Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Producer Jay Miller in his Crowley, Louisiana studio

Jay Miller operated a small studio and record label (Feature) out in Crowley, Louisiana. In addition to Feature, he had other small labels such as Fais Do-Do and Feature, Rocko (originally Rocket) and Zynn. He had been recording some regional Cajun and Country music in the early fifties when he first heard Lightnin’ Slim at WXOK in Baton Rouge. Miller has said that Lightnin’s music “did something to me”, and, with the help of disc jockey Diggy-Doo, he recorded Lightnin’s “Bad Luck” in the Spring of 1954. There was no way Miller could keep up with the demand for the record, and he decided to travel to Nashville for a record convention in 1955. Miller met with Ernie Young and worked out a deal that would lease the material he was recording back in Crowley to Excello Records for release and distribution. Soon Miller’s studio became ground zero for the sound known as “swamp-blues” issuing records by Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Silas Hogan, Lonesome Sundown and many others. Of his unique sound, Miller said: “It wasn’t technical as far as audio but I had a sense of something. Maybe that was the best thing that could have happened. I didn’t know too much about it, I didn’t go by the book, because I went by these two things – my ears!!! I’ve had so many compliments about the sound I got.” He further explained: “I ran all my sessions myself. I gave them as much leeway from a ‘feel’ standpoint (as I could) but from a professional standpoint I took over there. In other words, I didn’t want my artists to sing a song like I wanted it sung, as long as they had the feel, but if they didn’t have the feel I was either gonna change songs or try to explain to them what we needed.”

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It was Miller who gave most of his artists their nicknames as he recalled in a 1981 radio interview: “I always tried to pick one that suited the artist’s personality, like Lazy Lester (laughs). And Lightnin’ Slim; he was just so slow in anything he did …Lonesome Sundown, well Lonesome Sundown …didn’t come in too early most of the time he was around. He’d come in late, or rather, he’s come in early and take off and come back late, and there was something that struck me that Sundown was just the right pseudonym for him.”

Miller recorded way more material then he could issue hence many recordings were never released. In the 70’s the Flyright label, with the assistance of Miller, began a series called the The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions to issue these unissued sides. The series ran to over fifty volumes. All the tracks from today’s show come from those LP’s. Much of this music has not been reissued on CD. Below is some background on today’s featured artists, most of the information gleaned from the liner notes. Additional information comes from John Broven’s classic book South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous which goes into great detail about Miller and the artists he recorded.

It’s worth quoting Bruce Bastin from his introduction to the series: “Close to South Louisiana bayou country, Crowley is the home of J.D. Miller’s studio, responsible as much as any other factor for the sound we now know as the moody, loping blues of the Louisiana swamps. Many completely unknown artists found fleeting fame through Miller’s recordings  and through the Excello issues of his recordings, he helped support one of the most consistent blues labels of the 1950’s. Some of the finest of Miller’s recordings were issued, often on his own labels – but not all! His present studio contains an awe-inspiring and perplexing array of masterpieces, many containing superb and unissued recordings. These are just a few of those…”

Miller scored his first big R&B hit on Excello with Guitar Gable’s infectious instrumental “Congo Mombo” in 1956, followed closely by the swamp-pop standard “Irene”, sung by Gable’s vocalist King Karl. For the next three years Guitar Gable and King Karl had regular singles on the Excello label, culminating in “This Should Go On Forever” which provided a top 20 hit for swamp-popper Rod Bernard. Not only this but Gable’s band was used as Miller’s session group, recording everything from swamp-blues to rock’n’roll. Gable’s and Karl’s sides are collected on Cool Calm Collected – The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 36. As Bastin notes: “Miller reckoned Gable’s band to be the most reliable R & B band at that time and he used it for a number of sessions, most notably Slim Harpo’s first . Half dozen releases emerged on Excello over two years but Gable recorded many more tracks and as is typical with unreleased titles found in Miller’s vaults, they were the equal of – and often
superior as blues – to many which were released.”

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In the large stable of blues talent that Jay Miller recorded for Excello, no one enjoyed more mainstream success than Slim Harpo. Bastin writes: “Slim Harpo was one of the finest bluesmen to achieve recognition from Jay Miller’s  recordings  in  Crowley, Louisiana and although he gained greater success after he had left Miller, he never made records of the same quality. James Moore first came to Miller’s studio in 1955. He had been playing full-time as a musician since the late 1940’s, calling himself Harmonica Slim and frequently playing around Baton Rouge with Otis Hicks – Lightning Slim. Miller had used a number of harmonica players to back Lightning and late in 1955 Lightning brought with him his own man, Harmonica Slim, for a session ” Harpo’s first record, “I’m A King Bee”, became a double-sided R&B hit. Even bigger was “Rainin’ in My Heart,” which made the Billboard Top 40 pop charts in the summer of 1961. In the wake of the Rolling Stones covering “I’m a King Bee” on their first album, Slim had the biggest hit of his career in 1966 with “Baby, Scratch My Back” which made Billboard’s Top 20 pop charts. Follow-ups “Tip on In” and “Tee-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu,” were both R&B charters. By the end of the 60’s  Harpo contacted Lightnin’ Slim, who was now residing outside of Detroit, MI. The two reunited and formed a band, touring together as a sort of blues mini-package to appreciative white rock audiences until the end of the decade. The New Year beckoned with a tour of Europe (his first ever) all firmed up, and a recording session scheduled when he arrived in London. Sadly he died suddenly of a heart attack on January 31, 1970. Volumes 4, 20 and 31 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  are all devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Harpo’s recordings.

Clifton Chenier hired Lonesome Sundown, whose’ real name was Cornelius Green, as one of his two guitarists (Phillip Walker being the other) in 1955. As Sundown recalled “After hearing about Jay Miller I brought a demo tape to his studio; you shoulda seen that studio. It was like a repair shop and studio combined. So closely combined you couldn’t hardly tell which was which. Jay Miller asked me to bring the band by. We recorded a couple songs for him, but we soon split up.” By 1956 he was back in Miller’s studio and began recording fairly regularly.” Over the next eight years, Sundown’s lowdown Excello output included a host of memorable swamp classics. In 1965 he retired from the blues business to devote his life to the church. It was 1977 before Sundown could be coaxed back into a studio to cut the excellent blues LP Been Gone Too Long. Sundown passed in 1994. Volumes 8, 29 and 52 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  are all devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Sundown’s recordings.

Regarding Lightnin’ Slim, Bruce Bastin wrote: “One of the few bluesmen whose nicknames were acquired before coming to Miller, Lightning had only been playing 6 years when he came to Miller’s notice and became the second black artist that he recorded (Richard King of Crowley was the first). Lightning changed the whole focus of Miller’s recordings. Following the success of the first blues releases on Miller’s own Feature label, the emphasis of his recordings became directed towards blues and r’n b, and the pattern of Black Louisiana music on record emerged for the first time.” Slim recorded for 12 years as an Excello artist, from 1954 to 1965, starting out originally on Miller’s Feature label. Between Feature and Excello Slim released some sixty tracks. As the late ’60s found Lightnin’ Slim working and living in Detroit, a second career blossomed as European blues audiences brought him over to tour, and he also started working the American festival and hippie ballroom circuit with Slim Harpo as a double act. When Harpo died unexpectedly in 1970, Lightnin’ went on alone, recording sporadically, while performing as part of the American Blues Legends tour until his death in 1974. Volumes 5, 12, 27 and 47 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  are all devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Slim’s recordings.

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While riding on a bus sometime in the mid-’50s, Lazy Lester met guitarist Lightnin’ Slim, who was searching for his AWOL harpist. The two’s styles meshed seamlessly, and Lester became Slim’s harpist of choice. As Miller recalled, “One day Lightnin’ Slim walked into my studio to cut a record session, accompanied by a tall, slender young stranger, introduced to me as Leslie Johnson …I learned that Lightnin’ had met Leslie on a bus to Crowley, but had not heard him sing or play. Having a few minutes before the session, I put Leslie in the studio and the rest of us went into the control room to listen. When I turned on the equipment and signaled him to begin, I was surprised by what I heard. It was so much more than what I expected. I was immediately convinced that this was an artist of great potential.” Lester recorded first in 1957 and 15 Excello releases ensued over the next 9 years until Jay found Lester too unreliable to use. Miller found that Lester was equally talented on guitar and drums, and he became a stalwart of Miller’s session bands. Lester appeared on Miller-produced songs by Lightnin’ Slim, Slim Harpo, Katie Webster, Lonesome Sundown and artists as varied as Nathan Abshire and Johnny Lano. Volumes 7 and 16 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  are all devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Lester’s recordings.

In 1962, at the ripe old age of 51, Silas Hogan was introduced by Slim Harpo to producer Jay Miller and his recording career finally began in earnest. Hogan recorded for Excello from 1962 to early 1965, seeing the last of his single releases issued late that year. As Ray Templeton wrote: “Outside of the big four – Lightning Slim, Lazy Lester, Lonesome Sundown and Slim Harpo – Silas Hogan is the most important of the downhome blues artists Jay Miller recorded, whether you measure importance in numbers of singles issued (Hogan had eight releases on Excello) or in terms of quality and consistency.” Volume  32 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions is devoted to Hogan’s recordings and one of the tracks gives today’s show its title.

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Jimmy Dotson was a small part of an active Baton Rogue blues scene of the 1950’s. Miller documented many of these artists including Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo and Jimmy Anderson Dotson cut sessions for Miller circa 1957 through 1960. Dotson said: “The Baton  Rouge blues scene in the ’50s was nice,  we  had a following, we played from club to club. I played drums for Lightnin’ Slim for a while and with Slim it fluctuated, I was a kind of utility musician. If they needed a drummer I’d go play drums, if they needed a bass player, a guitar … I couldn’t play any too good on any of them but I could fit in. But they had a tremendous following,  Lightnin’ Slim and Slim Harpo. They would go from club to club, sometimes we would play Sunday afternoon somewhere back over North Baton Rouge in the park area from two o’clock to six and the place would  be full of people.  OK then we would go across the river (to Port Allen) and they’d just line up in cars and follow us across the river! It was fantastic, it really was.”

Local guitarist Ashton Savoy took Katie Webster under his wing, sharing her 1958 debut 45 for the Kry logo with her. Webster rapidly became an invaluable studio musician for Miller in Crowley and Eddie Shuler in Lake Charles. She played on sides by Guitar Junior (Lonnie Brooks), Clarence Garlow, Jimmy Wilson, Lazy Lester, and many others. She also waxed some terrific sides of her own for Miller from 1959 to 1961 for his Rocko, Action, and Spot labels. As Bruce Bastin writes: “Katie Webster is best known as Jay Miller’s most frequently used session pianist, backing a diversity of artists from blues to rockabilly and pop. …As an accompanying pianist, she has few peers in postwar blues but the musical legacy that she left with Miller is broader than might at first be expected.” Volumes 48, and 49 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  are devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Webster’s  recordings.

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Tabby Thomas probably spans a longer recording history with Miller than anyone else. He cut in  1954 for Miller’s Feature label and cut a final session for Miller in 1980. His Feature disc didn’t sell too well but he returned to make a number of discs there in the 1960’s including his best-known number, “Hoodoo Party.” As Ray Templeton writes: “Tabby Thomas holds a unique record in relation to the Jay Miller operation at Crowley, Louisiana.  He is the only artist to have had his work issued on Miller’s own labels Feature, Rocko and Zynn, as well as on Excello…” Volume 56 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  is devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Tabby’s  recordings.

Little is known about Leroy Washington, who recorded several sessions between 1957 and 1961 for Miller. He was recalled by Miller as perhaps his favorite blues guitarist.  He only released a handful of sides, however, he had recorded a considerable legacy of material for Miller, which had lain unissued until this series. As Bruce Bastin writes: “Like another fine Miller guitarist, Guitar Gable,  Leroy Washington was from Opelousas.  …Washington’s polite, easy-going nature and keenness to record made him a highly suitable artist for Miller, who carefully built up his artist’s sessions, in order to create a satisfactory potential ”hit’ record. Three couplings submitted by Miller to Ernie Young of the Nashboro Record Co. saw release on his Excello label in 1958-59 but Miller clearly submitted material which did not find favor.” Volume 25 of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions  is devoted to unissued or alternate takes of Washington’s  recordings.

Clarence Garlow waxed his first sides for the Macy’s label in 1949, scoring a minor hit with “Bon Ton Roula.” Garlow next session was for Miller’s Feature label in 1951, cutting further sessions for Miller in 1954 and 1958. Garlow’s sides for Miller are collected on The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 28.

Harmonica player Jimmy Anderson modeled his sound on Jimmy Reed and cut all his sessions for Miller circa 1962 and 1964. As John Broven wrote: “Jimmy Anderson, a younger artist fro Baton Rogue, was too much in jimmy Ree’s shadow to succeed.” Anderson quit recording In 1964, feeling that he was being gypped out of royalties. He continued to play for a few years , taking up the guitar, but when  he  appeared  at the  1991 Utrecht Blues Estafette,   Jimmy had been out of music for 20 years. Ten tracks by Anderson appear across several volumes of The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions.

Henry Gray was born in Kenner, Louisiana, in January, 1925, but raised near Baton Rouge at Alsen. He headed to Chicago where he appeared on many definitive Chicago blues sessions of the 1950’s backing artists like Jimmy Rogers, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and others. In 1956, he joined Howlin’ Wolf’’s band and was Wolf’s main piano player for twelve years in performance and on recordings. He returned to Louisiana in 1968 and within a few years cut some sides for Miller in 1970.

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Miller was involved in recording several Zydeco sessions which are collected on Zydeco Blues – The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 14 and Zydeco Blues Vol. 2 – The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 37 and Rockin’ With Dupsee – The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 30. In addition to  Rockin’ Dupsee, who recorded sessions for Miller between 1970 and 1974, Miller also recorded Clifton Chenier (1958-1959), Fernest Arceneaux, Marcel Dugas and Joseph Bo. Miller was one of the earliest producer to record Chenier and issued three couplings on his own Zynn label having found no interest shown by Nashville’s Excello label.

Miller recorded several fine bluesman who remain little known but cut some superb music. Featured today are cuts by singer/harmonica player Sylvester Buckley who played on some sides by Lazy Lester and Silas Hogan. He recorded four sides circa 1962/63 that were unissued. There was Monroe Vincent who recorded as Mr. Calhoun for Miller and as Vince Monroe. He moved to New Orleans where he recorded as Polka Dot Slim for Instant. Charles Sheffield was a fine big voiced singer from Lake Charles who cut sessions released on Rocko in 1959 and Excello in 1961. Also from Lake Charles was Blue Charlie(Charlie Morris) who cut sessions for Miller in 1957 and 1958 with many titles unreleased. There were the tough guitar blues of the mysterious Ramblin’ Hi Harris who waxed just three sides for Miller and Joe Johnson who cut a handful of strong sides for Miller in 1966 and 1967. There was fine down-home players like harmonica blower Wild Bill Phillips who backed Lightnin’ Slim on some sessions and on his brilliant cover of Boozoo Chavis’  “Pebble In My Shoe” and guitarist Clarence Locksley who’s backed on percussion by Lazy Lester with Miller himself playing guitar on one cut. Miller recalled of  Locksley: “He thought a meter was something you put a nickel in.” Also worth mentioning is a track supposedly by Buddy Guy, “I Hope You Come Back Home.” The track was found in 1978 on a tape box marked Lonesome Sundown. It is known that on at least one occasion Guy traveled to Crowley to back Lightnin’ Slim and Miller could have auditioned and recorded Guy.

Show Notes:

Stan Lewis is the owner of the seminal blues/R&B/gospel/rock label Jewel-Paula-Ronn-Records. In 1948, Lewis opened a record store, Stan’s Record Shop, on Texas Street in Shreveport, LA. Lewis became a one-stop operator (other record stores would buy from him) and distributor of independent record labels: Atlantic, Chess, Modern, Specialty, and Imperial. Lewis began a mail-order operation, advertising on John R’s (and others) nightly blues/R&B show on Nashville’s WLAC-AM, whose powerful clear channel nighttime signal was heard in most parts of the country. The record entrepreneur began to write and produce R&B and rock & roll acts. Fellow Louisianan Dale Hawkins’ 1957 number 27 pop hit on Chess, “Susie Q,” was written about Lewis’ daughter Susan.  Lewis founded Jewel Records in 1963 in Shreveport, LA. He started off his new Jewel label with #728, which was his store’s address (728 Texas Street in Shreveport, Louisiana), with a single by Louisiana singer/songwriter Bobby Charles. In all, Stan Lewis issued 13 singles on Jewel in 1964, were fairly forgettable. The next year, after moving some artists to the pop/country oriented Paula subsidiary, Lewis issued 14 more singles on Jewel, mostly blues-oriented material. He signed Ted Taylor, Peppermint Harris, Cookie and His Cupcakes, and Jerry McCain, among others. His first national chart record, though, was by the Carter Brothers, with “Little Country Boy” [Jewel 745], which reached #21 on the R&B charts in the summer. At the start of 1966, Stan Lewis moved into a new field with gospel.  Although Jewel’s new gospel series only issued 6 singles in 1966, it would eventually include almost 300 singles. Jewel issued 21 singles in 1966 on the including blues by Frank Frost and “Wild Child” Butler. The year 1967 brought fifteen more singles and the start of an LP series. New artists included Ray Agee, Bobby Powell, Big Mac and blues Lightnin’ Hopkins. Hopkins recorded the first album on Jewel, Blue Lightnin’, and the next two as well. The Jewel Blues series only issued five singles in 1968, and nine in 1969. New artist signings for 1968- 69 included the Roman Carter (of the Carter Brothers), Little Joe Blue, and veteran Lowell Fulson. Over the next few years, Lewis would also sign blues veterans Charles Brown, Roosevelt Sykes, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, and others. The series lasted until Jewel 852 in 1977. The Jewel label had three subsidiary labels; Paula, Ronn and Sue. In later years he aquired and reissued 1950’s blues recordings of defunct labels like JOB, Cobra and Chief.

Lightnin’ Hopkins who was given the first album on Jewel, Blue Lightnin’, and in fact the next two albums. Hopkins and Stan Lewis got along well (an instrumental on the second Jewel album was called “Mr. Stan, the Hip Hit Record Man”), and Lewis remarked that he probably recorded more songs by Hopkins than any other artist. In all Hopkins cut over 40 sides for the label between 1965 and 1969. All these sides were issued by Westside as the 2-CD set Fishing Clothes: The Jewel Recordings 1965-1969.

Texas R&B singer Peppermint Harris is best known for two early-’50s hits, the classic “Rainin’ in My Heart” and “I Get Loaded.” Harris arguably did his best work with Jewel Records. While he didn’t have any huge hits between 1965 and 1971, the length of his stay at Jewel, Harris nonetheless produced some excellent sides. All of these are collected on Westside’s Lonesome as I Can Be: The Jewel Recordings.

Wild Child Butler was gigging professionally as a bandleader by the late ’50s, but his recording career didn’t blossom until he moved to Chicago in 1966 and signed with Jewel Records (his sidemen on these sessions included bassist Willie Dixon and guitarist Jimmy Dawkins). He cut eight singles for the label in 1966 and 1967.

Buster Benton was a member of Dixon’s Blues All-Stars for a while, and Dixon is credited as songwriter of Benton’s best-known song, “Spider in My Stew.” Its release on the Jewel label gave Benton a taste of fame; its follow-up, “Money Is the Name of the Game,” solidified his reputation. He cut A 1979 LP for Jewel’s Ronn subsidiary titled Spider in My Stew.

Little Joe Blues recorded for various labels, including Kent and Chess’s Checker Records division during the early to mid-’60s. In 1966 when he racked up a modest hit in 1966 with the song “Dirty Work Is Going On,” which has since become a blues standard. He had extended stints with Jewel Records and Chess from the late ’60s into the early ’70s, and recorded until the end of the 1980s. He died in 1990.

Jerry McCain cut a series singles between 1965-1968 for Jewel Records, including a tailor-made tribute to the company, “728 Texas (Where the Action Is)” (Jewel’s address). These sides have been collected on Absolutely The Best – The Complete Jewel Singles 1965 – 1972.

Frank Frost moved to St. Louis in 1951, learning how to blow harp first from Little Willie Foster and then from the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson, who took him on the road — as a guitar player — from 1956 to 1959. Drummer Sam Carr, a longtime Frost friend, enticed Frost to front his combo in 1954 before hooking up with Sonny Boy. Frost and Carr settled in Lula, MS. Guitarist Jack Johnson came aboard in 1962. The three cut Hey Boss Man!, issued on Sun’s Phillips International subsidiary as by Frank Frost and the Nighthawks. Elvis Presley’s ex-guitarist Scotty Moore produced Frost’s next sessions in Nashville in 1966 for Jewel Records.

The Carter Brothers recorded for Jewel Records, among other labels. Roman Carter (lead vocals, bass), Albert Carter (guitar), and Jerry Carter (vocals, piano) came from Garland, AL, and began recording in 1964 for producer/songwriter Duke Coleman’s local label. Stan Lewis’ Jewel Records licensed a pair of their singles, of which “Southern Country Boy” got to number 21 on the R&B charts nationally. They never cut an album, but before splitting up in 1967 the trio recorded more than a dozen single sides. Lead singer Roman Carter some cut solo singles for Jewel as well. All of the Jewel sides can be found on Westside’s Blues on Tour: The Jewel Recordings 1965-1969.

Lowell Fulson cut sides for Jewel in 1969 and issued the LP In a Heavy Bag in 1969. Hooker released the LP I Feel Good in 1971, which featured Lowell Fulson on taking lead on most tracks.

Lewis was still active in the music business in the ’90s, working with Southern soul singers Carl Sims and Vickie Baker. A Jewel Records boxed set was issued by Capricorn Records in 1993. Tiring of the rigors of trying to run a competitive independent record label in a major-label dominated industry, Lewis decided to offer Jewel for sale while still retaining control of his music publishing companies.

Show Notes:

Newspaper photo of Son House, and a July 14 Rochester Times-Union article about his comeback.

“I’m talking about the blues now, I ain’t talkin’ about no monkey junk”

Today’s title come from a term Son House used often as his biographer Dan Beaumont explains: “House had an amusing phrase he would use when asked about the blues being played in the 1960’s. It was a phrase he used to dismiss much of the blues music of that period. ‘It’s not the blues,’ he would say. ‘It’s just a lot of monkey junk.’ The blues so dominated House’s life-we have now established the price that he had paid for it-that a period in which he all but ceased playing it may well have seemed to him simply so much ‘monkey junk.’” As anyone who’s listened to Son House knows, there was nothing frivolous or gimmicky about Son’s blues. In his hands the blues were a gripping, all consuming feeling:

You know, the blues ain’t nothin’ but a low-down shakin’, low-down shakin’, achin’ chill
I say the blues is a low-down, old, achin’ chill
Well, if you ain’t had ‘em, honey, I hope you never will

Well, the blues, the blues is a worried heart, is a worried heart, heart disease
Oh, the blues is a worried old heart disease

(The Jinx Blues Part 1, 1942)

Today’s show is our annual tribute to Son House who created some of the most visceral and gripping blues of the 1930’s and 40’s and who emerged after two decades to find himself bewilderingly hailed as a blues hero to young white audiences around the world. It’s with a matter of pride that Son’s comeback came in my adopted hometown of Rochester, NY. Over the years I met numerous people who fondly recalled Son House here in Rochester and when I started doing my yearly radio birthday tributes it brought even more people out of the woodwork who gladly shared their memories with me. So it’s puzzling that the city has never honored Son in anyway. For years myself and others thought someone should rectify this sorry state of affairs; a plaque, a statue or something to honor one of the pivotal figures in blues history. The sad fact is there is nothing tangible in this city that shows Son ever made this city his home for a good part of his life (1943-1976). It’s worth noting that Son does have a plaque in Tunica, MS as part of the Mississippi Commission’s Blues Trail.

2009 Hot Blues For The Homeless …A Tribute To Son House Poster

Next week marks the third Hot Blues For The Homeless concert I put on with several other dedicated folks.  Now billed as Hot Blues For The Homeless …A Tribute To Son House,  we had a fantastic turn out last year, raised a good deal of money for the Rochester homeless and hopefully raised some awareness about Son House. If you live in Rochester, live close by are just visiting on June 7th make sure to help us celebrate the memory of Son House.

On today’s program we start out by playing the bulk of Son’s legendary Paramount recordings. In 1930, Arthur Laibley who had produced Charlie Patton’s last session for Paramount, stopped in Lula to arrange another session with Patton. Patton was famous throughout the Delta and had already recorded close to forty sides for the label. Patton told Laibley about House and about two other musicians Willie Brown and Louise Johnson, setting the stage for one of the blues most legendary recording sessions. The group headed to the Paramount studios in Grafton, WI, where House recorded six songs at the session, three of which were long enough to fill both sides of a 78: “Dry Spell Blues,” “Preachin’ The Blues,” and “My Black Mama.” Two songs, “Clarksdale Moan” and “Mississippi County Farm Blues” were issued as a 78, with a lone copy surfacing just recently. In September 2005, a collector announced he had obtained the lost “Clarksdale Moan” 78 in reasonably decent condition. The details of this discovery are not known to the public as the collector has chosen to remain anonymous. On April 4, 2006, both “Clarksdale Moan” and “Mississippi County Farm Blues” were released on the collection The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of from Yazoo Records. While “Clarksdale Moan” is a previously unknown song, “Mississippi County Farm Blues” is an earlier (and faster) version of a song Son House later recorded at his Library of Congress recording session in 1941. The unissued test of “Walking Blues” we spin was not found until 1985.

Rochester Times-Union article about Son House from July 6, 1964. This is the first article written about Son’s rediscovery.

Despite the disappointing sales of his records, for House the Grafton experience marked the beginning of a long musical friendship with Willie Brown. For much of the 30’s House reverted to his former pattern of preaching and then going back to the blues, usually at the prompting of Brown. He and Brown played all over the Delta as well as Arkansas and Tennessee for the rest of the 1930’s. In August of 1941 the folklorist Alan Lomax found House working as a tractor driver on a plantation near Robinsonville. House took Lomax a few miles north to Lake Cormorant where Willie Brown lived. They rounded up two other musicians, Fiddlin’ Joe Martin and Leroy Williams. Behind Clack’s general store, House recorded five songs for Lomax. The next summer in July, House recorded, unaccompanied, ten more songs for Lomax.

A year after the Library of Congress sides House vanished, or did the next best thing which was to move to Rochester, NY. More than two decades would pass before he would resurface. On June 23rd of 1964, Dick Waterman, Phil Spiro and Nick Perls found House living on 61 Grieg Street in Rochester, NY. Waterman became Son’s manager and the following year he was signed to Columbia and played the Newport Folk Festival. Son had several good years on the comeback trail; he toured the US playing folk festivals and the coffeehouse circuit and he did tours of Europe as well. He also performed locally in Rochester. From these later years we spin several tracks for his superb comeback album Father Of The Delta Blues plus several live cuts.

Also on today’s program is my good friend Dan Beaumont. University of Rochester professor Dan Beaumont discusses  his forthcoming book, Preachin’ the Blues: The Life And Music Of Son House. This is the first full-length biography of Son House and will be published by Oxford University Press in 2010. Dan will also be reading excerpts from the book at the workshop component of the Hot Blues event. in addition we also play a couple of clips of Dick Waterman talking about Son from an interview I conducted with Dick several years ago and who was a guest at last year’s event.

Show Notes:

For today’s show we continue with our ongoing series I call Forgotten Blues Heroes. For this installment we spotlight four great bluesmen who didn’t get the opportunity to record until the 1960’s and 1970’s: Scott Dunbar, Bill Williams, Babe Stovall and Frank Hovington. As the blues historian Paul Oliver wrote: “Throughout the Sixties, it seemed there was one ‘discovery’ or ‘rediscovery’ of a blues singer after another; a succession of methodical searches, happy accidents and dramatic events which brought not only a number of legendary figures to life, but also revealed that the wealth of talent in the black traditions had been even greater than might have been supposed.”

All of today’s featured artists were old enough to have been recorded earlier but opportunity passed them by until the blues revival of the 1960’s. In addition to the resurrection of the legendary artists of the past like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Skip James there were a slew of older artists uncovered who got a chance to make some recordings such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Pete Williams and Mance Lipscomb to name a few. Unlike those who recorded back in the 1920’s and 30’s for the commercial record companies and black consumers, those who recorded in the 1960’s and 70’s were being recorded primarily for a new found white audience, with the records issued usually on tiny specialist labels. The benefit wasn’t in sales of records so much as it was the fact that these recordings would be an entry way into the festival and coffeehouse circuit. Unfortunately many of these small labels never lasted into the CD era and hence many great albums remain long out of print. The bulk of today’s recordings fall into that category.

Scott Dunbar

In the notes to his sole album, From Lake Mary issued on the Ahura Mazda label in 1970, Karl Micheal Wolfe wrote that “Today Scott Dunbar is a fisherman and guide on Lake Mary, father of six, and resident blues singer of Woodville and rural Wilkinson County, Mississippi. There everyone knows old Scott. We hope this record will make him known to a wider audience.” Prior to the recordings in 1970 Dunbar was recorded by Frederic Ramsey, Jr. in 1954 as part of field recordings done under a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Ramsey’s recordings appeared on the ten volume series Music from the South on Folkways with four of Dunbar’s recordings on Music From The South Vol. 5: Song, Play And Dance and one side on Music From The South Vol. 10: Been Here And Gone. Three more issued sides were recorded in 1968, which appeared on the album Blues From The Delta, the companion album to William Ferris’ influential book of the same name.

Dunbar gave up the juke joints because they were too dangerous and in later years played primarily for whites. William Ferris wrote in Blues From The Delta that “I recorded thirty-seven songs during my visits with Dunbar and of these, two thirds were sung white style in the key of C. ” The thirteen songs on From Lake Mary are mostly blues, likely selected to appeal to the blues revival market while the vast majority of recordings from this session have not been issued, forty-eight unissued sides in total.  At lengthy recording sessions n February, April and August of 1970 Dunbar proves to be a true songster, laying down songs like “Wabash Cannonball”, “Sally Good’n”, “Blue Heaven”, “Tennessee Waltz” and  “You Are My Sunshine.” In 1994 Fat Possum reissued From Lake Mary on CD with no additional tracks.Dunbar passed away at the age of 90 in 1994 with his death largely unnoticed outside of a couple of obituaries in blues magazines and a recorded legacy of  nineteen issued sides.

Bill Williams, was a 72-year old bluesman from Greenup, Kentucky, when he made his debut for Blue Goose in the early 1970’s. Stephen Calt wrote that “The previously unrecorded Williams ranks among the most polished and proficient living traditional bluesmen, and has a large repertoire embracing ragtime, hillbilly, and even pop material. He is also the only known living associate of Blind Blake, his own favorite guitarist. …Disbelief is the inevitable reaction to incredible Bill Williams, a former partner of Blind Blake who is without doubt the most technically accomplished living country blues guitarist. …While living in Bristol, Tennessee in the early 1920’s Bill met the peerless Blind Blake who was then living with an elderly woman (perhaps a relative) in a desolate nearby country area. For four months Bill worked as Blake’s regular second guitarist…” Williams cut just two LP’s, both for Blue Goose: Low And Lonesome and The Late Bill Williams ‘Blues, Rags and Ballads plus had one song on the anthology These Blues Is Meant To Be Barrelhoused.

From the notes to The Late Bill Williams ‘Blues, Rags and Ballads, Stephen Calt wrote: “For a guitarist of such uncommon ability Bill Williams enjoyed an all-too brief period of public recognition. Within fifteen minutes of the time he first picked up an instrument in 1908 he was accomplished enough to play a song, but he was still completely unknown beyond his home town of Greenup, Kentucky before Blue Goose recorded him in the fall of 1970 and issued an album (Low and Lonesome) that brought him unqualified acclaim as a 73-year old folk find. A brief series of concert engagements (notably at the Smithsonian Institution and the Mariposa Folk Festival) followed, along with an extended recording session in New York, before a heart ailment brought about his musical retirement. In October of 1973, nearly three years to the day of his recording debut, he was fatally stricken in his sleep. This memorial album and its soon to be released sequel will constitute the remainder of Bill’s musical legacy.”

Jewell “Babe” Stovall was a Mississippi-born songster who was born in 1907 in Tylertown, MS, Babe was the youngest of 11 children, most of them musicians. Stovall learned guitar when he was around eight years old, and was soon playing breakdowns, frolics, and parties in the area, even meeting and learning “Big Road Blues” from Tommy Johnson. He moved to Franklinton, LA, in the 1930s, and split his time between there and Tylertown for several years, picking up whatever work he could as a farmhand. In 1964 he moved to New Orleans, where he was “discovered” working as a street singer in the French Quarter, his act featuring crowd-pleasing antics like playing his National Steel guitar behind his head and shouting out his song lyrics in a voice so loud that it carried well down the street. He recorded an LP for Verve in 1964, simply titled Babe Stovall (re-released on CD by Flyright in 1990), and did further sessions in 1966 released on Southern Sound as The Babe Stovall Story and with Bob West in 1968 (which form the basis of The Old Ace: Mississippi Blues & Religious Songs, released on Arcola in 2003), and became active on the folk and blues college circuit, as well as holding down a house gig at the Dream Castle Bar in New Orleans. Stovall died in 1974 in New Orleans.

Bruce Bastin called Frank Hovington or Guitar Frank as he was also known, “one of the finest singers to have been recorded during the 1970’s…steeped in a tradition which is as much part of him as is the countryside about him.” Bastin and Dick Spotswood recorded Frank in 1975, issuing the album Lonesome Road Blues on the Flyright label (reissued in 2000 as Gone With The Wind with several additional tracks). Frank was still in fine form when he reluctantly agreed to perform for Axel Küstner and Siegfried Christmann in 1980. The results were issued as part of their remarkable Living Country Blues series. Hovington started on ukulele and banjo as a child and teamed with Willliam Walker in the late ’30s and ’40s playing at house parties and dances in Frederica, Pennsylvania. Hovington moved to Washington D.C. in the late ’40s, and backed such groups as Stewart Dixon’s Golden Stars and Ernest Ewin’s Jubilee Four. Hovington moved to Delaware in 1967 where he passed in 1982.

Show Notes:

Elmore James was undoubtedly the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period. Although his early death from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the ’60s blues revival like his contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf did, Elmore was hugely influential on a generation of guitar players. James always gave it everything he had, everything he could emotionally invest in a number. The fact is that over his twelve-year recording career it can be argued that he never really cut a bad performance. Between 1951 and 1963 James cut about 100 sides for labels like Trumpet, Modern, Chess, Chief, Meteor and Fire. Backing him was one of the greatest Chicago blues bands,the Broomdusters, named after James’ big hit, and featuring Little Johnny Jones on piano, J.T. Brown on tenor sax and Elmore’s cousin, Homesick James on rhythm guitar. This talented combo was often augmented by a second saxophone on occasion while the drumming stool changed frequently. On later recordings his band would include pianist Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, guitarist Eddie Taylor and Sam Myers on harp. In addition James backed a few artists, particularly in the early years, including Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Love and later bandmate Little Johnnie Jones. Today’s show spotlights not only great sides James cut under his own name but several sides by his talented bandmates and associates.

With a few months left on his Trumpet contract, Elmore was recorded by the Bihari Brothers for their Modern label subsidiaries, Flair and Meteor, but the results were left in the can until James’ contract ran out. In the meantime, Elmore had moved to Chicago and cut a quick session for Chess, which resulted in one single being issued and just as quickly yanked off the market as the Bihari Brothers swooped in to protect their investment. This period of activity found Elmore assembling the nucleus of his great band the Broomdusters and several fine recordings were issued over the next few years on a slew of the Bihari Brothers’owned labels with several of them charting.

James was born in Canton, MS on January 27, 1918. He came to music at an early age, learning to play bottleneck on a homemade instrument. By the age of 14, he was already a weekend musician, working the various country suppers and juke joints in the area. He would join up and work with traveling players coming through like Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. By the late ’30s he had formed his first band and was working with Sonny Boy until WW II broke out, spending three years stationed with the Navy in Guam. When he was discharged, he picked off where he left off, moving for a while to Memphis, working in clubs with Eddie Taylor and his cousin Homesick James. James was first recorded by Lillian McMurray of Trumpet Records in 1951 at the tail end of a Sonny Boy session doing his classic “Dust My Broom.” Legend has it that James didn’t even stay around long enough to hear the playback, much less record a second side. McMurray stuck a local singer (BoBo “Slim” Thomas) on the flip side and the record became the surprise R&B hit of 1951, making the Top Ten. James also backed Trumpet artists Willie Love and Tiny Kennedy the same year.

By the late 1950’s James had established a beach-head in the clubs of Chicago as one of the most popular live acts and regularly broadcasting over WPOA under the aegis of disc jockey Big Bill Hill. In 1957, with his contract with the Bihari Brothers at an end, he recorded several successful sides for Mel London’s Chief label, all of them later being issued on the larger Vee-Jay label.

In May of 1963, Elmore returned to Chicago, ready to resume his on-again off-again playing career — his records were still being regularly issued and reissued on a variety of labels — when he suffered his final heart attack. His wake was attended by over 400 blues luminaries before his body was shipped back to Mississippi.

Mississippi-born John T. Brown was a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels down south before arriving in Chicago. By 1945, Brown was recording behind pianist Roosevelt Sykes and singer St. Louis Jimmy Oden, later backing Eddie Boyd and Washboard Sam for RCA Victor. He debuted on wax as a bandleader in 1950 on the Harlem label, subsequently cutting sessions in 1951 and 1952 for Chicago’s United logo as well as JOB. Brown backed Elmore James and pianist Little Johnny Jones on the Meteor and Flair lbels in 1952 and 1953. Meteor issued a couple of singles under Brown’s own name. After a final 1956 date for United that laid unissued at the time, Brown’s studio activities were limited to sideman roles. In January of 1969, he was part of Fleetwood Mac’s Blues Jam at Chess album, even singing a tune for the project, but he died before the close of that year.

Johnny Jones arrived in Chicago from Mississippi in 1946 and was influenced greatly by pianist Big Maceo.Jones followed Maceo into Tampa Red’s band in 1947 after Maceo suffered a stroke. In addition to playing behind Tampa Red from 1949 to 1953, he backed Muddy Waters on his 1949 classic “Screamin’ and Cryin’” and later appeared on sides by Howlin’ Wolf. It’s Elmore James that he’ll forever be associated with; the pianist played on James’ classic 1952-56 Chicago sessions for the Bihari brothers’ Meteor, Flair, and Modern labels, as well as dates for Checker, Chief, and Fire. James only had a few opportunities to record under his own name; Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, and Leroy Foster backed Jones on his 1949 Aristocrat label classic “Big Town Playboy”, while Elmore James and saxist J.T. Brown were on hand for Jones’s 1953 Flair coupling “I May Be Wrong”/”Sweet Little Woman.” The rocking “Hoy Hoy,” his last commercial single, was done in 1953 for Atlantic and also featured James and his group in support. Jones continued to work in the clubs (with Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Syl Johnson, Billy Boy Arnold, and Magic Sam, among others) prior to his 1964 death of lung cancer at the age of 40.

James “Homesick” Williamson was playing guitar at age ten and soon ran away from his Tennessee home to play at fish fries and dances. His travels took the guitarist through Mississippi and North Carolina during the 1920s, where he crossed paths with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller, and Big Joe Williams. Settling in Chicago during the 1930s, Williamson played local clubs and cut his first sides in 1952-53 for Chance Records. Homesick also worked extensively as a sideman, backing harp great Sonny Boy Williamson and during the 1950s with his cousin, Elmore James. Homesick backs Elmore on sessions for Chief in 1957, Fire in 1959, Chess in 1960 and again for Fire in 1960 and 1961. Homesick’s own recordings included 45s for Colt and USA in 1962, a fine 1964 album for Prestige, and four tracks on a Vanguard anthology in 1965. Homesick was recording and touring up until shortly before his death in 2006.

Eddie Taylor is best know for his guitar work on the great majority of Jimmy Reed’s Vee-Jay sides during the 1950s and early ’60s, and he even found time to wax a few classic sides of his own for Vee-Jay during the mid-’50s. But Taylor’s records didn’t sell in the quantities that Reed’s did, so he was largely relegated to the role of sideman (he recorded behind John Lee Hooker, John Brim, Elmore James, Snooky Pryor, and many more during the ’50s) not cutting his first full-length record until the early 1970’s. Taylor backed Elmore on sessions in 1956 for Modern and for Chief in 1957.

During the ‘50s Johnny “Big Moose” Walker played with many local Greenville, MS bluesmen, joined Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm in Clarksdale and sat in with the King Biscuit Boys in Helena, Arkansas and worked the Mississippi juke joints with Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson. He traveled extensively with Earl Hooker. Walker’s first studio date was with Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson, for Trumpet Records in Jackson, Mississippi that went unissued. In 1955 Ike Turner taped Moose in a Greenville club; two of those sides, credited to J.W Walker, appeared years later on the Kent Label. He cut his first 45, as Moose John, for Johnny Otis’ Ultra label, also in 1955. Moose recorded even more after Sunnyland Slim brought him to Chicago. He backed Earl Hooker, Ricky Allen, Lorenzo Smith and others on local sessions. Willie Dixon took Moose to New York in 1960 to do some studio work for Prestige/Bluesville. Moose rejoined Elmore James at Silvio’s on the West Side and went to New Orleans with Elmore to record for Bobby Robinson’s Fire label. At another session for Robinson, Moose sang a few himself. He cut some singles during the ‘60s and waxed his first album in 1969 when he and Earl Hooker went to Los Angeles to record for ABC Bluesway. He remained active until the 1980’s before suffering a stroke.

Sam Myers cut his first sides for Ace in 1957 and played both drums and harp behind slide guitar great Elmore James at a 1961 session for Bobby Robinson’s Fire label in New Orleans. In 1960 he cut a single for Robinson’s Fury label and another in 1961 backed by Elmore James and Big Moose Walker. Most listeners know Myers as the frontman for Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets, which lasted for some 20 years before Myers passed in 2006.

Show Notes:

[The first four paragraphs are taken from my Earl Hooker entry in the Encyclopedia Of The Blues (Routledge, 2006)]

Among his peers, Earl Hooker is widely considered the greatest guitarist of his generation. His wild performances attracted a loyal following wherever he went as he entertained the crowds by playing behind his back, picking the guitar with his feet or teeth or doing flips on stage without missing a note. Hooker always had a predilection for the latest electric guitar technology becoming famous for his double-neck guitars and even making the wah-wah pedal work in a blues context. In addition to blues he had incorporated Country and Western music in his repertoire early on. Hooker was the archetype of the rambling bluesman having spent most of his life on the road. Along the way he cut singles for a host of tiny labels that did little to get the word out. The result was that he remained little known outside the insular blues world until the late 60’s.

Born in Mississippi, Hooker arrived in Chicago as a child. As a youngster he began playing music in the streets with future blues artists Bo Diddley and Louis Myers. He met Robert Nighthawk in Chicago in the early 40’s and it was Nighthawk who became his primary influence, teaching him the rudiments of his remarkable slide technique. Hooker would eventually surpass his mentor, developing an entirely new language for the slide guitar. Hooker frequently ran away from home, often heading down south to play music. During these trips he reunited with Nighthawk, played with Ike Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson and others. He formed the Roadmasters in the early 50’s and with constantly changing personnel played all over the country for the next twenty years.

Hooker’s initial recordings were in 1952 for King with Johnny O’Neal, cutting sides the following year for Rockin’ and Sun. By the early 50’s he was back in Chicago cutting singles for Argo, C.J., and Bea & Baby before joining with producer Mel London (owner of Chief and Age) in 1959. For the next four years, he recorded both as sideman and leader for the producer, backing Junior Wells, Bobby Saxton, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, Big Moose Walker and A.C. Reed plus cutting notable instrumentals like “Blue Guitar” and “Blues in D-Natural.” He also contributed slide work to Muddy Waters’ 1962 Chess waxing “You Shook Me”. After Age folded Hooker recorded sporadically between 1964 and 1968 for tiny outfits like Cuca, Jim-Ko, Duplex and again for C.J.

He finally drew increased attention during the late ’60s starting with “Two Bugs & a Roach,” his first full-length album, for Arhoolie in 1968. In 1969 he hooked up with *ABC-BluesWay churning out several albums for the label in addition to playing on records of Bluesway artists like Andrew Odom, Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, Charles Brown, his cousin John Lee Hooker and others. In late 1969, Hooker traveled to Europe to play in the *American Folk Blues Festival. By this time, he was quite ill with advancing tuberculosis, a condition he battled his entire life, and after his return was admitted to a Chicago sanitarium where he passed away in April 21, 1970.

Today’s show spotlights recordings spanning 1953 through 1969 featuring records Hooker cut under his own name, with a slew of journeyman singers like Little Sam Davis, Johnny O’Neal, Andrew Odom and others backing artists such as Ricky Allen, A.C. Reed, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Charles Brown to name a few. No matter the setting Hooker’s brilliantly inventive guitar always makes its presence known and like the best session men he elevates every recording he appears on. We also play a number of Hooker’s dazzling instrumentals. Hooker was never confident about his vocal abilities but he was a fine singer as several of today’s tracks prove.

From the 1950’s we spin a tracks Hooker cut for King, Rockin’, States, C.J. and Profile (he also cut sides for Argo and Vee-Jay during this period). Hooker’s first sides were cut for King on November 26, 1952 where he backed singer Johnny O’Neal on four numbers (two unissued) plus four instrumentals under his own name. From those sessions we play uptempo “Johnny Feels The Blues” with O’Neal sounding quite a bit like Roy Brown.  Hooker next landed at on the tiny Rockin’ label in 1953, a Miami, FL based label run by Henry Stone who also ran the Glory label which issued country music. There Hooker backed singer/harmonica bluesman Little Sammy Davis on four fine numbers. Six titles were cut under Hooker’s name but only “Sweet Angel” and “On The Hook” were released with the others sitting in the can for decades. Hooker found his way to Sun the same year where he waxed ten sides (one featuring vocals from Boyd Gilmore, one with vocals from Pinetop Perkins). All these sides were unissued at the time and surface on decades later. in 1957 Hooker did some session work for States including the excellent “Look Me Straight In The Eye” featuring vocals by Arbee Stidham. Hooker bounced over to the Chicago based C.J. label in 1959 run by Carl Jones. From those sessions we play “Yeah Yeah”, issued as Earl Hooker & His Road Masters a band that included pianist Johnny “Big Moose” Walker who would become a long time partner of Hooker’s. Hooker takes the vocals and turns in a superb vocal performance in addition to plenty of guitar fireworks. also in 1959 Hooker teamed up with Juniro Wells and producer Mel London. London formed the Chief label in 1957 and Hooker cut prolifically for London on Chief and its subsidiary imprints like Profile, Age and Mel-Lon through 1964. Cut in 1959 and released in 1960 on Profile, the infectious “Little By Little”, with Junior Wells on the vocals, became a hit staying on the R&B charts for three weeks and climbing to 23.

For the next four years Hooker recorded both as sideman and leader for the London, backing Junior Wells, Bobby Saxton, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, Big Moose Walker and A.C. Reed plus cutting several notable instrumentals. Among the more striking instrumentals cut during this period are ”Blues In D Natural”, “Universal Rock “, “Blue Guitar” and “The Leading Brand.” As Sebastian Danchin wrote in his superlative biography Earl hooker – Blues Master: “The period between 1959 and 1963 was a productive one, both in terms of quality and quantity. Through Mel London, Hooker was involved in over a dozen recording sessions, and his playing was featured on some forty titles and twenty-five singles, a dozen of which were released under his own name, the rest being ascribed to Junior Wells, A.C. Reed, Lillian Offitt, and Ricky Allen.” In 1960 Hooker cut a couple of sides for the Bea & Baby label of which we spin the rocking “Trying To Make A Living” featuring vocals by Bobby Saxton. In 1962 Hooker was involved in some recording for Chess and its Checker subsidary. One single was issued for Chess, “Tanya” b/w “Put Your Shoes On Willie”, and we play the former, a slide driven version of the Jimmy Liggins song. Hooker also laid down some instrumental tracks that were dubbed later with Muddy Waters’ vocals resulting in “You Shook Me”, “Little Brown Bird”, “You Need Love” plus three unissued tracks.

Between 1964 and 1967 Hooker cut several sessions for the tiny Cuca label, many of which were unreleased. Jim Kirchstein’s Cuca label was based out of Sauk City, Illinois and issued a variety of ethnic music as well as jazz, gospel and R&B. Kirchstein initially issued 45’s but always had the intention of releasing a whole album on Hooker which finally came to light in 1968 under the title The Genius of Earl Hooker. Hooker’s Cuca output was mostly instrumental guitar showcases although vocalists like Muddy Water Jr., Frank “Crying Shame” Clark and A.C. Reed were employed. From those sessions we play the swinging “Swear To Tell The Truth” featuring a fine vocal from Hooker (the song was first cut for Age in 1960 with Harold Tidwell on vocals), the instrumentals “The Foxtrot” and “Something You Got” plus “You Took All My Love “boasting a terrific vocal from Frank “Crying Shame” Clark.  Although unlisted, the sax player on “Something You Got” is J.J. Jackson who moved to Utica, NY in the 1960’s. In the 1990’s he worked with Rochester bluesman Steve Grills and his band the Roadmasters. In addition to Hooker, Jackson also worked with John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Maybelle, the Buddy Johnson Orchestra and Lee Cooper. Jackson died in 1998. ithe Cuca LP The Genius of Earl Hooker has been reissued in several forms including a vinyl reproduction on Sundazed in 2006, Do You Remember The Great Earl Hooker (Bluesway, 1973), There’s A Fungus Amung Us on both Catfish and Red Lightnin’ in 1999 and the Cuca collection Earl Hooker: Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker! issued on Black Magic in 1985 and reissued under the same title for Black Top in 1993.

Hooker finally drew increased attention during the late 1960’s starting with Two Bugs & a Roach, his first full-length album for Arhoolie in 1968. Label owner Chris Strachwitz was looking to record some Chicago blues and asked the advice of Buddy Guy on who he should record. According to Strachwitz, Guy said “If you ever ask a Chicago bluesman about who is the best guitar player in town, they will admit it’s Earl Hooker.” Hooker’s crack band for the session included Pinetop Perkins, Andrew Odom, Freddy Roulette, Carey Bell and Louis Myers. Hooker cut another album for Arhoolie in 1969. Hooker And Steve featured organist Steve Miller who had a band called the Prophets who had sometimes shared the bill with Hooker when Hooker worked the clubs in Waterloo, Iowa which was Miller’s hometown.

In 1969 Hooker hooked up with ABC-BluesWay playing on records of Bluesway artists like Andrew Odum, Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, Charles Brown, his cousin John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Hooker also cut the album Sweet Black Angel in 1969 a mostly instrumental outing produced by Ike Turner. From that session we play the lone vocal, sung by Hooker, a wah wah soaked version of “Sweet Home Chicago” finding Hooker in superb voice. Although Ike Turner is credited as the pianist I’ve talked to Ernest Lane (Lane played piano on some of Hooker’s 1950’s recordings for Sun) who tells me he was the pianist on this session and I have no reason to doubt him. Hooker’s lone Bluesway album under his own name, Don’t Have To Worry, has unfortunately not be issued on CD although some tracks appear on the Bluesway collection Simply The Best issued in 1999. From Don’t Have To Worry we play the rocking “You Got To Lose” featuring a good vocal from Hooker and some wild wah wah guitar. We wrap up the show with Hooker playing behind Bluesway artists Charles Brown and longtime buddies Andrew Odom and Johnny “Big Moose” Walker. Odom’s first release under his own name, Farther On Down The Road, was recorded in 1969 but not released until several years later. While sporting mostly blues standards, Odom’s debut is a terrific outing featuring marvelous rapport between Hooker and Odom but unfortunately the album, like much of the Bluesway catalog, has yet to be issued on CD. Big Moose Walker also made his full length debut for the label with Rambling Woman a fine outing marred by Otis Hale’s electric sax but featuring superb playing from Hooker as evidenced on today’s selection, “The Sky Is Crying.” Rambling Woman has also never been issued on CD although some tracks appear on Simply The Best.

In late 1969, Hooker traveled to Europe to play in the American Folk Blues Festival. Four tracks from his October, 3rd appearance at the Royal Albert Hall have been issued. We wrap our show with “Going Up And Down” among the last songs ever recorded by Hooker. By this time, he was quite ill with advancing tuberculosis, a condition he battled his entire life, and after his return was admitted to a Chicago sanitarium where he passed away in April 21, 1970.

There were several tracks that had to be trimmed due to time limitations. I’ve included the omitted songs below.

The Hucklebuck [Sun, 1953] (MP3)

Square Dance Rock w/ Magic Sam [Chief, 1960] (MP3)

Rocking Wild [Chief, 1961] (MP3)

Bright Sounds [Age, 1962] (MP3)

That Man [Age, 1962] (MP3)

Off The Hook [Two Bugs And A Roach, 1968] (MP3)

The Moon Is Rising [Hooker And Steve, 1969] (MP3)

I Feel Good [Sweet Black Angel, 1969] (MP3)

If You Miss ‘Im…I Got ‘Im… [John Lee Hooker: If You Miss 'Im...I Got 'Im..., 1969] (MP3)

Drifting Blues [Charles Brown: Legend!, 1969] (MP3)

I’ll Fly Away (MP3)

Libert Bill (MP3)

She Wants To Boogie (MP3)

Good Morning Blues (MP3)

Rocky Mountain (MP3)

St. Louis Blues (MP3)

Corrina (MP3)

Don’t You Lie To Me (MP3)

Black, Brown And White (MP3)

It Hurts Me Too (MP3)

Shak-a-You-Boogie (MP3)

Crawlin’ King Snake (MP3)

Key To The Highway (MP3)

Jim Brewer died twenty years, on June 3rd 1988, and unless you were a blues collector in the 1960’s and 70’s it’s a safe bet that you may never have heard of this superb bluesman who was under recorded during his lifetime, and these days has just a handful of songs currently scattered on a few CD anthologies. Although he moved from Mississippi to Chicago in 1940, where he resided until his death, his guitar playing was still rooted in the Mississippi style he picked up as a youth. His repertoire as well was formed by the singers he heard, mostly on record or radio, in the 1940’s and 50’s; singers like Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Big Maceo and Peetie Wheatstraw who Brewer ran with in St. Louis for a spell. As he told Paul Oliver: “I went down to St. Louis, spent four or five years down there, woofin’ and beefin’ aroun’ and blowin’ my top as usually. An’ I met a feller there down on Market and Main and places in East St. Louis, name of Peetie Wheatstraw. …I use to run aroun’ with him quite a bit.” Gospel music played a large part in Brewer’s music and like many musicians of his generation he was torn for awhile between playing blues and playing gospel. Sometime in the late 1950’s through the early 1960’s he devoted himself almost entirely to gospel. It was in this context that Oliver first encountered him: “We first heard Blind James Brewer playing with a Gospel group which was holding service under the guidance of a fiercely exhorting ‘jack-leg’ preacher on the broken sidewalk of South Sangamon Street, Chicago, a short step from Brewer’s home.” Like many bluesman his allegiance to gospel wasn’t steadfast as Oliver makes clear: “On another day we heard him with Blind Gray and recorded him playing I’m So Glad Good Whiskey’s Back (Heritage HLP 1004).” Brewer was anything if not pragmatic: “”Well lots of people say, ‘What profit you in the world if you gain the world and lose your soul?’-Well I realize that’s true too. But you got to live down here just like you got to make preparations to go up there. …You got to live this life, and you got to obey God. And God give me this talent and he knew before I came into this world what I was goin’ to make out of this talent.” While playing on the streets of his hometown of Brookhaven, MS in the 1930’s he learned most of the religious songs that he continued to perform throughout his life. His father told him he could make more money playing blues and as he grew older he started performing at parties having learned his repertoire from records.

James Brewer, Photo by Paul Chen

By the mid-1950’s, after roaming around for a bit, he was back in Chicago where he married his wife Fannie. Brewer’s new mother-in-law bought him an electric guitar and amplifier. Returning to Maxwell Street, where he began performing in the early 1940’s,  he devoted himself exclusively to religious music. In 1962, however, he was offered an opportunity to play blues at a concert at Northwestern University and also began a regular gig at the No Exit Cafe which lasted for two decades. He went on to play major festivals and clubs in the United States, Canada and Europe. He was recorded by Swedish Radio in 1964, cut sides for the Heritage label, was recoded by Pete Welding who issued the sides on his Testament label was well as Milestone and Storyville, plus cut the full-length albums Jim Brewer (Philo, 1974) and Tough Luck (Earwig, 1983). Brewer was also captured on film performing with his wife on Maxwell Street in 1964 for the documentary And This Is Free.

Kansas City Blues (MP3)

Come Back Baby (MP3)

Rock Me Mama (MP3)

Goin’ Away Baby (MP3)

Big Road (MP3)

Long Ways From Home (MP3)

Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad (MP3)

Hair Like A Horse’s Mane (MP3)

Poor Kelly (MP3)

Mean Old ‘Frisco (MP3)

Tough Luck Blues (MP3)

Oak Top Boogie (MP3)

Pea Vine Whistle (MP3)

Recorded less than a decade apart, Brewer’s two full-length albums are marvelous examples of his artistry showcasing him playing solo acoustic on a program of mostly standards. Jim Brewer was recorded live at Kirkland College to an appreciative audience and Brewer seems at his best when working a crowd. Four cuts on Tough Luck were recorded live at the 9th annual Gambier Folk Festival in 1980 while the other numbers were cut in the studio in 1978 and 1982. I think the first album is the stronger of the two and really benefits from the fact that it captures a complete live performance complete with plenty of charming asides to the audience who seem captivated by Brewer’s lively singing and guitar playing. Clas Ahlstrand summed up Brewer’s guitar style succinctly in a 1967 Blues Unlimited article: “As a blues guitarist Jim Brewer must be considered one of the best in Chicago. His style is complex and filled with an easy, fluent rhythm. It is is definitely not ‘Chicago styled, but softer and more ‘Country.’” Indeed like his repertoire, which seems frozen in the 1940’s and in the traditional songs he heard as a youngster, his guitar playing too seems firmly rooted in a Mississippi country style he learned as a youth. But as Ahlstrand points out, its appeal lies in Brewer’s deep sense of rhythm which effortlessly rolls from his fingertips belying the complexity of his playing. This driving complexity is heard to fine effect in the good time numbers “She Wants To Boogie” and “Shak-a-You-Boogie” as well as a gorgeous version of the chestnut “St. Louis Blues” delivered with a seductive drive and sense of humor that invests this well worn tune with brand new sheen. The same can be said on a warmly sung version of “Corrina” and a powerful cover of “Crawlin’ King Snake.” Brewer plays only one gospel number on these albums, opening up his self titled album with a rousing, sanctified version of “I’ll Fly Away” that lasts just over a minute before segueing into “Liberty Bill” which he announces by saying “Now I’m going to play some, some old, you know them way back down home blues.” In addition to his guitar skills, Brewer possesses a  powerful yet easygoing voice, often drawing out his lines for dramatic effect.

Brewer’s four live cuts from Tough Luck, are every bit as good as the previous album; Brewer is in commanding form on the stark, powerfully sung “Goin’ Away Baby”, a driving version of Tommy Johnson’s timeless “Big Road” and employs a gentle voice and deft fingerpicking to “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad.” There’s a reason certain songs have become standards and even though you may have heard “kansas City Blues” umpteen times, artists like Brewer are able to find the very essence of what makes this song so timeless, giving this classic a vivacious reading a feat he also performs on Arthur Crudup’s “Mean Old ‘Frisco.” Brewer is a fine interpreter as he shows on terrific versions of Big Maceo’s “Poor Kelley” and “Tough Luck Blues” and Walter Davis’ “Come Back Baby”, ably translated from piano to guitar. “Oak Top Boogie”, a mostly instrumental with spoken asides, is a fine guitar boogie while “Hair Like A Horse’s Mane” is a beautiful version of this standard and a song he clearly had an affection for, cutting it originally back in 1964.

Unfortunately Brewer’s two LP’s are long out of print and only a few of his songs appear on CD; a pair of songs on a couple of Earwig anthologies, his songs for Swedish Radio can be found on the CD I Blueskvarter Chicago 1964, Volume One and a few gospel numbers appear on And This Is Maxwell Street. Brewer remained an in demand musician until the end, and as long time supporter Andy Cohen wrote: “He died with gigs on his calendar.”

Show Notes:

Today’s program spotlights the tireless contributions of record producer, songwriter, label owner and all around hustler Bob Geddins. Modern Records co-owner Joe Bihari recalled Geddins this way: “Geddins had his own sound. He was a very nice person, he was black, and easy to deal with. A hustler? Well, you’ve got to do something, eh? I think the artists respected Geddins very much. It was like a family up there, yes.” Geddins was the dominant figure in Bay Area blues scene from the mid-1940’s to the mid-1960’s and made hundreds of records over the years on small labels he ran like Down Town, Big Town, Irma, Plaid, Art Tone, Cavatone, and Gedison’s and leased material to other companies bigger companies like Modern and Aladdin. He was also the first to set up a pressing plant in the Bay area. He released records by Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Johnny Fuller, Roy Hawkins, Jimmy Wilson among many others and was involved in the careers of many of these artists. Geddins died in 1991 at age 78.

It’s a bit difficult to get a handle on the West Coast sound, which is not as identifiable as say Chicago Blues but encompasses several different interlocking strands. As Mike Rowe wrote: “Unlike New York and Chicago there had been no blues or any kind of recording industry pre-war …The music as well as the industry was starting from scratch. …It was very often of Do-It yourself triumphing over the most adverse conditions.” The Black population swelled in the 1940’s, due to large manpower needs to work in the U.S. defense industry during World War II. These new arrivals needed entertainment, of course, and the local jazz and blues club scene heated up quickly. Geddins’ brand of blues was decidedly downhome as he told Lee Hildebrand in a 1980 interview: “I make everything I record as sad as possible. …I want black folks to feel the troubles of old times. All the people that have had similar problems are the ones that’s gonna buy those records. A lot of people make like they don’t like the blues but sneak off and play them.”

Oakland became a blues mecca during the 1940s. The city’s shipbuilding industry boomed in support of World War II, and the consequent profusion of manufacturing jobs and military bases brought a huge influx of African Americans to the Bay Area. Many settled near the shipyards in West Oakland, and a vibrant entertainment district sprang up on Seventh Street, where the blocks were crowded with pool halls, card rooms, and as many as 40 blues clubs, including the Lincoln Theater, Esther’s Orbit Room, and Slim Jenkins’ Place.

Discharged from the Navy in 1945, Fulson found his way to to Oakland, California, where he played small nightclubs. In 1946, he formed a group with pianist Eldridge McCarthy and recorded on Bob Geddins’s Big Town with Geddins leasing his recordings to Jack Lauderdale’s Los Angeles-based Down Beat and Swing Time labels. As Geddins recalled in the book Honkers and Shouters, “Lowell Fulson was the first great bluesman I put on wax …. [I] Bought him an electric guitar and amplifier–cost a hundred and eighty dollars. And he did a lot of rehearsing in the Seventh Street Music Shop.”

Along with Lowell Fulson, who left the Bay Area shortly after he became successful, McCracklin was the biggest name to ever emerge from the Oakland blues scene. He made his first record, “Miss Mattie Left Me,” for the Globe label in Los Angeles in 1945. Two years later in Oakland, he began a relationship with record producer Bob Geddins that would last on and off over the next two decades.

Jimmy Wilson scored a huge hit in California with his 1953 number “Tin Pan Alley” written by Bob Geddins. He was never able to match the record’s success but issued fine sides between 1948 and 1961 on labels such as Aladdin, Cava-Tone, Big Town, 7-11, Rhythm, Chart, Irma, Goldband and finally Duke. He died in 1965 at the age of 42.

Accompanying himself on both guitar and rack harmonica Bonner sung highly personal tales typified in songs like “Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal” and “Struggle Here In Houston.” He won a talent contest in 1947 in Houston that led to a radio spot. He cut his first sides for Bob Geddins’ Irma label in 1957 and next for *Goldband in 1960. Full length albums came about do to the interest of Mike Leadbitter, co-editor of Blues Unlimited, who recorded Bonner in 1967, issuing his full length debut on Flyright. He cut his best work between 1968-69 for Arhoolie Records. A few European tours ensued but by the 70’s he was working outside of music. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1978.

Johnny Fuller was a West Coast bluesman who left behind a batch of 1950’s recordings. He was equally at home with low down blues, gospel, R&B, and rock & roll. Making the Bay Area his home throughout his career, Fuller turned in classic sides for Heritage, Aladdin, Specialty, Flair, Checker, and Hollywood; all but one of them West Coast-based concerns. His two biggest hits, “All Night Long” and the original version of “The Haunted House,” improbably found him in the late ’50s on rock & roll package shows, touring with the likes of Paul Anka and Frankie Avalon! By and large retiring from the music scene in the ’60s (with the exception of one excellent album in 1974), Fuller worked as a garage mechanic until his passing in 1985.

Geddins had discovered Roy Hawkins playing in a club in Oakland in 1948. Hawkins and his backing group the Four Jacks were very popular and were doing sell-out business at several Bay area clubs at that time. Geddins rushed Hawkins and his band into the studio to cut some sides to capitalise on their current popularity and released “They Raided The Joint” on Geddins’ Cava-Tone label. After recording some more sides with Hawkins, Geddins sold “It’s Too Late To Change” and “Strange Land” to Modern and Jules Bihari then brought Hawkins and his band to LA to record. Starting in October 1949 through 1954/55 Hawkins’ records were released on Modern. In 1958 Hawkins cut a four-song session for Geddins’ Rhythm label.

James Reed was an exceptional blues singer who cut only ten sides at sessions in 1954, which were issued on Flair, Rhythm, Money and Big Town.

Little Caesar was fine but forgotten vocalist who waxed a couple of dozen sides in the 1950’s including a four-song session for Geddins’ Big Town label.

Willie B. Huff Cut was a terrific downhome blues singer who cut  two sides in 1953 for Big Town and two in 1954 for Rhythm. She turned up at the 1977 San Francisco blues festival before drifting back into obscurity.

Show Notes:

For today’s show we continue with our ongoing series I call Forgotten Blues Heroes. For this installment we spotlight four great Mississippi bluesmen who didn’t get the opportunity to record until the 1960’s: James Brewer, Shirley Griffith, Roosevelt Holts and Houston Stackhouse. All these gentlemen were old enough to have been recorded earlier but opportunity passed them by until the blues revival of the 1960’s. In addition to the resurrection of the legendary artists of the past like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Skip James there were a slew of older artists uncovered who got a chance to make some recordings. Unlike those who recorded back in the 1920’s and 30’s for the commercial record companies and black consumers, those who recorded in the 1960’s were being recorded primarily for a a new found white audience with the records issued usually on tiny specialist labels. The benefit wasn’t in sales of records so much as it was the fact that these recordings would be an entry way into the festival and coffeehouse circuit. Unfortunately many of these small labels never lasted into the CD era and hence many great albums remain long out of print. The bulk of today’s recordings fall into that category and it seems only Houston Stackhouse is lucky enough to have just about all of his recordings available on CD. In upcoming installments of this series I plan on spotlighting other who made their debuts in the 1960’s and 70’s such as James “Son” Thomas, Sam Chatmon, Scott Dunbar, Joe Callicott, Bill Williams, Babe Stovall and Frank Hovington to name a few.

James Brewer was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi on October 3rd 1920 and moved to Chicago in the 1940’s where he spent the latter part of his life busking and performing both blues and religious songs at blues and folk festivals, on Chicago’s Maxwell Street and other venues. While playing on the streets of Brookhaven in the 1930’s he learned most of the religious songs that he continued to perform throughout his life. His father told him he could make more money playing blues and as he grew older he started performing at parties having learned his repertoire from records.  Following the death of his mother the family moved to Chicago where he eventually found his way to Maxwell Street. in the early 1950’s he settled in St. Louis playing streetcars and taverns and also joined a washboard band for a spell. By the mid-50’s he was back in Chicago where he married his wife Fannie. Brewer’s new mother-in-law bought him an electric guitar and amplfier. Returning to Maxwell Street he devoted himself exclusively to religious music. In 1962, however, he was offered an opportunity to play blues at a concert at Northwestern University and also began a regular gig at the No Exit Cafe which lasted for two decades. He went on to play major festivals and clubs in the United States, Canada and Europe. He was recorded by Swedish Radio in 1964, cut sides for the Heritage label and Testament plus cut the full-length albums Jim Brewer (Philo, 1974) and Tough Luck (Earwig, 1983).

Born in 1907 near Brandon, Mississippi Shirley Griffith was certainly old enough to have made records in the 1920’s and 30’s and in fact had at least two opportunities to do so. In 1928 his friend and mentor, Tommy Johnson, offered to help him get started but, by his own account, he was too “wild and reckless” in those days. In 1928 he moved to Indianapolis where he became friendly with Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. In 1935 Carr offered to take Griffith to New York for a recording session but Carr died suddenly and the trip was never made. It was Art Rosenbaum who was responsible for getting Griffith on record and who also precipitated the comeback of Scrapper Blackwell. Rosenbaum produced Griffith’s Bluesville albums. “I recall one August afternoon”, he wrote in the notes to Saturday Blues, “shortly after these recordings were made; Shirley sat in Scrapper Blackwell’s furnished room singing the ‘Bye Bye Blues’ with such intensity that everyone present was deeply moved, though they had all heard him sing it many times before. Scrapper was playing , too, and the little room swelled with sound. When they finished there was a moment of awkward silence. Finally Shirley smiled and said: ‘The blues’ll kill you. And make you live, too.’”

Writing about another older musician who only recorded late in life, Tony Russell had this to say: “Through this streaked glass one can discern the outlines of a younger, quicker musician who unfortunately never recorded.” It would have been interesting to hear how Griffith sounded when he was younger but it’s hard to imagine him sounding much better than on these late recordings. His singing is superb on these recordings; warm, controlled and expressive, often drawing out his phrases in a relaxed, easy manner. His guitar playing is subtle, melodic and gently propulsive and contains hidden depths upon repeated listening.

Shirley Griffith missed his opportunity to record as a young man but recorded three superb albums: Indiana Ave. Blues (Bluesville, 1964, with partner J.T. Adams), Saturday Blues (Bluesville, 1965) and Mississippi Blues (Blue Goose, 1973). In addition some field recordings from the early 1960’s were issued on the Flyright album Indianapolis Jumps. The fact that all these albums are out of print goes a ways in understanding why Griffith remains so little known. He also didn’t benefit all that much from the renewed blues interest of the 1960’s; he never achieving the acclaim of late discovered artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, the critical appreciation of a Robert Pete Williams or the excitement surrounding rediscovered legends like Son House, Skip James or Mississippi John Hurt. He did achieve modest notice touring clubs with Yank Rachell in 1968, performed at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 and appeared at the Notre Dame Blues Festival in South Bend, Indiana in 1971. Griffith passed away in 1974

Roosevelt Holts was a country bluesman of considerable skill who in a small way was caught up in the blues boom of the 1960’s, finally getting the opportunity to record scattered sides and a couple of LP’s in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Holts, who was born in 1905, likely would have achieved greater recognition if he had gotten the chance to make records in the 1920’s and 1930’s as David Evans emphasized: “If he had been able to get to a record studio in the 1930’s, his records would now be highly prized collector’s items, reissued on albums and talked about by blues fans everywhere. He might have even been “rediscovered” and brought north to the cities for concerts and coffee house engagements before an audience of young whites who were not even born when he recorded his famous numbers.” Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and he took up the guitar when he was in his mid-twenties. He started to get serious about music in the late 1930’s when he encountered Tommy Johnson. Folklorist David Evans began recording Holts in 1965 resulting in two LP’s (both out of print): Presenting The Country Blues (Blue Horizon,1966) and Roosevelt Holts and Friends (Arhoolie, 1969-1970) plus the collection The Franklinton Muscatel Society featuring his earliest sides through 1969 which is available on CD.  In addition selections recorded by Evans appeared on the following anthologies (all out of print): Goin’ Up The Country (Decca, 1968), The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (Matchbox, 1972), South Mississippi Blues (Rounder, 1974 ?), Way Back Yonder …Original Country Blues Volume 3 (Albatros, 1979 ?), Giants Of Country Blues Vol. 3 (Wolf, 199?) and a very scarce 45 (“Down The Big Road” b/w “Blues On Mind”) cut for the Bluesman label in 1969.

Houston Stackhouse

Stackhouse’s family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi in the mid-1920’s, where he learned songs from Tommy Johnson and his brothers and took up guitar. In the early 1930’s, he moved to Hollandale, Mississippi where his cousin, Robert Lee McCullum (later known as Robert Nighthawk) lived. It was Houston who taught Robert Nighthawk how to play the bottleneck guitar. In 1946, Houston moved to Helena, Arkansas where he played with Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) on The King Biscuit Time show, on KFFA Radio. His association with the King Biscuit show and his living in Helena brought him in contact with many of the great blues players. He played with Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Roosevelt Sykes and Earl Hooker. From the late 1940’s and up until 1954, Houston worked for the Chrysler Corporation in Helena. He continued to play, but less frequently after he married in the late 1950’s. Periodically, he returned to the King Biscuit show. In 1967 he made his first recordings cutting field recordings for George Mitchell and shortly after for David Evans. At the tail end of August 1967 George Mitchell recorded an impromptu combo who called themselves the Blues Rhythm Boys in Dundee, MS, a small town on route 61 roughly halfway between Tunica and Friars Point and just across the river from Helena, AR. The group consisted of Houston Stackhouse, Robert Nighthawk and James “Peck” Curtis. As I wrote in my notes to Prowling With The Nighthawk: “The music harks back to Nighthawk and Stackhouse’s early delta days. Tommy Johnson’s influence looms large with five of his songs being covered. In a way Nighthawk’s life had come full circle; he was once again playing with Stackhouse who taught how to play guitar, Stackhouse in turn learned directly from Tommy Johnson and here were the two old friends performing the songs of Johnson together one final time. Nghthawk died less than two months after these recordings on Nov. 5 1967 of congestive heart failure at the Helena hospital. These 1967 recordings have been justly celebrated and long available, with the Mitchell sides appearing on Arhoolie’s Mississippi Delta Blues- Blow My Blues Away Vol. 1 & 2 and Robert Nighthawk & Houston Stackhouse – Masters of Modern Blues Volume 4 while the Evans recordings are available on  Big Road Blues on the Wolf label. In 1972 Stackhouse recorded Crying Won’t Help You for the Adelphi label. He was part of The Memphis Blues Caravan, traveled around the Eastern states, toured Europe in 1970 and played the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues Festival with Joe Willie Wilkins under the name The King Biscuit Boys. He died in 1980

Related Articles: (Word Docs)

-Shirley Griffith/Yank Rachell Concert Review by Leo Kunstadt (Record Research 9, 1968)

I am the Black Ace, I’m the boss card in your hand
But I’ll play for you mama, if you please let me be your man

So were the words that drifted from the airwaves of station KFJZ out of Fort Worth, Texas in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Following in the long line of dramatic blues persona like Pettie Wheatstraw’s High Sheriff From Hell or The Devil’s Son-In-Law, Oscar Woods’ Lone Wolf or Robert Nighthawk’s Prowling Night-Hawk was the Black Ace who’s real name was the equally prosaic Babe Kyro Lemon Turner. “I throwed the ‘Lemon’ away”, he told Paul Oliver, “and just used the initials of Babe Kyro – B.K. Turner.” During this period the Black Ace was well known, at least among black audiences, in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. He cut two sides for the ARC label in 1936 which were never issued but had better luck the following year cutting six sides for Decca in 1937 all of which were released. It was these sides that would later garner him notice among blues collectors and which led to a fleeting comeback. Comeback is probably not the right word as Turner had no interest in playing blues full time again although thankfully he was persuaded to record two sessions at his Fort Worth home in 1960 which were issued as The Black Ace on Arhoolie (reissued on CD as Black Ace: I’m The Boss Card In Your Hand which includes his 1937 sides plus a few other tracks that appeared on Arhoolie compilations). He was also captured on film for the 1962 documentary The Blues.

I’ve long been a fan of the Black Ace but what prompted this article was a 1941film called the The Blood Of Jesus. I’ve always been intrigued by this film because in every biography of the Black Ace it’s noted that he plays a role in the film. I finally got a chance to view this fascinating film (I’ve uploaded a snippet to YouTube which can be viewed above) but as far as I can tell the Black Ace doesn’t actually appear on camera, however we do get to hear a wonderful performance by him which he would later record on the Arhoolie album as “Golden Slipper”, an evocative portrait of a good time joint:

Come on mama let’s truck on down, to the Golden Slipper and break ‘em down
913 on Taylor Street, they got good whiskey and plenty pigmeat
But watcha gonna do, when they break the Golden Slipper up
You won’t have no where to go and get drunk and truck
The Golden Slipper bar is the best I know, you go here once you get a woman for sure
You don’t want her don’t you be no clown, drink your good whiskey and don’t break down

They got green river whiskey and the price is right
We ain’t gonna fuss and we ain’t gonna fight
Get at a table and sit right down, drink good whiskey but we ain’t gonna clown
But watcha gonna do, when they break the Golden Slipper up
You won’t have no where to go and get drunk and truck

Regarding the film I’ll quote the Wikipedia entry: “The Blood of Jesus was the first film directed by Spencer Williams, who was one of the few African American directors of the 1940s. Williams began his career in the 1920s as an extra, and was later able to move up into writing scripts for all-black short comedies produced by the Al Christie studio. In 1939, he wrote two screenplays for the race film genre, the Western Harlem Rides the Range and the horror-comedy Son of Ingagi, and he also acted in these films. Williams was invited by Alfred N. Sack, president of the Dallas, Texas-based production/distribution company Sack Amusement Enterprises, to write and direct a series of all-black films that would be released to the U.S. cinemas catering to African American audiences. The Blood of Jesus was produced in Texas on a budget of $5,000. …The Blood of Jesus was screened in cinemas and in black churches.The film’s commercial success enabled Williams to direct and write additional feature films for Sack Amusement Enterprises, including two films with religious themes: Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (1942) and Go Down, Death (1944). For years, The Blood of Jesus was considered a lost film until prints were discovered in the mid-1980s in warehouse in Tyler, Texas.”

While the Black Ace recorded little his small body of work is all one needs to fully appreciate a thoroughly unique performer; a man passionate and serious about his blues who played guitar in a masterful, complex and  improvisatory manner, accomplished in a style that few committed to posterity. As Oliver concluded in the notes to the Arhoolie album, he was one “of the few exponents of the flat Hawaiian guitar blues style who have been recorded, Oscar Woods is dead, and Kokomo Arnold – whom Black Ace resembles – has long since retired with no desire to play or sing again. These recordings of a great blues singer have the added importance that they may well be the last to be made of a style of blues which has all but vanished.” Oliver elaborates on on Ace’s style which he picked up from Oscar “Buddy” Woods but which he had honed to eventually eclipse his older mentor. Using a National steel-bodied Hawaiian guitar he at first “played this with a bottleneck in the traditional manner of the knife and bottleneck blues guitarists, but soon saw the possibilities of extending the range of the instrument by using a small medicine bottle to stop the strings at the frets. Holding this in the left hand and picking the strings finger-pick style but with the guitar placed horizontally, he could block whole cords in ‘Sevastpol’, tuning or stop individual notes by using both the sides and corners of the bottle. In this way he could play the open strings in a range of keys; and as he developed he devised a number of original tunings and unusual rhythmic patterns.”

His resulting Arhoolie album is a real gem of the blues revival era all the more remarkable perhaps because he had long retired from blues and, as Oliver writes, his steel-bodied National “was gathering dust in the attic.” Ace’s remarkable technique is notable throughout although he never indulges in mere technique and even instrumental workouts like “Bad Times Stomp” and the gentle “Ace’s Guitar Blues” have the unerring swing of his vocal numbers. Comparing these recordings with his earlier ones shows nary a trace of deterioration as his warm, vibrato heavy vocals deliver fine updates to his older numbers such as “New Triflin’ Woman”, “I Am The Black Ace” plus examples of his repertoire that were previously unrecorded including the stately “‘Fore Day Creep”, “Santa Fe Blues”, the automotive double entendres of “Hitchhiking Woman” and the bouncy “Your Legs’ Too Little.” For some reason the moving “Farther Along” has been left off the CD which is a shame but doesn’t detract from an album that should find its place in the library of all traditional blues fans. The Back Ace passed on November 7th, 1972 and as far as I can tell his last performance was that in the above mentioned 1962 documentary The Blues.

Bad Times Stomp [1960] (MP3)

‘Fore Day Creep [1960] (MP3)

Golden Slipper [1960] (MP3)

Black Ace [1937](MP3)

Trifling Woman [1937] (MP3)

Whiskey and Women [1937] (MP3)

Black Ace Interview With Paul Oliver [1960] (MP3)