Big Road Blues

A tough, forthright woman blessed with a powerful, earthy voice and a deep soulfulness, Ma Rainey waxed a remarkable body of songs between 1923 and 1938. All 111 of those songs, including alternate takes, can be found on JSP’s exhaustive 5-CD Ma Rainey - Mother Of The Blues box set. Rainey was extremely consistent throughout her five-year recording career making this set particularly worthwhile and listenable. It didn’t hurt that the quality of her songs is consistently high and lyrically interesting plus she was backed by outstanding musicians like Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Coleman Hawkins, Tommy Ladnier, Kid Ory and on later sides by Georgia Tom and Tampa Red.

For an artist of her stature Rainey hasn’t been well served in the reissue market no doubt because of the poor quality of the original Paramount 78’s. It’s one of the great blues ironies or tragedy’s if you will, that while Paramount recorded some of the greatest blues of the era the quality of their pressings was notoriously bad. Compounding the problem were the popularity of the discs which means existing copies are often quite worn. Prior to the JSP box all of Rainey’s recordings could be found on five volumes on Document with adequate sound. JSP hasn’t performed any miracles with their transfers but have managed some worthwhile noise reduction, sometimes subtle, occasionally fairly significant, all in the service of bringing out Rainey’s vocals with better clarity. Formerly muffled numbers sound clearer and the consistent hiss, while still present, has been submerged. Songs that show improvement are “Slave To The Blues”, “Titanic Man Blues”, “Seeking The Blues”, “Dead Drunk Blues”, “Damper Down Blues”, “Booze And Blues”, “Honey Where You Been So Long”, “Bo-Weavil Blues”, “Cell Bound Blues”, “Stormy Sea Blues”, “Misery Blues” among several others.

Many of the early woman blues singers had a strong vaudevillian streak but Rainey’s output is dominated by the blues, something by her own account she added to her act in 1902. Like Charlie Patton did, Rainey’s was a decidedly downhome southern viewpoint, no doubt really connecting with southern audience on songs about the Bo-Weavil (”Bo-Weavil Blues”), Hoo-Doo (”Southern Blues”, “Louisiana Hoo-Doo Blues”, “Black Cat, Hoot Owl Blues”), jail (”Chain Gang Blues”, “Cell Bound Blues”), plus self explanatory numbers like “Levee Camp Moan”, “Log Camp Blues” and “Moonshine Blues.” Rainey tackled a wide range of topics in a poetic, direct, and sometime arresting fashion; sexuality in “Sissy Man Blues”, “Don’t Fish In My Sea”, the lesbian proclamation of “Prove It to Me Blues”, prostitution in “Hustlin’ Blues”, spousal violence in “Black Eye Blues” and “Sweet, Rough Man.” While there’s a somber tone to much of the music she had innate sense of swing, showcased on numbers like “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, “Hellish Rag” and “Hear Me Talking to You.” As mentioned Rainey was blessed with better bands than most female singers; there were the great horn players mentioned above, jug groups and guitarists like Miles Pruitt, Blind Blake and Tampa Red on a terrific batch of sides from 1928 at the tail end of Rainey’s recording career. Spending time with this box set also makes clear Rainey’s influence, not only recording songs that became standards like “See See Rider” and “Bo-Weavil Blues” but also her influence on male country blues singers; “Booze And Blues” was transformed by Charlie Patton into “Tom Rushen Blues, “Last Minute Blues” echoed in Willie Brown’s “Future Blues” as well as lyrically influencing artists as diverse as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie Hicks, Robert Johnson and others.

Ma Rainey - Mother Of The Blues ranks as one of JSP’s more impressive and important reissues. This is a set to savor with timeless music that retains a high artistic quality from start to finish, improved sound that brings Rainey’s magnificent voice closer to the surface and an unbeatable budget price. The only knock is that a set like this deserves a first class set of notes and Max Haymes’ booklet fails to deliver. It’s a odd mix of dry academic writing and fannish praise that fails to do justice to the material.

Booze And Blues (MP3)

Yonder Comes The Blues (MP3)

Black Eye Blues (MP3)

Show Notes:

Woman blues singers seem to get shortchanged when it comes to interest among blues fans or reissue companies. I’m not talking about heavy hitters like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey but the dozens and dozens of fine singers who recorded in their shadows during the 1920’s and 30’s. This show is dedicated to singers like Mary Johnson, Hattie Hart, Leola Manning, Alice Moore and others; in some cases they recorded dozens of sides or just a handful, some were quite popular in their day while other achieved little or no success yet they cut some exceptional blues records that, outside of collectors, remain all but forgotten today.

The “Classic Female Blues” era as it’s generally called spanned from 1920 to 1929 with its peak from 1923 to 1925. The most popular of these singers were Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Clara Smith, Edith Wilson, Trixie Smith and Lucille Hegamin. It was singer Mamie Smith in 1920 who paved the way as Paul Oliver notes: “One of the records that helped launch the issue of so-called “Race Records”…was Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues.” It was to the benefit of many other black woman singers that a black woman had at last broke into what had previously been an exclusively white market. During the decade after the release of this record, more than 200 women singers were recorded and their songs issued on Race Records. Several of them made more than a hundred titles each, and a great many made a few dozen. In addition, there were those who made just a handful of titles that were often of great interest, nonetheless.” In 1921 blues singers such as Lillyn Brown, Lavinia Turner, Lucille Hegamin, Daisey Martin all made records. In January 1922 Metronome declared that “every phonograph company has a colored girl recording blues.” Of course woman like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox had been singing the blues for years, mainly in the South, in circuses like Miller’s 101 Ranch, The Mighty Haag Circus, Vaudeville stages and minstrel shows like Sugar Foot Greene’s Minstrel Show, Silas Green from New Orleans and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.

On today’s show we skip over these very early recordings which can be a bit tough slogging even for the most committed blues fan. While the recordings are interesting historically they pose a few problems as Tony Russell notes: “…Many of them belonged to a tradition of stage singing that has not appealed much to recent generations of blues enthusiasts. …Most of them are separated from us by the thick curtain of the acoustic recording process, which reduces all but the strongest voices to squeaks, and muffles their accompanists.” You can be the judge as the Document label as seen fit to reissue all of these early singers and in fact a good chunk of today’s songs come from the vast Document catalog. While the Document collections are invaluable sound quality is not always the best hence I’ve played several tracks from Yazoo’s I Can’t Be Satisfied vol. 1 & 2 and Barrelhouse Mamas. These are terrific collections with superior remastering.

Today’s show features a number of early woman blues singers in the classic style who were quite popular in their day such as Martha Copeland, Clara Smith, Lizzie Miles and Rosa Henderson. Copeland’s sassy “I Ain’t Your Hen Mister Fly Rooster” gives today’s show it’s title. Copeland was saddled by Columbia with the nickname“everybody’s mammy” and was popular in her day but little is known about her life. She recorded close to two dozen sides between 1923 and 1928. Copeland often had interesting lyrics but, with a few exceptions, her singing is rather unexciting. “I Ain’t Your Hen Mister Fly Rooster” finds her singing in top form backed by lively cornet from Bubber Miley and piano from J.C. Johnson plus some forthright lyrics:

I ain’t your hen mister fly rooster, so don’t crow in my back yard
Here’s one chicken you ain’t picking
The day you try you’ll find it hard
You and I ain’t never going to come to terms
Find some other chicken I don’t need your worms
I ain’t your hen mister fly rooster, so don’t crow in my back yard

Rosa Henderson started out in carnival and tent shows around 1913 and moved to New York in 1923 where she made her recording debut. She recorded a hundred odd sides throughout the 1920’s and made her final record in 1931. She was a fine singer who suffered from some rather lackluster accompanists. There’s no such problems on 1926’s supremely confident and boisterous “Rough House Blues (A Reckless Woman’s Lament)” as Henderson belts out the following challenge:

Everybody stand aside and let mad mama through
Because my feelings I can’t hide
I’m hinkey, mean and blue
I’m gonna raise the roof up round this house tonight
I feel rough and ready, I wanna pick a fight
I want to shoot my pistol, I don’t care who I hit
I feel like the devil ’cause my man done quit
I’m gonna drink my whiskey and get my habits on

Lizzie Miles was a fine classic blues singer from the 1920s who survived to have a full comeback in the 1950s. She started out singing in New Orleans during 1909-1911 with such musicians as King Oliver, Kid Ory, and Bunk Johnson. She recorded extensively between 1922-1930. She recorded in 1939 but spent 1943-1949 outside of music and in 1950 began a comeback recording for labels such as Circle, Cook, Capitol, Verve and others before retiring in 1959. From the very beginning Miles was a forceful singer with plenty of personality although early recordings suffer from poor sound and often bland material. Her late 20’s and 30’s recordings are superior and “Too Slow Blues” from 1930 is a prime example featuring some terrific guitar from Teddy Bunn. She was still a force to be reckoned with when in 1952 she cut “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” backed by Sharkey & His Kings of Dixieland.

A good chunk of today’s selections are by women performing in a more down home vein. In the 1920’s and 30’s St. Louis was a vibrant blues town boasting some superb woman singers like Bessie Mae Smith, Alice Moore, Mary Johnson and Edith North Johnson. Bessie Mae Smith recorded variously as St. Louis Bessie, Blue Belle and Streamline Mae. Her 18 sides recorded between 1927-1930 showcase a strong singer who used some striking imagery in her songs. Mary Johnson was a fine singer with a clear, low, moaning style that came across well on record. She also wrote a number of moving songs, many filled with vivid violent and sexual imagery and an unrelenting bleak view of the world. Alice Moore was a superb and popular singer who’s biggest hit was “Blue, Black and Evil,” which she recorded several times.

It seems just about all the major cities boasted top flight woman singers and in addition to St. Louis. Today’s show features singers hailing from Dallas, Kansas City, Memphis and Chicago. Hattie Hart was a marvelous, tough voiced singer who hailed from Memphis where she worked with the Memphis Jug Band before heading to Chicago and cut sides as Hattie Bolten. From Dallas we have big voiced Hattie Burleson who’s backed by an outstanding band on these 1928 sides. She waxed only seven sides and it’s a shame she recorded so little. Burleson discovered fellow Dallas singer Lillian Glinn while she was singing spirituals in church. Glinn briefly became a star before returning to the church. It’s not hard to see why; she possessed a warm, strong, clear voice in the classic style as she shows on “I’m A Front Door Woman With A Back Door Man.” Lottie Kimbrough was based in Kansas City and cut a half dozen rather unexceptional sides in 1924. Her 1928 sides for Gennett were a different story; backed by the driving, unorthodox guitar of Miles Pruitt she cut “Rolling Log Blues” and “Goin’ Away Blues”, two blues of haunting power featuring Kimbrough’s penetrating, world weary vocals. From Chicago we play tracks by Mozelle Alderson (she also recorded as Kansas City Kitty, Hannah May and Jane Lucas) Georgia White and Ruth Ladson. Alderson’s “Tight In Chicago” is her best record, a fine hard times blues number cut in the heart of the depression and in 1941 Ruth Ladsen found things just as tough as she recounts on “Windy City Blues” a tale of the temptations that lie in wait for a”green” young girl:

I met a Chicago woman, she said come and go with me
She asked me if I had any money but I was broke as I could be
She said look here young woman, you young and I am so old
And you’re in dear old Chicago, where there’s plenty of gold
You don’t have to use your head to get it, there’s easy ways I been told
When we got up to her house, up on the second floor
I saw the head of a man peeping from every door
I said you better get me out of here
Before it is too late, too late, too late
Just the sight of all these men gives me the bellyache

Bertha “Chippie” Hill was based in Chicago when she began her recording career in 1925. Backed by the the shimmering slide of Tampa Red she delivers the gorgeous “Some Cold, Rainy Day” from 1928 and while her voice is a bit rough around the edges she still sounded vivacious on the bawdy “Charleston Blues” from 1946:

I’m going back to the fish house baby, and get me some shrimp
I’ve got to feed baby, two or three hungry old pimps

Outside of Memphis Minnie and Sister Rosetta Tharpe there were very few guitar playing woman which makes the recordings of Geeshie Wiley and Mattie Delaney notable. Virtually nothing is known about Wiley who recorded four stunning blues for Paramount in 1930 and 1931 and then vanished like a cipher in the night. “Last Kind Word Blues” ranks as one of the most enigmatic, haunting country blues ever committed to wax. She cut some sides with Elvie Thomas including the bouncy, rag flavored duet “Pick Poor Robin Clean.” Nothing is know about Mattie Delaney who cut one 78 in 1930. A fine guitarist and singer she cut “Down The Big Road Blues” a variation on Tommy Johnson’s “Big Road Blues” and the topical “Tallahatchie River Blues.”

Lucille Bogan

As evidenced so far these woman had plenty to say and weren’t afraid to say it; they gave the business to those no good men, sang frankly about sex, hard times and the seedier side of life. Take Bertha Idaho’s “Down on Pennsylvania Avenue” a vivid description of a particularly seedy street in Baltimore “where you can’t tell the he’s from the she’s.” Better known is Lucille Bogan who sang in a tough, boisterous manner, singing frankly about lesbianism, prostitution, drinking and drug use. “Pig Iron Sally” is a good example of her tough talking persona:

They call me Pig Iron Sally
‘Cause I live in Slag Iron Alley
And I’m evil and mean as I can be

Among the many tough ladies we feature today include Lillian Miller on her “Dead Drunk Blues” as she opens up by proclaiming “I’m dead drunk today daddy” before singing: “You knowed I was drunk when I layed down across your bed/All the whiskey I drank it’s gone right to my head.” Then there’s Mae Glover’s provocative “Shake It Daddy” where she sings “You used to be sweet milk, but you done turned sour on me/If you want me to love you, hum like a honey bee.“

A couple of other obscure ladies worth mentioning are Leola Manning, Carrie Edwards and Elizabeth Johnson. Manning, from Knoxville, Tennessee, is a performer who deserves more attention. Not only was she an excellent singer but she had some remarkable songs including the two very fascinating topical songs: “The Arcade Building Moan” is about the burning down of an important commercial building in Knoxville and the chilling “Satan Is Busy In Knoxville,” which appears to be about a serial killer loose in Knoxville! On our selection, “The Blues is All Wrong”, is sung with an almost religious zeal that leaps out of the scratchy grooves. Johnson cut four terrific sides in 1928 including “Be My Kind Blues” with a band listed as Her Turpentine Tree-O featuring the unusual, but effective, instrumentation of cornet, guitar and woodblocks. She has a high, keening voice that’s very moving and one wishes she recorded more. Edwards cut four songs in 1932 including “Fattening Frogs for Snakes” that begins in resigned fashion before building steam to a sassy, testifying finish. Most folks probably know the song through Sonny Boy Williamson II who waxed a version in 1957. A version was first cut by Virginia Liston in 1925 and Edwards’ version is the second to be recorded.

This is just a small sampling of the many great forgotten woman blues singers and I certainly plan on doing sequels in the future.

It was Mamie Smith’s recording of “Crazy Blues” in 1920 that set off the blues craze, proving there was indeed a substantial market for blues records. Record companies sought to repeat the success by signing numerous blues ladies including some of the era’s most celebrated singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey and Ida Cox. In addition to the big stars there were countless second and third stringers who recorded, most of whom have faded into obscurity. Mary Johnson of St. Louis (sometimes billed as “Signifying Mary”) came late to the game, making her debut in 1929, cut just shy of two dozen songs, achieved modest success and never recorded again after 1936 despite living until 1970. while it’s true that Johnson wasn’t in the same league as Bessie and Ma, she left behind a small, very impressive body of work that merits more attention.

Johnson got her start in show business as a teenager in St. Louis. and frequently worked with Lonnie Johnson who she married in 1925. They had six children together and divorced in 1932. Strangely the two never recorded together. Johnson was a fine singer with a clear, low, moaning style that came across well on record. She also wrote a number of moving songs, many filled with vivid violent and sexual imagery and an unrelenting bleak view of the world. Johnson was blessed with superb backing musicians throughout her brief career that elevated her recordings above many of her contemporaries. She was accompanied by either Henry Brown, Judson Brown, Roosevelt Sykes, or Peetie Wheetstraw on piano, many selections featuring trombonist Ike Rodgers, guitarists Tampa Red and Kokomo Arnold and violinist Artie Mosby.

She recorded 8 selections in 1929, 6 sides in 1930, two in 1932, four in 1934, and two final numbers in 1936. All of the 1929 sides feature the fine piano of Henry Brown and trombonist Ike Rogers on five of the eight sides. On her first coupling from May 7, 1929 is the superbly mournful “Muddy Creek Blues” sporting some prominent low down trombone from the always fine Ike Rogers. Johnson’s sets the tone for future records with a slow, deliberate, moaning vocal that perfectly suites the somber and chilling lyrics:

I went to the muddy creek this morning with my razor swinging in my hand (2x)
I said good morning Mr. Tadpole have you seen anything of my man

and concludes:

I say I’m black and evil, you sure don’t know my mind (2x)
I’ll cut you’re throat Mr. Tadpole, drink you’re blood like cherry wine

The phrase “black and evil” was echoed a few months later by fellow St. Louis singer Alice Moore in “Black And Evil Blues”, her biggest hit which also featured Ike Rogers. Two days later Johnson waxed one more 78 with the same group; “Black Men Blues” sans Rogers and “Western Union Man”were strong blues in the same mold as her first numbers. Her final session in November 1929 yielded four more numbers, notably “Barrel House Flat Blues” and “Key To The Mountain Blues.” The latter is a surreal, sexual number as she sings “My man’s in the mountain(2x)/And I got the mountain key” before a lengthy passage where she moans suggestively in response to Roger’s seductive trombone lines and makes spoken asides like “play it for your freakish mama” and “Oh it feels so good.” She never cut anything else quite like this and oddly the song was covered by Jesse Thomas who recorded it in Los Angles in1948 as “Mountain Key Blues.”

Johnson cut six sides at two sessions in 1930. The April 8, 1930 was outstanding do in large part to the shimmering slide guitar of Tampa Red and the excellent piano of the under recorded Judson Brown. The two work beautifully behind Johnson on the mournful “Three Months Ago Blues” with Tampa shinning on “Dawn Of Day Blues” and the magnificent “Death Cell Blues” which opens in tough, forthright fashion:

I killed my man last year, lord, the man I really love
He did not treat me right now he’s with the good lord above
Woman don’t never love so hard, until you take your good man’s heart
When they put you in the death cell the whole world seems dark
(spoken) Lord, lord I’m bound for the death cell

“Friendless Gal Blues” has echoes of Lonnie Johnson’s “Friendless And Blues” from 1938. The themes of alienation an loneliness, of being adrift in an unforgiving world, are wonderfully evoked by Johnson’s moaning, moving delivery punctuated by Tampa’s sympathetic slide:

I’m just a friendless little girl
I’m traveling from door to door
Everywhere I go they tell me that I can’t come here no more
People I ain’t got no mother, I ain’t got no dad
Trouble is the only thing that I have ever had

The next day she cut two more strong numbers with backing just from Judson Brown who’s marvelous ragtime flavored playing is heard to good effect particularly on “Morning Sun Blues.”

1932 found Johnson cutting one 78; “Rattlesnake Blues” and “Mary Johnson Blues” which Chris Smith notes “are clearly a response to the recent, acrimonious end of her marriage.” Once again she’s in good company with Roosevelt Sykes on piano, in quite lively fashion on the former number, and violinist Curtis Mosby on the latter track.

Johnson was back in the studio in 1934 with old friends Henry Brown and Ike Rogers on board. Four songs were cut at three sessions including “Those Black Man Blues” and remake of 1929’s “Black Men Blues” which was a modest hit. Perhaps she was running out of inspiration as she also cut a variation of Joe Pullum’s huge hit “Black Gal What makes Your Head So Hard?” which Pullum cut just five months prior. Her version, “Black Gal Blues”, is quite good as she emulates Pullum’s delivery which makes the song sound different than anything else she recorded and also fiddles with the lyrics giving it her own personal stamp. Perhaps the standout is the gorgeous “Peepin’ At The Risin’ Sun” featuring terrific piano from the ever reliable Henry Brown who also gets plenty of room to stretch out on the fine “Deceitful Woman Blues.”

Johnson’s final sessions were done in 1936 at three different sessions with only two songs released and four numbers unissued. The May 22 session saw only “Delmar Avenue” issued with heavyweight support from Peetie Wheatstraw on piano and Kokomo Arnold on guitar. Johnson immortalizes the well known St. Louis thoroughfare on a solid number that finds her voice sounding a bit heavier then usual: “Sitting on Delmar Avenue, watching the cars go by(2x)/Well I could not see nothing but the blue clouds in the sky.” Henry Brown described the avenue this way to Paul Oliver: “Deep Morgan …they call it Delmar Avenue now …That was all just them low-down sportin’ houses and receration parlours you know, call ‘em receration parlours. Like a barrelhouse joint.” The next day she cut “I Just Can’t Take It” which bears a resemblance to the “Dirty Dozens” with stomping piano support from Wheatstraw as Johnson exhorts him to “play it Peter, play it.”

After these recordings Mary Johnson abandoned the blues for religion. Supposedly she recorded some religious sides but these were never issued. Paul Oliver interviewed her in 1960 for his book “Conversation With The Blues” and described her this way: “Living with her mother Emma Williams in an apartment on Biddle Street, St. Louis, above the premises of a wholesale dealer in live fish, Mary Johnson has known considerable poverty for many years” Sadly it’s common story and despite a fairly successful career as a blues singer it had little marked improvement on her way of life and left no safety net for later years. While her early sides are admired by collectors she remains virtually forgotten today.

Muddy Creek Blues (MP3)

Death Cell Blues (MP3)

Peepin’ At The Risin’ Sun (MP3)