Big Road Blues

Front cover of Father of the Folk Blues Photographer: Dick Waterman

When I was a teenager discovering the blues one of the first albums that really captivated me was Son House’s Death Letter -I still have it - (the UK equivalent of Father of the Folk Blues), his stunning return to the studio after dropping out of sight for nearly twenty-five years. As author Dan Beaumont writes in his yet-to-be published Son House manuscript: “In 1943 Son House left Mississippi, and, for all that is known of his life over the course of the next twenty one years, he may well have fallen off the face of the earth. But this he did not do-instead he did the next best thing. He moved to Rochester, New York.” As a teenager living in the Bronx I too knew nothing of Rochester outside the fact it was in some nether region of New York State - the farthest I had been was the Catskills, one hundred miles upstate. But as I read Dick Waterman’s liner notes, Rochester and the address 61 Greig Street was burned in my memory. That was where Dick Waterman, Phil Spiro and Nick Perls finally tracked Son down on June 23rd, 1964. 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 playing concerts at the UR, the Black Candle (later called Studio 9) and the Regular Restaurant in the Genesee Co-Op on Monroe Ave.. The Black Candle was run by Armand Schaubroeck who now operates the world famous House of Guitars. Memories of Son’s local performances are vividly burned into the memories of all who had had a chance to witness him in action.

Son’s rediscovery in Rochester was newsworthy, making it into Newsweek, Downbeat and the May 29, 1965 edition of the Rochester afternoon newspaper, The Times-Union, with a story titled “Son House Records Blues Again.” It must have been a bit bewildering to Son who was living a very low-key life in Rochester as Dan Beaumont notes: “There for twenty one years he lived amidst almost total obscurity. Indeed, what is known of his life in that city from 1943 to 1964 is so slight, so slender, that his biographer’s task becomes well nigh impossible. …The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are, I suspect, at least two. The first is the sorts of interviews that were done with House after his rediscovery. The interviews were done mostly by young, white blues fans-not by journalists or academics-and for these interviewers a period in which House all but ceased performing and even playing was of little interest. …The second reason is, in fact, simply surmise. House had an amusing phrase he would use when asked about the blues being played in the 1960s. 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.’”

I came to Rochester in the late 1980’s for college and have been up here ever since. Over the years I met numerous people who fondly recalled Son House and when I started doing my yearly radio birthday tributes to Son, it brought 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. At least Cab Calloway (born in Rochester in 1907) has a plaque honoring him, albeit tucked away on a nondescript side street in an equally nondescript park. 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, a major influence on both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and who’s recordings are among the most powerful in blues history. It would be a shame to let Son’s memory slip back to the years before he was rediscovered in Rochester, but the sad fact is there is nothing tangible in this city that shows he ever made this city his home for a good part of his life.

Hopefully this will be the year when he finally receives some recognition from his adopted city. This year marks a sequel to last year’s successful Hot Blues For The Homeless concert I was involved in, this year billed as Hot Blues For The Homeless …A Tribute To Son House. I’m hoping this year’s modest concert will be the start of something big. I’ve also heard an unconfirmed rumor that the city plans to honor Son with a plaque which would be welcome news. If you live in Rochester, live close by are just visiting on June 8th make sure to help us celebrate the memory of Son House. As Dick Waterman reflected: “If in his prime he had been recorded as much as Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson or Robert Johnson, he would be considered the pre-eminent artist of his time. …If the blues were an ocean distilled…into a pond…and, ultimately into a drop..this drop on the end of your finger is Son House. It’s the essence, the concentrated elixir.”

“Looking for the Blues”
The cover of Newsweek, July 13, 1964 and the article about the ‘rediscovery of Son House. The lead story in the magazine was about disappearance of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and the violence there.

“Finding ‘Son’ House”
The article that Dick Waterman wrote in The National Observer in July 1964 about how he and Nick Perls and Phil Spiro found Son House in Rochester, NY.

“I Can Make My Own Songs”
An interview with Son House, in his own words, by Julius Lester from Sing Out!, July 1965.

Son House Ontario Place 1964 (Link)
An early rediscovery concert at Washington’s Ontario Place by John Meid

Son House Discography (Link)

Mississippi John Hurt’s “Avalon” Blues” provided a road map some thirty plus years later to the singer just as Bukka White’s “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues” led to the rediscovery of White (John Fahey and Ed Denson addressed a letter to “Bukka White (Old Blues Singer), c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Mississippi”). Similar, but more roundabout was a clue the mysterious King Solomon Hill left back in 1932. In 1966 Stephen Calt contacted blues detective Gayle Dean Wardlow writing that he heard “goin’ Minden” in King Solomon Hill’s “The Gone Dead Train.” That correspondence led to the unraveling of one of the blues greatest mysteries. “… I went to Minden and began asking people on the streets in the black section if they heard of a King Solomon Hill who made records in 1932. One of them said, after listening to the King Solomon Hill cuts from the Sam Collins LP ( Origin Jazz Library OJL-10), ‘That sho’ ’nuff sounds like Joe Holmes. You go down there to Sibley. That where he come from.’” Sibley was the hometown of Holmes which resulted in Wardlow’s King Solomon Hill (78 Quarterly no. 1 (1967): 5-9) and One Last Walk Up King Solomon Hill (Blues Unlimited no. 148 (Winter 1987): 8-12) both reprinted in the book Chasin’ That Devil Music.

Roberta Allums, who was once married to Joe Holmes, is pictured here with (unidentified) neighbor holding a 1932 King Solomon Hill record. Photo Gayle Wardlow

Both Mississippi John Hurt and Bukka White were duly rediscovered and went on to successful comebacks during the blues revival. No such luck for King Solomon Hill who according to his ex-wife died in 1949. Hill’s legacy is the six sides he cut for Paramount in 1932: “Whoopee Blues”, “Down On My Bended Knee”, “The Gone Dead Train”, “Tell Me Baby”, “My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon” and “Times Has Done Got Hard.” The last two numbers were not found until 2002 by record collector John Tefteller. It seems particularly true in blues that quantity has no bearing on artistic achievement and obscure artists have issued music on par with their more established peers. King Solomon Hill is a case in point, all six sides small three minute masterpieces in there own way. King was closely connected to Crying Sam Collins and Blind Lemon Jefferson and their influence is evident, to some degree, in Hill’s style. Hill’s records are utterly captivating featuring his eerie falsetto and a raw, slide style featuring irregular rhythms and notes said to be stretched out by the use of a cow bone. The integration between his free form slide guitar and vocals perfectly compliment one another. “Whoopee Blues” is a version of Lonnie Johnson’s 1930 number “She’s Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight” although with a totally different guitar part and with a bleak, haunting quality missing in Johnson’s version. The flip side is the equally compelling “Down On My Bended Knee.” The Gone Dead Train” may be his finest number, a magnificent train blues apparently about a railroad disaster. The flip side, “Tell Me Baby”, is variation of Memphis Minnie’s 1930 number “What Fault You Find of Me, again with a different guitar part and given a wholly original treatment. If anything, the newly discovered Hill sides confirm his genius; “My Buddy, Blind Papa Lemon”is a heartfelt tribute to someone Hill clearly admired: “Hmmm then the mailman brought a misery to my head/When I received a letter that my friend Lemon was dead.” Hill ran with Lemon for about two months after he passed through Minden. Hill’s widow recalled that “he sung that song a whole lot ’bout Blind Lemon. Said he loved his buddy ’some way better than anyone I know.’” “Times Has Done Got Hard” is a superb hard time blues opening with knocking notes on the guitar as he sings “That’s the rent man/You know it must got tough he coming here before rent’s due/Ahh baby, sorry we got to move.”

Those who’ve been enthralled with haunting, otherworldly sounds of Robert Johnson and Skip James would do well to listen to King Solomon Hill, one of the more intriguing footnotes in pre-war blues history. With the newly discovered sides there is no one collection that contains all of Hill’s recordings. Six sides can be found on Document’s Backwood Blues 1926-1935, the newly found sides can be found oh the JSP set When The Levee Breaks plus several Hill tracks appear on various Yazoo compilations with superior remastering. Also make sure to make read Wardlow’s Chasin’ That Devil Music which details the known facts of Hill’s life and is an all around essential read for fans of early blues.

Whoopee Blues (MP3)

Down On My Bended Knee (MP3)

The Gone Dead Train (MP3)

Tell Me Baby (MP3)

My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon (MP3)

Times Has Done Got Hard (MP3)

Show Notes:

JSP Records is a record label founded in 1978 by John Stedman (John Stedman Productions). These days they mostly issue box sets of public domain jazz and blues records. Among the box sets issued include single artist sets on Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake, Memphis Minnie, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson and regional compilations like Atlanta Blues, Memphis Masters, East Coast Blues, Texas Blues and many others. These 4 and 5 CD sets are very cheap and you do get lots of great music for your buck pus they’re nicely packaged with usually good, if sometimes brief, notes. The remastering, particularly on the pre-war collections, vary greatly from set to set but are often a sonic upgrade to Document but usually can’t compare to labels like Yazoo and Revenant. Also one thing that bothers me is that are consistent errors such as mislabled tracks or artists which probably means JSP is throwing these on the market too quickly.

I’ve been thinking about remastering quite a bit lately. Overall Yazoo does an excellent job bringing the music to the surface but you still get a fair amount of hiss and crackle. To be honest I have no problem with this as some of the technologies major labels have used like No-Noise, while removing all surface noise, leave the records sounding sterile, lifeless and artificial. Also Yazoo used the original 78’s as the source where JSP does not. I wish JSP would be more transparent regarding remastering and told us a bit about their remastering actually entails.

Anyway on to today’s show which spotlights the following recent JSP box sets: The Road To Robert Johnson & Beyond, Lightnin’ Special Vol. 2, Ma Rainey: Mother of the Blues, Crescent City Bounce: From Blues to R&B In New Orleans, When The Levee Breaks: Mississippi Blues - Rare Cuts 1926-1941.

I’ve reviewed some of the sets so just follow the links for more about each one. You’ll notice that this part one and I’ll be certainly doing a follow-up. The JSP sets keep rolling in and a couple of interesting new ones include A Richer Tradition - Country Blues and String Band Music 1923-1942 and That’s What They Want: Juke Joint Blues - Good Time Rhythm & Blues 1943 - 1956.

In my ongoing attempt to to clear some space in my house I’ve been systematically working my way through several piles of unlistened to records including several JSP box sets. For the uninitiated JSP specializes in issuing budget priced roots box sets of public domain material. On the blues front they’ve issued single artists sets such as the complete recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, Ma Rainey as well as several themed sets like Atlanta Blues, Memphis Masters, East Coast Blues among many others. This time out we look at two four CD sets; The Road To Robert Johnson & Beyond and When The Levee Breaks collectively encompassing just over two hundred tracks of prime country blues with the Johnson set spending half of it’s time in the post-war era.

Like many country blues fans it was Robert Johnson who was the first pre-war blues artist I seriously listened to (King of the Delta Blues Singers LP) and of course I was enthralled with the music. It was the music but also of course the mythology surrounding this mysterious figure that grabbed my imagination. Unfortunately by the time the “Complete Recordings” was issued in 1990 (going gold and selling over a million copies by 1994) the “mythology had consumed reality,” as Barry Lee Pearson wrote, and Johnson’s musical accomplishments were clouded in a haze of mythology and romanticism. Unfortunately this obsession on every minutiae of Johnson’s life has taken away the focus on his very real talents and perhaps more importantly this lopsided focus on Johnson has obscured the fact that he was very much part of a tradition; his music firmly built on the artists who came before like Lonnie Johnson and Tampa Red who don’t get a shred of the acclaim that Johnson does. The Road To Robert Johnson & Beyond attempts to place Johnson in historical context; disc one traces the roots of Robert Johnson, those artists who came before Johnson and who directly or indirectly shaped his style, disc two contains Johnson’s own records while the remaining discs contain music from those influenced by Johnson. If this sounds like deja vu, well it’s been done before in more streamlined fashion by Yazoo Records who in 2004 released Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson which was an expanded and revised version of their The Roots of Robert Johnson which came out in 1990.

It’s strange then that the blurb on the box set indulges in the usual hyperbole that surrounds Johnson, first equating him to Shakespeare and someone “who took the raw, deep blues of an older generation and created a new style and a body of recorded work of the deepest genius which would be the template for blues (and much of rock music) for the next 60 years or so. He forged one of the four pillars upon which twentieth century music stands (Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, Elvis Presley and the Beatles being the other three).” Geez!

Johnson’s brilliance was in how he borrowed, adapted, synthesized and added his own flourish to the music of those who came before and this is well illustrated in the first disc, the so called “raw materials.” Much of the same songs are compiled as in the Yazoo, in quite good sound, but if you haven’t heard them it’s certainly interesting to see where Johnson may have gotten his inspiration. The 25 tracks are a who’s who of country blues greats including extraordinary slide guitarist Kokomo Arnold an inspiration for Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago” and “I’ll Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”, Leroy Carr whose urbane “When The Sun Goes Down” was the source of “Love In Vain”, the popular Peetie Wheatstraw whose “Police Station Blues” was reworked by Johnson into “Terraplane Blues” and “Hellhound On My Trail” and Lonnie Johnson, one of the era’s most influential guitarists, whose “Life Saver Blues” guitar arrangement was lifted nearly note for note in Johnson’s “Malted Milk” and “Drunken Hearted Man.” Other artists include Son House who Johnson learned directly from, Skip James, Charlie Patton, the Mississippi sheiks and others.

The second disc contains all of Johnson’s records sans the alternate takes and really there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t been said - several forests have been felled producing the paper that’s been written about these sides. The final two discs contain those artists who have been influenced by Johnson either directly like Johnny Shines, Robert Lockwood, Calvin Frazier, Honeyboy Edwards or indirectly like Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Thematically this is where the box strains at the seams; Muddy for instance was more influenced by Son House and may have seen Johnson once or not at all, Robert Lee McCoy (Robert Nighthawk) probably met Johnson but bears no stylistic influence, the same can be said for Big Joe Williams (although a couple of Johnson’s Terraplane Blues lines showed up in I’m A Highway Man) and Baby Boy Warren does a faithful cover of Stop Breaking Down although it’s unknown where he learned the song and artists like Homesick James, Little Walter and Baby Face Leroy have only a tenuous connection to Johnson at best. Then there’s eleven tracks from 1975 by the mysterious Blind Will Dukes who claimed to learn from Johnson himself but sound suspiciously like he learned from the records. Still, the material itself is hard to fault, sound generally very good and typically informative notes by JSP’s chief writer Neil Slaven who surely must have writer’s cramp at the rate these box sets are issued. Buying this set I suppose depends on how much of the music you already have and certainly the budget price is attractive. For those newer to the music who’s main introduction to country blues is through Johnson, this box is worthwhile for putting Johnson’s music in historical context.

Thematically When the Levee Breaks Mississippi Blues Rare Cuts 1926-41, there’s a mouthful of a title, is a bit loose as well gathering recordings made by Mississippi artists in a fruitful fifteen year span. The one hundred recordings contain many outright masterpieces with the slant on lesser know artists such as Freddie Spruell, Arthur Petties, William Harris, Mississippi Bracey, Otto Virgial, Walter Rhodes, Willie ‘61′ Blackwell. Most of these names are well known among collectors and certainly artists like Geeshie Wiley, King Solomon Hill, Blind Joe Reynolds and Garfield Akers have long ago entered the blues cannon despite exceedingly slim discographies. Mississippi blues is usually associated with Delta, usually with the prevalence on slide or bottleneck playing but this collection goes some ways to dispel that notion providing a wide range of styles from men and woman all over the state.

Sound quality is generally good, considering the extreme rarity of the records, generally on par with Document but not the equivalent of Yazoo, which have an exceptional feel for remastering pre-war blues that’s virtually unmatched outside other specialist outfits like Revenant and Old Hat. Indeed for several of these records there’s only one known copy; newly discovered sides by Son House, Blind Joe Reynolds and King Solomon Hill are included, all of which have been released previously by Yazoo so it’s easy to deduce where JSP sourced their copies. “Clarksdale Moan” b/w “Mississippi County Farm Blues” is from House’s legendary 1930 Paramount session with Willie Brown and Charlie Patton. “Clarksdale Moan” is a strange tune but “Mississippi County Farm Blues” is a surging, slide driven powerhouse version of a number he would cut a dozen years later for the Library of Congress. Another long lost Paramount from the same year is Blind Joe Reynolds’ “Ninety Nine Blues” b/w “Cold Woman Blues” found at a flea market a few years back and purchased for one dollar! A quick comparison between JSP’s transfer and that found on Revenant’s Screamin’ & Hollerin’ The Blues finds Revenant’s transfer much more lively, with JSP damping down some of the noise to negative effect. I’ll simply agree with Yazoo’s Richard Nevins who called “Cold Woman Blues” a masterpiece although I prefer “Ninety Nine Blues” with it’s explosive drive and unrelenting swing. Lyrically it shares a number of verses with the magnificent “Third Street Woman Blues” (”My woman’s got something called a stingaree/Four o’clock in the morning she turns it loose on me”), also included, which unlike his other slide numbers, features some very effective strumming. King Solomon Hill is another shadowy figure who signed to the Paramount label in 1932, soon traveling to Grafton, Wisconsin to record six tracks - two of them alternate takes - which comprise his known discography; songs like the eerie “Gone Dead Train” and “Down on Bended Knee” are masterly performances featuring Hill’s eerie falsetto and raw, unorthodox guitar work. In 2002 record collector John Tefteller went to Grafton and discovered the long lost Hill 78 “My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon” b/w “Times Has Done Got Hard” in mint condition, both included here. “My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon” is a stunner and one of the rare tributes from one bluesman to another (Leroy Carr garnered a few and Lemon was also mention in a sermon by Rev. Emmett Dickinson).

One of the benefits of having all these tracks in one place is that it lets you reassess some of the lesser known names such as Freddie Spruell, ‘Bogus’ Ben Covington, Arthur Petties, J.D. Short, Mississippi Bracey, William Harris, Joe Calicott, Sam Butler (Bo Weavil Jackson), Willie ‘61′ Blackwell among others. Spruell was one of the first self-accompanied guitarists to record and lived in Chicago when he made his debut for OKeh Records in 1926. He seems to have some connection to the Delta but his background is hazy. Eight of his ten records are on board showcasing a fine singer/guitarist particularly on “Muddy Water Blues” from his first session and “Mr. Freddie’s Kokomo Blues” and “Let’s Go Riding” from his last with Carl Martin on guitar. Arthur Petties was another appealing singer who we know little about. He possessed a fine rich voice with “Revenue Man Blues” and “That Won’t Do” being standouts with Jed Davenport on harmonica on the former. It should be noted that his song “Good Boy Blues” is actually Webster Taylor’s “Sunny Southern Blues.” Unfortunately these kind of mistakes appear on many of the JSP sets. The excellent Jaydee Short or J.D. Short who recorded as ‘Jelly Jaw’ Short and Joe Stone was born in Mississippi but is really associated with St. Louis where he spent his entire life. “Let’s get stomped out and get drunk and run” he announces at the beginning of “Barefoot Blues” propelled by his quick chorded runs and powerful vocal. Equally strong is the wonderful “Snake Doctor Blues” and the tough depression era blues of “It’s Hard Time.” ‘Bogus’ Ben Covington sounds like a throwback from an older era as he plays banjo and harmonica energetically on “Boodle-de-Bum Blues” and the hilarious “Adam & Eve in the Garden” which is just the type of song church folk probably labeled the devil’s music: “When Adam and Eve was in the Garden of Eden, they must have shook that thing/Well the leaves started falling, the snakes started crawling/He must have give her a diamond ring.” Joe Calicott has been a long time favorite of mine and is marvelous whether backing Garfield Akers on the throbbing two part “Cottonfield Blues” (Aker’s other two numbers are also included) or his lone 78 “Fare Thee Well Blues” b/w “Traveling Mama Blues.” When he was rediscovered some forty years down the line his talents remained virtually unchanged and those late period records come highly recommended. Then there’s the marvelous Bo Weavil Jackson who actually hailed from Birmingham, Alabama but is called in the notes an “honorary Mississipian” for some reason. The sides included come from his 1926 Vocalion session (some of the Paramounts were issued on JSP’s Paramount Masters - in fact quite a number of artists on this set also have cuts on the Paramount box); Jackson possessed a high piercing voice and played remarkable, complex slide heard to fine effect on “You Can’t Keep No Brown” although I prefer the earlier version he cut for Paramount, “Devil and My Brown Blues” and the fine “Jefferson County Blues.”

When the Levee Breaks is a treasure trove of terrific country blues and I suppose collectors will have to sort out how much of this material they have where as newer fans may be a bit overwhelmed by it all. Neal Slaven offers up a particularly fine set of notes for this collection. JSP’s remastering is very uneven; on certain sets like the recently reviewed Ma Rainey they’ve generally done a fine job but on a set like this many tracks sound quite good while several others fall well short of similar tracks reissued by Yazoo and Revenant. I’ve also read a comment on a pre-war blues forum where the writer suggested that JSP’s remastering isn’t done for the sake of the music but to hide the fact that they are re-releasing tracks from other labels. I suppose you’ll have to make up your own mind but certainly the music can’t be faulted and the price is right.

Son House - Walkin’ Blues [The Road To Robert Johnson](MP3)

Blind Blake - Georgia Bound [The Road To Robert Johnson] (MP3)

Blind Joe Reynolds - Ninety Nine Blues [When The Levee Breaks] (MP3)

Show Notes:

For someone who recorded so little Tommy Johnson’s influence was unusually vast and long lasting; after all his recorded output only consists of six issued sides for Victor in 1928 and six issued sides for Paramount in 1929. A welcome surprise in recent years has been the discovery of several recordings of unissued material. It was Johnson’s Victor sides that were the most influential and oft covered: “Cool Drink of Water Blues”, “Big Road Blues”, “Bye-Bye Blues”, “Maggie Campbell Blues”, “Canned Heat Blues” and “Big Fat Mama.” Unlike the Paramount records these sold fairly well and were apparently the songs Johnson sang most often in person. As David Evans wrote: “For about thirty years Tommy Johnson was perhaps the most important and influential blues singer in the state of Mississippi.”

Johnson was born in 1896 in Hinds County, MS, on the George Miller plantation. Once the family moved to Crystal Springs in 1910, Tommy picked up the guitar, learning from his older brother, LeDell. By age 16, Johnson had run away from home to become a “professional” musician, largely supporting himself by playing on the street for tips. By the late teens-early ’20s, Tommy was frequently playing the company of rising local stars Charley Patton, Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. Johnson spent most of the ’20s playing in the company of Rubin Lacy, Charley McCoy, Son Spand, Walter Vincent, and Ishmon Bracey. He cut his first records for the Victor label at sessions held in Memphis, TN, in 1928.

He cut one session for the Paramount label in 1930, largely through the maneuvering of fellow buddy Charley Patton. Then the slow descent into alcoholism started taking its toll. He worked on a medicine show with Ishmon Bracey in the ’30s, but mostly seemed to be a mainstay of the juke and small party dance circuit the rest of his days. He was playing just such a local house party in November of 1956 when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Mager Johnson, Crystal Springs, MS, 1967

I was aware of Johnson’s influence but hadn’t really thought about it until recently. I was listening to some records in preparation for one of my shows, records by K.C. Douglas and Shirley Griffith, both of who were influenced by Johnson first hand. I began to dig out some other records, mainly LP’s of field recordings David Evans made in the 1960’s and 70’s. It was David Evans investigation into Johnson in the late 1960’s that we owe a good deal of what we know about Johnson and it was through Evans’ field recordings that Johnson’s influence comes into sharper focus. Evans had this to say regarding Johnson’s influence: “Johnson exerted almost no musical influence, either in person or through his records, on blues singers outside the state of Mississippi. …Furthermore, none of his songs, was a big enough hit to enter the folk tradition significantly in its recorded from. Instead, his records tended to act as a reinforcement of the playing of men who had already learned the songs from him in person, and as a stabilizing force within the tradition. …Versions of Johnson’s songs derive exclusively from personal contact, though many of the artists undoubtedly heard Johnson’s records at one time or other.” Evans recorded many men who learned directly from Johnson including Roosevelt Holts, Boogie Bill Webb, Arzo Youngblood, Isaac Youngblood, Bubba Brown, Babe Stovall, Houston Stackhouse and Tommy’s brother Mager Johnson.

Among the records played on today’s show are the following, all recorded by Evans: The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (the companion LP to Evans’ book Tommy Johnson - I want to thank Evans for making me a copy of this hard to find record), two albums by Roosevelt Holts (Presenting The Country Blues, Roosevelt Holts and Friends) , South Mississippi Blues, Goin’ Up The Country and Catfish Blues: Mississippi Blues From Jackson & Crystal Springs. Outside of Catfish Blues all the other records have never been issued on CD. Evans has done quite a bit of field recording much of it unavailable. Here’s a link to a list of some of the recordings he’s made.

In addition Johnson’s influence can be heard on many earlier recordings. Those played on todays show include: Willie Lofton’s “Dark Road Blues” (1935), Mississippi Sheiks “Stop and Listen Blues” (1930) were covers of “Big Road Blues”, The McCoy Brothers recorded “Going Back Home” (1934) which was a version of “Cool Drink of Water Blues”, Robert Nighthawk recorded versions of “Maggie Campbell Blues” in 1953 (he also cut a version in 1964) and K.C. Douglas who recorded “Canned Heat Blues” 1961 (he cut another version in 1956).

As for Johnson’s own recording they are available in their entirety (outside a a newly found title) on Document’s Tommy Johnson 1928 - 1929 and JSP’s Legends of Country Blues. Sound quality is good on both but even better on Yazoo’s Masters Of The Delta Blues ~ Friends Of Charlie Patton and Revenant’s Screamin’ And Hollerin’ The Blues: The Worlds Of Charlie Patton, although these feature only a few tracks.

I again want to thank David Evans for taking the time to talk with me about Tommy Johnson. If you can track down a copy, I highly recommend his book Tommy Johnson.

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.

In the past week there’s been several interesting blues items that have popped up on the web. I was reading the Sunday New York Times when I came across an interesting piece on folklorist John Work III. Work is nowhere near as famous as fellow folklorist Alan Lomax who won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1993 for The Land Where the Blues Began. In blues circles, however, the book and Lomax in general has seen a fair bit of criticism regarding his methods and his rather selective memory. Two years ago Lost Delta Found was published which criticized Lomax for giving short shrift to the work of three black researchers, chiefly the contributions of Work, with whom he made some of his landmark field recordings in the 1940s. The big news in the article was the recent unearthing of some previously unknown acetates Work made in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Spring Fed Records has released these as John Work, III: Recording Black Culture.

I stumbled upon the Digital Library of Appalachia through a posting on a blues newsgroup I’m a member of. To quote the website the thousands of recordings in this online library “are derived from non-commercial sound recordings that document much of Appalachian music’s geographic, ethnic, vocal, and instrumental diversity.” This amazing repository of music including lots of blues (scroll down and click the “blues” link in the second paragraph). There’s many performers I’ve never heard of, which of course is part of the fun, plus many by artists who’ve made commercial recordings like Marvin and Turner Foddrell, Buddy Moss, Rabbit Muse, Archie Edwards, Drink Small, John Jackson, Etta Baker and several others. As the original poster noted, this is the kind of thing the web was made for.

From another newsgroup I occasionally peruse I came upon the following by Andrew Rose: “I am an award-winning music restoration and remastering engineer who normally specialises in historic classical music recordings. Earlier this year I developed a remarkable new process (”XR”) for improving the sound of older recordings and have employed this to great critical success on a number of classical recordings. For the first time I’ve used the process on a non-classical release, bringing out incredible sound quality from a number of recordings by Robert Johnson. You can hear for yourself what I mean by listening to “Ramblin’ On My Mind” which is streamed on our website. The initial release includes 19 of Johnson’s songs, with plans afoot to rework the rest and produce a second release very soon.” Naturally there’s been quite a bit of commenting on this and the entire thread is well worth reading. You can hear the results yourself on Mr. Rose’s website. I’m a natural skeptic but I have to say what I’ve heard sounds pretty remarkable. I plan on buying the CD and I’ll be better able to judge on my home stereo. I’ve never been particularly impressed with so called revolutionary remastering technologies like CEDAR No-Noise which to my ears sounds sterile and artificial. Personally I have no problem with a bit of noise which is why I’ve been partial to the releases on the Yazoo label.

I’ve been thinking about Tommy Johnson and his influence lately. For someone who recorded so little his influence was unusually vast and long lasting; after all his recorded output only consists of six issued sides for Victor in 1928 and six issued sides for Paramount in 1929. A welcome surprise in recent years has been the discovery of several recordings of unissued material. It was Johnson’s Victor sides that were the most influential and oft covered: “Cool Drink of Water Blues”, “Big Road Blues”, “Bye-Bye Blues”, “Maggie Campbell Blues”, “Canned Heat Blues” and “Big Fat Mama.” Unlike the Paramount records these sold fairly well and were apparently the songs Johnson sang most often in person.

It was David Evans investigation into Johnson in the late 1960’s that we owe a good deal of what we know about Johnson and it was through Evans’ field recordings that Johnson’s influence comes into sharper focus. Evans had this to say regarding Johnson’s influence: “Johnson exerted almost no musical influence, either in person or through his records, on blues singers outside the state of Mississippi. …Furthermore, none of his songs, was a big enough hit to enter the folk tradition significantly in its recorded from. Instead, his records tended to act as a reinforcement of the playing of men who had already learned the songs from him in person, and as a stabilizing force within the tradition. …Versions of Johnson’s songs derive exclusively from personal contact, though many of the artists undoubtedly heard Johnson’s records at one time or other.”

Evans recorded many men who learned directly from Johnson including Roosevelt Holts, Boogie Bill Webb, Arzo Youngblood, Isaac Youngblood, Bubba Brown, Babe Stovall, Houston Stackhouse and Tommy’s brother Mager Johnson. Others who were directly influenced by Johnson include K.C. Douglas, Shirley Griffith, Jim Brewer, Joe and Charlie McCoy, Bo Carter, Johnnie Temple, Robert Nighthawk (at least indirectly through Houston Stackhouse) and several others. While I’ve been listening primarily to later recordings that bear Johnson’s influence, his influence can be heard on many earlier recordings: Willie Lofton’s “Dark Road Blues” (1935) and the Mississippi Sheiks “Stop and Listen Blues” (1930) were covers of “Big Road Blues”, The McCoy Brothers recorded “Going Back Home” (1934) which was a version of “Cool Drink of Water Blues”, Robert Nighthawk recorded versions of “Maggie Campbell Blues” in 1953 and 1964 and K.C. Douglas recorded “Canned Heat Blues” in 1956 and 1961. In addition elements from some of Johnson’s songs show up in the blues of several other early blues artists.

As I mentioned it’s the 1960’s and 1970’s recordings that I’ve mainly been listening to lately. Unfortunately a good many of these have never been issued on CD and many of the artists are little remembered today. Take for example Shirley Griffith, a wonderful singer and guitarist who learned first hand from Johnson as a teenager in Mississippi. Griffith missed his opportunity to record as a young man but recorded three superb albums, all of which are long out of print: Indiana Ave. Blues (1964, with partner J.T. Adams), Saturday Blues (1965) and Mississippi Blues (1973). Roosevelt Holts spent time working with Johnson and was married to Johnson’s cousin. He was sixty by the time he recorded and the bulk of his slim output remains out of print including two fine albums: Presenting The Country Blues (1966) and Roosevelt Holts and Friends (1970). Also long out of print are several important collections of Evans’ field recordings that gather artists influenced by Johnson. Most importantly is The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (1972), the companion LP to Evans’ Tommy Johnson biography featuring all songs that were in Johnson’s repertoire and all of which were learned by the artists from Johnson himself. In addition there’s South Mississippi Blues (1974 ?, Isaac Youngblood, Babe Stovall, Roosevelt Holts and more) and Goin’ Up The Country (1968, Roosevelt Holts, Arzo Youngblood, Mager Johnson, Boogie Bill Webb and more). There was a planned (apparently compiled and notes written) companion album to Evans’ book Big Road Blues but for whatever reason this was never issued.

All of this ruminating about Johnson’s legacy will result in a show that I have slated for December 30, my final radio show of the year. I’ll be playing many of the discussed records, several of Johnson’s own sides and if all goes well an interview with David Evans who I just talked with the other day. It should be a nice way to end the first year of the show and a fitting one for a show called Big Road Blues.

Arzo Youngblood - Bye and Bye Blues (MP3)

Shirley Griffith - Maggie Campbell Blues (MP3)

Roosevelt Holts - Big Road Blues (MP3)