard me playing and he asks me would I like to go and play my harp for him?So I told him yes, but I had o ask my mama first because I was just young, see. So he comes back to my mama’s house with me, but she didn’t want me to go you know. Anyhow he says like he would look after me and provide for me and so forth so she let me go. And we been together ever since.” He performed with Sleepy John Estes for more than 50 years. He also recorded with Lee Green, Charlie Pickett, and Son Bonds. He played with many jug bands. After Estes died, Nixon played with the Beale Street Jug Band (also called the Memphis Beale Street Jug Band) from 1979 onward. Shortly before his death he cut his lone album, the marvelous  Tappin’ That Thing for the High Water label. He died August 17, 1984.

Another associate of Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, Son Bonds played very much in the same rural Brownsville style that the Estes-Nixon team popularized in the ’20s and ’30s. The music to one of Bonds’s songs, “Back and Side Blues” cut in 1934, became a standard blues melody when John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson from nearby Jackson, TN, used it in his classic “Good Morning, (Little) School Girl” he cut in 1937.Bonds cut a total of fifteen sides over five sessions in 1934, 1938 and 1941. Hammie Nixon backs Bonds on the two 1934 sessions while Estes backs Bonds on his last two sessions in 1938 and 1941.On his Decca and Champion sides Bonds was called Brownsville Son Bonds and Brother Son Bonds at his second Decca session which was religious. Nixon gave the following account of Bonds’ death: “He got killed around the same time that Sonny Boy got killed. Sonny Boy got killed in Chicago, Son got killed in Dyersburg. A fellow shot him, he though he was shooting somebody else. Son was sitting on his porch. This guy wore them great thick glasses and he got into it with the guy who lived next door to Son. It was way about 12:00 at night and he though it was the boy who lived next door.” Estes had a different version involving a woman and a plot to get Bonds’ insurance money.

Little is known about Charlie Pickett, who was from Brownsville, TN. Sheldon Harris reported that he was Estes cousin. Hammie Nixon had him performing in a group with Estes, Nixon, and others on the streets of Chicago in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nixon told Kip Lornell in 1975, “He started preaching in St. Louis, been living in St. Louis for a couple of years. I think he’s preaching in Los Angeles now.” Of the song “Let Me Squeeze Your Lemon”,Nixon said, “I will never forget the first time he started playing that song, how he sung a something like, ‘When I got home, another nigger kicking in my stall.’ The bossman told him ‘don’t say that no more!’” He cut four sides for Decca in 1937 backed by Hammie Nixon and Lee Brown.  Pickett also played guitar behind Estes on 19 numbers at sessions in 1937 and 1938. He or Estes may have played guitar behind pianist Lee Green at a 1937 session.

Pianist Lee Brown was another member of the Tennessee musicians who who worked in Estes orbit. As Tony Russell sums up: “…Brown was subsequently more prolific than his modest talent merited.” His lone hit was “Little Girl, Little Girl” from his second 1937 session, sessions at which he backed Estes and Charlie Pickett. Estes backs Brown on two songs from his first session. In all Brown was involved in six sessions that yielded twenty-nine sides with one unissued. He was backed by some top flight backing musicians including Charlie Shavers, Sammy Price, Buster Bailey, Henry Allen, Robert Lee McCoy and Lil Armstrong among others. Brown cut some post-war material including two songs in 1945 for the Chicago label and a session for King in 1946

Show Notes:

In the few years they were popular on race records, over a dozen or so jugbands made scores of records in a variety of different lineups.  Paul Oliver noted that by “half-spitting, half-vocalizing into it a player could produce a fruity, resonant sound not dissimilar to that of a tuba.” Memphis boasted a number of important jugbands including Cannon’s Jug Stomper’s, the Memphis jug band and groups led by Jed Davenport, Jack Kelly and Noah Lewis. Louisville was another rich area that claimed bands such as the Dixieland Jug Blowers, Phillip’s Louisville Jug Band, the Kentucky Jug Band and groups fronted by Clifford Hayes, Earl McDonald and Whistler AKA Buford Threlkeld. The Louisville jug outfits were strongly jazz oriented. Other groups included the Birmingham Jug Band, the Cincinnati Jug Band, King David’s Jug Band, the duo of Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah. The dominant repertoire of the groups was blues but they also performed common-stock tunes, rags, reels and jazz. There were also a few white groups that used jugs.

Dixieland Jug Blowers

The origins of jug bands can be traced to Louisville, Kentucky around the turn of the century. It was around the turn of the century when the Cy Anderson Jug Band first appeared on the streets of Louisville, becoming an immediate smash. Between 1900 and 1909 the band played riverboats, carnivals and parties using Louisville as their home base. It was Earl McDonald who took the reins from the Cy Anderson Jug Band and even took lessons from member B.D. Tite. McDonald formed his own band and proved himself a shrew promoter, headlining dates in New York and Chicago. Also based in Louisville was Clifford Hayes who took up the violin at an early age and joined Earl McDonald’s Louisville Jug Band in 1914. Both men backed singer Sara Martin on ten sides in 1924 listed as Sara Martin and Her Jug Band. The two men had a falling out and thereafter led separate bands. Among the bands Hayes worked with were the Dixieland Jug Blowers and the Old Southern Jug Band.  The Dixieland Jug Blowers were the most sophisticated of the jug bands even employing clarinetist Johnny Dodds on record. Hayes left jugband music for a spell, taking up alto sax in the 20’s but returned to the music and was still leading a jug band when he passed circa 1955.  Vocalist Ben Ferguson and John Harris both recorded with the Louisville Jug Band. Ferguson cut two sides for Victor in 1931 backed by the band while John Harris cut two sides for Victor in 1931 including one with the Louisville Jug Band. These performances featuring Hayes and McDonald were their final collaboration.

Whistler and His Jug Band was a long-lasting and popular group that recorded for several labels from the mid-’20s through the early ’30s, and influenced many of the jug bands that followed. The group was formed in 1915 in Louisville, KY by guitarist, vocalist and whistler Buford Threlkeld. The band first entered the recording studios in September 1924 when they traveled to Richmond, IN to cut several sides for the Gennett label. The second recording trip for Whistler & His Jug Band took them to St. Louis in April 1927. On this trip, the jug band recorded 10 songs for Okeh.  In June, 1931the band got to record in their hometown of Louisville

Memphis Jug Band 2-LP (Yazoo 1067)

The last of the Louisville bands to record was the Phillips Jug Band/Kentucky Jug Band a creation of saxophonist Hooks Tilford. He had previously played in brass bands and worked with Ma Rainey who he recorded with in 1925. The following year he formed his first jug band. He recorded three sessions in 1930 under the name the Phillips Jug Band and the Kentucky Jug Band.

Singer, guitarist and harmonica player Will Shade founded the Memphis Jug Band circa 1925/26 to play in the city’s parks, streets and taverns. The idea was to get together a band “something like the boys in Louisville.” When early in 1927 the Victor record company decided to send a field recording unit into the South to record blues, gospel and white country music, it struck gold in Memphis with the city’s pre-eminent jug band, led by Will Shade, also known as ‘Son Brimmer’. Highly respected A & R man Ralph Peer had visited Memphis some months earlier and had auditioned and been impressed by the Memphis Jug Band. His confidence was rewarded with very good sales of their first two records. They recorded more prolifically than any other jugband, cutting 80 odd sides between 1927-1934. They drew from a large pool of local talent with 19 musicians recorded under the band’s name. An early unrecorded incarnation supposedly included Frank Stokes and Furry Lewis. The bands popularity led them to also perform at political rallies, store openings and other civic affairs. They performed at  gigs at like the Chickasaw Country Club, the Hunt Polo Club and at conventions at the Peabody Hotel. They were also hired regularly by Edward H Crump, the local political boss, for private parties and by food stands and restaurants to attract people. They played on the back of trucks advertising Colonial Bread and Schlitz. By the late 30’s jugband music’s popularity ebbed but Shade was still working into the 1950’s and in the last decade of his life made a number of documentary recordings. Shade passed in 1966.

Two artists connected to the Memphis Jug Band were professional gambler Kaiser Clifton and vaudville veteran Minnie Wallace. Clifton cut four sides for Victor in 1930 backed by members of the Memphis Jug Band including Will Shade. Wallace also cut sides backed by members of the Memphis Jug Band including Will Shade in 1929 and 1935. She cut six sides in total plus several sides that were never issued.

Cannon’s Jug Stompers

With popularity of the Memphis Jug band a number of other jug bands had organized in Memphis, including Cannon’s Jug Stompers, Jed Davenport’s Beale Street Jug Band  and Jack Kelly’s Jug Band (later known as The South Memphis Jug Band). The city boasted at least eight jug bands by the end of the 20’s. Harmonica player and singer Jed Davenport is believed to be a medicine show entertainer who was active in Memphis in the 1920’s and 30’s.  He cut two solo sides in 1929 and six sides in 1930 with his Beale Street Jug Band. This was probably and principally a studio conceived recording group as it included; Joe McCoy, and musical (and for a time life) partner of Memphis Minnie and another singer/guitarist who had already recorded, Henry L. Castle, known as Too Tight Henry, Minnie herself was probably in there somewhere too, playing guitar.Also in 1930 Davenport cut two sides with a group called the Beale Street Rounders. Jack Kelly is believed to be from North Mississippi but spent most of his life in Memphis where he sang on the streets and worked with musicians like Frank Stokes, Dan Sane, Will Batts and later Little Buddy Doyle and Walter Horton. In 1933 he cut 14 sides by the South Memphis Jug Band which included Will Batts on violin, Dan Sane on guitar and D.M. Higgs on jug. He cut ten more sides in 1939 with Batts, and Little Son Joe. Kelly’s last known sides were made in 1952 with Walter Horton for the Sun label titled as by Jackie Boy & Little Walter.

Although they sold fewer records, in musical terms Cannon’s Jug Stompers rivaled the Memphis Jug Band. In the early years of the last century Gus Cannon traveled the South with medicine shows. In the late 1920’s, based in Memphis, he formed Cannon’s Jug Stompers. The band played in the streets and parks of Memphis or in outlying west Tennessee towns like Brownsville and Ripley. Cannon first recorded sides for Paramount with Blind Blake in 1927 before recording in 1928 with the Jug Stompers. The group made their final recordings in 1930. Cannon sang and played banjo and jug with the harmonica blower Noah Lewis playing a prime role and as well as singing on some numbers. In addition to recording with Cannon’s Jug Stomper’s, harmonica blower and singer Noah Lewis cut four solo sides in 1929, two in 1930 as Noah Lewis’s Jug Band and two more in 1930 with Sleepy John Estes. After his recording career, Cannon lived in obscurity for some 30 years until his composition “Walk Right In” was recorded in 1963 by the Rooftop Singers and was a hit. After that he did some further recording including the album Walk Right In in 1963 alongside Will Shade for the Stax label. Cannon passed in 1979.

Johnny Watson AKA Daddy Stovepipe was born in 1867 and was from Mobile, Alabama. He was a traveling musician who played harmonica, guitar and sang. He cut three solo sides in 1924, two in 1927, eight sides in 1931 including two with his wife Mississippi Sarah and a four song 1935 session again with his wife on two numbers. In later years he performed on Chicago’s Maxwell Street where he was last recorded in 1960. Those songs appeared on the album Blues From Maxwell Street that has not been issued on CD. He passed in 196

Stovepipe No. 1 was Sam Jones who played harmonica, guitar and stovepipe and likely was the common denominator in the Cincinnati Jug Band led by Walter Coleman and King David’s Jug Band. Possibly born in the 1880’s he spent his life in Cincinnati. He cut a dozen sides in 1924, with several unissued, plus a few sides in 1927. He recorded as a one-man band, with guitarist David Crockett and with King David’s Jug Band (also featuring Crockett) who cut six sides in 1930 and on the two instrumentals the Cincinnati Jug Band cut in 1929.

Of the lesser know artists on today’s program are the Birmingham Jug Band band who recorded 8 rough and ready sides on December 11, 1930. Jaybird Coleman was once though to be a member of the group but this has largely been discredited. Alabama bluesman Ollis Martin is another name hypothesized to have snad and played harmonica on the band’s records.

Today recordings come primarily from three excellent collections: Ruckus Juice & Chitlins, Vol. 1 &  2: The Great Jug Bands on Yazoo are hands down the best collections of jug band music available with an outstanding track selection, excellent sound and informative notes while JSP’s 4-CD set Memphis Jug Band with Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers is a superb box. JSP’s 4-CD sequel, Memphis Shakedown: More Jug Band Classics is almost equally worthwile.

Show Notes:

Today’s show is the third installment of an ongoing series of programs built around a particular year. The bulk of the information for today’s show notes comes from the books Recording The Blues (reprinted along with two other titles in Yonder Come The Blues) by Robert M.W. Dixon and John Godrich and Blues & Gospel Records, 1890-1943 by Robert M.W. Dixon, John Godrich and Howard Rye.

The first year we spotlighted was 1927 which was the beginning of a blues boom that would last until 1930; there were just 500 blues and gospel records issued in 1927 and increase of fifty percent from 1926 a trend that would continue until the depression. The average blues or gospel record had sales in the region of 10,000. In 1928 the figure was 1,000 or so lower which was still a thriving market. Paramount, the market leader at the time, brought talent up to their northern studios. To feed the demand other record companies conducted exhaustive searches for new talent, which included making trips down south with field recording units. Between 1927-1930 Atlanta was visited seventeen times, Memphis eleven times, Dallas eight times, New Orleans seven times and so on. The record companies advertised their record in black newspapers, mainly in the Chicago Defender, which was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper.

During 1929 Victor and Bluebird were involved in field recording in Dallas where they recorded Jesse Thomas, Bessie Tucker among others and in Memphis where they recorded the Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, Cannon’s Jug Stompers and others and in Atlanta they recorded Blind Willie McTell among a couple others. Columbia and Okeh headed into the field and stopped in Atlanta where they recorded Lillian Glinn, Peg Leg Howell, Barbecue Bob, Sloppy Henry, Hambone, Ed Bell,  Willie Newbern, and in San Antonio they recorded Texas Alexander, Little Hat Jones, Whistlin’ Alex Moore,  Oak Cliff T-Bone (T-Bone Walker) and others. Brunswick and Vocalion ventured in the field to record Leola Manning in Knoxville, Tennessee, Furry Lewis, Speckeld Red, Garfield Akers, Jim Jackson and Joe Callicott in Memphis and Lottie Kimbrough and others in Kansas City, Kansas.

Tampa Red’s  “It’s Tight Like That” was a huge hit in 1928 and was played and copied everywhere. He was in such demand that in 1929 he had 17 new records issued, all on Vocalion. According to Recording The Blues: “Victor and Columbia continued to concentrate on their country blues artists, and gave no signs of noticing that a new urban style was sweeping Chicago. But Paramount, as always, lost no time in exploiting the new craze. They created a group called ‘The Hokum Boys’ (first recorded in December 1928, only a week or two after It’s Tight Like That was released) that had a variable personnel and specialized in Tampa-Red-type numbers – tunes like “Beedle Um Bum”, “Somebody’s Been Using That Thing” and  “It’s All Worn Out.”

Tampa’s nearest rivals were Blind Blake and Leroy Carr, with 10 apiece, and Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, who had 9 each. Tampa was also a much in demand Session artist, heard on today’s program backing Lil Johnson on “House Rent Scuffle” and Romeo Nelson on “Head Rag Hop.” From the year’s other popular artists we spin Blind Blake “Georgia Bound”, Leroy Carr’s “Naptown Blues” and Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “That Crawlin’ Baby Blues.”

The most recorded artist of 1929 was Charlie Patton for Paramount. Paramount’s New york studio having closed down in 1926, artists continued to record in Chicago until, in 1929 new studios were opened in Grafton, Wisconsin; by the end of the year all recordings were made here. Paramount recorded some of the greatest blues performances of the era and full credit should go to talent scouts like Henry C. Spier, a music store owner from Jackson, Mississippi. Speir scoured the south for talent and was responsible for getting Son House, Skip James and Charlie Patton on record. Paramount asked Gennett to record 14 tunes by Patton at their Richmond, Indiana studio in June 1929. “Pony Blues” b/w “Banty Rooster Blues” was the first issued. The coupling was a hit and Paramount labeled his second release, “Screamin’ And Hollerin’ The Blues”, as by The Masked Marvel. The advert bore a drawing of a blindfolded singer and the clue that this was an exclusive paramount artists. Anyone guessing his identity would get a free Paramount record of their choice.  In all, Patton recorded 38 numbers for Paramount in 1929,  some issued the following year, with two gospel songs issued under the pseudonym Elder J.J. Hadley.

Among the notable artists who made their debut in 1929 were Clifford Gibson who recorded 10 sides for QRS and 12 sides for Victor later in the year. “Don’t Put That Thing On Me” from his November 1929 session was advertised in the April 26th, 1930 edition of the Chicago Defender.  Also debuting that year was Garfield Akers backed by Joe Callicott who waxed the classic “Cottonfield Blues” Pts. 1 & 2 for Vocalion which was advertised in the February 2nd, 1930 Chicago Defender. Don Kent praised “Cottonfield Blues,” saying “only a handful of guitar duets in all blues match the incredible drive, intricate rhythms and ferocious intensity.” He also called Akers “one of the greatest vocalists in blues history.” Other debuts included the mysterious but excellent Gene Campbell, terrific barrelhouse  players Romeo Nelson and Montana Taylor and  singer Lil Johnson among others. Others who made their debut will be spotlighted on a follow-up show including Roosevelt Sykes, Henry Townsend, Speckled Red, Sleepy Johns Estes and others. 1929 was a very good year for barrelhouse piano and in addition to those mentioned, we also play classic performances by Bob Call, Blind Leroy Garnett, Lonnie Clark and Eddie Miller. Others will be spotlight on sequels including Cow Cow Davenport, Will Ezell, Wesley Wallace, Pine Top Smith and several others.

Show Notes:

Today’s show is a continuing series on forgotten blues heroes; those artists who perhaps don’t have enough sides for a full a feature and lesser-known figures that don’t fit into our other themed shows. Today we spotlight six superb little-recorded artists who cut sides in the 1920’s and 30’s: Willie Newbern, William Harris, Blind Joe Reynolds, King Solomon Hill, Luke Jordan and Geeshie Wiley. All of these artists are cut 78’s that are highly regarded among collectors and not coincidentally these records are exceedingly rare, in some cases only one known copy exists.

Little is known about blues songster Hambone Willie Newbern who waxed half-dozen sides at two sessions on consecutive days for Okeh, among those six is the first-ever rendition of the immortal Delta classic “Roll and Tumble Blues.” According to Sleepy John Estes, who knew him, he was born in 1899 and first began to make a name for himself in the Brownsville, TN area, where he played country dances and fish fries in the company of Yank Rachell and later  Sleepy John Estes . While in Atlanta in 1929, Newbern cut his lone session; in addition to “Roll and Tumble,” which became an oft-covered standard, he recorded songs like “She Could Toodle-Oo” and “Hambone Willie’s Dreamy-Eyed Woman’s Blues,” which suggest an old-fashioned rag influence. By all reports an extremely ill-tempered man, Newbern’s behavior eventually led him to prison, where a brutal beating is said to have brought his life to an end around 1947.

Little has been discovered about William Harris who cut fourteen issued sides at four sessions for Gannet in 1927 and 1928. Two sides were never issued, “No Black Woman Can Sleep In My Cowlot” and “T.B. Blues” while several have yet to be found: “Nothin’ Right Blues (Bearing In Mind)”, “Gonna Get Me A Woman That I Calls My Own”, “I’m A Roamin’ Gambler” and “I Was Born In The Country, Raised In Town.” Harris is thought to be from Glendora, Mississippi. He made his first recordings in Birmingham, Alabama, and may have worked around that city. Accounts suggest that Harris was a performer with F.S. Wolcott’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels and that he may have traveled the medicine show circuit. When gayle Dean Wardlow played some of his records to some older Mississippi musicians they commented that he must have been from Mississippi. “That’s pure Delta blues there”, commented bluesman Booker Miller. Guitarist Hayes McMullen recalls witnessing him at a house party at the Wildwood Plantation in Mississippi in 1927. Wardlow’s research on Harris can be found in the article “‘Big Foot’ William Harris” in 78 Quarterly No. 3, 1988.

Geeshie Wiley is another mysterious figure whose background remains a cipher. 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.” Wiley recorded just two 78’s in 1930 and 1931, both highly sought after and worth a fortune to 78 record collectors. There are no known photographs and little is known about her. Ishman Bracey provides what little we know about her: “She lived ’round there on John Hart Street for a while. Charlie McCoy got her for his old lady. She could play on the guitar as good as on that record [Eagles On A Half, Pm 13074]. She said she was from Natchez; close by Natchez was her home. She didn’t stay here long, couple of months and she done left.” According to Bracey, she hailed from the vicinity of Natchez. In the 1920’s she spent three months in Jackson as a resident of John Hart Street; while there, she played in a medicine show. “She could play a guitar, but she had a guitar player with her,” Bracey recalled. “She’d play a guitar, and a ukulele too.” Wiley recorded “Last Kind Word Blues” and “Skinny Leg Blues” in Grafton, Wisconsin for Paramount Records in March of 1930, with Elvie Thomas backing her on second guitar. Thomas also recorded two songs for Paramount at the session, “Motherless Child Blues” and “Over to My House,” Wiley, providing second guitar and vocal harmonies. In 1931 Wiley and Thomas returned to Grafton to record two more sides for Paramount, “Pick Poor Robin Clean” and “Eagles on a Half.”

King Solomon Hill signed to the Paramount label in 1932, soon traveling to Grafton, Wisconsin to record six tracks – two of them alternate takes – which comprise his known discography; songs like the eerie “Gone Dead Train” and “Down On MY Bended Knee” are masterly performances featuring Hill’s eerie falsetto and raw, unorthodox guitar work. In 2002 collector John Tefteller went to Grafton and discovered the long lost Hill 78 “My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon”b/w “Times Has Done Got Hard” in mint condition. Not much is known of Hill – whose real name was Joe Holmes. He was closely connected to Sam Collins and traveled with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Rambling Thomas. He roamed through Louisiana and Texas playing and in 1932 was invited to record for Paramount along with Ben Curry and Marshall Owens. After this lone session, Hill returned to the juke joint circuit, eventually vanishing from sight; reputedly a heavy drinker, he died of a massive brain hemorrhage in Sibley, Louisiana in 1949. Blues detective Gayle Dean Wardlow uncovered probably everything we’re likely to know about him as published in King Solomon Hill (78 Quarterly no. 1 (1967): 5-9) and One Last Walk Up King Solomon Hill (Blues Unlimited no. 148 (Winter 1987): 8-12) both reprinted in the book Chasin’ That Devil Music.

In their grounbreaking article He’s A Devil Of A Joe (Blues Unlimited No. 146, 1984 and reissued in the book Chasin’ That Devil Music) Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow write : “Perhaps the brashest and bawdiest blues singer of the pre-war blues era was the mysterious guitarist known to posterity as Blind Joe Reynolds, composer of the minor rock hit ‘Outside Woman Blues.’ Blind Joe was the rare figure who not only lived up to his church stereotype as a sinner, but flaunted social taboos with positive relish.” In November 1929 at the Paramount Recording Studios in Grafton, Wisconsin, four songs were recorded by a Louisiana street musician named Joe Sheppard who, on the run from the law, used the name Blind Joe Reynolds. Within a year, the four songs were released on two records. Neither record sold well, but almost 40 years later, one of the two attracted the attention of Eric Clapton who heard the song “Outside Woman Blues” on a reissue album. In 1967, Clapton and his Cream bandmates Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce recorded a more modern day version of “Outside Woman Blues” on their classic LP Disraeli Gears. The second record recorded in Wisconsin on that day, “Ninety Nine Blues” b/w “Cold Woman Blues” had been lost since it was first released in October of 1930. No copies in any condition were ever located until just a few years ago. Bruce Smith, a school teacher from Ohio with an appreciation for old blues records, was attending a teachers’ conference in Nashville. With an hour to kill before catching a flight home from a school conference, he wandered into the Nashville Flea Market and found the record in a stack of old 78’s. The other song cut that day was “Nehi Blues.” He was back in the studio a year later cutting four more numbers: “Married Woman Blues”, “Third Street Woman Blues, “Short Dress Blues” and “Goose Hill Woman Blues”, the latter two were never issued.

The blues of Luke Jordan “had a beautiful sweetness and a kind of wry wistfulness that made them unforgettable,” according to Samuel Charters in Sweet as the Showers of Rain. Research by Bruce Bastin tells us that Luke Jordan was an important figure in and around Lynchburg, Virginia, highly regarded for his skillful, cleanly-picked guitar style. Although very few African American blues musicians from this region managed to record, Jordan was discovered by Victor Records around the age of 35. He traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, in August 1927, to record several sides for that label. His records sold well enough that Victor decided to bring him to New York for two further sessions in November of 1929. Two sides were unissued: “Look Up, Look Down” and “That’s A Plenty.” Like the other artists profiled today Jordan’s records are very rare. His “Pick Poor Robin Clean” (Victor 20957) sold only 5,973 copies and there is only one known copy of  “If I Call You Mama” b/w “Tom Brown Sits In His Prison Cell” (Victor 23400) which first surfaced in the 1990’s. Most recently, the James River Blues Society has recognized Luke Jordan as a important figure in Virginia blues by erecting a historical marker in his honor in downtown Lynchburg.

Show Notes:

Today’s show is the second installment of an ongoing series of programs built around a particular year. The bulk of the information for today’s show notes comes from the books Recording The Blues (reprinted along with two other titles in Yonder Come The Blues) by Robert M.W. Dixon and John Godrich and Blues & Gospel Records, 1890-1943 by Robert M.W. Dixon, John Godrich and Howard Rye.

The first year we spotlighted was 1927 which was the beginning of a blues boom that would last until 1930; there were just 500 blues and gospel records issued in 1927 and increase of fifty percent from 1926 a trend that would continue until the depression. The average blues or gospel record had sales in the region of 10,000. In 1928 the figure was 1,000 or so lower which was still a thriving market. Paramount, the market leader at the time, brought talent up to their northern studios. To feed the demand other record companies conducted exhaustive searches for new talent, which included making trips down south with field recording units. Between 1927-1930 Atlanta was visited seventeen times, Memphis eleven times, Dallas eight times, New Orleans seven times and so on. The record companies advertised their record in black newspapers, mainly in the Chicago Defender, which was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper.

During the peak years there were five major companies issuing records for the race market: Okeh, Columbia, Paramount, Brunswick-Balke-Collender (encompassing Brunswick and Vocalion (a division of Gennett). Victor was the only label  to systematically exploit the the blues talent around Memphis. Their second visit there, in January and February 1928, yielded three times as much material as their initial 1927 visit. Among those recorded were Blind Willie McTell, Jim Jackson, Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, Tommy Johnson, Ishman Bracey, Furry Lewis, Cannon’s Jug Stompers among many others. In August alone the label cut some 180 sides, mostly by black artists.

Jim Jackson’s “Kansas City Blues” was the massive hit of 1927 and in 1928 that honor went to “How Long How Long Blues” by Leroy Carr and “It’ Tight like That” by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, both records issued by Vocalion. The highly suggestive “It’ Tight like That” was cut in September of 1928 which was just a few months after Vocalion dropped their tag “Better and Cleaner Race Records.” Vocalion also cut several sides by Leroy Carr’s guitarist, Scrapper Blackwell in 1928. In 1928 Brunswick recorded Bo Carter, Fannie Mae Goosby and Hattie Burleson among others.

In 1926 Columbia and OKeh merged but the labels were run by separate management for three years after the merger and did not compete for the same artists. Since 1927 OKeh had been issuing a new record every six weeks by Lonnie Johnson and issued some two-dozen sides by him in 1927 and about half that number in 1928. After the takeover by Columbia, OKeh made no field recordings until 1928 when they visited Memphis where they recorded blues singers such as Tom Dickson and the now legendary recordings by Mississippi John Hurt. They also recorded Sloppy Henry and Uncle Bud Walker in Atlanta a few months afterwards. Lonnie Johnson went with the unit, himself recording in both Memphis and san Antonio. In San Antonio he backed Texas Alexander who OKeh had initially recorded in New York the previous August. Columbia also made field recordings in Atlanta and Dallas where they recorded blues singers such as Barbecue Bob and his brother Charley Lincoln, Pink Anderson with Simmie Dooley, Peg Leg Howell, Curley Weaver, Lillian Glinn among many others.

The only race company that made no field trips was Paramount. Despite this Paramount remained the market leader in records released and singers recorded. Paramount issued records by the many of the blues biggest stars.

Show Notes:

Today’s show is the first installment of an ongoing series of programs built around a particular year. The bulk of the information for today’s show notes comes from the books Recording The Blues (reprinted along with two other titles in Yonder Come The Blues) by Robert M.W. Dixon and John Godrich and Blues & Gospel Records, 1890-1943 by Robert M.W. Dixon, John Godrich and Howard Rye.

The year 1927 was the beginning of a blues boom that would last until 1930; there were just 500 blues and gospel records issued in 1927 and increase of fifty percent from 1926 a trend that would continue until the depression. Paramount, the market leader at the time, brought talent up to their northern studios. To feed the demand other record companies conducted exhaustive searches for new talent, which included making trips down south with field recording units. Between 1927-1930 Atlanta was visited seventeen times, Memphis eleven times, Dallas eight times, New Orleans seven times and so on. The record companies advertised their record in black newspapers, mainly in the Chicago Defender, which was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper.

After neglecting the race market, Victor decided to jump in the field in 1926 with negligible results. Victor’s fortunes turned around when they hired Ralph Peer who had been responsible for building up the race and hilliby catalogs for OKeh. In February 1927 Peer ventured out with the Victor filed unit to Atlanta, Memphis and finally New Orleans. Among the artists recorded in Memphis were the Memphis Jug Band, Furry Lewis and Frank Stokes. In Atlanta recordings were made by Julius Daniels, Blind Willie McTell and others. In New Orleans the major find was songster Richard “Rabbit” Brown who recorded six sides.

Early in 1927 Mayo Williams, who had built up the Paramount catalog, formed his Black Patti label. The recordings were made by Gennett, with half the material issued on Gennett’s own labels. Black Patti Records debuted with advertisements in May of 1927, with some two dozen discs said to already be available. The repertory included jazz, blues, sermons, spirituals, and vaudeville skits, most (but not quite all) by African American entertainers. A total of 55 different discs were manufactured. Williams found running his own label not as lucrative and easy as he had hoped, and closed up operations before the end of 1927. Among the notable blues artists recorded were Papa Harvey Hull, Sam Collins, Clara Smith, Jaybird Collins among others.

When Black Patti folded in August 1927, Vocalion quickly hired him as a talent scout. Williams hit pay dirt with Jim Jackson’s “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues” which was released in December 1927 and was an immediate hit.

Gennett began recording blues in 1923 but was the only major label not to have a separate race series. Gennett recorded most of their recordings at their Richmond, Indiana and New York studios. They made one group of recordings in the South in Birmingham Alabama in 1927. Among those recorded during this trip were Jay Bird Coleman, Daddy Stovepipe,, William Harris and Joe Evans.Other artists to appear on the label included Sam Collins and Cow Cow Davenport.

Columbia’s race records  were primarily issued on the 1400-D series which ran from December 1923 through April 1933. The first country blues singer to appear on the series was Peg Leg Howell who was recorded in Atalanta in November 1926 and the following year in April.  Also recorded in April 1927 were Robert Hicks aka Barbecue Bob. According to Robert M.W. Dixon John Godrich in their book Recording The Blues, 10, 850 copies of “Barbecue Blues” b/w “Cloudy Sky Blues” were pressed. Initial sales were so good that Hicks was called to New York in the middle of June to record 8 more numbers, and when Columbia returned to Atlanta in November they not only recorded a further 8 selections by Barbecue Bob, but also 6 by his brother Charley Lincoln, who sang the same sort of songs in very much the same style. In December 1927 the Columbia field unti went to Dallas and Memphis.  Notable artists recorded in Dallas inluded Blind Willie Johnson, the Dallas String Band, Lillian Glinn while Memphis yielded important recordings by Reubin Lacy and Pearl Dickson.

In 1926 Columbia and OKeh merged but the labels were run by separate management for three years after the merger and did not compete for the same artists. Since 1927 OKeh had been issuing a new record every six weeks by Lonnie Johnson and issued some two-dozen sides by him in 1927. Johnson also backed other OKeh artists that year including Texas Alexander and Victoria Spivey. OKeh also recorded two sessions by Blind Lemon Jefferson, exclusively a Paramount artist, but these were never issued. Today’s show features tracks by all these artists as well as the duo of Butterbeans & Susie who cut close to 70 sides for the label between 1924 and 1930.

The only race company that made no field trips was Paramount. Despite this Paramount remained the market leader in records released and singers recorded. Paramount issued records by the many of the blues biggest stars. In 1927 the label issued records by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake both of whom were extensivley advertised in the Chicago Defender. Other big names were Ma Rainey, Lucille Bogan Ida Cox, and Papa Charlie Jackson.

Show Notes:

Charlie McCoy ranked among the great blues accompanists of his era and his deft mandolin/guitar work can be heard on numerous recordings from the late 1920’s through the early 1940’s. His younger brother Joe McCoy was another great sideman whose slide style was most notably preserved on the landmark recordings he cut with his wife Memphis Minnie between 1929 and 1934. Charlie McCoy was recording regularly by the late 1920’s, often alongside Walter Vincson and sat in with many other Delta bluesmen that passed through the Jackson area in the years to follow, appearing on guitar and mandolin. He made notable recordings on mandolin backing  Ishman Bracey, Tommy Johnson, his sister-in-law Memphis Minnie, Big Bill Broonzy, Curtis Jones, Monkey Joe, Mary Butler and others. Between 1936 and 1939 he also cut a number of sessions with the groups Papa Charlie’s Boys and the Harlem Hamfats, the latter featuring Joe McCoy as lead vocalist on most sides. Charlie McCoy also cut scattered sides under his own name between 1929 and 1935, some with his brother, but made no more recordings after 1942, passing in 1950, at the age of 44. Joe McCoy died of heart disease in Chicago, only a few months before his brother Charlie. They are both buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Today’s program spans the years 1928 through 1942, finding the brothers playing in a wide variety of settings and styles.

Jackson, Mississippi in the 1920’s was a city with a vibrant blues scene, teeming with 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.”

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy

The years 1927-31 saw the first commercial recordings of many of the Jackson musicians. Most extensively recorded were the Chatmons, Walter Vincson and Joe and Charlie McCoy. McCoy first recorded in 1928, strictly as an accompanist, backing singer Rosie Mae Moore, Tommy Johnson and Ishman Bracey, all of whom are featured in our opening set. Moore was a powerful, rough voiced singer who receives excellent guitar support from McCoy stretches out quite a bit on “School Girl Blues”, “Staggering Blues”and who’s playing owes a strong debt to Rube Lacey. Better yet were the four magnificent songs he backed Tommy Johnson on over a two day period: “Cool Drink of Water Blues” “Big Road Blues”, “Bye, Bye Blues” and “Maggie Campbell Blues.” McCoy’s second guitar is superb, not only duplicating Johnson’s guitar part but as, David Evans notes, uses “a flat pick and often strums the strings like a mandolin on his bass part, occasionally doing the same on the treble strings as a beautiful contrast.” McCoy also backed Bracey in very similar fashion on his two numbers, “Saturday Blues” and “Left Alone Blues.” Johnson, Bracey and McCoy returned on Friday, August 31, 1928 for another session for Victor. For whatever reason McCoy didn’t back Johnson but did play mandolin on Bracey’s “Trouble Hearted Blues” and “Brown Mama Blues.” McCoy’s playing is subdued on the beautiful, somber “Trouble Hearted Blues” but his bold, rippling mandolin is heard loud and clear on the equally fine “Brown Mama Blues.”

Between 1928-1931 Charlie played on a variety of sides, many string band related, in the company of Walter Vincson and Bo Carter. In November 1928 Carter, McCoy and an unknown pianist backed singer Alec Johnson on four of six sides. Johnson’s music harks back to an earlier pre-blues era. As Tony Russell notes they “form a lively and expressive pit orchestra to accompany a set of antique minstrel songs and a couple of blues.” McCoy’s playing is superb on the blues”Miss Meal Cramp Blues” and older sounding material like “Sister Maud Mule”, and he rather discomforting “Mysterious Coon.” Also in November of the same year Carter, Vincson and McCoy backed singer Mary Butler on four numbers. Butler may in fact be Rosie Mae Moore who McCoy backed in February of the same year. McCoy plays mandolin on three of the four tracks including the tough minded “Electrocuted Blues (Electric Chair Blues)”, “Bungalow Blues” and “Mary Blues.” The session isn’t quite as strong as the earlier session.

With Walter Vincson he cut sides as the Mississippi Mud Steppers, with the addition of guitarist Sam Hill (plus Bo Carter and Sam Chatmon on one track) as the Mississippi Blacksnakes and with Carter and Vincson as the Jackson Blue Boys. With the Mississippi Mud Steppers he cut the remarkable instrumental “Jackson Stomp”, based on the seminal “Cow Cow Blues”, (the song was modified as “The Lonesome Train That Took My Baby Away” at a Charlie McCoy session with Bo Carter on guitar). The song is a dazzling, virtuoso mandolin performance. McCoy further showcases his versatility on a trio of waltzes, playing mandolin on “Alma Waltz (Ruby Waltz)” and plays banjo on two numbers. With the Mississippi Blacksnakes his robust mandolin is heard on the bawdy “Grind So Fine” and the country tinged “Blue Sky Blues” both boasting terrific vocals from Vincson. Two days after the first Blacksnakes session the group recorded again with Bo Carter as the vocalist and either McCoy or Sam Hill on guitar. This is a bluesier session with McCoy again on mandolin/banjo with his mandolin heard in fine form on “It Still Ain’t No Good (New It Ain’t No Good)” and “Easy Going Woman Blues.” One more song by the group, “Bye Bye Baby Blues”, was cut the following day featuring fine slide from McCoy. The two tracks cut as the Jackson Blue Boys are interesting for featuring singing from Carter, Vincson and McCoy in unison and taking solo turns with McCoy playing mandolin.

Between 1929-1936 Charlie cut scattered sides under his own name or as lead in various bands. By the early 1930’s many of the Jackson musicians began to disperse, either heading to the delta or like Johnnie Temple and Charlie McCoy to Chicago. By 1932 all of McCoy’s recordings were waxed up North. He did cut several sessions between 1929-1930 in Memphis and Jackson. The bulk of the recordings again feature McCoy’s pals Walter Vincson and Bo Carter on material that ranges from hokum, blues and string band. Billed as Charlie McCoy with Chatman’s Mississippi Hot Footers they cut hokum sides in the vein of the immensely popular “It’s Tight Like That” such as “It Ain’t No Good – Part 1 & II” and “It Is So Good – Part 1 & II” the latter sporting prominent mandolin from McCoy. When not sharing the vocals with his partners, McCoy proves himself a fine reedy singer on straight blues numbers such as “You Gonna Need Me” and the superb “Last Time Blues” where he lays down some watery slide playing. With Carter on violin McCoy delivers “Your Valves Need Grinding”managing to sound wistful and racy at the same time, the string band blues of “Blue Heaven Blues” and takes it solo on the low down “Gland Hand Blues” framed by some imaginative guitar figures. The highlight from a December 15, 1930 session is “That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away” a rippling mandolin showcase based on the theme of “Cow Cow Blues” and wonderfully sung by McCoy. Four days later, on a duet with Bo Carter, he cut a pair of interesting topical numbers: “The Northern Starvers Are Returning Home” and “Mississippi I’m Longing For You” both with a strong country feel.

By the early 1930’s Charlie was in Chicago where he settled in as a much in demand session musician although he managed a few sides under his own name. In February 1930, As Papa Charlie McCoy, he cut the excellent “Times Ain’t What They Used To Be” playing terrific banjo with guitar from either his brother Joe or Tampa Red. The following day, with Georgia Tom on piano, he cut “Too Long” an insinuating, bluesy pop song that proved to be a sizable hit. In 1934 under the pseudonym Mississippi Mudder he waxed the bouncy “Candy Man Blues”, the wonderful hard time blues of “Charity Blues” featuring some strong piano from Chuck Segar, “Baltimore Blues” a variation on the “Sweet Old Kokomo/Sweet Home Chicago” theme with brother Joe on guitar and the moody slide driven “Motherless & Fatherless Blues.” In 1936 he led a group listed as Papa Charlie’s Boys (Papa Charlie); McCoy is in superb form on vocal and jazzy mandolin on a sparkling remake of “Too Long”, “Let My Peaches Be” and “You Can’t Play Me Cheap” laying down some acrobatic mandolin solos, and the heartfelt “Gypsy Woman Blues.”

Joe McCoy was well known for his association with his wife Memphis Minnie where he played the part of Kansas Joe. During the late 1920’s Minnie began playing guitar with a variety of ad hoc jug bands during the jug band craze. Minnie also began a common law marriage with Kansas Joe McCoy. Their very first session yielded the hit song “Bumble Bee” (later recorded by Muddy Waters as “Honey Bee”), and McCoy would be her musical partner for the next six years. Between 1929 and 1934 (they divorced in early 1935) they cut around one hundred sides together. Joe McCoy never recorded under his own name, instead performing under various pseudonyms; Georgia Pine Boy, Hallelujah Joe, Big Joe McCoy and His Washboard Band, and The Mississippi Mudder. Other names he used from time to time included Hillbilly Plowboy, Mud Dauber Joe and Hamfoot Ham.

After Joe and Minnie separated Joe occupied himself in small bands, singing with the Harlem Hamfats, working as a songwriter and working with his brother Charlie. The Harlem Hamfats were based in Chicago, and were put together by record producer and entrepreneur J. Mayo Williams simply for the purpose of making studio recordings. The band usually consisted of: Joe McCoy (guitar, vocals), Charlie McCoy (guitar, mandolin), Herb Morand (trumpet, vocals), John Lindsay (bass), Odell Rand (clarinet), Horace Malcolm (piano), Freddie Flynn and Pearlis Williams (drums). The band’s sound blended blues, dixieland and swing jazz. Led by Morand and Joe McCoy, the main songwriters, the group initially provided instrumental backing to artists including Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon, Rosetta Howard, and Johnny Temple. Their first major hits were “Oh! Red”, recorded in April 1936, and “Let’s Get Drunk And Truck” (originally recorded by Tampa Red), recorded in August of the same year. “Oh! Red” was popular enough to be covered by Count Basie, The Ink Spots, Blind Willie McTell and, later, Howlin’ Wolf.

Joe and Charlie recorded, with Joe as lead bill, for Decca in 1934 as The Mississippi Mudder (Mud Dauber Joe) on notable numbers like “Evil Devil Woman Blues” a smoother version of Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” with mandolin like guitar from Charlie and “Going Back Home Blues” strongly influenced by Tommy Johnson. Three sessions in 1941-1942 are listed as Big Joe And His Rhythm a group containing, at times, Robert Lee McCoy, Washboard Sam, Ransom Knowling, Alfred Elkins, Amanda Sortier and Harman Ray. The music is hard to define with Tony Russell dubbing it “skiffle Blues” and describing it this way: “the blend of perky harmonica, stolid rhythm guitar and washboard produces an unusual but shallow ensemble sound and, although it is somewhat freshened by the addition of Charlie McCoy’s mandolin…the half dozen examples…may for some listeners be all the late Joe McCoy they need.” Overall the music is entertaining particularity a follow-up to the Hamfat’s popular “Oh! Red” in “Oh Red’s Twin Brother”, the prominent mandolin of “I’ll Get You Off My Mind” and “It Ain’t No Lie” once again featuring the “Cow Cow Blues” motif and “Bessie Lee Blues.”

Show Notes:

During his heyday in the 1920’s and 30’s, Tampa Red was billed as “The Guitar Wizard,” and his stunning slide work on steel National or electric guitar shows why he earned the title. His 25 year recording career produced hundreds of sides: hokum, pop, and jive, but mostly blues (including classic compositions “Anna Lou Blues,” “Black Angel Blues,” “Crying Won’t Help You,” “It Hurts Me Too,” and “Love Her with a Feeling”). Early in Red’s career, he teamed up with pianist, songwriter, and latter-day gospel composer Georgia Tom Dorsey, collaborating on double entendre classics like “Tight Like That.” Tampa’s slide playing was widely admired and influential on the likes of Robert Nighthawk, Elmore James and Earl Hooker. Jim O’Neal neatly summed up Tampa’s place in blues history when he wrote the following in 1975: “Few figures have been as important in blues history as Tampa Red; yet no bluesman of such stature has been so ignored by today’s blues audience. As a composer, recording artist, musical trendsetter and one of the premier urban blues guitarists of his day, Tampa Red remained popular with black record buyers for more than 20 years and exerted considerable influence on many post-World War II blues stars who earned greater acclaim for playing Tampa’s songs than Tampa himself often did.”

Tampa was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia with various birth dates given between 1900 and 1908. His parents died when he was a child, and he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he was raised by his aunt and grandmother and adopted their surname, Whittaker. He emulated his older brother, Eddie, who played guitar, and he was especially inspired by an old street musician called Piccolo Pete, who first taught him to play blues licks on a guitar. In the 1920’s, having already perfected his slide technique, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began his career as a musician, adopting the name “Tampa Red” from his childhood home and red hair.

In the 1920’s, having already perfected his slide technique, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began his career as a musician. His big break was being hired to accompany Ma Rainey and he began recording in 1928. In 1928 Whittaker, through the intercession of J. Mayo “Ink” Williams, teamed up with pianist Thomas Dorsey a. k. a. Georgia Tom and recorded the Paramount label hit “Tight Like That”-a number based upon Blind Blake’s “Too Tight” and Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Shake That Thing.” With “It’s Tight Like That”, in a bawdy and humorous style that became known as “hokum.” The success of “Tight Like That” prompted several other record other versions for Paramount, and initiated the blues genre known as hokum Early recordings were mostly collaborations with Thomas A. Dorsey, known at the time as Georgia Tom. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom recorded almost 60 sides, sometimes as “The Hokum Boys” or, with Frankie Jaxon, as “Tampa Red’s Hokum Jug Band”. Tampa had actually met Georgia Tom around 1925 and Tom recalled those early years: “We played Memphis, I think Louisville, down to Nashville; we was down in Tennessee, or in Mississippi just across he line. We recorded in Memphis at the Peabody Hotel in 1929), and I left him down in Memphis and he got another week’s at the Palace Theater there. They liked him so well they hired him with just he and his guitar. …We played just anywhere. Party, theater, dance hall, juke joint. All black. See we wasn’t high-powered enough. Other fellows who were in the high music echelon got those jobs with the whites. The money was bigger up there.” Outside the studio Tom and Tampa worked together or separately joined sometime by their frequent studio partner, Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon who primarily played the night clubs.

In 1928, Tampa Red became the one of the first bluesmen to play a National steel-bodied resonator guitar, the loudest and showiest guitar available before amplification; acquiring one in the first year they were available. This allowed him to develop his trademark bottleneck style, playing single string runs, not block chords, which was a precursor to later blues and rock guitar soloing. The National guitar he used was a gold-plated tricone, which was found in Illinois in the 1990s and later sold to the “Experience Music Project” in Seattle. Tampa Red was known as “The Man With The Gold Guitar”, and, into the 1930s, he was billed as “The Guitar Wizard”.

When Dorsey left the blues field in 1932 to take up a career as gospel songwriter and choir director, Tampa continued his path of fame as blues artist. In 1934 he launched his fruitful career with the Victor/Bluebird label. Following the repeal of prohibition in 1933, venues for blues music proliferated in Chicago, and Tampa Red became one of the city’s hottest live acts, often with the backing of his band, the Chicago Five. With his close friends Big Bill Broonzy and Lester Melrose, a producer for Bluebird Records, Tampa Red was a leader of the Chicago scene. In 1934 he signed for Victor Records. He formed the Chicago Five, a group of session musicians who created what became known as the Bluebird sound, a precursor of the small group style of later jump blues and rock and roll bands. He was a close friend and associate of Big Bill Broonzy and Big Maceo Merriweather. His wife, Frances, acted as his business manager, and Tampa’s house served as the blues community’s rehearsal hall and an informal booking agency. According to the testimony of Broonzy and Big Joe Williams, Red cared for other musicians by offering them a meal and a place to stay and generally easing their transition from country to city life. A frequent visitor to Whittaker’s apartment, Willie Dixon recalled, in I Am the Blues, how “Tampa Red’s house was a madhouse with old-time musicians. Lester Melrose would be drinking all the time and Tampa Red’s wife would be cooking chicken.” After the signing with Victor/bluebird Tampa stuck to Chicago and found steady work at a club across the street from his house called the H&T. Blind John Davis, who met Tampa in 1936, recalled: “Tampa’s the onliest one I know could could close his eyes and run across the street and run right into his job. And he worked there for about eight or nine years.”

Through the 1940’s Tampa remained a prime seller among black audiences with hits like “Let Me Play With Your Poodle” and “She Wants To Sell My Monkey.” During his Bluebird stint, between 1934 and 1953, he recorded over 200 sides. In addition to recordings he regularly played the clubs such as Club Georgia, the Flame Club, Sylvio’s, the Purple Cat , the 708 club, the Zanzibar, the Peacock and the C&T Lounge all of which were black clubs on Chicago’s South and West sides. Tampa’s music continued to evolve as Jim O’Neal notes: “…He was right there swinging with horns when big band jump blues were in fashion, and he had the boogie numbers down, too; even on his last Victor sessions he had adapted to the mainstream ’50’s Chicago blues sound with featured harmonica backing from Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) and Big Walter Horton. He was following trends, but setting them too with numbers that many other bluesmen were to re-record in later years. …Less frequently was Tamap a solo act; Big Maceo teamed up with him for for a while, and after Maceo suffered a stroke, Sunnyland Slim filled in until Maceo’s protege  Johnnie Jones took over on piano. By now Tampa also had added support from a drummer, Odie Payne Jr., and Johnnie would sing about half the numbers when he, Tampa, and Odie worked the Peacock and the C&T in 1949. Johnnie also sang on at least a dozen of Tampa’s later records.” His last hit was 1949’s “When Things Go Wrong With You (it Hurts Me Too)” which briefly hit the national R&B charts. By the early 1950’s Tampa rarely played the clubs anymore and he made his final commercial recording for Victor in 1953.

Left to right, standing: Jazz Gillum, Tampa Red and Little Bill Gaither. Sitting: Jack Dupree and Big Bill with Tampa’s dog which “drank whiskey just like we did and helped us sing.”

His wife’s death in 1953 was a blow from which Tampa Red never recovered. He had always been a heavy drinker, and his alcoholism became acute. Like many of his contemporaries, he was “rediscovered” by a new audience in the late 1950s. At this time, Samuel Charters also encountered the once-famed guitarist. In his work Country Blues, Charters recalled Whittaker’s life during this period of musical retirement: “He lives quietly, a dignified, gentle little man, usually wearing a buttoned sweater, his shoes carefully polished. He spends his afternoons visiting friends, walking along the rows of brownstone apartments that line the streets of his neighborhood, a scarf carefully folded around his neck and his overcoat collar turned up. He still owns a guitar, but hasn’t played much in recent years.” He went back into the studio in 1960 [two solo records for Prestige/Bluesville], but his final recordings were undistinguished.” He showed little interest in returning to music or talking to interviewers. Tampa passed away in Chicago in 1981.

Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus? (MP3)

As we creep closer to Christmas we turn our attention to a pair of uplifting Christmas sermons advertised in the December 17th, 1927 edition of the Chicago Defender: Rev. J.M. Gates’ “Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus?” and Rev. A.W. Nix’s “Death May Be Your Christmas Present.” The idea of Christmas themed blues and gospel numbers stretches back to the very dawn of the recorded genres. “Hooray for Christmas” exclaims Bessie Smith to kick off her soon to be classic “At The Christmas Ball”, which inaugurated the Christmas blues tradition when it was recorded in November 1925 for Columbia. A year later, circa December 1926, the gospel Christmas tradition was launched when the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers recorded “Silent Night, Holy Night” for Paramount Records. After these recordings it was off to the races with numerous Christmas blues numbers recorded by singers of all stripes, a pace that continued as blues evolved into R&B and then rock and roll. For some reason there’s far fewer gospel Christmas songs although there were plenty of Christmas sermons in the 1920’s and 1930’s when recorded sermons rivaled blues in popularity among black audiences. Going hand in hand with Christmas is quite a number of New Year’s songs, a good vehicle for juxtaposing the problems of the past year with the glimmer of hope that that the upcoming year will bring better fortune. In fact the other side of Rev. Nix’s selection is “Mind Your Own Business (A New year’s Sermon).” Whether these artists sung these numbers as part of their regular repertoire is unclear but it’s almost certainly the case that many of these songs were recorded at the prompting of the record companies. Like any business they were always looking for a new angle or gimmick to sell records and advertised these boldly, often with full-page ads, in black newspapers like the Chicago Defender. Just about every November and December the Chicago Defender had advertisements either for specific blues and gospel Christmas records or more general ads from record companies wishing buyers holiday greetings. For example Paramount placed large sized ads wishing Christmas greetings which featured pictures of the label’s stars like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson and Blind Blake among others. In Paramount’s 1928 late fall Dealers’ Supplement the label advertised scores of “CHRISTMAS, SPIRITUAL AND SERMON RECORDS THAT ARE DEPENDABLE SALES PRODUCERS” and warned that they “SHOULD BE IN YOUR STOCKS NOW.” As for Rev. Gates he was advertised in the Chicago Defender twenty-seven times between 1926 and 1930 while Rev. A.W. Nix was advertised on ten different occasions between 1927 and 1928.

The popularity of recorded sermons is explained in the book Recording The Blues: “The great gospel boom had been in late 1926; Rev. J.C. Burnett’s first record on Columbia – “Downfall Of Nebuchadnezzar” and “I’ve Even Heard Of Thee”, exactly the same titles as on his earlier Meritt release – sold 80,000 copies soon after its release in November 1926; this was four times as many as the normal sale of a Bessie Smith record, and Bessie was still outselling just about every other blues singer. …In 1927 one third of the 500 releases were gospel items; the figure dropped to about a quarter in 1928 and remained at this level for the next two years.”

Recorded sermons were among the most popular and best selling of the “race records” in the 1920’s and 1930’s. These records provided a fascinating look into the views and concerns of black America at a time when very few outlets existed for black expression. Rev. J.M. Gates was the most popular and prolific of them all, waxing some two hundred titles between 1926 and 1941, which accounted for a staggering quarter of all sermons recorded during this period. His sermons appeared on a variety of labels (Victor, Bluebird, Okeh, Gennett), though Gates often re-recorded his most popular sermons such as “Death’s Black Train Is Coming,” “Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting,” “Goin’ to Die with the Staff in My Hands” for multiple labels. Born in 1885, Gates ministered at Atlanta’s Calvary Church. A testament to his popularity was the fact that he was given the biggest African-American funeral Atlanta had seen until Martin Luther King’s. Gates was first recorded by a Columbia field unit that went to Atlanta in 1926. Four sermons were recorded including “Death’s Black Train Is Coming” and when the record was released it was an instant success. These were the first sermons recorded with singing. The advance pressing order for the record was 3,675 copies and when the remaining two sides from Gates’ Atlanta session were issued the advance order was 34,025. According to Recording The Blues: “As soon as he saw how well Gates’ first disc was selling, Polk Brockman – the Atlanta talent scout who had engineered the first OKeh field trip three year earlier – visited the preacher at his home and signed an exclusive contract with him (Columbia had neglected to do so). …Brockman took Gates and some members of his congregation up to New York about the beginning of September and had him record for no less than five different record companies – OKeh, Victor, BBC’s Vocalion, Pathe and Banner. Gates recorded forty-two sides within the space of two or three weeks… In a nine month period – from September 1926 to June 1927 – sixty records of sermons were put pout by the various companies, and no less than forty of them were by Rev. J.M. Gates!”

it’s not surprising that Gates cut more Christmas sermons than anyone including: “You May Be Alive Or You May Be Dead, Christmas Day” (1927), “Where Will you Be Christmas Day” (1927), “Did You Spend Christmas Day In Jail?” (1929), “Will Hell Be Your Santa Claus” (1939) and “Gettin’ Ready For Christmas Day” (1941) which was his last recorded sermon.

Death May Be Your Christmas Present (MP3)

Rev. A.W. Nix was one of the great singing preachers whose fiery, earthshaking sermons are enough to send any sinner running for salvation. Nix made his mark with his first coupling, the incredibly intense “Black Diamond Express to Hell Pts. I & II” in 1927. This was one of the best known and popular sermons with Parts 3 and 4 issued in 1929 and parts 5 and 6 in 1930. He cut fifty sermons for Vocalion through 1931, railing against sinners in sermons with provocative titles like “Goin’ To Hell And Who Cares”, “The Fat Life Will Bring You Down”, “Jack The Ripper” and “Hot Shot Mamas And Teasing Browns.” He had a special affinity for the holidays as evidenced in recordings like “Death Might Be Your Christmas Gift”, “That Little Thing May Kill You Yet (Christmas Sermon)”, “Begin A New Life On Christmas Day – Part 1 & 2″ and “How Will You Spend Christmas?”

In part one we followed Sylvester Weaver’s career up through his April 1927 sessions. Up to that point Weaver had only sang lead on two numbers but in upcoming sessions would sing on several numbers. Weaver sang in a careful, deliberate manner which revealed a fine baritone. What wasn’t evident was his lyric ability which displays a wicked wit and some very imaginative an unusual imagery. I’ll be reprinting many of these lyrics and want to thank John M. and the folks at Weenie Campbell who have done a remarkable job transcribing Weaver’s lyrics.

One of Weaver’s duties for Okeh was apparently as talent scout. On April 27th April, 1927 he received the following Western Union cable from Tom Rockwell, OKeh’s Director of Recording:

Report with Jug-band as soon as possible.

Wire me Chase Hotel when you leave and if quartet and girls is coming.
T.G. Rockwell

It’s clear from this that Weaver was in charge of bringing talent to the OKeh studio in St. Louis for the session on April 29th and 30th. The jug band mentioned in the cable is Whistler and His Jug Band which had recorded for Gennet in 1924. The others taking part in the session were Helen Humes and the Kentucky Jubilee Four. The Kentucky Jubilee Four cut four religious sides on April 29th and Helen Humes made her debut the next day. Although Lonnie Johnson played on Humes’ two issued sides, Weaver may have played on the session too since one of the unissued titles is “Stomping Weaver’s Blues.”

On August 30th Weaver accompanied Sara Martin for the last time in New York on a four song session and the following day cut six solo sides, two of which were unissued. Martin’s sides are particularly strong and Weaver’s playing is as tasteful and inventive as we’ve come to be expect. “Black Hearse Blues” is a commanding performance with dark, unique lyrics:

Old dead wagon, don’t you dare stop at my door (2X)
You took my first three daddies, but you can’t have number four

Smallpox got my first man, booze killed number two (2X)
I wore out the last one but with this one, I ain’t through

Roll on, old black hearse, don’t you dare to stop (2X)
My man ain’t fit to die, he’s a special liquor cop

Low-down bone orchard, call your corpse cart back (2X)
My daddy’s engine still running on my double track

Black hearse, there ain’t no use, you sure can’t have my man
Black hearse, ain’t no use, you sure can’t have my man
I’m just using him up on the old installment plan

“Useless Blues” is sung in a lighter manner but showcases Martin singing from the viewpoint of a saucy, independent woman as she explains to her man:

Oh, hey, what’s that I heard you say?
Hey, what’s that I heard you say?
You are going away and leave me today

If you go away, and leave me today (2x)
Says, you can’t come back, so you had better stay

Uh, here’s a little lesson I want you to learn (2X)
That if you play with fire you are sure to get burned

Now, you know you used to love me just like a sheik (2X)
But now all you can do is to pat my cheek

So if you want to come back, papa, you’ve got to get some monkey glands (2X)
‘Cause I don’t want no cripple man hanging on my hands

The following day Weaver cut four vocal numbers: the instrumentals “Soft Steel Piston” and “Off Center Blues” with the latter two numbers unissued and no copy of “Off Center Blues” found. “Soft Steel Piston” first surfaced in the 1970’s and like “Six String Banjo Piece”, no file information exists on this number. It was first issued on the album Folk Music In America Vol. 14 – Solo And Display Music part of a 15 LP Library of Congress series to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976. Both numbers were likely provided titles by Dick Spottswood who compiled and wrote the notes for the series. “Soft Steel Piston” is lovely, gentle mid-tempo number featuring Hawaiian style slide with  Weaver accompanied by guitarist Walter Beasley. “Dad’s Blues” is a beautiful twelve-bar blues as is “What Makes A Man Blue” with a musically similar approach.  “Can’t Be Trusted Blues” is languorously sung blues as Weaver delivers menacing lyrics quite at odds with his mellow vocals:

I don’t love nobody, that’s my policy (2X)
I’ll tell the world that nobody can get along with me

I can’t be trusted, can’t be satisfied (2X)
The men all know it and pin their women to their side

I will sure back-bite you, gnaw you to the bone (2X)
I don’t mean maybe, I can’t let women alone

Pull down your windows and lock up all your doors (2X)
Got ways like the devil, papa’s skating on all fours

“Penitentiary Bound Blues” is another mellow number given an exceptional lonesome sounding vocal performance as Weaver really inhabits the persona of a prisoner resigned to his fate:

Thought I was goin’ to the workhouse, my heart was filled with strife (2X)
But I’m goin’ to the penitentiary, judge sentenced me for life

There’ll be rock walls around me, burnin’ sand below
There’ll be rock walls around me, burnin’ land below
There forever, got no other place to go

Goodbye, here’s the jailer with the key (2X)
Farewell to freedom, tain’t no use to pity me

Gonna get my number, four-eleven forty-four (2X)
Soon be an inmate, steel upon my door

Killed my triflin’ woman, folks, I done commit a crime (2X)
Nothin’ will release me but old Father Time

Weaver was back in the studios for two sessions on November 26th and 27th. Walter Beasley appears alongside Weaver on all numbers and Helen Humes recorded eight numbers with the duo. In 1977 Jim O’Neal interviewed Humes (Living Blues No. 52, 1982) and she recalled Weaver and the circumstances behind these recordings:

LIVING BLUES: You made some records with Sylvester Weaver.

HELEN HUMES: Yes, he was the man, he had heard me play with a little band-we had a little Sunday school band and we would go out and play for little dances, you how, and play at the theater and what have you. And Mr. Weaver heard me and he brought Mr. Rockwell out to my house to hear me sing and play. I used to play the piano. So I played and sang for Mr. Rockwell, and he wanted me to come to St. Louis to make this tape. And so 1 went, he tool; my mother with me because I was a little young to travel by myself. So then after I made that, well, he wanted me to call my mother to ask her if I could join a show. And my mother told him no, I’d have to finish school first, and then after I finished school, than whatever I wanted to do, she would go along, you know, if it was something nice.

Was Sylvester Weaver involved with your work very much?

No, no, on that just that particular thing.

Did the producers or the A&R men give those songs to you, or did you have some songs already?

No, they gave ‘em to me. Yeah. There, boy, here I am, a little 14-year-old, singing Do What You Did Last Night, [Laughs] and If Papa Has Outside Lovin’, Mama Has Outside Lovin’ Too. You know I didn’t have that. [Laughs.] Yes

One year before her death Humes wrote writer Guido Van Rijn the following letter in response to an inquiry:

“We were playing a theater called The Palace, at 11th and Walnut and Mr. Weaver heard me, and came to me and introduced himself. I had heard of him, but had never met him before. He got my name, address and phone number, and the next time I saw him he was at my house Mr. Rockwell. He became very good friends with my mother and father, and when I made my second session in New York, my mother let me go with Mr. and Mrs. Weaver. He used to play the T.O.B.A. circuit and traveled the south. He was very well-known down there. …I’ve never heard no one say a bad thing about Mr. Weaver. All his Smoketown friends adored him. He was so nice + friendly and everybody in Ky. adored him.”

The Humes recordings are marked by some terrific backing from Weaver and Beasley who, free from vocal duties, lay down some exciting, dramatic accompaniment . While Humes sounds young, she possesses a strong, bright voice with clear diction and really sings these numbers with conviction. The lyrics to many are quite unusual and I assume it was probably Weaver who wrote the numbers.  Take “Cross-Eyed Blues” for example:

Got one superstition, that’s the one I really prize (2X)
I don’t like nobody who’s got a pair of mean crossed eyes

Had a cross-eyed man, hateful as a man could be (2X)
Slept with his eyes open, always looking ‘cross at me

Gee, but he was ugly, eyed me every way I turn (2X)
I could feel him lookin’, Lordy, how his eyes did burn

Crossed eyes make me shiver, ’cause they’re evil, low and mean (2X)
Hateful as the Devil, queerest eyes I’ve ever seen

Folks who’s got them cross-eyes, says they see in vain
Folks who’s got them cross-eyes, things they see is always wrong
That’s why me and cross-eyes, never gonna get along

If I see a cross-eyed person I was about to meet (2X)
I’d just cross my fingers, then I’d walk across the street

“Alligator Blues” is a similarly strange and intriguing number with a cinematic quality:

Sleepin’ in the swamps last night, down in the Everglades (2X)
Woke and found the alligators ’bout to make a raid

Heard ‘em talkin’ softly, said, “We’re gonna have dark meat.” (2X)
Gee, their mouths did water, thought that they was gonna eat

My flesh commenced to crawlin’, my skin began to itch (2X)
It was time for travelin’, but the swamp was dark as sin

Soon the moon was shinin’ softly through the old cane brake (2X)
Got myself together for a dash I tried to make

The sweat it was a-popping, hair was standing on my head (2X)
I said, “Lord, have mercy, or that woman’s gonna be dead

“Alligator Blues” was advertised in the January 14th, 1928 Chicago Defender as the flipside to “Everybody Does It Now.” “Race Horse Blues” is a another humorous number featuring some exciting interplay between Weaver and Beasley and more marvelous wordplay; the third couplet’s a real gem:

Went down to the race track, with my money in my hand (2X)
Bet on Chocolate Puddin’, but he just an also-ran

On old Fleetfoot Suzy, I done and went and bet the most (2X)
She never did get started, the ponies left her at the post

Never seen a race horse like the one that broke my heart (2X)
Just a rippling has-been, he made my dough from me depart

Darn that lazy jockey, wouldn’t do what he was told (2X)
Now I’m in the barrel, sweet papa’s left in the cold

Bet on old Speeding Meter, sure thing and he couldn’t lose (2X)
Now I’m broke and busted and cryin’ with the race horse blues

Similar lyrical invention can be found in “Nappy Headed Blues” and the hilariously vivid “”Garlic Blues.” Weaver takes the vocals on six numbers including fine narrative blues like “Chitlin’ Rag Blues”, “Railroad Porter Blues”, the latter advertised in the Chicago Defender with its flipside “Polecat Blues”, and more striking lyricism in “Me And My Tapeworm” and “Devil Blues.” Dick Spottswood wrote the following regarding “Me And My Tapeworm:”

“This gourmand’s confession is one of several intriguing and previously undocumented recordings which have emerged from the CBS archives. No information in their extensive files revealed its existence; a sample pressing was made to determine what the music was. Though we are certain about the performers’ identities, the title of the song is taken from song’s words.”

The song first surfaced in the 1970’s along with “Soft Steel Piston” and “Six String Banjo Piece” and, like those numbers appears as part of a 15 LP Library of Congress series to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976 o the volume titled Folk Music In America Vol. 11 – Songs Of Humor And Hilarity. Why this number wasn’t released is anybody’s guess. The lyrics are truly remarkable and the numbers sports some marvelous bottleneck that really drive the song home:

Gee, I’m always hungry, can’t get enough to eat
Gee, I’m hungry, can’t get enough to eat
I’m just like a savage, I could eat a barrel of meat

Set down to the table, ate up everything I could found
Set down to the table, ate up everything I found
Would have ate the dishes if someone hadn’t been around

Pot of ham and cabbage, ain’t enough to fill mine (2X)
That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen fine

Saw my family doctor, said I had a big tapeworm
I saw my family doctor, said I had a big tapeworm
Said I had ate a cow, made me good and firm

Went to the country, broke into a chicken coop
I went to the country, broke into a chicken coop
Stole a dozen chickens, put ‘em in a pot of soup

I’m a greedy glutton, eat fifty times a day (2X)
When I’m around a pigpen, they hide the slop away

Guess me and my tapeworm must go further down the road (2X)
‘Cause we eat so much, won’t nobody give us no board

“Devil’s Blues” is another imaginative and humorous number:

Had a dream while sleeping, found myself way down below, my Lord,
I had a dream while sleeping, found myself way down below
Couldn’t get to Heaven, Hell’s the place I had to go

Devil had me cornered, stuck me with his old pitchfork (2X)
And he put me in an oven, thought he had me for roast pork

Hellhounds start to chasin’ me and I was a runnin’ fool
Hellhounds start to chase me and I was a runnin’ fool
My ankles caught on fire, couldn’t keep my puppies cool

Four thousand devils with big tails and sharp horns, my Lordy,
Saw a thousand devils with tails and sharp horns
Everyone wandered, tried to step on my corns

For miles around I heard men scream and yell, my Lord,
For miles around, heard men scream and yell
Couldn’t see a woman, I said, “Lord, ain’t this Hell?”

This number was surprisingly updated by Lazy Bill Lucas in 1954 for Chance as “I Had A Dream.” The two day session was of a remarkably productive, high caliber with Weaver and Beasley proving an unbeatable team. Nothing is known of Beasley and when asked Humes did not remember him. The duo cut loose on two instrumentals: the breakneck masterpiece “Bottleneck Blues” and a gorgeous, seductive reading of “St. Louis Blues.”

Weaver and Beasley were back in the studio for the final time on November 30th for a five song session. It was Beasley’s turn to shine, taking the vocal on four numbers: “Georgia Skin”, “Southern Man Blues”, “Toad Frog Blues” and “Sore Feet Blues.”  “Georgia Skin” is named for the card game celebrated by Peg Leg Howell, Memphis Minnie and others. Beasley draws out his vocals slowly and surely, revealing a very expressive vocal style. The session features superb integration between bottleneck and the accompanying guitar, particularly on “Toad Frog Blues” and “Sore Feet Blues.” There seems to be a a bit of conjecture as to who’s playing the bottleneck and who’s providing accompaniment. Once again we are treated to some imaginative lyrics as in “Toad Frog Blues” which touches on the surreal:

Tadpole in the river, hatchin’ underneath of a log (2X)
He got too old to be a tadpole, he hatched into a natch’l frog

If a toad frog had wings, he would be flyin’ all around (2X)
He would not have his bottom bumpin’ thumpin’ on the ground

Ever time I see a toad frog, Lord, it makes me cry (2X)
Make me think about my baby, when he (sic) roll her goo-goo eyes

The humorous “Sore Feet Blues” is another gem sporting a very droll delivery from Beasley:

I got two feet, keeps me with the blues (2X)
Got nineteen corns, can’t wear nar’ pair shoes

A peg-legged man, he’s one lucky fool (2X)
Only got one feet to hurt, he kicks that like a mule

I can’t walk, feets hurts me when I stand
I can’t walk around, my feets hurts me when I stand
Got to take a lesson, learn to walk on my hands

‘Black Spider Blues” is a solo number taken at Weaver’s typically relaxed pace with some terrific superstitious imagery:

Saw a big black spider, creepin’ up my bedroom wall (2X)
Finds out he was only goin’ to get his ashes hauled

Say, if that black spider bit you, it would be “Too bad, Jim” (2X)

Give your heart to the devil and your hips would belong to him

I’m gonna get a black spider, put him in the bottom of your shoe (2X)
That’s the only way I can get rid of a jade like you

A rattlesnake is dangerous, a black spider is worser still (2X)
A razor gun, a pistol, will kill you like a black spider will

I been workin’ like a work ox, on Saturday night you got my pay (2X)
While you’re in the black bottom dance hall, black bottomin’ your
time away.

Black spider, black horses, black horses with the curtains down (2X)
Black gal, you and your black bottom be six feet in the ground

Sylvester Weaver’s career came to an abrupt end after these recordings. It’s unknown why he stopped recording as he appears to have still been quite popular. Of his post-recording career we know that Weaver went into the Chauffeur business. As the blues revival was picking up steam, Weaver died of carcinoma of the tongue on April 4th, 1960 at 2001 Old Shepardville Road in Louisville. It was only two years after his death hat blues researcher Paul Garon, at the prompting of Paul Oliver, spoke to Weaver’s widow Dorothy who said she had never heard her husband play. Garon would later open up a Chicago book store named Beasley Books (wonder where he got that name?!) which remains active to this day. Fortunately Weaver’s widow saved some of his old records and his scrapbook which has become a prime source of information about Weaver’s recording activities. In 1992 the Kentucky Blues Society raised enough funds to place a headstone on the grave of Sylvester Weaver, and this same organization presents its Sylvester Weaver Award annually to “those who have dedicated their lives to presenting, preserving, and perpetuating the blues.”

Can’t Be Trusted Blues (MP3)

Penitentiary Blues (MP3)

Soft Steel Piston (MP3)

Me And My Tapeworm (MP3)

Devil Blues (MP3)

Alligator Blues (MP3)

Race Horse Blues (MP3)

Bottleneck Blues (MP3)

St. Louis Blues (MP3)

Toad Frog Blues (MP3)

Sore Feet Blues (MP3)