Big Road Blues

Jimmy McCracklin, 2008 Pocono Blues Festival

The term blues legend is too loosely thrown around, seemingly applied to any artist who’s had some measure of longevity in the blues world without regard to the actual content of their recordings. Jimmy McCracklin is a blues legend and I’ve been fan ever since I bought a collection of his 1950’s sides over twenty years ago called Blast ‘Em Dead!. The fact that McCracklin was headlining the 17th annual Pocono Blues Festival was all I needed to hear to make the four hour trek to this year’s festival. The Pocono Blues Festival has become one of the country’s premiere blues festivals through it’s diversity of acts and its commitment to blues, not blues-rock or rock bands that play blues which make up the line-up of far too many so called blues festivals.

Over the years I’ve played McCracklin often on my radio program and two years ago I decided to give him a call and he was gracious enough to chat with me about his lengthy career (interview below). In his heyday, from the late 1940’s through the 1960’s, he led one of the toughest, hardest rocking blues bands on the West Coast. He was a prolific and witty composer, a fine singer/pianist and was a real pioneer in defining the soul-blues style made so popular by Little Milton, Bobby Bland and others. With a pair of excellent records in the 1990’s for Bullseye he achieved some wider exposure although during his hit making days he remained something of a neglected figure with a stature that seems to have always been higher in the black community.

McCracklin shared the bill with Sugar Pie DeSanto, warming up the stage for her on a too short set. Now, I would have loved to see McCracklin in his prime but at age 87 he didn’t disappoint. He remains a vigorous singer who still knows how to put across a song and electrify a crowd. Wearing a bright red suit and matching tie McCracklin delivered the goods on classics like “Think” and one of his biggest hits “The Walk.”

Sugar Pie DeSanto, 2008 Pocono Blues Festival

I’ve never been as big a fan of Sugar Pie DeSanto although I recall picking up the LP Down in the Basement: The Chess Years around the same time as I picked up the McCracklin record. In fact I still have the record complete with $3.99 sticker! DeSanto’s music was a saucy blend of blues and soul and she always sounded like a real firecracker. Well at age 72 she’s still a firecracker and delivered the festival’s wildest show hands down. DeSanto was simply mesmerizing and still full of unbridled sexual energy as she was only too happy to display. Among the highlights were a ripping version of her classic “In The Basement” which she originally recorded as a duet with Etta James and a fine version of the bluesy “Hello San Francisco” which is perhaps my favorite number by her. The song was dedicated to her late husband who she recently lost in a fire. The show stopper was when she brought a friend of ours on stage for a little dancing before taking running leap, wrapping her legs around him and riding him around the stage! Thankfully it’s all on video.

Unlike some other blues festivals which have a bit of a slapped together feel, the Pocono Blues Festival always feels well conceived and thought out which is probably the reason I didn’t see one act that wasn’t worthwhile. Among the other highlights were superb sets by Bobby Rush who did an outstanding solo set in the small tent. Rush played harmonica and guitar, told some colorful stories and absolutely captivated the audience with his charm and enthusiasm. Also in the small tent was Byther Smith who delivered two tough sets of Chicago blues backed by a very good backing band who was playing with Smith for the first time. The sets were heavy on covers but delivered with such grit that it didn’t really matter although it was nice to hear his “Runnin’ To New Orleans” from his fine Smitty’s Blues release from a few years back. Smith has a new CD and DVD from Delmark. Also memorable were the acoustic duo of guitarist Michael Roach and Johnny Mars who play almost exclusively in Europe and a high energy set by Lurrie Bell who seems to get better and better each time I see him.

For a more in depth review of this year’s Pocono Blues Festival make sure to read Doc’s Pocono Mountains - Home of The Blues article.

Jimmy McCracklin Feature/Interview (Aired 9/10/06, 1 hr 1 min, RealAudio)

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Roosevelt Holts was a country bluesman of considerable skill who in a small way was caught up in the blues boom of the 1960’s, finally getting the opportunity to record scattered sides and a couple of LP’s in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Holts, who was born in 1905, likely would have achieved greater recognition if he had gotten the chance to make records in the 1920’s and 1930’s as David Evans emphasizes in his liner notes: “If he had been able to get to a record studio in the 1930’s, his records would now be highly prized collector’s items, reissued on albums and talked about by blues fans everywhere. He might have even been “rediscovered” and brought north to the cities for concerts and coffee house engagements before an audience of young whites who were not even born when he recorded his famous numbers.” None of this happened of course and Holts toiled in relative obscurity while those who did make records in the early days were rediscovered and achieved adulation among those “young whites.” These were men like Son House, Bukka White, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt to name the bigger stars. There were several artists from the same era who, like Holts, never got that early break but were swept up in the blues revival net and went on to achieve a measure of success such as Mississippi Fred McDowell and Robert Pete Williams.

Why Holts never achieved equitable recognition is unclear but we owe a debt to his patron, folklorist David Evans, who is responsible for just about all of Holts’ recordings. It was Evans’ investigation into Tommy Johnson in the late 1960’s that brought Holts to light. Evans uncovered and recorded a slew of still active musicians who learned directly from Johnson including Boogie Bill Webb, Arzo Youngblood, Isaac Youngblood, Bubba Brown, Babe Stovall, Houston Stackhouse, Tommy’s brother Mager Johnson and Roosevelt Holts.  K.C. Douglas, Shirley Griffith and Jim Brewer were others who learned directly from Johnson but were recorded by others. As Evans recalled in an interview to Rob Hutten “I followed a trail of musicians connected with Tommy Johnson. Babe had known Tommy slightly and Roosevelt knew him a lot better, and that led to two of Tommy’s brothers and any number of other singers that had been associated with Tommy Johnson.”

Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and he took up the guitar when he was in his mid-twenties. He started to get serious about music in the late 1930’s when he encountered Tommy Johnson. Johnson had married Holts’ cousin Rosa Youngblood and moved to Tylertown with her. Around 1937 both men moved to Jackson playing all around town and surrounding towns. During this period he also played with Ishmon Bracey, Johnnie Temple, Bubba Brown, and One Legged Sam Norwood. Holts eventually settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana where Evans recorded him.

Evans began recording Holts in 1965 resulting in two LP’s (both out of print): Presenting The Country Blues (Blue Horizon,1966) and Roosevelt Holts and Friends (Arhoolie, 1969-1970) plus the collection The Franklinton Muscatel Society featuring his earliest sides through 1969 which is` available on CD.  In addition selections recorded by Evans appeared on the following anthologies (all out of print): Goin’ Up The Country (Decca, 1968), The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (Matchbox, 1972), South Mississippi Blues (Rounder, 1974 ?), Way Back Yonder …Original Country Blues Volume 3 (Albatros, 1979 ?), Giants Of Country Blues Vol. 3 (Wolf, 199?) and a very scarce 45 (”Down The Big Road” b/w “Blues On Mind”) cut for the Bluesman label in 1969.

I’ve heard most of these recordings and I think Presenting The Country Blues is among his best although I know a couple of folks who prefer Roosevelt Holts and Friends which features him on electric guitar. Holts is a fine singer, possessing a strong burnished voice and a rhythmic, delicate guitar style as Evans describes: “Roosevelt’s guitar style is one of the most subtle to be found on records, with its delicate touch and rhythmic shifts. He often extends his guitar lines beyond the expected standard patterns to produce greater variety.” Lyrically Holts draws on songs he learned as a younger man as well as the vast storehouse of floating blues verses. Among the covers are Leroy Carr’s 1928 classic “Prison Bound Blues” and Memphis Minnie’s 1930 number “She Put Me Outdoors” although Holts takes it at a much slower tempo. “Prison Bound Blues” was likely picked up from Tommy Johnson who was known to play the number. As for the latter number he may have picked it up through Minnie’s husband Joe McCoy who was active on the Jackson scene before he moved to Memphis. Johnnie Temple was also part of the rich Jackson scene and Holts covers his celebrated “Lead Pencil Blues” which Temple cut at his first session in 1935. Of this song Evans writes “this style of guitar playing with its subtle rhythm shifts between duple and triple patterns, is a splendid example  of the type of music then current in Jackson.” Holts picked up a number of songs from Tommy Johnson and on this album turns in superb readings of “Big Road Blues” and “Maggie Campbell Blues.” Holts also recorded Johnson’s “Big Fat Mamma Blues” on a compilation. A couple of Holts’ friend appear on this record including Babe Stovall from Tylertown who was the one who introduced Evans to Holts. His second guitar on “Feelin’ Sad And Blue” adds some extra rhythmic push to the song with the two complementing each other superbly. Harmonica blower L.H. Lane plays on “The Good Book Teach You” as Holts lays down some fine bottleneck. Apparently the two had known each other for some time and he just popped into the studio for this one song before leaving minutes later. Holts is a good bottleneck player as he also demonstrates on the moving gospel number “I’m Going To Build Right On That Shore” and “Another Mule Kickin’ In My Stall.”

Unfortunately, outside of one collection, all of Roosevelt Holts’ recordings are out of print which I suppose is fitting for an artist that was largely neglected during his lifetime. Hopefully the Blue Horizon label, who are in the midst of an extensive reissue of their catalog, will see fit to re-release Presenting The Country Blues.

Maggie Campbell Blues (MP3)

Feelin’ Sad And Blue (MP3)

I’m Going To Build Right On That Shore (MP3)

Another Mule Kickin’ In My Stall (MP3)

The Good Book Teach You (MP3)

Big Road Blues (MP3)

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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.”

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This is our second installment of my rummage thought the amazing trove of field recordings George Mitchell recorded over a twenty year period. For more background make sure to read part one. As I mentioned in the first installment a good chunk of these recordings have been collected in the 7-CD George Mitchell Collection box set from Fat Possum. In the first part I covered the first three volumes and now take a look at the remaining ones.

Disc 4 is dominated by two giants, Fred McDowell and R.L. Burnside, recorded two days apart in the summer of 1967. McDowell had recorded prolifically by this point ever since Alan Lomax found him in 1959. Burnside, however, was unknown outside of his community. As Mitchell recalled: “We heard about R.L. from Othar Turner. See, Fred McDowell hadn’t mentioned R.L. - competition. Big-time competition. …The very first song he did was “Goin’ Down South.” You can imagine…I was completely taken aback. …’Goddamn this motherfucker’s good. I have found somebody.’” Four of those songs are included here which have all been reissued by Fat Possum as First Recordings and they remain among Burnside’s finest. What makes the McDowell session so special is his reunion with harmonica player Johnny Woods who McDowell hadn’t seen in eight years. The resulting off-the-cuff jam session is a spellbinding, intense affair as the duo pour it on with jaw dropping intensity on McDowell’s trademark “Shake Em’ On Down” and “Mama Says I’m Crazy.” All of these sides have been collected on Fat Possum’s Mama Says I’m Crazy. Three additional tracks with Woods taking the vocal appear on disc 3.

“Too many people went to Mississippi”, lamented Mitchell. Unlike many, Mitchell, didn’t confine his activities to that state, instead recording extensively in Georgia and Alabama. Mitchell uncovered the details of a rural sound in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley which encompasses the Chattahoochee River as it runs the southern border between Georgia and Alabama to the state line of Florida. Those who play in the style include: Cliff Scott, J.W. Warren, Jimmy Lee Harris, Precious Bryant, Albert Macon and Eddie Harris. Fat Possum’s Lower Chattahoochee Valley collects fifteen sides by various exponents of the style. The standout is Cliff Scott a wonderful bottleneck player who had a gently rolling style and a mellow, expressive vocal exemplified on songs like “Long Wavy Hair.” “Woke Up This Morning” has a strong delta feel, close to the style of Muddy’s plantation recordings. Jimmy Lee Harris, who worked with his brother Eddie Harris, played uncanny harmonica without a harmonica, a skill he learned in jail and was an expressive vocalist with a rhythmic style. Both men were recorded in the early 1980’s in Alabama. Eddie’s two numbers reveal a a fine electric guitarist with a down-home Jimmy Reed style. Mitchell also recorded the duo Albert Macon & Robert Thomas around the same time. The two had been playing together for some twenty years and their empathy is on display on the rollicking “Flat Foot Boogie” (”Play the strings out of it! Beat the blood out of it, now!”) as the two interweave their percussive guitars with remarkable skill and vitality. Precious Bryant has achieved a measure of success in recent years with a pair of national releases but the Mitchell recordings from 1969 were her first, cut when she was just twenty-seven. Her three numbers are utterly charming propelled by her propulsive, gently rolling guitar and husky, quite vocals. J.W. Warren was the last artist Mitchell recorded in the field and certainly a major talent. Warren had a gently driving guitar style, occasionally employing slide, and was a wonderful interpretor of traditional material as well as laying down intriguing originals like “Hoboing Into Hollywood.” A dozen of Warren’s sides have been issued on Fat Possum’s Life Ain’t Worth Livin’.

There’s several name artists on these volumes including Robert Nighthawk, Maxwell Street Jimmy, Jesse Mae Hemphill, John Henry Barbee, Furry Lewis, Will Shade and Charlie Burse. Nighthawk, of course, needs no introduction and Mitchell’s recordings capture him just months before he passed away. Although the booklet doesn’t say so, “Down By The Woodshed” is a previously unissued instrumental and two more unissued sides are available as digital download: “Down By The Wayside” and “Travelin’ Man Blues.” Mitchell was involved in a concert series at Chicago’s Fickle Pickle club where excellent recordings were made by under recorded figures like John Henry Barbee and Maxwell Street Jimmy. Not available on the box set but available as digital download, possibly from the Fickle Pickle series, are a half-a-dozen sides by James Brewer who’s long been a favorite. As far as I can tell these have not been issued before. As for the Memphis contingent, Furry Lewis is in exceptional form stretching out at length on “Good Morning Judge” and “Furry Lewis’ Careless Love.” Fat Possum’s Good Morning Judge contains ten tracks Mitchell recorded in 1962 and 1967. Will Shade’s sides are a bit rough around the edges although quite entertaining, especially his filthy version of “Dirty Dozens” where, as Mitchell notes, “he says it all” and the lively “K.C. Blues” with Burse on vocals. Like Precious Bryant, Jesse Mae Hemphill made her first side with Mitchell. She was only twenty-two when delivered a pair of absolutely captivating gospel numbers with minimal guitar backing.

Another notable female artist was Rosa Lee Hill who lived near Jesse Mae and was the daughter of Sid Hemphill. Mitchell devoted a chapter to Hill in his 1971 book Blow My Blues Away. Hill played compelling, hypnotic blues in the North Mississippi style and is captivating on stark numbers like “Bullying Well” and “Pork & Beans” (”Mama’s in the kitchen cookin’ pork and beans/Daddy’s on the ocean runnin’ submarines”). Two other artists featured in Mitchell’s book were Robert Diggs and Robert Johnson. Diggs was a marvelously expressive harp player delivering a lovely version of “Someday Baby”and a virtuoso harmonica workout on the instrumental “Racehorse Charleston.” Robert Johnson had given up the blues in 1927 for the church. Johnson’s powerful, bluesy moaning vocal is heard on four riveting numbers accompanied by his daughters. There’s some marvelous gospel on the final disc, a bonus CD by artists Fat Possum didn’t know enough about to include in the original 7″ set, by the Pettis Sisters who lay down a pair of rousing numbers making one wish they had been more extensively recorded. There’s no shortage of talent on this disc including fine sides by Willie Rockomo, Bruce Upshaw and George Hollis all of whom had some sides issued on the Revival label back in the 1970’s.

The days when you could go down south with a portable recorder and capture some unheralded blues genius is gone. These recordings are a rich, vibrant look at a vanished era. Historically and musically this is and incredible cache of recordings and I’m glad Fat Possum made these available. However, as I said in part one, I wish they had presented these in a more consistent, less scattershot manner. These recordings deserve better. You only have to look at how Dust-to-Digital handled the Art Rosenbaum field recordings to see how it should have been done.

Cliff Scott - Long Wavey Hair (MP3)

Albert Macon & Robert Thomas - Flat Foot Boogie (MP3)

Rosa Lee Hill - Pork & Beans (MP3)

J.W. Warren - Rabbit On A Log (MP3)

Robert Diggs - Someday Baby (MP3)

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The thought of “lost” blues recordings always gets me worked up even though I usually get disappointed with the final result. Such is the case with Chris Barber’s The Blues Legacy Series: Lost & Found, a three volume series touting unreleased live recordings of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Jimmy Witherspoon, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Champion Jack Dupree and Louis Jordan. According to the liner notes: “The formation of the ‘Lost & Found’ Series came into being; when the Jazz & Blues legend Chris Barber came across some old 1/4 inch magnetic tape. On these, he discovered the unique sounds of Sonny Boy Williamson in concert, recorded many decades ago, in England. Chris set about investigating his archives further, only to find more of these tapes…”

The bulk of the recordings were made between 1957-1964 at the very beginning of the blues boom that swept across Europe. I was always under the impression that interest in blues really took off in Europe with the inception of the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962. I’m not sure what kind of blues audience there was in England in the late 1950’s; I don’t think labels like Chess were easy to come by back then and it wasn’t until 1960 that Paul Oliver published his pioneering Blues Fell This Morning. Certainly the audiences on these recordings are enthusiastic but I would certainly be interested in more information regarding the British blues scene of the period.

Firstly, just to make clear, the 1958 Muddy Waters recordings from the Manchester Free Trade Hall have been previously issued. These are Muddy’s earliest live recordings and his first tour of England. Vocally Muddy is in magnificent form, his vocals miked right up front, unfortunately his guitar is submerged in the mix. It’s also too bad that Muddy’s band didn’t make it over with him although thankfully Otis Spann did and his piano playing, although low in the mix, is a thing of beauty. Most of the program features just Muddy, Spann and Barber’s drummer Graham Burbridge which is just fine. More problematic is “Walking Thru The Park” featuring Barber’s band wailing along behind Muddy with their brand of traditional jazz, a jarring contrast that simply doesn’t work. Unfortunately this is emblematic of many of the recordings.

Like Muddy, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is in terrific vocal form and like Muddy she suffers from a guitar that’s virtually inaudible which is a real shame. Again Barber’s band and Tharpe’s vocals make for an incongruous mix on numbers like “Every Time I Feel The Spirit”, “Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air”, “Old Time Religion” where they virtually drown poor Rosetta out. Where’s Lucky Millinder when you need him? The latter number plus “When The Saints Go Marching in feature white vocalist Ottilie Patterson who, to be fair, is not a bad vocalist but comes across as a bit staid. Fortunately most of the Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee sides from their 1958 date at the Manchester Free Trade Hall feature just the duo who are in reliably fine form. Several other sides from the same year are from a BBC broadcast which liberally feature Barber’s band as well as Ottilie Patterson. To be honest the duo’s sides have never excited me all that much although in small doses they’re quite enjoyable. Similar issues plague the Sonny Boy Williamson performance from 1964. The band is present on just about all the tracks much to the detriment of Sonny Boy’s subtle, nuanced blues. I believe some of these sides have been issued before but I’m not sure if it was a legitimate release. Much better are his AFBF performances of the same year backed by Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin and Willie Dixon.

The Jimmy Witherspoon and Howlin’ Wolf sides fare much better. Witherspoon is in superb voice, delivering an aching, world weary version of “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” and his classic “Times Are Getting Tougher Than Tough” from a 1964 date that get fairly sympathetic backing. A 1980 set for Dutch Radio finds him in still superb form just prior to the cancer that would ravage his voice in his later years. Howlin’ Wolf alongside trusty guitarist Hubert Sumlin are simply electrifying on a torrid “Dust My Broom” and a dramatic, powerhouse version of “May I Have A Talk With You.” I have to admit that the riffing horns on “Howling For My Baby” are quite effective as Wolf storms through this one.

From a historical standpoint these are fascinating recordings but a mixed bag musically. Overall there’s enough good performances to recommend these, at least the second and third volumes, although all the artists involved have better live recordings on the market. One must also give Barber his due for taking a chance on these artists at a time when the blues was anything but a sure bet.

Muddy Waters - Blow Wind Blow (MP3)

Howlin’ Wolf - May I Have A Talk With You (MP3)

Jimmy Witherspoon - Have You Ever Loved A Woman (MP3)

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For the last few weeks I’ve been captivated by the recordings of George Mitchell who made some remarkable field recordings throughout the South over a twenty year period beginning in the early 1960’s. Many of these recordings have appeared on specialist labels like Southland, Revival, Flyright, Arhoolie and Rounder but are long out of print now. Several years ago the Fat Possum label acquired the Mitchell archive and has been reissuing the recordings through a variety of formats including CD, 7-inch record and digital download. While I admire Fat Possum for issuing these recordings, which will be of interest to a very narrow audience, their reissue of the material has been frustrating. They started the reissue program with single CD’s of artists like Fred McDowell, J.W. Warren, Joe Callicott but eventually settled on putting the records out as series of 7″ records (45 volumes in total) which seems a sure fire way of limiting their impact. Furthermore they have issued some more single artists CD’s of folks like Cecil Barfield, Leon Pinson and Buddy Moss but these now seem impossible to locate. It seems a good chunk of the Mitchell collection (including many sides not on the box set) is available through eMusic and Amazon as digital downloads. I finally decided to pick up the The George Mitchell Collection box set which contains all 150 songs on each of the 45 7-inches spread out over six CD’s plus a 24-track bonus CD by artists Fat Possum didn’t know enough about to include in the original set. Also included is a well written booklet. I have to admit I’ve been a bit obsessed with these remarkable recordings and also picked up a couple of the individual CD’s plus downloaded a number of songs that don’t appear on the box set. Here, then, is the first of a two part trawl through these recordings as we look through the first three CD’s.

Mitchell wasn’t the only one roaming the south in the 1960’s in search of blues; there was folklorists and researchers such as David Evans, Sam Charters, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Art Rosenbaum and others. Some were hunting for the famous names who made records in the 1920’s and 1930’s, others were seeking to fill in biographical blanks regarding some of the older musicians coveted by collectors and then there were those, like Mitchell, who were seeking to record whoever they could find. Mitchell did record some of the famous artists of the past like Buddy Moss, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, Sleepy Johns Estes and was the first to record artists who would achieve later fame such as R.L. Burnside, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Othar Turner and Precious Bryant. While the blues revival was picking up steam with newly discovered artists like Son House, Bukka White and Mississippi John Hurt hitting the circuit, Mitchell’s recordings were a sort of a parallel undercurrent to the more famous artists. What Mitchell recorded in the rural communities of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960’s was a still thriving, if largely undocumented, blues culture. Mitchell had the passion and drive to seek out these folks, and unlike some folklorists didn’t use the music to reinforce his own theories, he simply let the musicians speak for themselves and judging by the recordings they clearly responded to Mitchell’s sincerity (being a southerner probably didn’t hurt as well). Mitchell came along at the right time as he relates in the notes to the LP South Georgia Blues by William Robertson aka Cecil Barfield: “As late as 1969 a country bluesman who at least occasionally played could be located in most small towns of Georgia. In 1976, there are very few active blues musicians left in the state! In the short span of seven years, one of the world’s most vital and influential forms of music as it was originally performed has all but died out in Georgia, and probably in the rest of the South as well. …Most bluesmen have either died or fallen into ill health accompanying old age, and the younger generation of rural blacks long ago turned their backs on the blues.” It was also, he noted, the Church who claimed many bluesmen as well as the lack of financial incentive to play the blues that was the music’s death knell.

The most striking musician on the first disc is Cecil Barfield, and I agree with Mitchell’s assessment that he was some kind of genius. Mitchell called him “probably the greatest previously unrecorded bluesman I have had the pleasure of recording during my 15 years of field research.” Using the name William Robertson, in fear of endangering his welfare checks, he cut the LP South Georgia Blues for Southland in the mid-70’s with several other tracks appearing on Flyright’s Georgia Blues Today (reissued by Fat Possum with the same title and liner notes). I imagine Barfield is an acquired taste but to me he is simply mesmerizing; his music, with his droning, lightly distorted electric guitar coupled with his powerful mushed mouth, nasal singing, is hypnotic. Barfield has some originals but his genius is in the way he transforms well known songs by Frankie Lee Sims (”Lucy Mae Blues”), Lightnin’ Hopkins (”Mojo Hand”), J.B. Lenoir (”Talk To Your Daughter”) and others into something startlingly original. Only four songs by Barfield are on the box set although I was so taken with his music I downloaded all his songs on Amazon (George Mitchell Collection Vol. 2, Disc 3 & 4), 43 songs in all!

The sheer depth of singular talent is consistently surprising. Take John Lee Zielgler recorded in Georgia in 1978 and Lonzie Thomas recorded in Alabama in the early 1980’s. Zielgler achieves a a gorgeous, fluid slide technique from his unorthodox style (he was a left-handed guitarist who played a right-handed guitar upside-down). His three numbers not only feature his slide work but also his beautiful high pitched voice backed by the wonderful spoon player Rufus Jones. In true field recording tradition you can hear little children playing in the background. More of his sides can be found on George Mitchell Collection Vol. 5. Thomas plays some fine finger picking reminiscent of John Hurt but not as refined, and possesses a deep, rich voice as he delivers old time numbers like “Rabbit On A Log”, “Raise A Ruckus Tonight” and showcases some slide on the fine “My Three Woman.”

Teddy Williams and William “Do Boy” Diamond were both recorded in Canton, Mississippi in 1967 on subsequent days. Diamond was a basic guitar player but possessed a great, relaxed voice. “Hard Time Blues” is a magnificent number, sharing the same haunting quality of some of Skip James’ numbers. More of his sides can be found on George Mitchell Collection Vol. 5. It’s suggested the older Williams may have taught Diamond, and he too is a powerful singer in a similar style. Mitchell’s trip to Mississippi in 1967 was an extremely fruitful one and in addition to the above artists he recorded stunning sides by Houston Stackhouse (in a trio with Robert Nighthawk and Peck Curtis plus Carey “Ditty” Mason on some sides). It was a fortuitous recordings as Nighthawk died a few months later followed by Mason in 1969 and Curtis in 1970. These highly regarded sides have been issued before on Arhoolie and Testament. In addition there is some unissued material by Nighthawk and Stackhouse that should be of major interest to collectors. Also recorded during this trip were some powerhouse sides by Fred McDowell and harpist Johnny Woods and the wonderful Joe Callicott who’s long been a favorite of mine. Only three songs apiece are included by each artist but each has full length CD’s available on Fat Possum, both of which come highly recommended.

Other older, established players Mitchell recorded were Buddy Moss in 1963 and Dewey Corley in 1967. Mitchell found Moss through Peg Leg Howell (who he also recorded although his sides have not been reissued). Moss was part of the the great Atlanta blue scene of the 1930’s working with Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell as well as recording prolifically between 1933 and 1941. He was a forgotten man when Mitchell recorded him but the six sides included here find him in superb form. A moody and difficult character (a 1976 interview with Robert Springer was titled So I Said ‘The Hell with It: A Difficult Interview with Eugene ‘Buddy’ Moss) his comeback never took off like it should, although Atlanta Blues Legend recorded in 1966 and issued on Biograph is quite good. Jug band veteran Dewey Corley is also in good form playing vigorous kazoo and one-stringed bass backed by Walter Miller on guitar on three loose, fun numbers.

Disc three features a trio of fine players from Georgia recorded in 1969: Bud White, Jim Bunkley and George Henry Bussey. Like many of the artists Mitchell found, none were professional musicians but all are quite good. White was a percussive guitar player with a high, rich voice, Bussey had a light, gently propulsive style and good voice while Mitchell describes Bunkley’s style as a”frolicking” sound in contrast to the harder Mississippi style. Both Bussey and Bunkley were paired on the 1971 album George Henry Bussey and Jim Bunkley issued on Revival.

Mitchell also recorded a fair number of religious material including gospel singers and marvelous slide players, Leon Pinson and Green Paschal, both who play stirring gospel inflected blues. Pinson worked with the great singer/harmonica player Elder Roma Wilson early in his career and reunited with him when Wilson was rediscovered in the 80’s, with the duo having a fair bit of success on the festival circuit. Pinson is a major artist with fine understated baritone and a ringing slide style. The stunner is “What God Can Do” sung in a beautiful crooning style, dipping occasionally into falsetto. It only lasts a minute-and-a-half but the depth of feeling resonates long after the song concludes. Paschal was a rough expressive singer and exciting, percussive slide player who comes across as a less intense version of Son House.

Cecil Barfield - Lucy Mae Blues (MP3)

John Lee Ziegler - Who’s Gonna Be Your Man (MP3)

Lonzie Thomas - My Three Woman (MP3)

William ‘Do Boy’ Diamond - Hard Time Blues (MP3)

Leon Pinson - What God Can Do (MP3)

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The world lost not only a great blues and gospel singer in May 2004, but a truly charismatic, larger than life figure when Arnold “Gatemouth” Moore passed in Yazoo City, Mississippi at the age of 90. Gatemouth summed up his talents as a blues singer this way: “I am one of the ultra-men blues singers. I am not accustomed and don’t know nothing about that gut-belly stuff in the joints…I put on tuxedos, dressed up, sang intelligent…Without a doubt, and I’m not being facetious, I’m the best blues singer in the business with that singing voice. Now I can’t wiggle and I can’t dance, but telling a story, I don’t think them other boys are in my class.” Often labeled a blues shouter,with his perfect diction and huge, mellow, enveloping voice he was more accurately a blues crooner of the highest order. His heyday as a blues career was short lived, cutting a couple of dozen sides between 1945 and 1947 that saw release on Gilmore’s Chez Paree, Savoy, National with his final records cut for King at the very end of 1947. His most famous number was the immortal “Did You Ever Love A Woman” although his output was consistently high cutting should-have been-classics like “I Ain’t Mad at You Pretty Baby”, “Walking My Blues Away”, “They Can’t Do This to You”, “Highway 61 Blues” backed by swinging big bands featuring top flight jazz musicians such as Budd Johnson, Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney, Tiny Grimes, and John Hardee. His blues career came to a close in 1949 when he had a religious conversion on stage at Chicago’s Club DeLisa. After walking off stage he eventually became a preacher, gospel disc jockey and gospel recording artist.

Inexplicably in 1977 he stepped back briefly into the world of blues cutting Great Rhythm & Blues Oldies Vol. 7, an exceptional album despite it’s generic title. The album was produced by Johnny Otis and issued on the Blues Spectrum label. According to the notes: “Three years ago in Los Angles, Moore startled his longtime buddy, Johnny Otis, by announcing his intention to record some of his old blues. ‘You can’t do that, Gate, you’re a minister,’ Johnny protested. ‘Yes, I can, ‘ Moore countered, ‘I’m not going to be a blues singer again but it is part of my heritage and I want you to produce it.’” On the surface this is an easy album to overlook; firstly it’s not available on CD, there’s that generic title and a program of remakes of older material. Yet Gatemouth was in dynamic, inspired form, backed by spirited support from Johnny Otis and his son Shuggie.

Good old fashioned blues singing, the ability to really sell a song, to tell a compelling story to your audience don’t seem to be the attributes favored by white fans who value instrumental prowess and equate sophistication with commercialism. Gatemouth puts on a clinic of good old fashioned blues singing on this album, refashioning his old material and delivering some fine new compositions. The album kicks off with the chugging”I Ain’t Mad At You, Pretty Baby” sung with gusto. The number was first cut in 1945 and based on a real life incident as Gatemouth recalled: “I was in Washington D.C. when I wrote that one. A woman had just taken her shoe off and busted her old man across the head with it. As the cop car came to take her away, the guy ran up behind it, blood still running from his forehead, yelling ‘I ain’t mad at you, baby’.” Gatemouth tells the following story regarding “Did You Ever Love A Woman” which he also remakes on this album: “Well, my wife wasn’t home when I came back to Memphis from a trip, so I went down on Beale Street to look for her. A fellow said, ‘Yeah, she’s upstairs.’ I’m mad now. The band leader saw me. ‘Sing something, Gate,’ he said. I was looking for my wife, and I told him to turn up all the lights. I shouted out singing: ‘My wife is here with another man/and I swear we’re going to fight.’ That song came from me looking for Willa Mae. She got outta there too.” Many have covered this song but no one sang it better than Gatemouth and here he delivers a vigorous, impassioned remake that has all the power of the original cut thirty tears previously. Those famous lines still resonate: “Did you ever love a woman/And love her with all your might/When all the time you knew she wasn’t treating you right.” Backed by Johnny Otis’ sparkling vibes, “My Mother Thinks I’m Something” is a marvelous update of “Something I’m Gonna Be” originally cut for King in 1947. It’s another great story song:

My mother thought I was something
You know folks something I gotta be
I tried so hard to make fame, so I could let my dear mother see
I tried so hard to make fame, so I could let dear Georgia see
See my mother thinks I’m something, and I declare something I gotta be

“Gate’s Christmas Blues” is a silky remake of of his 1946 number “Christmas Blues” again featuring terrific vibes from Otis. 1945’s “It Ain’t None of Me” is remade in glorious fashion as “Somebody Got To Go” as Gatemouth bellows out the blues with that great opening line : “Say Mr. Jones, turn up all them lights/My baby’s in the house with another man and I swear we gonna a fight.” Newer material includes the deeply soulful blues of “Everybody Has Their Turn” which has more updated sound, the rocking “Boogie Woogie Papa” (I wonder what the congregation thought about this one?!) and a gorgeous interpretation of “Goin’ Down Slow” sporting some sympathetic guitar work from Shuggie and piano from Johnny.

The album’s masterpiece is “Beale Street Ain’t Beale Street No More” an impassioned six minute lament on the destruction of Gatemouth’s old stomping grounds. According to the liner notes this was done off-the-cuff which would make it all the more remarkable. Like many, Gatemouth cut his teeth singing the blues at the Beale Street clubs and for almost a hundred years it was the center of black urban life in Memphis. According to the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History: “In 1969 the city undertook urban renewal projects, including Beale Street I and Beale Street II, which erased the area’s housing, demolished 474 buildings, and placed a block-wide barrier of empty lots and parking spaces between African Americans and Beale Street. This project left a thin commercial (blue light) district between Second and Fourth Avenues, where African American businesses were forced out through condemnation of buildings and high property resale prices. The Memphis Press-Scimitar (June 10, 1979) declared “Urban renewal destroyed Beale Street.” This is the backdrop of Gatemouth’s passionate, bitter insider’s recounting of the old street as he recalls the street in better days: “My mind run back/When it was a fast track/The old Street was jumping.”He nostalgically recalls now shuttered joints like the One Minute, Pee Wee’s and the Palace (”where I learned to sing the blues”) and to the street’s characters like Robert Henry, Little Mickey, Brother Moss, Lieutenant Lee and Memphis Ma Rainey. The song slowly builds up steam to rousing finish as he sadly concludes: “Beale Street ain’t Beale Street no more/My street is gone, gone to come back no more.”

My Mother Thinks I’m Something (MP3)

Beale Street Ain’t Beale Street No More (MP3)

Somebody Got To Go (MP3)

Goin’ Down Slow (MP3)

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By the time he succumbed to a heart attack in 1971 Curtis Jones was a sad, embittered man who - rightly I would say - viewed himself as the forgotten man of the blues, watching from the sidelines while others from his era were greeted with far more enthusiasm and fame. His passing was greeted with little fanfare and in a final indignity his grave was unceremoniously sold eight years later because no one had paid for its upkeep.

The intervening years have done nothing to raise to Jones’ profile; his records have not been well represented on the reissue market and mention of his music to fellow blues fans is often greeted with indifference. To put it frankly his records are considered “boring” by most blues fans. The very qualities which made him popular among the black record buying public of the 1930’s and 1940’s were not exactly the qualities white enthusiasts prized. His talents were perhaps too subtle for the new white audience: his deep, unfussy piano playing was very much in the service of the song and decidedly unshowy, he was an expressive singer with a high, tight tenor with a way of putting across a song that really connected with the audience and he was an exceptional, imaginative lyricist. As Tony Russell wrote, somewhat uncharitably, in the Penguin Guide To Blues: “…Over the next four years [1937-1941] Jones turned out dozens of blues-and-trouble compositions, sung in the bleak Texas manner of men like Black Boy Shine to tidy, unexciting piano accompaniments.”Closer to the mark was Paul Oliver who in the notes to In London wrote: “He is the bluesman’s blues singer. All that he plays and sings is blues, but it cannot be lightly asserted that he represents the blues of Texas, where he was born, or of the West where he worked for some years. His is not merely ‘Chicago blues’, though he lived there for a quarter of a century. And how does one type a blues singer who has made Paris, France, his home?”

Courtesy American Folk Music Occasional, 1970

Our story picks up in Europe where Jones settled in the early 1960’s after almost twenty years without stepping into a studio, outside of a couple of 1953 sides for Parrot. Before packing his bags for Europe he waxed a pair of fine stateside comeback records; Trouble Blues (Bluesville, 1960) and Lonesome Bedroom Blues (Delmark, 1962) which found his talents undimmed by the passage of time. Over in Europe he would record two more superb albums; In London (Decca, 1963) and Now Resident In Europe (Blue Horizon, 1968) reissued, remastered and rounded out with unissued sides as Curtis Jones: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions. It was Mike Vernon who we have to thank for both sessions as he writes in the excellent liner notes: “To be totally honest, Curtis Jones represented a bygone era and his particular style and sound was not at one with the current trends and developments in the blues world at the time. …It should be remembered that I, in particular, had been the only producer who had the courage to record him - not once, but twice. Most others might well have not taken the risk, if the truth were to be told.”

I, for one, am glad he took the chance as it paid off handsomely. The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions consists of the original ten songs plus brief interview, a batch of alternate takes and the previously unissued “Blues On The Scene.” Backed by a strong rhythm section of Brian Brocklehurst on upright bass and Dougie Wright on drums, Jones is in superb form stretching out with some gorgeous piano solos and singing marvelously on this well recorded date that features songs he hadn’t recorded before. Jones sounds particularly extroverted on a number of selections including the shuffling “You Don’t Have To Go” stretching out with some sparkling piano work, the insistent drive of “Cherie”, positively cooks on the bouncy, declamatory “Gee, Pretty Baby” and delivers the spirited, inventive instrumental “Dryburgh Drive” (named after the street the studio resided on). Jones is at his plaintive best on the lovely ballad “I Want To Be Your Slave” and displays his skills as a guitarist on several sparse numbers. Guitar was his first instrument and he first revealed his talent on the instrument on his Decca album. His picking is basic but effective on on solo numbers such as “Morocco Blues”, “Jane”, “Blues On The Scene” and the heartfelt, beautifully sung “Soul Brother Blues.” As on all of the Blue Horizon reissues, packaging is excellent with lengthy notes, nice photos and pristine sound.

Listening to The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions prompted me to reacquaint myself with In London which I hadn’t listened to in ages. I’ve been informed that this has made it on to CD on the Deram label which may itself be out of print although copies look to be still available. Despite extremely lean times, Jones sailed into his 1960’s comeback as an artist at the height of his powers as he ably demonstrates on In London backed by sympathetic band featuring bassist Jack Fallon, drummer Eddie Taylor and Alexis Korner on guitar on a few numbers. The program is a mix of old classics like “Lonesome Bedroom Blues”, Alleybound Blues”, “You Got Good Business” plus items he had been playing for his European audiences, numbers like Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send Me Someone To Love”, the rollicking instrumental, “Young Generation Boogie”, based on the Ray Charles instrumental “Rockhouse” and the charming “Syl-Vous Play Blues.” Jones revives classic piano pieces including an elegant version of “The Honeydripper”, “Curtis Jones Boogie”, his version of the timeless “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie” and the rocking “Shake It Baby.” Of the guitar pieces, “Skid Row” is the standout, the kind of seedy life blues tale Jones so excelled at conjuring up. Paul Oliver provides a fine set of notes for the original LP which have been reprinted in Blues Off The Record.

Both of these records come recommended and one hopes that the reissue of The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions will spark some renewed interest in Curtis Jones although that may be, admittedly, wishful thinking. I’ll be spotlighting the music of Jones in an upcoming radio program so keep an eye out. For a well written piece on Jones I make available, with the author’s permission, an article written in Jefferson magazine no. 124, 2000: Curtis Jones: The Lonesome Bedroom Blues (PDF)

You Don’t Have To Go [Blue Horizon Sessions] (MP3)

Soul Brother Blues [Blue Horizon Sessions] (MP3)

Shake It Baby [In London] (MP3)

Syl-Vous Play Blues [In London] (MP3)

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Reverend Gary Davis recorded prolifically in the post-war years starting with a few scattered sides in the 1940’s, more in the 1950’s and really picking up steam in the 1960’s. A pleasant surprise in recent years are the number of unreleased Davis sides that have surfaced. Among the notable ones include: If I Had My Way: Early Home Recordings, Demons and Angels: The Ultimate Collection a 3-CD set featuring many unreleased treasures, Sun of Our Life - Solos, Songs, A Sermon, 1955-1957 and Document’s Reverend Gary Davis: Manchester Free Trade Hall 1964.

Now comes Lifting The Veil: The First Bluesmen - Rev. Gary Davis & Peers an eclectic collection from World Arbiter that gathers up six unreleased home recordings by Davis circa 1956-1957. In addition the liner notes include a fascinating excerpt from an unknown, unpublished oral history of Davis compiled in 1951 by Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold, the wife of Alan Lomax. Another treat are four previously unknown Leadbelly tracks from a 1941 radio broadcast, when he hosted a weekly radio show. Rounding the set out are 78’s from the Harry Smith Collection including sides by Gus Cannon, Buddy Boy Hawkins, Edward Thompson, Leola Wilson, Big Bill Broonzy, Ramblin’ Thomas, Rube Lacey, William Moore and Charlie Patton.

The Davis sides are generally well recorded and are a nice, if minor, addition to his recorded legacy. Five of the six songs are instrumentals as Davis displays his remarkable guitar style on the propulsive “Lost John”, the stately “Soldier’s Drill”, “Mountain Jack”, the lovely “Slow Blues In E” and a driving version of his “I Didn’t Want To Join The Band.” “Come Down To See Me Sometime” is a gorgeously sung folk number underpinned by Davis’ complex, melodic finger picking. The four Leadbelly sides are well recorded and while short, are a nice addition to his voluminous recording legacy. The most interesting is “Sermon On Pancakes”, and to be honest I don’t even know what to say about this surreal, wonderful number that uses pancakes as a religious metaphor (”Now this is a sermon. Big stream of molasses up in heaven and a big stream of honey, a lot of flapjack”) . Leadbelly also serves up terrific versions of the traditional “The Blood’s Done Signed Your Name” and “Gallows Pole” and the powerful “Leaving Blues.”

The remaining tracks are blues classics that have all been reissued many times before and in generally better sound than those presented here. Also I should note that the song listed on the back as “Goin’Crazy” by Ramblin’ Thomas is actually his “Sawmill Moan.” One nice touch is that lyric transcriptions are provided for all the songs. The oral history included is a fascinating document and stems from a 300+ page manuscript. Davis was a true philosopher who expounds on his early life, religion, racism and human nature. World Arbiter has made the entire booklet available on their website.

All in all an interesting an eclectic collection handsomedly packaged. This is obviously a set geared towards collectors and I would imagine that the combination of unreleased tracks and the oral history will provide a compelling reason to pick up this attractive collection.

Leadbelly - Sermon On Pancakes (MP3)

Rev. Gary Davis - I Didn’t Want To Join The Band (MP3)

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In previous posts I’ve spotlighted some of JSP’s pre-war blues box sets but for the past couple of weeks I’ve been captivated by a pair of recent post-war ones; Juke Joint Blues: Good Time Rhythm & Blues 1946-1953 and Lightning Special: Volume 2 of the Collected Works. The music spans a fascinating period, roughly the first decade of post-war blues, when the blues was evolving into what would be called R&B and a short hop later to rock and roll. The music on these sets however is a throwback; this is rough and tumble down-home blues geared towards an audience that was still eager to hear earthy rural blues. Many of these listeners were still in the south while many other were transplanted southerners still eager to hear the older styles. These were exciting times with numerous small labels throwing their hat in the ring to try to cash in on the market. Some labels became famous like Sun, Modern, Excello, King and had a fair bit of success while others like Rockin’, Miltone, Delta remain all but forgotten outside of hardcore collectors. And of course there were plenty of artists eager to give it a go with down-home artists like Lightning Hopkins, Li’l Son Jackson, John Lee Hooker and Smokey Hogg achieving a good amount of success while the vast majority toiled with little or no luck, cutting a handful of sides and drifting back into obscurity. Both these sets collect some exciting, rawboned music by the famous and forgotten making for a varied and immensely entertaining survey of the blues in the immediate post-war era circa 1946 to 1956. Neil Slaven’s notes are typically informative with the Hopkins being particularly interesting. It should be noted that most of these sides have appeared elsewhere and potential buyers may have to way the sets’ merits against what they already own. In a way JSP seems to be stepping on the toes of the Boulevard Vintage label which for the past few years has been issuing excellent, well annotated multi-CD sets of down-home blues divided into different geographic regions and there’s much overlapping between the two labels (I’m far too lazy to actually count duplications but there’s quite a number).

Juke Joint Blues: Good Time Rhythm & Blues 1946-1953, there’s a mouthful of a title, is perhaps a bit loose thematically but gathers together 212 tracks of vintage down-home blues from performers based all over the map, predominantly from the south. JSP has done a marvelous job compiling this box which boasts nary a dud in the bunch and generally quite good sound-wise. There’s plenty of well known performers like down-home stalwart Lightning Slim who’s somber blues are heard to fine effect on half a dozen tracks including downtrodden gems like “I Can’t Live Happy” and “I Can’t Be Successful” but rocks to good effect on “Bugger Bugger Boy” modeled on Muddy’s “Hootchie Cootchie Man.” Slim employed a number of fine harmonica partners, many of whom are featured here; there’s Lazy Lester belying his name on the pounding “Lester’s Stomp”, there’s the marvelous country tinged “Pebble In My Shoe”, the only record by Wild Bill Phillips and terrific sides by the still active Schoolboy Cleve who blows some wild, wide toned harp on the torrid “She’s Gone” and puts it way in the alley on “Strange Letter Blues” laying down some stunningly raw, over amped harmonica. Of course when it comes to raw, over amped harmonica nobody beats Papa Lightfoot who’s vicious “Wine, Women, Whiskey” sounds like he’s singing and playing from the bottom of a garbage can and who can resist a line like “come on baby talk some trash to me.” His “Jump the Boogie” and the chugging “Mean Old Train” are almost as ferocious. There’s quite a number of talented harp players including classic sides by the still active Jerry McCain including his blistering “Courtin’ In a Cadillac” and the menacing “That’s What They Want” (”They don’t want no man ain’t got no cash/They’ll tell you right quick they don’t mess with trash/That’s what they want/Money honey”). Lesser-known but first rate are the four sides Little Sam Davis cut for the Miami based Rockin’ label in 1953 backed by a young Earl Hooker. Davis was an expressive singer who reminds me a bit of Baby Face Leroy and fine upper register harp player who shines on “Goin’ Home To Mother” and the throbbing “1958 Blues. Hooker cut some sides under his own name at the same session which are collected here including wild instrumentals “Alley Corn” and “On the Hook”, the bopping “Ride Hooker Ride” with a fine, unknown smoothed voiced singer while Hooker takes the vocals on the magnificent cover of “Sweet Black Angel” showing his mastery of Robert Nighthawk’s style. Getting back to great harp men there’s some marvelous tracks by the sparsely recorded Coy Hot Shot Love and Ole Sonny Boy who’s style is reminiscent of Papa Lightfoot, even sparking conjecture that he might indeed be Lightfoot although my ears say no. In addition to Hooker there’s also a passel of terrific guitarists like Johnny Lewis aka Joe Hill Louis who cooks on the Elmore James styled “Jealous Man”, Lafayette Thomas who’s moody instrumental “Deep South Guitar Blues” I believe is seeing the light of day for the first time, Wright Holmes who’s “Good Road Blues” showcases a unorthodox guitarist who sounds like nobody I know and bottleneck ace John Lee who’s 1951 Federal session has been justly celebrated, sounding like a date that could have been recorded fifteen years earlier. Speaking of which there’s a few pre-war recording artists that make the cut including the last sides by the under appreciated Clifford Gibson, three numbers by Texas piano man Alex Moore including a pair of rippling boogies and Skoole-Dum-Doo & Sheffield which masks the identity of Seth Richard who first recorded back in 1929.

Most of the music on Lightning Special: Volume 2 of the Collected Works was recorded in Texas cities like Dallas and Houston with a batch also cut in the recording centers of New York and Los Angles. This set is a perfect compliment to the above set gathering up 106 sides of dusty, down-home Texas blues recorded between 1951 and 1956. This set is a sequel to JSP’s Lightning Hopkins: All The Classics 1946-1951, which was issued a few years back. The title is something of a misnomer as it not only features Hopkins but also some of his associates and like minded peers such as Thunder Smith, Lil’ Son Jackson, Soldier Boy Houston, Frankie Lee Sims, Manny Nichols, Ernest Lewis, L.C. Williams and J.D. Edwards. Hopkins is of the course the star and during the first decade of his career, 1946 to 1956, he laid down his greatest music for a myriad of small labels like Sittin’ In With, Herald, Aladdin, TNT, Gold Star and several others. The tricky thing about Lightning is that he makes it sounds so easy as he pulls down a seemingly endless storehouse of tales and antidotes from his life and community and casually tosses off some amazing guitar licks. Much of it was improvisatory and rooted in the way he worked the local clubs as Chris Strachwitz noted on his first trip to Houston to see Lightning’: ” He would just improvise constantly, that whole evening. …He was simply the community poet who would tell people what they like(d) to hear. And he would argue with the woman in front of him, “Whoa, woman, you in the black dress!” And then he would just go into this musical tirade about her, and she would yell back at him! It was real two-way communication. It was like a church service in a totally non church atmosphere.” Lightning’s genius was the way he translated this to his studio recordings. Sure he would tell his interviewers: “It’s people that move me. I don’t like playing to the wall. …I need the amen. Like a preacher preaching, if he don’t get the amen he can’t do it. …They get me in tha