Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Although the harmonica was present in many pre-war recordings, it became a dominant force in the 1950′s, when it was amplified by the likes of Big Walter Horton, Little Walter and Snooky Pryor. As such many players and fans seem to think that blues harmonica began with Little Walter and are unaware of the rich early tradition of harmonica recordings. In the early days harmonica soloists were common who played now forgotten pieces like train imitations and set pieces like Lost John, Fox Chase, Mama Blues and other call-and-response pieces that featured the harmonica over the voice, if the voice was used at all. We hear many of these players on today’s program including DeFord Bailey, George “Bullet” Williams, William McCoy, Alfred Lewis and Sonny Terry. We also feature early harmonica/vocalists like Daddy Stovepipe, Jaybird Coleman and Jazz Gillum. In addition we hear some great accompanists like Rhythm Willie, Robert Cooksey and Blues Birdhead. There were also play tracks by several notable harmonica players who worked in jug bands like Noah Lewis, Jed Davenport and Eddie Mapp. It was John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson who defined the language of modern blues harmonica playing so it’s fitting we end with a few of his numbers. Below is some brief background on some of today’s performers.

Bobby Leecan (who sang, and played guitar and kazoo) performed in a duo with harmonica player Robert Cooksey. Leecan and Cooksey teamed up for the first time in 1926 to cut sides for Victor, their recording output inhabiting a borderland between blues, vaudeville, and jazz. They are believed to have been based out of Philadelphia. Cooksey first entered the studio in the spring of 1924, when he backed up blues singer Viola McCoy on sessions for Vocalion. That puts him within months of the very first recording of harmonica ever made, the Clara Smith recording “My Doggone Lazy Man,” which featured harmonica player Herbert Leonard. The following year, he backed up Sara Martin on Okeh label. It was two years later when he finally teamed up with Leecan.

Johnny Watson, alias Daddy Stovepipe, was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1867 and died in Chicago, in 1963. A veteran of the turn of the century medicine shows, he was in his late fifties when he became one of the first blues harp players to appear on record in 1924. He later recorded with his wife, Mississippi Sarah, in the 1930′s and spent his last years as a regular performer on Chicago’s famous Maxwell Street, where he made his last recordings.

DeFord Bailey

DeFord Bailey cut several records in 1927-1928, all of them harmonica solos. Emblematic of the ambiguity of Bailey’s position as a black recording artist is the fact his arguably greatest recording, “John Henry”, was released separately in both RCA’s ‘race’ and ‘hillbilly’ series. Bailey was a pioneer member of the WSM Grand Ole Opry, and one of its most popular performers, appearing on the program from 1927 to 1941. During this period he toured with many major country stars, including Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, and Roy Acuff. Bailey was fired by WSM in 1941 because of a licensing conflict with BMI-ASCAP which prevented him from playing his best known tunes on the radio. This effectively ended his performance career, and he spent the rest of his life shining shoes, cutting hair, and renting out rooms in his home to make a living. Though he continued to play the harp, he almost never performed publicly. One of his rare appearances occurred in 1974, when he agreed to make one more appearance on the Opry. This became the occasion for the Opry’s first annual Old Timers’ Show.

Singer and harpist Noah Lewis was a key figure on the Memphis jug band circuit of the 1920′s. Upon moving to Memphis, he teamed with Gus Cannon, becoming an essential component of Cannon’s Jug Stompers. On a series of sides cut in the first week of October 1929, Lewis made his debut as a name artist, cutting three great harmonica solos as well as “Going to Germany,” which spotlighted his fine vocal style. He also cut a few sides under his own name between 1929-30. As the Depression wore on Lewis slipped into obscurity, living a life of extreme poverty; his death on February 7, 1961 was a result of gangrene brought on by frostbite.

As a child, Jaybird Coleman, taught himself how to play harmonica and would perform at parties, both for his family and friends. Coleman served in the Army during World War I and after his discharge moved to the Birmingham, AL area. While he lived in Birmingham, he would perform on street corners and occasionally play with the Birmingham Jug Band. Jaybird made his first recordings in 1927 for Gennett. For the next few years, he simply played on street corners. Coleman cut his final sessions in 1930 on the OKeh label. During the 1930′s and 1940′s, Coleman played on street corners throughout Alabama. By the end of the 1940′s he had disappeared from the blues scene. In 1950 Coleman died of cancer.

Realizing his eyesight would keep him from pursuing a profession in farming, Sonny Terry decided instead to be a blues singer. He began traveling to nearby Raleigh and Durham, performing on street corners for tips. In 1934, he befriended the popular guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Fuller convinced Terry to move to Durham, where the two immediately gained a strong local following. By 1937, they were offered an opportunity to go to New York and record for the Vocalion label. A year later, Terry would be back in New York taking part in John Hammond’s legendary Spirituals to Swing concert. Upon returning to Durham, Terry continued playing regularly with Fuller and also met his future partner, guitarist Brownie McGhee, who would accompany Terry off and on for the next two decades.

Sonny Boy Williamson I

John Lee Williamson is regarded as “the first truly virtuosic blues harmonica player”, “who brought the harmonica to prominence as a major blues instrument.” Generally regarded as the original “Sonny Boy”, John Lee Williamson was born in Jackson, Tennessee on March 30, 1914. He hoboed with Yank Rachell and John Estes through Tennessee and Arkansas in the late 1920′s and early 1930′s. He worked with Sunnyland Slim in Memphis in the early 1930′s. John Lee Williamson moved to Chicago in 1934 where he worked Maxwell Street and as a sideman with numerous blues groups at the local clubs. His first recording, made in May of 1937 at the Leland Hotel in Aurora, Illinois for the Bluebird label, is also the first recording of “Good Morning Little School Girl”, which has become a much recorded blues classic tune. Bluebird recorded him until 1945 when Victor recorded him into 1947. Williamson worked frequently with Muddy Waters from 1943 and toured with Lazy Bill Lucas through the 1940′s. He recorded with Big Joe Williams for the Columbia label in Chicago in 1947. In 1948 upon leaving the Plantation Club in Chicago after playing a gig, he was mugged and beaten. He died of a fractured skull and other injuries on June 1, 1948 and is buried in Jackson, Tennessee.

Jazz Gillum is usually treated with indifference among blues critics, looked upon as a rather generic performer who typified the mainstream Chicago blues style of the 1930′s and 40′s. While there’s some truth to this, Gillum’s recordings were consistently entertaining throughout his sixteen year recording career punctuated with a fair number of exceptional sides. Gillum was by no means a harmonica virtuoso – he had a kind of wheezy high-pitched sound – he was certainly no Sonny Boy Williamson I and certainly no “Harmonica King” as he boasts in “Gillum’s Windy Blues.” Yet he was a very expressive, easygoing singer who penned a number of evocative songs backed by some of the era’s best blues musicians. Gillum recorded 100 sides between 1934-49 as a leader in addition to session work with Big Bill Broonzy, Curtis Jones and the State Street Boys.

Throughout the show we also play a number of little recorded, shadowy figures such as George “Bullet” Williams, William McCoy, Alfred Lewis, Blues Birdhead, Ollis Martin and Eddie Mapp. George “Bullet” Williams was originally from Alabama. He cut one session for paramount in 1928. Ollis Martin cut one side in 1927 for Gennet. He was active around the Birmingham area in the latter part of that decade, also showing up on two gospel sides the same year by Jaybird Coleman. Blues Birdhead’s real was James Simons who cut one 78 for Okeh in 1929. Alfred Lewis cut one issued 78 in 1930 for Okeh.

Show Notes:

Today’s feature is on two of the greatest post-war harmonica players: Big Walter Horton also known as Shakey Horton and Little Walter. By most accounts Little Walter was given pointers by Big Walter when he was a teenager in Helena, Arkansas. Little Walter went on to greater fame playing with Muddy Waters and soon after cutting his own celebrated records. Horton isn’t as widely known as his fellow Chicago blues pioneers Little Walter or Sonny Boy Williamson II, due mostly to the fact that, as a rather shy, quiet individual, he never had much taste for leading his own bands or recording sessions.

Horton was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi, in 1918. Horton got his first harmonica from his father when he five, and won a local talent contest with it. Shortly thereafter his mother moved to Memphis, then a hotbed of blues, and according to blues researcher Samuel Charters, Horton was playing with the Memphis Jug Band by the time he was nine or ten. He also may have recorded with them in 1927 as he himself claimed but many researchers doubt this assertion. During the thirties he played with Robert Johnson, Honeyboy Edwards, and others, and later gave pointers to both Little Walter and Rice Miller. His first verifiable sides were done in 1939 backing guitarist Charlie “Little Buddy” Doyle on sessions for Columbia. Around the same time (according to Horton himself), he began to experiment with amplifying his harmonica, which if accurate may have made him the first to do so. In the late forties he went to Chicago, but later returned to Memphis to record for Modern/RPM and Sun. Of these sessions, the 1953 instrumental “Easy”, based on Ivory Joe Hunter’s “I Almost Lost My Mind”, became a hit. He also backed artists such as Joe Hill Louis, Willie Nix and others.

Following the success of “Easy,” Horton went back to Chicago to play with Eddie Taylor. But when Junior Wells got drafted, Horton took his place in Muddy Waters’ band. It didn’t last long, though-Horton showed up drunk at a rehearsal and Muddy fired him. We play one of those tracks, “My Life Is Ruined”, and then one track when he reunited with Muddy on the 1977 record “I’m Ready.” Around the same time he cut a memorable session backing Tampa Red, delivering a tremendous solo on “Rambler’s Blue.”

Big Walter cut his best work as a sideman. Always described as shy and nervous, he preferred this role to that of a bandleader. His playing graces numerous records behind Johnny Shines, Johnny Young, Sunnyland Slim, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, and others. He also taught a number of younger players, including Charlie Musselwhite and Carey Bell. In 1964, Horton recorded his first full-length album, The Soul of Blues Harmonica, for Chess subsidiary Argo; it was produced by Dixon and featured Buddy Guy as a sideman, though it didn’t completely capture Horton at his best. Two years later, Horton contributed several cuts to Vanguard’s classic compilation Chicago/The Blues/Today! Vol. 3, which did much to establish his name on a blues circuit that was thriving anew thanks to an interest from white audiences.

Horton became a regular on Willie Dixon’s Blues All Stars package tours during the 70′s, which made their way through America and Europe over the ’60s and ’70s. He also played the American Folk Blues Festival in 1965. In 1973 he cut an album with Carey Bell for Alligator. After that he became a mainstay on the festival circuit, and often played at the open-air market on Chicago’s legendary Maxwell Street, along with many other bluesman. In 1977, he joined Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters on Winter’s album I’m Ready, and during the same period recorded some material for Blind Pig, which later found release as the albums Fine Cuts and Can’t Keep Lovin’ You. Horton appeared in the Maxwell Street scene in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, accompanying John Lee Hooker. He died of heart failure on December 8, 1981, and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame the following year.

Marion “Little Walter” Jacobs is widely considered the greatest blues harmonica player ever. He was born in Marksville, Louisiana in 1930. He took up the harmonica as a child, at first playing polkas and waltzes, and by the time he was 12 he was on his own, working the sidewalks and bars of New Orleans with his instrument. He had also discovered the music of John Lee Williamson, and modeled his early blues style on that of Williamson’s. When he was fourteen he drifted to Helena, Arkansas, and came under the influence of Rice Miller, who along with Walter Horton, gave him pointers on the harp. The following year, Little Walter’s evolution beyond traditional folk-blues began when he started to listen to the records of jump saxophonist Louis Jordan and learn his solos note for note on harmonica.

In 1947 Little Walter arrived in Chicago with Honeyboy Edwards, and became a part of the fabled Maxwell Street scene that at one time or another included almost every postwar Chicago blues luminary. He first recorded that year behind singer Othum Brown on the Ora Nelle label, and also began playing in a trio with Jimmy Rogers and Muddy Waters, whom he had met on Maxwell Street. He debuted on wax that same year for the tiny Ora-Nelle logo (“I Just Keep Loving Her”) in the company of Jimmy Rogers and guitarist Othum Brown. Along with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers and Baby Face Leroy Foster, they became informally known as the Headhunters. They would stroll into South side clubs, mount the stage, and proceed to calmly “cut the heads” of whomever was booked there that evening. Little Walter began recording in 1950 with Muddy, first on the Parkway label, and then for Chess, the label he was to stay with for the rest of his short life. With Waters’s “Long Distance Call,” Walter became the first to record amplified harmonica.

On May 12, 1952, Little Walter recorded an instrumental under his own name that the Muddy Waters band had been using to close sets with. “Juke,” with its fat, amplified tone and sax-like phrases, was released under Little Walter’s own name and became a huge hit. Following its success, he left Waters’ band to form his own group, but continued to record with Muddy.

From 1952 to 1958, Walter notched 14 Top Ten R&B hits, including “Sad Hours,” “Mean Old World,” “Tell Me Mama,” “Off the Wall,” “Blues with a Feeling,” “You’re So Fine,” “You Better Watch Yourself,” “Last Night,” and “My Babe” among others.

In 1964 he toured Europe with the Rolling Stones, but substance abuse and his hot temper still plagued him. “Little Walter was dead ten years before he died,” Muddy Waters said. At gigs, as well as offstage, he would sometimes wave a pistol or two around, and had trouble keeping a band together. Photos taken towards the end of his life show a scarred, haggard man looking closer to 55 than 35. On February 14th, 1968, Walter Jacobs died of injuries sustained in a Chicago street fight. He was only 37 years old

Mama Blues (MP3)	Out Of Doors Blues (MP3)
Train Imitations & The Fox Chase (MP3)	Central Tracks Blues (MP3)

In our ongoing series of reprinting old Chicago Defender blues ads we turn to an obscure but excellent early harmonica player by the name of William McCoy. His records were advertised in the Defender on May 12, 1928, February 23, 1929 and September 21, 1929. Virtually nothing is known about McCoy other than he was probably from Texas. He recorded six sides for Columbia at three sessions; on December 6, 1927 he cut the solos “Mama Blues” b/w “Train Imitations And The Fox Chase”, cut “Just It” b/w “How Long Baby” possibly backed by guitarist Sam Harris on December 7, 1928 and “Out Of Doors Blues” b/w “Central Tracks Blues” backed possibly by Sam Harris and Jesse Harris on clarinet on December 8, 1928. All of these sides can be found on Texas Black Country Dance Music 1927-1935 on the Document label.

According to harmonica researcher Pat Missin, McCoy was the first blues player to record in fifth position when he cut “Central Tracks Blues” which is in the key of C#. He’s transcribed this piece on this page. The song refers the predominantly black Deep Ellum section of Dallas which, because of the proximity of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad tracks, was also called Central Track. By the 1920′s it was known for it’s gambling joints, pawnshops, prostitution and nightclubs. Many blues musicians worked the area including Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Although the harmonica was present in many pre-war recordings, it became a dominant force in the 1950′s, when it was amplified by the likes of Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, and Snooky Pryor. As such many players and fans seem to think that blues harmonica began with Little Walter and are unaware of the rich early tradition of harmonica recordings. In the early days harmonica soloists were common who played now forgotten pieces like train imitations and set pieces like “Lost John”, “Fox Chase”, “Mama Blues” and other call-and-response pieces that featured the harmonica over the voice, if the voice was used at all. William McCoy falls into that category while others include DeFord Bailey, George “Bullet” Williams, Alfred Lewis and Sonny Terry. Other notable early harmonica players include Jaybird Coleman, Daddy Stovepipe, Robert Cooksey, Noah Lewis and Jed Davenport. My August 17th show will be devoted to early harmonica blues, mostly from the 1920′s and 1930′s, and will spotlight all of these artists.

Show Notes:

Today’s program is the first in a series of harmonica shows I have in the pipeline. A couple of listeners have wondered why I haven’t done any harmonica features. As I looked backed I realized they were right although it certainly wasn’t intentional. Today’s program is a loosely themed tribute to a batch of great downhome harmonica blowers from the late 1940′s through the 1960′s. On deck today we spin rocking and raw sides by Papa Lightfoot, Coy “Hot Shot” Love, George “Harmonica” Smith,  Forest City Joe, Jerry McCain, Schoolboy Cleve, Lazy Lester, Kid Thomas and several others.

Thanks to a handful of terrific 1950′s sides, the name of Papa Lightfoot was revered by 1960′s blues enthusiasts. Producer Steve LaVere tracked him down in Natchez, MS cutting an album for Vault in 1969. His comeback was short-lived and he died in 1971. He cut sessions for Peacock in 1949 (unissued), Sultan in 1950, and Aladdin in 1952 preceded an amazing 1954 date for Imperial in New Orleans that produced Lightfoot’s “Mean Old Train,” “Wine Women Whiskey” and a wild “When the Saints Go Marching In.”  His final pre-rediscovery sides were cut for Savoy in 1955. We also play a cut by Ole Sonny Boy who was once though to be a pseudonym for Papa Lightfoot but is now thought to be J.D. Horton who cut two sides under that name in 1952 for Bullet and two sides as Ole Sonny Boy for Excello in 1956.

Schoolboy Cleve passed away earlier this year and this set is a belated tribute to him. Cleve cut a handful of sides between 1954-1963 for a series of small labels, backed Lightnin’ Slim on some mid-50′s sides, issued some 45′s on his own Cherrie label and in 2006 released the full length CD South to West: Iron and Gold.

Coy “Hot Shot” Love lived on Gayoso Street in Memphis, an itinerant musician and sometime sign-painter who got his one moment of glory in the recording studio on January 8, 1954, when he entered Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios to record “Wolf Call Boogie” b/w “Harmonica Jam,” backed by Mose Vinson at the piano, Pat Hare on guitar, Kenneth Banks on bass, and Houston Stokes on the drums. Love survived for decades after his one claim to recorded music legend, and died in a car accident in Interstate 55.

In his early teens, George Smith started hoboing around the the South and later joined Early Woods, a country band and also worked with a gospel group in Mississippi called the Jackson Jubilee Singers. He was supposedly one of the first to amplify his harp. He played in a number of bands including one with a young Otis Rush and later went on the road with the Muddy Waters Band. In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip), heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith, and included “Telephone Blues” and “Blues in the Dark.” In the late ’50s he recorded for J&M, Lapel, Melker, and Caddy under the names Harmonica King or Little Walter Junior. He also worked with Big Mama Thornton on many shows. In 1960, Smith met producer Nat McCoy who owned the Sotoplay and Carolyn labels, with whom he recorded ten singles under the name of George Allen. In 1966, while Muddy Waters was on West Coast, he asked Smith to join him and they worked together for a while, recording for Spivey Records. Smith’s first album on World Pacific was A Tribute to Little Walter released in 1968. In 1969 he an album for Bluesway, and later made use of Smith as a sideman for his Blues Times label, including sets with T-Bone Walker, and Harmonica Slim. Smith met Rod Piazza and they formed the Southside Blues Band, later known as Bacon Fat. In 1969, Smith signed with U.K. producer Mike Vernon and did the “No Time for Jive album.” Smith was less active in the 1970′s appearing with Eddie Taylor and Big Mama Thornton. Around 1977, Smith became friends with William Clarke and they began working together. Their working relationship and friendship continued until Smith died on October 2, 1983.

George “Harmonica” Smith

William Clarke, Smith’s protege, writes “He had a technique on the chromatic harp where he would play two notes at once, but one octave apart. He would get an organ-type sound by doing this. George really knew how to make his notes count by not playing too much and taking his time by letting the music unfold easily. He could also swing like crazy and was a first-class entertainer. I have heard from a friend that they had seen George Smith in the 1950s playing a club in Chicago, tap dancing around everybody’s drinks on top of the bar while playing his harp.He played a huge role in advancing blues harmonica and should never be forgotten. You can hear the influence of George Smith in most everyone playing blues harmonica today, whether directly or indirectly.”

As a youngster, Little Walter was Jerry McCain’s main man on harp, an instrument McCain began playing at age five. In 1953 McCain made his debut for the Trumpet label in Jackson, MS, with “East of the Sun” b/w “Wine-O-Wine.” McCain’s 1954 Trumpet encore was “Stay Out of Automobiles” b/w “Love to Make Up.” McCain signed with Excello in 1955 cutting some terrific sides through 1957. One of his best-known records is his two-sided 1960 gem for Rex Records, “She’s Tough” b/w “Steady.” The Fabulous Thunderbirds later covered the A-side. McCain waxed three 45′s for OKeh in Nashville in 1962 and a series of sides between 1965-1968 for Stan Lewis’ Shreveport-based Jewel label. After too many years spent in obscurity, McCain rejuvenated his fortunes in 1989 by signing with Ichiban Records. More recently he has cut several records for the Music Maker label.

Kid Thomas was born in 1934, in Sturgis, Mississippi and moved to Chicago at a young age and by the late ’40s and early ’50s he was blowing harp at Cadillac Baby’s and a dozen other clubs. According to all accounts, he appears to have sat in with everybody at one time or another during the early to mid-’50s; Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Bo Diddley among others. He made his debut for Federal in 1957. Two years later he move to L.A. where he cut for several small labels with little success. In 1970 he was shot by a man whose son he had killed in a car accident.

Forest City Joe was heavily influenced by John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. He was born in Hughes, AR, on July 10, 1926 and played the local juke joints in the area as a youngster. He hoboed his way through the state working road houses and juke joints during the 1940s, and late in the decade hooked up with Big Joe Williams, playing with him around St. Louis, MO. Beginning in 1947, he also began working the Chicago area, and a year later had his one and only session for the Chess brothers’ Aristocrat label. He also appeared with Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy II on radio shows in the West Memphis area. When he returned to Chicago in 1949, he began working with the Otis Spann Combo, appearing at the Tick Tock Lounge and other clubs in the city until the mid-’50s. He returned to Arkansas and gave up music, except for occasional weekend shows with Willie Cobbs, playing in poolrooms and on street corners. He recorded for Atlantic Records in 1959, and was still performing until his death in 1960, in a truck accident while returning home from a dance.