Big Road Blues

After languishing out of print for many years, Mike Shea’s legendary film on Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market, And This Is Free, has finally been reissued by Shanachie and I imagine news of this will stir up quite a bit of excitement in blues circles. Shanachie has done an exemplary job with the packaging; housed in a soft covered fold out set is a two disc set containing the 50 minute documentary And This Is Free, the 30 minute documentary Maxwell Street: A Living Memory, some fascinating archival footage, an interview with sound man Gordon Quinn, a separate CD of performances by artists associated with Maxwell Street plus an illustrated 36 page booklet.

The history of the film and music recorded by Mike Shea over the course of sixteen Sundays on Chicago’s Maxwell Street in 1964 has an interesting if convoluted history, and I find it odd that none of this is mentioned in the lengthy booklet. Disappointed by the film’s reception, Shea let the tapes languish in a warehouse for years until the 1970’s when all the footage not included in the original edit was thrown out. At some point a VHS of the film was issued but I’m unclear exactly when. Fortunately the audio tapes had been stored separately so all the original music had been preserved. Rounder records first put some of this music out in 1980 under Robert Nighthawk’s name as Live On Maxwell Street 1964. At the time of release these recordings were incorrectly credited, both for the songs, publishing and for much of the personnel. It also turns out that the performances themselves were edited, giving two decades of listeners an incomplete and historically incorrect picture of those recordings as they were originally captured. Finally in May of 1999 the 2-CD set And This Is Maxwell Street was released in Japan on the P-Vine label produced by Studio IT and issued in 2000 in the US by Rooster Records with an additional CD containing a 44 minute interview of Nighthawk conducted by Mike Bloomfield. The set contains all the original unedited recordings made in conjunction with the film.

While music makes up much of the backdrop of And This Is Free, all the performances are truncated and it’s sad to think of all the amazing footage that was lost. Still the 50 minutes of And This Is Free is a fascinating, riveting street level view of this remarkable open air market, all the more important now that urban renewal has virtually erased it from existence. Ira Berkow, who wrote Maxwell Street: Survival In A Bazaar, and contributes to the booklet, described it this way: “It was a carnival, it was a bazaar, it was, as some believed and perhaps with some credibility, a thieves’ den; it was also home to snake charmers, a horse that could count with a clop of his hoof, an “Indian chief” in war bonnet and penny loafers, honest businessmen, the ladies of the night (and morning and afternoon), Gypsies, Jews, Italians, Irish, Bohemians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, Latinos, blacks. As well as the birthplace of a number of prominent Americans. And this, more or less, just for starters.” Hound Dog Taylor, a veteran of Maxwell Street, had this to say: “You used to get out on Maxwell Street on a Sunday Morning and pick you out a good spot, babe. Dammit, we’d make more money than I ever looked at. Put you out a tub, you know, and put a pasteboard in there, like a newspaper. I’m telling you, Jewtown was Jumpin’ like a champ, jumpin’ like mad on Sunday morning.” Jewtown, as the area was also known because, as Lori Grove writes in her excellent essay Historic Maxwell Street, the “Jewish immigrants were the largest  and longest-standing ethnic group in the Maxwell Street neighborhood” who “established the old world marketplace and its reputation as a place where bargains could be found.” This part of Maxwell street is evocatively told in Maxwell Street: A Living Memory through the stories of the children and grandchildren of the original Jewish immigrants and through some wonderful archival film and photographs.

Many will gravitate to the film because of the music and indeed the street was a mecca for bluesman trying to hustle a few bucks from the passing crowd. The music is raw and wild with plenty of ambiance from the passing crowds as we briefly see Robert Nighthawk delivering a blistering blues boogie in a back alley to a raucous crowd and a gritty slide drenched cover Dr. Clayton’s “Cheating and Lying Blues”,  a too brief snippet of the great Johnny Young, Arvella Gray flaying away at his steel guitar as he delivers his signature version of “John Henry” incorporating references to Maxwell and Halstead streets. Gospel permeates the street, from street corner preachers of all stripes to Carrie Robinson backed by a full electric band, dancing like a whirling dervish, as she belts out a testifying “Power To Live Right”, Fannie Brewer’s lovely, introspective “I Shall Overcome” and Jim Brewer and group closing with a rousing “I’ll Fly Away.” George Paulus, owner of Barrelhouse Records and St. George Records, contributes a wonderful essay, Maxwell Street Blues, Mojos And Chickens, which gives a vivid portrait of the Maxwell Street blues scene as seen through the eyes of a then thirteen year old blues fan. D. Thomas Moon adds the companion essay, Talkin’ ‘Bout Maxwell Street, filled with recollections by former bluesman Johnny Williams, Delmark owner Bob Koester and the late Jimmie Lee Robinson among others. Adding to the overall feel is some amazing archival film of Maxwell Street in the 1940’s, Casey Jones, the Chicken Man (a 95 year old who could hypnotize his chicken) and some remarkable footage of the ancient Daddy Stovepipe, complete with top hat, harmonica rack and guitar, who had been a fixture on the street since before World War II.

The CD includes performances by many who played on the street including Robert Nighthawk, Big John Wrencher, Daddy Stovepipe, John Lee Granderson, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and others. A number of the tracks were recorded crudely at the Maxwell Street Radio Store by Bernard Abrams ( he preferred Perry Como) who issued them on his Ora Nelle imprint (named after Little Walter’s girlfriend). While the music is uniformly excellent it also underscores a missed opportunity. Perhaps it’s a licensing issue, but it would have been nice if the two CD’s worth of music issued as And This Is Maxwell Street could have been included. Now that would be the ultimate Maxwell Street set! Also, as I mentioned earlier, it’s a bit odd that this music is not mentioned at all.

All in all, with a few caveats, Shanachie has done a wonderful job with And This Is Free: The Life And Times Of Chicago’s Legendary Maxwell Street, a lovingly packaged, trip back to a time and place that has been all but erased except in the vivid memories and footage contained in this small time capsule. Like the old Beale Street, Times Square and sadly, Mike Shea himself, Maxwell Street is all but gone. As Gatemouth Brown sang in his ode to Beale Street (”Beale Street Ain’t Beale Street No More”): “My street is gone, gone to come back no more.”

Show Notes:

Joe Brown and James Oden aka St. Louis Jimmy founded the J.O.B. label in August 1949. The name of the label was a combination of their two names. J.O.B. would hold on until 1974, but its main period of sustained activity ran from late 1950 through the middle of 1954. The company’s one chart hit, “Five Long Years” by Eddie Boyd, was released in July 1952. Always a “mom and pop” scale business with erratic publicity and distribution, after 1954 JOB became more of a hobby for its owner than a serious business venture.  J.O.B consistently elicited great performances from notable blues artists such as Johnny Shines, Robert Lockwood, Leroy Foster, Sunnyland Slim, J.B. Lenoir and Snooky Pryor among others. The bulk of today’s tracks come from the 2-CD, 54 track collection, Rough Treatment – The J.O.B. Records Story, on the Westside label. An exhaustive history of the label can be found at the Red Saunders Research Foundation website. Below is some background on today’s featured artists.

Johnny Shines had first met Robert Johnson in Memphis in 1934, and he began accompanying Johnson on his wanderings around the Southern juke-joint circuit with the twp playing together for three years. The two split up in Arkansas in 1937, and never saw each other again before Johnson’s death in 1938. He made his way to Chicago in the 1940’s making the rounds of the local blues clubs, and in 1946 he made his first-ever recordings; four tracks for Columbia that the label declined to release. In 1950, he resurfaced on Chess, cutting sides that were rarely released (and, when they were, often appeared under the name “Shoe Shine Johnny”). Meanwhile, Shines was finding work supporting other artists at live shows and recording sessions. From 1952-1953, he laid down some storming sides for the JOB label, which constitute some of his finest work ever.

Robert Lockwood, Jr., learned his blues firsthand from Robert Johnson. When Lockwood’s mother became romantically involved with Johnson in Helena, AR, Lockwood gained a role model and a close friend — so close that Lockwood considered himself Johnson’s stepson. Settling in Chicago in 1950, Lockwood swiftly gained a reputation as a versatile in-demand studio sideman, recording behind harp genius Little Walter, piano masters Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Boyd, and plenty more. Solo recording opportunities were scarce, though Lockwood did cut fine singles in 1951 for Mercury and in 1955 for JOB (”Sweet Woman From Maine”, “Aw Aw Baby”, “Dust My Broom”, Pearly B”).

Bassist Moody Jones, who recorded regularly for JOB between 1950 and 1953, retired from playing blues shortly after his last session for the label.

Snooky Pryor hit Chicago for the first time in 1940. Armed with a primitive amp, he dazzled the folks on Maxwell Street in late 1945 with his massively amplified harp. Pryor made some groundbreaking 78’s during the immediate postwar Chicago blues era. Teaming with guitarist Moody Jones, he waxed “Telephone Blues” and “Boogie” for Planet Records in 1948, encoring the next year with “Boogy Fool”/”Raisin’ Sand” for JOB with Jones on bass and guitarist Baby Face Leroy Foster in support. Pryor made more classic sides for JOB (1950-1953 and 1962 or 1963), Parrot (1953), and Vee-Jay (”Someone to Love Me”/”Judgment Day”) in 1956, but commercial success never materialized. He wound down his playing in the early ’60s, finally chucking it all and moving to downstate Illinois, in 1967. h e recorded an LP for Bluesway in 1973 (Do It If You Want), but did not become a hit on the blues revival circuit until a Blind Pig release in 1987 (Snooky). He continued to record into the 1990s for such labels as Antone’s and Discovery. Snooky Pryor died on October 18, 2006. He was 85 years old.

Between 1948 and 1952 Baby Face Leroy Foster waxed a handful absolutely terrific sides under his own name for a number fledgling Chicago labels aided by some of the windy city’s best blues musicians. In addition his vocals, drumming, and guitar playing can be found backing some of the greatest Chicago blues records of the era. His death in 1958, at the age of 38, robbed the blues world of a singular, memorable talent and likely did much to hasten his unwarranted obscurity. Foster’s recorded twice for J.O.B.: First in 1949 with “My Head Can’t Rest Anymore” b/w “Take A Little Walk With Me” backed by Snooky Pryor on harmonica and Alfred Elkins on bass and once more in 1952 with “Pet Rabbit” b/w Louella” backed by Robert Lockwood and Sunnyland Slim.

J.B. Lenoir spent time in New Orleans before arriving in Chicago in the late ’40s. He cut his first single for Chess in 1951, “Korea Blues.” From late 1951 to 1953, he waxed several dates for JOB in the company of pianist Sunnyland Slim, drummer Alfred Wallace, and J.T. Brown.

The four side for J.O.B. Memphis Minnie cut were her last commercial recordings. Her husband, Little Son Joe (Ernest Lawlars) plays guitar and cut two sides under his own name for the label.

Guitarist John Brim was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on April 10, 1922. He moved to Indianapolis in 1941 and Chicago in 1945; in the early 1950s he lived in Gary, Indiana. Along with his wife Grace (on harmonica and drums), Brim made recordings for Detroit-based Fortune (1950) and St. Louis-based Random (1951), before hooking up with J.O.B. in 1953 cutting four sides.

Blues singer/guitarist Hudson Shower was born September 6, 1919, in Aguilla, Mississippi. At age 12 he took up guitar. In 1939 Shower came to Chicago, but it was not until 1946 that he entered the city’s burgeoning deep blues scene, despite having played guitar for 15 years. He first followed some of the older musicians, such as Big Bill Broonzy, Big Maceo, and Tampa Red, before forming his own group, the Red Devil Trio, in 1950. With this trio he cut four sides for J.O.B. in 1953.

Eddie Boyd’s first formal session for J.O.B. took place on June 30, 1951, when four tracks were laid down. Boyd’s first release, on JOB 1005, didn’t sell much. A second session was booked on May 30, 1952, at which two tracks were laid. Promptly released on JOB 1007, “Five Long Years” was a huge hit. In consequence, Joe Brown quickly called Ernest Cotton into the studio to overdub his tenor sax on three of the tracks recorded in 1951, and a few months later reissued overdubbed versions of both sides of JOB 1005 on JOB 1009.

Floyd Jones cut six sides for J.O.B. at sessions in 1951 and 1953. Jones came to Chicago in the mid-’40s, working for tips on Maxwell Street with his cousin Moody Jones and Baby Face Leroy Foster and playing local clubs on a regular basis. Floyd was right there when the postwar “Chicago blues” movement first took flight, recording with harpist Snooky Pryor for Marvel in 1947; pianist Sunnyland Slim for Tempo Tone the next year, JOB and Chess in 1952-53, and Vee-Jay in 1955.Jones remained active on the Chicago scene until shortly before his 1989 death.

John Lee Henley recorded as John Lee, and should not be confused with the John Lee who recorded for Federal. He worked for a time in Big Boy Spires’ band, the Rocket Four. He cut two sides for the label: “Rythm Rockin’ Boogie” and “Knockin’ on Lula Mae’s Door” in 1952 for J.O.B. Henley recorded on three unissued sessions with guitarist Honeyboy Edwards during 1965 and 1966, so the JOB release is the full extent of his issued discography.

Mississippi born John T. Brown was a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels down south before arriving in the Windy City. 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 on records for Meteor and Flair in 1952 and 1953 and 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.

Sunnyland Slim cut a handful of sides under his own name for the label in 1951 and 1954 and many artists on the label including Floyd Jones, Robert Lockwood, Leroy Foster, John Brim J.B. Lenoir, Snooky Pryor.

We concluded part one with the recording of “Bottle It Up And Go”, one of McClennan’s most enduring numbers. McClennan’s first session was probably his strongest and as Neil Slaven notes “there’s a subtle diminution of commitment as the five sessions progress, as though alcohol had begun to erode his skills.” His first session is littered with references to Mississippi and Chicago and he’s clearly aware of the importance of recording in Chicago as the spoken aside in his first number, “You Can Mistreat Me Here”, attest: “Take your time and play it right, f’ you’re in Chicago.” His most evocative number in this regard is “Cotton Patch Blues” as he sings about the woman he left behind in Mississippi:

I left my baby in Mississippi, pickin’ cotton down on her knees (2x)
She says, If you get to Chicago all right, please right me a letter if you please

I said “baby, that’s all right, baby that’s all right for you (2x)
You’ll just keep pickin’ cotton right there, oh babe, until I get through

Baby, when I get to Chicago, I do swear I’m sure gonna take a change (2x)
If I don’t never get back to Mississippi, I’m sure gonna change your name

“Brown Skin Girl” is another number filled with striking imagery delivered with plenty of conviction:

Now I got a brownskin girl, with her front tooth crowned with gold (2x)
Spoken: take your and make this one right because it’s the best one you got
She got a lien on my body and a mortgage on my soul
Now friend don’t ever let your good girl fix you like this woman got me (2x)
Spoken: how she got you then?
Got me stone crazy about her, as a doggone fool can be
Now I ain’t going to tell nobody, baby about the way you do (2x)
Say you always keep some fat mouth following you

McClennan also turns in several songs associated with other singers including his take on “Sweet Home Chicago”, titled “Baby, Don’t You Want to Go”, an updated version of Bukka White’s  1937 hit titled “New Shake ‘em on Down” and rips through a ferocious reading of of Sonny Boy I’s “Whiskey Headed Blues” titled “Whiskey Headed Woman.” Given the erratic nature of McCLennan’s style the session may well have been a difficult one as perhaps the spoken introduction to the session’s final song, “Baby, Please Don’t Tell On Me”, indicates: “Now get out this here. This is the last one you got now. When you play these blues, you ain’t got to play no more. Let’s get on like you like it. These your own blues you makin’ now. Y’know this is what your wife likes, yeah …You don’t need to hurry now, just take your time and play it right cos you ain’t got to play ‘nother’n after this.”

The following year McCLennan was brought back for two session, one on May 10, 1940 and the following on December 12th. The earlier session features a bassist, probably Ransom Knowling or Alfred Elkins, who seems to have flummoxed McClennan as he exhorts him twice on “My Baby’s Gone” to “take your time and play it right man.” The ideas seem less fresh on these sessions, particularly the second, with a series of remakes such as Curtis Jones’ “New Highway No. 51″, “Whiskey Headed Man”, Sonny Boy I’s “New Sugar Mama”and Sleepy John Estes’ “Drop Down Mama.” To be fair McClennan’s “New Highway No. 51″ is a nice reworking, featuring the evocative line: “Now yon come that Greyhound, with it’s tongue sticking out on the side.” One of the better songs from these sessions is the humorous “She’s Just Good Huggin’ Size”:

Lord, I try to give that little woman, everything that she tells me she need (2x)
But she would hold her a conversation with every lowdown dirty man she meet

That little woman she won’t wash now now she won’t even iron my clothes (2x)
Spoken: Lord have mercy now!
She won’t do nothing I tell her but keep them big feets in the road

 McCLennan was brought back for two more eight-song sessions; one on September 15, 1940 and his last on February 20, 1942. The 1941 session produced one of McCLennan’s most enduring recordings, “Cross Cut Saw Blues”, although according to Honeyboy Edwards he got the song from Hacksaw Harney. “Deep Blue Sea Blues” was a version of his buddy Robert Petway’s “Catfish Blues” which he had cut just a few months prior while “Travelin’ Highway Man” is a thinly veiled reworking of his earlier “New Highway No. 51.” On his final session he shares studio time with Petway who recorded immediately after McClennan. The two can be heard together on the rousing juke joint blues of “Boogie Woogie Woman” with Alfred Elkins plunking away on bass for an exhilarating performance. For McCLennan’s final session he found some more melodic material such as “Roll Me, Baby” and the catchy “I Love My Baby.” “Shake It Up and Go” harks back to “Bottle It Up And Go” but with less fire while “Bluebird Blues” is a nice reading of Sonny Boy I’s famous number.

L to R: Elmore James, Sonny Boy, Tommy McClennan, Little Walter

 McClennan remained in Chicago and seemed to follow the path of Tommy Johnson, a slave to alcohol who lived long after he recorded but never stepped into a studio again. Honeyboy remembers seeing McClennan singing at Turner’s on 40th and Indiana during the late 40’s: “He played a little bit and he sang, but he didn’t play too long ‘fore he just …Tommy just dranked so much he just, he couldn’t…” Honeyboy encountered his old friend one more time: “One day in 1962 I was down around Twenty-Second street and Clark at a big junkyard. …I went with some boys to sell some scrap iron and who do I see there but Tommy McClennan! Tommy was living out there in a truck trailer made into kind of a house. ” Honeyboy tried to look after him but “he studied drinking all the time. …He asked me to take him back to that [hobo] Jungle. I carried him back down there. …Later on I heard he had taken sick, that he was in the hospital. …Tommy died in that hospital in 1962. …That alcohol was what Tommy was living for, but it ate him plumb up.” Big Joe Williams took Mike Bloomfield to see McClennan and he recalled “he was just like a skeleton but his eyes were like hot coals burning at you. And his music was like that, too - it had a savage, searing sound. He was a fierce man.”

 McClennan has been well served on record with all his recordings appearing on RCA’s excellent 2-CD set Bluebird Recordings 1939-1942, which may be out of print, and also available on two individual Document CD’s, Tommy McClennan, Vol. 1: Whiskey Head Woman and Tommy McClennan, Vol. 2: Cross Cut Saw. Single disc collections appear on EPM and Acrobat.

Cotton Patch Blues (MP3)

Whiskey Head Woman (MP3)

Cross Cut Saw Blues (MP3)

I Love My Baby (MP3)

Boogie Woogie Woman (MP3)

 I first stumbled upon the music of Tommy McClennan by accident. In my early record buying days one of my favorite haunts was Tower Records at Broadway and West 4th Street in NYC which had a terrific blues section. I think I was looking for a Tommy Johnson record and somehow got him and Tommy McClennan confused. I wound up taking home the LP Cotton Patch Blues 1939 - 1942 on the British Travelin’ Man label which sported an evocative sepia toned cover of cottonfields complete with cotton pickers and and overseer riding a horse. I soon realized my mistake but my disappointment was dispelled when the raw, direct sounds of the first track, “You Can Mistreat Me Here”, hit me and was truly floored when I heard the third number, “Bottle It Up and Go.” I’ve been a fan ever since.

 McClennan is a contradiction; at once wholly individualistic with his powerhouse gravel-throated voice, sprinkled with frequent entertaining spoken asides propelled by an exciting, rudimentary guitar style while on the other hand derivative, with a repertoire mostly drawn from other artists. Despite his limited bag of songs, his limited guitar prowess (despite the boastfully titled “I’m a Guitar King”), McClennan made it work through the sheer force of his outsized personality and his intense commitment to his material. His record label, Bluebird, and the record buying public obviously saw something in McClennan as he cut forty sides (at five eight-song sessions), everyone issued at the time, between 1939 and 1942.

At the time Cotton Patch Blues was released in 1984 writer Alan Balfour noted that “what little is known of Tommy McClennan’s life is based, as is so often the case, on the recollections of others.” McClennan is remembered by bluesmen like Big Joe Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Jimmy Rogers and most importantly Honeyboy Edwards. Our knowledge of McClennan has been expanded since then with the release of Honeyboy Edwards’ 1997 autobiography, The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing, where he put pen to ink,  recollecting at length about his old friend and partner.

The following is taken from Honeyboy’s memoir which paints a vivid portrait of his old pal: “It was out in Wildwood plantation when I first met Tommy McClennan. Tommy would come out there and play the guitar a while and bump on the piano. He could play the guitar pretty good, but he sure wasn’t no piano player. He threw the people; he had them dancing and hollering. …He could play that guitar, and he could holler; Tommy had a big mouth.  …Tommy played the guitar and gambled, shot dice, played cards. …Tommy was dark and had big eyes like a frog. He was real little, about four and ten, just touched me right along there about the shoulder. Tommy didn’t weigh a bit over 115 pounds. …I and Tommy, we be together all the time. And when he wasn’t with me he was with Robert Petway. …Tommy and Robert was about the same size. They’d come down the street with two guitars, looking like midgets. Now Robert could beat Tommy playing but Tommy could holler more than Robert. …I learned a few licks from Tommy, a few numbers he made. He mad the ‘Bullfrog Blues’ and Petway made ‘The Catfish Blues.’ …Robert and Tommy McClennan and me, we’d be together all the time. On days we wasn’t out playing at the whiskey houses or on the streets; we’d be at Tommy’s house drinking and playing cards, and one of us sitting in the corner practicing some song. …Tommy, he wasn’t really a guitar picker; he was mostly a frailer, and played a few chords in the key of C, running chords with that big loud voice. …Tommy McClennan and me played both sides of town [Greenwood, MS]. We used to serenade in the white neighborhoods. We’d walk down the street amongst all those old houses, strumming our guitars, and we’d see them curtains fly back and they’d chuck nickels and dimes out in the street for us. We’d play ‘Tight Like That’, little jump-up songs for them. Then we’d go back across the river where we come from, raise hell and drink, holler our asses off all night long, singing the ‘Cotton Patch Blues’ in them shotgun houses in our part of town.”

 McClennan arrived in Chicago in 1939 supposedly through the intervention of Big Bill Broonzy who told Bluebird talent scout Lester Melrose he ought to look him up. Again, Honeyboy picks up the tale: “I missed Lester Melrose when he came through Greenwood looking for musicians to record. …He picked up Tommy McClennan then and Tommy recorded ‘Bottle It Up And Go’ for him. He recorded Tommy, Robert Petway, a gang of musicians through the South.” “Bottle It Up And Go” is one of the songs most associated with McClennan although according to Honeyboy he learned the song from Memphis Jug Band member Dewey Corley and in turn taught it to McClennan.  McClennan insisted on playing the song as he learned it in the South, ignoring Northern sensibilities when he sang the controversial lines:

Now the nigger and the white man playin’ seven-up
Nigger beat the white man was scared to pick it up 

Broonzy tells a story of McClennan singing these lines at a house party and being forcibly ejected, forced to leave via the window with parts of his guitar around his neck. McClennan is obviously pleased with this act of defiance, barley able to contain himself as he chuckles throughout the rest of the song. It’s a bravo performance with McClennan hollering out the blues with gusto, using his guitar to finish his verses, offering a running commentary with his spoken asides and finishing up with an energetic bit of trademark scatting. Jimmy Rogers, who met McClennan in Vance, MS commented on his scatting perhaps half-seriously: “Little Richard sneaked around there and stole ‘be-bop-a-lu-bop’ and ‘be-bam-boom’. That was Tommy.”

Bottle It Up And Go (MP3)

Show Notes:

Today’s show inaugurates a running series that I call Forgotten Blues Heroes. The idea is to provide shows devoted to lesser known blues greats who don’t have enough recordings to build a whole show around. Most shows will spotlight a few different performers who usually have some connection to one another. Our series kicks off with a batch of great unheralded Chicago artists who’s heyday was the 1950’s and 1960’s. Today’s featured artists cut very few numbers under their own name, in a few cases many sides were unissued for decades, and all did varying amounts of session work. Today’s show spotlights piano players Lazy Bill Lucas and Little Johnnie Jones, guitarist Big Boy Spires and multi-instrumentalist Baby Face Leroy Foster.

Arthur “Big Boy” Spires

Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Spires cut a handful of brilliant down home sides for Checker and Chance in the 1950’s and unissued sides in the 1960’s for Testament before arthritis cut his career short. Spires had only four released sides all of which we will play are featured today: “One of These Days”, “Murmur Low”, “Which One Do I Love” and “About To Lose My Mind.” Spires was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1912 and was inspired by local musicians. Lightnin’ Hopkins would come through Yazoo City and Spires would play second guitar. Spires moved to Chicago in 1943 and in the late 1940’s began playing the Southside clubs with Eddie El and Little Earl Dranes. The trio made some demo recordings and Spires was picked up by Chess Records. He first pairing was “Murmur Low b/w One of These Days” which was issued on Checker in 1952. In 1953 he cut a session for Chance resulting in one issued record: “About To Lose My Mind b/w Which One Do I Love.” He cut four other Chance sides that were not issued at the time but released decades later on various collections. Around this time he formed his own band called the Rocket Four playing various clubs around town until giving up music around 1959. In December 1954, Al Smith used his basement at 5313 South Drexel (which he normally employed as a rehearsal space) for two casual recording sessions. One was by Spires and pianist Willie “Long Time” Smith. Everyone on the date but Long Time Smith and the bassist was a member of Spires’ working group. Although Leonard Allen of the United label was interested in this session the the tapes went into the United vaults and he never released anything from it. This session first appeared on a Pearl LP, Morris Pejoe / Arthur “Big Boy” Spires: Wrapped in My Baby, in 1989. Delmark reissued it on CD in 1998. In 1965 Spires and Johnny Young cut a batch of sides for Testament that went unissued except for “21 Below Zero” which came out on a compilation on the Storyville label. After the Testament session he worked mainly outside music and passed away in 1990.

Piano player and vocalist, Lazy Bill Lucas, was born May 29, 1918, in Wynne, Arkansas, and came to Chicago in 1941 where he met Big Joe Williams and toured with John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson in the 40’s. Lazy Bill also played piano on records by Homesick James, Little Willie Foster, Little Hudson, Snooky Pryor and Jo Jo Williams. He cut “She Got Me Walkin b/w I had A Dream” for Chance in 1953. Two other songs from the same session, “My Baby’s Gone b/w I Can’t Eat, I Can’t Sleep”, were not issued until decades later. In 1955 he cut two sides for Excello with the group the Blue Rockers: “Calling All Cows b/w Johnny Mae” with Lazy Bill taking the vocals on the latter. He moved to Minneapolis in 1962 where he was active for close to two decades. He was the first host of the Lazy Bill Lucas Show on KFAI and cut three LP’s during this period: Lazy Bill (Wild, 1969), Lazy Bill Lucas & His Friends (Wild, 1970) and Lazy Bill Lucas (Philo, 1974). He remained active right up to his death on December 11, 1982.

Johnny Jones may never have made it past his 40th birthday but in that time he established himself as one of the finest piano players in Chicago. Best know for his rock steady accompaniment in Elmore James’ band he also backed just about everyone else worth mentioning on the Chicago scene. The handful of times he stepped in front as leader produced a number of excellent sides and more than a few classics.

Johnnie & Letha Jones

Jones blew into the windy city from Mississippi in 1946 and was first influenced by Big Maceo and followed him into Tampa Red’s group in 1947 after Maceo was stricken by a stroke. He even helped play right hand for the elder man on a few tunes. Jones quickly hooked up with Tampa playing piano behind him for RCA Victor between 1949-1953. During this period Jones also played piano behind Muddy Waters on a 1949 Aristocrat (soon to become Chess) session resulting in the tracks: “Screamin’ and Cryin”, “Where’s My Woman Been” and “Last Time I Fool Around With You.” At the tail end of this session Jones cut his lone 78 for the label “Shelby County Blues b/w Big Town Playboy” with Muddy Waters, Baby Face Leroy and Jimmy Rogers backing him up on both sides. His most famous association began in 1952 when he became the pianist for Elmore James and His Broomdusters. He remained with James through 1956 playing on classic recordings for the Bihari brothers’ Meteor, Flair and Modern labels as well as dates for Checker, Chief and Fire. The Broomdusters (with saxist J.T. Brown and drummer Odie Payne) held court on the West Side playing at Sylvio’s for five years. It was this association with James that resulted in his second stint as leader recording in 1953 for Flair. “I May Be Wrong” and “Sweet Little Woman” were issued as Johnny Jones and the Chicago Hound Dogs with backing from Elmore James and J.T. Brown. Jones last official stint as leader came in 1953 when Atlantic Records came through Chicago and teamed Elmore and the Broomdusters behind Big Joe Turner resulting in the classic “TV Mama.” Once again he recorded a couple of sides at the tail end of a session resulting in four songs: “Chicago Blues”, ‘Hoy Hoy’, “Wait Baby” and “Doin’ the Best I Can (Up the line).” Jones was backed by the full Broomdusters plus Ransom Knowling on bass.Jones wasn’t caught on tape again until 1963 where he was working with Billy Boy Arnold in a Chicago folk club called the Fickle Pickle run by Michael Bloomfield. Norman Dayron recorded Johnny on portable equipment which has been released on the Alligator record titled Johnny Jones with Billy Boy Arnold. Jones last session was recorded in 1964 and is something of a mystery. Possibly backed by Boyd Atkins on sax and Lee Jackson guitar he cut three songs: “Prison Bound Blues”, “Don’t You Lie to Me” and “I Get Evil” the last being unissued. “Prison Bound Blues b/w Don’t You Lie to Me” was subsequently issued on Rooster as a 45.

Johnny Jones died from lung cancer in 1964 leaving a huge space on the Chicago scene. Mike Leadbitter wrote at the time of Jones death, “In a Chicago full of guitarists and with comparatively few top-rate pianists, the death of Little Johnny Jones is a great loss, as it is to us, who were never really given a chance to appreciate him.”

Between 1948 and 1952 Baby Face Leroy Foster waxed a handful absolutely terrific sides under his own name for a number fledgling Chicago labels aided by some of the windy city’s best blues musicians. In addition his vocals, drumming, and guitar playing can be found backing some of the greatest Chicago blues records of the era. His death in 1958, at the age of 38, robbed the blues world of a singular, memorable talent and likely did much to hasten his unwarranted obscurity.

Foster was first cousin to Little Johnny Jones and Little Willie Foster and came up to Chicago in 1945 in the company of Jones and Little Walter. He worked for tips on Maxwell Street before graduating to the clubs playing with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson and Lee Brown. Around 1947 he became one of the founding members of the fabled “Headhunters”, a group who included Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers and got their name for cutting the heads of any musicians foolish enough to cross their path. Foster first appeared on record backing Lee Brown in 1946 and during this period also backed James (Beale Street Clark), Little Johnny Jones,Floyd Jones, Muddy Waters, Snooky Pryor and Sunnyland Slim.Foster made his debut for Aristocrat at the end of 1948 with “Locked Out Boogie b/w Shady Grove Blues” with the record billed as Leroy Foster and Muddy Waters. Foster’s next entry was a lone outing in 1949 record for J.O.B., “My Head Can’t Rest Anymore b/w Take A Little Walk With Me” backed by Snooky Pryor on harmonica and Alfred Elkins on bass. In 1950 Foster cut eight remarkable sides for the small Parkway label. The Baby Face Leroy Trio (featuring vocals by Leroy Foster) and Little Walter sides were recorded in one 8-tune session. Perhaps the most outstanding record was ”Rollin’ And Tumblin’ - Part 1 & 2″ issued as Parkway 501. The record was as primal and raw as anything waxed up North resembling more of a southern field recording than a commercial Chicago blues record. Leroy Foster returned to JOB after Parkway failed in the middle of 1950 (he had quit Muddy Waters’ band after recording for Parkway, in the mistaken belief that his Parkway releases would establish him as a bandleader). Backed by Sunnyland Slim and Robert Jr. Lockwood, Foster cut “Pet Rabbit b/w Louella” in 1951 and “Late Hours At Midnight b/w Blues Is Killin’ Me” in 1952. All of Leroy Foster’s sides under his own name, plus the four Little Walter Parkway sides, can be found on Leroy Foster 1948-1952 on the Classics label.

Between 1948 and 1952 Baby Face Leroy Foster waxed a handful absolutely terrific sides under his own name for a number fledgling Chicago labels aided by some of the windy city’s best blues musicians. In addition his vocals, drumming, and guitar playing can be found backing some of the greatest Chicago blues records of the era. His death in 1958, at the age of 38, robbed the blues world of a singular, memorable talent and likely did much to hasten his unwarranted obscurity. Mike Rowe summarized his appeal in Chicago Breakdown, his classic survey of the Chicago blues scene: “He was a fine singer with a warm insinuating voice which, like the late Sonny Boy [Williamson], ‘got to people’. Baby face had a curious style; high pitched, it was a mixture of Sonny Boy’s and some of the eccentricities of Doctor Clayton, and between verses he kept up a constant barrage of shouts and encouragements, admonitions and asides. Baby Face’s natural exuberance never trivialized his performance, and he sings movingly on bouncy up-tempo songs and slow blues alike. …He played unfussy drums in the tight, Chicago manner and guitar, not too well, in the sparse city style. But his main talents were drinking, singing and clowning and he was very popular.”

Foster was first cousin to Little Johnny Jones and Little Willie Foster and came up to Chicago in 1945 in the company of Jones and Little Walter. He worked for tips on Maxwell Street before graduating to the clubs playing with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson and Lee Brown. Around 1947 he became one of the founding members of the fabled “Headhunters”, a group who included Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers and got their name for cutting the heads of any musicians foolish enough to cross their path. Foster first appeared on record in 1945 playing guitar on Lee Brown’s “My Little Girl Blues” b/w “Bobbie Town Boogie” on the Chicago label. He pops up again with Lee Brown on a 1946 date for the Queen label, backs James (Beale Street Clark) the same year, Little Johnny Jones in 1949 (”Big Town Playboy” b/w “Shelby County Blues”), J.B. Lenoir in 1950, Little Walter in 1948 and 1950, Floyd Jones in 1948 (he plays drums on “Hard Times”), Muddy Waters in 1948 and 1949 (notably “You’re Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Dead and Gone),” “Mean Red Spider,” and “Screamin’ and Cryin’”), Snooky Pryor in 1949, Mildred Richards in 1950 (only two copies of this rare record are known to exist) and Sunnyland Slim in 1948 and 1950.

Foster made his debut for Aristocrat at the end of 1948 with “Locked Out Boogie” b/w “Shady Grove Blues” with the record billed as Leroy Foster and Muddy Waters. Propelled by Ernest “Big” Crawford’s thumping bass, “Locked Out Boogie” is an infectious, rough and tumble shuffle with Foster’s engaging, lively delivery. The song is essentially a vocal version of “Muddy Jumps One” cut at the same session with the same group. The mellow “Shady Grove Blues” is sung in what would be Foster’s trademark intimate, laconic style featuring Muddy’s down-home guitar that was so popular with audiences and propelled him to stardom.

Foster’s next entry was a lone outing in 1949 record for J.O.B., “My Head Can’t Rest Anymore” b/w “Take A Little Walk With Me” backed by Snooky Pryor on harmonica and Alfred Elkins on bass. This was a magnificent coupling again with Foster’s reflective, dreamy singing backed superbly by Pryor’s calm, masterful harmonica blowing as Foster encourages him on with Pryor doing the same.

In 1950 Foster cut eight remarkable sides for the small Parkway label. According to the Red Saunders Research Foundation: “Parkway is one of those small Chicago postwar blues labels that developed a legendary reputation based on a handful of recorded sides. In all, the label was in business for little more than 4 months and produced only 23 recordings, of which 14 were released at the time—four by the Baby Face Leroy Trio, four by the Little Walter Trio, two by Memphis Minnie, two by Sunnyland Slim, and two by harmonica-blowing Robert Jenkins. Just four singles are known to have come out on Parkway. …The Baby Face Leroy Trio (featuring vocals by Leroy Foster) and Little Walter sides were recorded in one 8-tune session… Most outstanding of the four Baby Face sides was the two-part “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” which ranks as one of the most exhilarating products of the Chicago postwar bar-band blues explosion (Muddy Waters and Little Walter were both in the band). The notable Little Walter Trio release featured blues harpist Little Walter on “Just Keep Lovin’ You” and “Moonshine Blues.” Two other Little Walter sides were sold to Regal and not released on Parkway. …Foster played guitar on some of the sides while operating the bass drum and high-hat with pedals.” “

Red Headed Woman” and “Boll Weevil” were paired for release on Parkway 104 featuring Little Walter, Muddy Waters and possibly Jimmy Rogers. “Boll Weevil” is in the best southern blues meets Chicago tradition as Foster relates a well worn theme that has been covered by Ma Rainey and Charlie Patton among others. “Red Headed Woman” is a chugging, wailer that crackles with energy, boasting stupendous blowing from Walter.

Perhaps the most outstanding record was”Rollin’ And Tumblin’ - Part 1 & 2″ issued as Parkway 501. The record was as primal and raw as anything waxed up North resembling more of a southern field recording than a commercial Chicago blues record. Part 1 was a wordless moaning and humming by all participants while Foster sings the verses on the second. According to the Red Saunders website: “Waters had been playing in clubs with this lineup in the previous months, and was frustrated by Leonard Chess’s lack of interest in recording it. The session, reportedly, did not take place in a regular studio. Muddy Waters’ biographer, Robert Gordon, declared that it took place in a ‘warehouse.’” This bit of moonlighting on Muddy’s part got him into trouble as Mike Rowe relates from a story told to him by Jimmy Rogers: “Leonard [Chess] didn’t want Muddy to use that slide on any other label-but here’s Muddy slipped off and cut this thing and Leonard heard it y’know. Then Muddy had to record this same number by himself on Chess.” Foster also plays drums on four Little Walter numbers for Parkway: “Bad Actin’ Woman”, “I Just Keep Loving Her”, “Muskadine Blues” and “Moonshine Blues.”

Again according to the Red Saunders website: “…Leroy Foster returned to JOB after Parkway failed in the middle of 1950 (he had quit Muddy Waters’ band after recording for Parkway, in the mistaken belief that his Parkway releases would establish him as a bandleader). Backed by Sunnyland Slim and Robert Jr. Lockwood, Foster cut “Pet Rabbit” b/w “Louella” in 1951 and “Late Hours At Midnight” b/w “Blues Is Killin’ Me” in 1952. All four songs are built in the same slow, deep blues mold and once again Foster’s laid back, conversational singing casts a compelling, powerful spell over the listener nicely counterpointed by Sunnyland’s rumbling piano.

All of Leroy Foster’s sides under his own name, plus the four Little Walter Parkway sides, can be found on Leroy Foster 1948-1952 on the Classics label. Stayed tuned in the next month or two as we spotlight Foster’s music on an upcoming radio program.

My Head Can’t Rest Anymore (MP3)

Boll Weevil (MP3)

Red Headed Woman (MP3)

Rollin’ And Tumblin’ - Part 1 (MP3)

While there are a few modern day blues mandolin revivalists, the instrument has largely consigned to the dustbin of history. Although little-heard on commercial recordings after the 1940s, the mandolin played an important role in blues and early rural black music. The mandolin can be heard on numerous recordings of the 1920’s and 1930’s particularly on several black string band and jug band recordings. Johnny Young was the most famous of the post-war mandolin players who after waxing a couple of exciting 78’s for Ora Nelle and Planet/Old Swing-Master circa 1947-48 didn’t resurface on record for fifteen years. Thankfully the 1960’s and 70’s were a different story with Young recording for Testament, Arhoolie Vangaurd, Spivey, Blue Horizon, Blues On Blues, Bluesway as well as a number of of other scattered sides. Young played traditional Chicago blues, rooted in the 40’s and early 50’s, and didn’t share much in common with more modern upstarts like Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and Magic Sam. He also had one foot in his home state of Mississippi, his music still tied to the southern blues style of the 1920’s and 30’s and the vibrant string band tradition.

The general consensus ranks his Arhoolie recordings among his best but for my money his Bluesway album, I Can’t Keep My Foot From Jumping, is one of his finest and one that gets unjustly ignored. Of course it doesn’t help that the album has been long out of print and that the Bluesway label doesn’t have the best reputation. Producer Al Smith has been the target of much of the animosity against the label summed up writer Pete Lowry in a 1974 Living Blues review: “Here was a strange man-I don’t know if he was any kind of bass player, but he surely produced some screwed-up sessions. I won’t go into artist “relations,” but merely deal with the sessions; there have been some predictable characteristics. Lousy liner notes, replete with phonetic spelling (to be kind), incomplete or wrong personnel data, as well as often incomplete or disordered listings of the tunes… As for the records themselves, they varied from good to near disasters. The results of Al’s Special Ninety Minute Album Sessions included inconsistent levels on instruments, as if the warm up/test stuff was mixed for release (as was most likely the case!), some strange sounding stuff (out-of-synch echo units), and just total lack of programming. Al seems to have assembled albums in the order recorded, with no concept of the album as a programmed whole. For an artist to survive this sort of “production” he had to be damn good, or be having a better than average day in the studio.”

In 1969 Young cut a record for Blue Horizon that was titled Fat Mandolin in the UK. I’ve had the US version for years which goes under the less inspired title of Blues Masters Vol. 9. My impression of this one has been less than favorable although admittedly I hadn’t listened to it in years. Apparently I’m not the only one as Mike Vernon relates: “To the best of my recall, the album got little press coverage. It was, of course, certainly reviewed by the blues magazines of the time but with little real enthusiasm.” Now with the release of Johnny Young: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions it’s time for a reassessment. For his part, Young had scorn for both labels: “Them people really cheated me, man. You know how much they gave me to make the LP? $50.”

After listening to the The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions I’ve revised my opinion of theses sessions and have to say they hold up quite well although I don’t think they rival the Bluesway and Arhoolie recordings. Mike Vernon’s assessment is right on the mark: “What you will be listening to is tough, straight ahead, no messin’ Chicago blues, echoing the great 40’s era, as exemplified in the work of Big Maceo Merriweather and John Lee Williamson.” Young plays mandolin on the bulk of the cuts aided by members of Muddy Waters’ band: Otis Spann, Sammy Lawhorn, Paul Oscher and S.P. Leary. Young was a warm, powerful singer and magnificent mandolin player. Thankfully this set features a good dose of his rippling mandolin work on numbers like “Moaning And Groaning”, “Lula Mae” which suffers from a very abrupt fade, “Prison Bound” and a rocking version of “Stealin’ that fades just when things are really cooking. The latter track is one of three unreleased tracks, the others, “Go Ahead On (With That Funky Broadway Sound”, a slow number despite the title, and “Johnny’s Mess Around” are fun but a bit loose and aimless. The band, as to be expected is very good and of course Spann is always a joy to hear. While overall a very solid set, there’s a spark missing, a sense of excitement and energy that’s lacking.

That spark is clearly evident on I Can’t Keep My Foot From Jumping a 1973 outing that was to be his final album. Young died the following year. Young’s brawny, rippling mandolin playing is better recorded then the Blue Horizon, much more up front in the mix, and there’s a crackling energy lacking in the earlier session. The band locks into a rock solid groove behind their leader: Louis Myers, Bill Warren and Richard Evans. The pianist is uncredited but may be Bob Reidy who Young had been playing with for several years and who appears on a Blues On Blues LP from around the same time period. Young plays mandolin on every track and there’s an innate sense of swing beginning with the chugging title track, not only an instrumental showcase for Young’s mandolin prowess but also for the band, including blistering guitar from Myers and in-the-pocket drumming from Bill Warren. Several of the same songs appear on both albums with the Bluesway versions superior; those include “Lend Me Your Love”, “Train Fare Out Of Town” and a knockout version of “Deal The Cards.” There’s not a bad track to be found with favorites going to “I Gotta Find My Baby”, “Stop Breaking Down” and the jumping shuffle “I Know She’s Kinda Slick.” Vocally young has rarely sounded better and the album as a whole serves as a clinic on blues mandolin playing.

Just about everything Young cut is worthwhile and despite some caveats I would certainly recommend the Blue Horizon set. Blue Horizon has been doing a superb job with their reissue series with all the releases boasting excellent sound and notes plus bonus tracks. Now if only someone would do this for the Bluesway catalog which, outside of a few which have made it onto CD, have languished in the cut out bin for far too long.

Moaning And Groaning [Blue Horizon](MP3)

Stealin’ [Blue Horizon](MP3)

Deal The Cards [Bluesway] (MP3)

I Know She’s Kinda Slick [Bluesway](MP3)

I’ve had a long running interest in Robert Nighthawk and am always pleased when he gets some recognition. I recently received an email from somebody involved with the Mississippi Blues Commission. The commission are the folks behind the Mississippi Blues Trail which when completed will be composed of more than 100 historical markers and interpretive sites located throughout the state. From the press release: “On Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 2:00 PM, MDA Tourism Heritage Trails Program, the Mississippi Blues Commission and the Clarksdale/Coahoma Tourism Commission will honor blues legend, Robert Lee “Nighthawk” McCollum. The ceremony will take place at the Hirsberg Drug Store located at 649 2nd Street in Friars Point, MS.” Nighthawk spent his entire life rambling around the country but Helena and Friars Point were places close to his heart. He lived and married in Friars Point as well as cutting the magnificent “Friars Point Blues” for Decca in 1940.

Nighthawk stayed in Chicago periodically but he related the following to writer Don Kent: “He told me he frankly preferred the South. It was cheaper, apt to be less violent than the City, and he was better known.” When he was in Chicago he was a regular on Maxwell Street, Chicago’s bustling open-air market. The market was a magnet for musicians just arriving to Chicago as well as those already established on the local blues scene.

We are extremely fortunate that filmaker Mike Shea was on the scene back then. In 1964 Shea was filming a documentary about the Maxwell Street market. The filming took place every Sunday capturing the vibrant sounds of the market including sidewalk merchants, street preachers, gospel singers and blues musicians. Disappointed by the film’s reception, Shea let the tapes languish in a warehouse for years until they were finally thrown away in the 70’s. Fortunately the audio tapes had been stored separately so all the original music has been preserved. In 2000 Rooster issued the 3-CD set And This Is Free containing all the recordings, the bulk of which feature Robert Nighthawk. Apparently much of the video has been lost although at one point it was available on VHS but is now out of print and difficult to find. Studio IT is currently soliciting a distribution deal to put out the original video. Below is a clip from the documentary I stumbled upon on the web. The song was listed as Going Down to Eli which was the title given to the song on the Rounder album Live On Maxwel Street 1964 but is actually a cover of Doctor Clayton’s “Cheating And Lying Blues” and correctly titled on the Rooster release.

It’s inevitable, if perhaps unfair, to judge the music of the rediscovered blues artists of the 1960’s with the recordings they made in their prime in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Sleepy John Estes held up quite well in what was a very successful comeback; he cut several solid albums for Delmark and performed at festivals all over the US, Europe and even the Far East. On The Chicago Blues Scene is a remixed, remastered version on the 1968 album Electric Sleep, the title a play on the psychedelic records of Muddy Waters (Electric Mud) and Howlin’ Wolf (This Is Howlin’ Wolf’s New Album), the latter called “birdshit” by Wolf for what it’s worth.

Fortunately label owner Bob Koester was wise enough to forgo the psychedelic route, instead putting Estes in a modern Chicago blues context. Koester recalls the genesis of that decision: “…later that year (1964) in a sub-cellar jazz club in Dusseldorf, while John was touring Europe for the first time with the American Folk Blues Festival John sat in at an impromptu session with Hubert Sumlin, (Howling Wolf’s guitarist), Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim and some other local musicians. I was amazed at how comfortably John was able to sing with such relative modernists. I promised John that one day we would cut an album with such a sound…”

On The Chicago Blues Scene is that album finding Estes backed by Sunnyland Slim on piano, Jimmy Dawkins on guitar, Carey Bell on harp, Odie Payne on drums and various bassist including Earl Hooker. Estes voice had coarsened over the years but he remained an expressive, still plaintive singer who’s style remained utterly distinctive. Big Bill Broonzy aptly called Estes style “crying the blues”, a good description of Estes high pitched, fragmented singing which, although blurred on these later recordings, is still highly expressive. As he did on his prior Delmark records, Estes draws extensively from his early records turning in fine versions of “Laura Had A Dream (originally titled “Little Laura Blues”), “Divin’ Duck Blues”and a particularly strong take on “Everybody Oughta Make A Change” featuring some sensitive harmonica from Carey Bell. Bell also shines on “May West” a thinly veiled version of “Hobo Jungle” which he first cut in 1938 with Hammie Nixon on harmonica. “Sweet Little Flower” seems to be one of the few new numbers while the oddly titled “Newport Blues”, a tribute to John Kennedy, was recorded on the album In Europe as “Blues For JFK.”

All in all a worthwhile project that holds up quite well some 40 years down the line. The band acquits themselves well, playing with sensitivity and restraint, and Estes remains a striking and captivating singer. Still after listening to this record I can’t help but hear the echo of those marvelous, poetic early sides when he was in the full flower of his creativity. If you haven’t heard them I urge you to check them out.

Everybody Oughta Make A Change (MP3)

May West (MP3)

Johnnie & Letha Jones

The group cut two exceptional sessions in March and November of 1950 once again prominently featuring Jones’ vocal abilities. “195o Blues” opens with a watery, flowing slide solo and settles into a a marvelous sing along vocal, with both men wonderfully complimenting each other in an easy, playful manner. Tampa’s slide is particularly incisive as the two sing: “I’ve been you’re dog baby, since 1934, (spoken: And that’s a mighty long time)/But this is 1950 and I won’t be you’re dog no more.” Harking back to Tampa’s early days is the rollicking “It’s Good Like That” a boogie update of his big hit “It’s Tight Like That” while “Love Her with a Feelin’” is an inspired remake of 1938’s ” Love With A Feeling” and ‘Sweet Little Angel” was cut in 1934 as “Black Angel Blues” and originally waxed by Lucille Bogan in 1930, although Tampa claimed the composition for his own. The latter song was a hit for Robert Nighthawk who cut it in 1949 as “Sweet Black Angel” (the flip “Anna Lou” was another Tampa song) and later covered by B.B. King as “Sweet Little Angel” in 1956. “New Deal Blues” was another notable number from these sessions prominently spotlighting Tampa’s ringing slide as Jones urges him on with spoken asides.

1951 followed a similar pattern with two four song sessions in March and July. There was plenty of high energy, good time music including the rocking “She’s Dynamite”, “Boogie Woogie Woman”, “She’s A Cool Operator” which put the focus less on Tampa’s guitar, but not his kazoo, all featuring Jones’ ample, rock ribbed piano playing. For the first time Jones takes the lead vocal on the insinuating “Early in the Morning” and takes a fair share of the humorous “I Won’t Let Her Do It” which harks back to 1942’s “She Want to Sell My Monkey” where Big Maceo played the role that Jones does. Tampa’s slide resurfaces on the marvelous “Green And Lucky Blues” another song B.B. King would later record.

Around this time, Letha Jones (Johnnie’s wife), recalled: “Tampa stopped having a band. I think he got sick or he got tired, he kept saying he was gonna retire. He quit playing out in the clubs.” While Jones and Payne continued to play on Tampa’s records they had since teamed with guitarist L.C. McKinley and later with Elmore James. Playing with Tampa also got Jones noticed by rising star Muddy Waters who employed Jones on a 1949 session that produced “Screamin’ And Cryin.” Through Muddy he also recorded two seminal numbers for Aristocrat in 1949, “Big Town Play Boy” and “Shelby County Blues.” By 1952 Jones, Payne and Knowling became Elmore’s backing band, The Broom Dusters, appearing on dozens of classic sides.

Two more sessions followed in April and November of 1952 with the addition of Bill Casimir on tenor sax. These are not up to the standards of Tampa’s previous earlier sessions. “I’m Gonna Put You Down” is a driving number with Jones stretching out liberally but is otherwise unexceptional with “Look A There Look A There” in a similar mold. “True Love” has a rhumba beat but is rather tepid with the same being said for sing along numbers like”But I Forgive You” which sound a bit tired by this point. The highlight is “Got A Mind To Leave This Town” featuring a particularly sensitive vocal from Tampa.

Tampa cut his final three sessions in 1953. On January 29th 1953 Tampa Red briefly stepped away from Victor, cutting four sides for the independent Sabre label. Using the pseudonym Jimmy Eager, he was accompanied on guitar by L. C. McKinley (who was making his recording debut) and an unknown pianist and drummer (possibly Bob Call and Odie Payne). His final two sessions found Tampa in much more contemporary company. The September session featured Tampa’s regular band of Jones, Payne and Knowling beefed up with RCA session guitarist Willie Lacey and harmonica player, Sonny Boy Williamson. It was a solid outing with a fairly typical Jones/Tampa duet on “So Crazy About You Baby” and “If She Don’t Come Back”, perhaps the best of the bunch, with some wailing harmonica from Sonny Boy. Better was Tampa’s final Victor session in December with Walter Horton taking over for Sonny Boy. “Big Stars Falling Blues” with it’s fine group vocal and fleet fingered guitar from Lacey is a winner although Horton is a bit submerged in the mix while the romping “Evalena” showcases Horton and Lacey at their best. “Rambler’s Blues” is by far the highlight, a stunning, up-to-date blues with a rhumba lilt showcasing a terrific vocal from Tampa and a shattering harmonica solo from Horton. It’s a shame the group didn’t record more but it put a fine exclamation point on a long and illustrious career.

All of the Tampa/Jones sides can be found on volumes 14 and 15 of Document’s complete recordings of Tampa Red. Unfortunately these may be out of print.

Love Her With A Feelin’ (MP3)

1950 Blues (MP3)

She’s Dynamite (MP3)

Rambler’s Blues (MP3)