Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Luke Miles, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Chris Strachwitz

Today’s show spotlights the music of Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins. Outside of one 1959 side, our focus is roughly on Hopkins’ first decade of recording (1946-1956), a prolific period which found him cutting close to 200 sides geared for the black market on a variety of different labels. After his “rediscovery” by folklorist Mack McCormick in 1959 Hopkins became an international star. In addition we also play a number of Hopkins’ buddies, those that Hopkins worked with or had a connection to like Frankie Lee Sims, Luke Miles, L.C. Williams, Thunder Smith and others.

Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920’s and stretched all the way into the 1980’s. His earliest blues influence was the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson who he met around 1920, of whom Hopkins recalled “When I was just a little boy I went to hanging around Buffalo, Texas Blind Lemon he’d come and I’d just get alongside and start playing “. Throughout the ’20s and ’30s he traveled around Texas, usually in the company of recording star Texas Alexander. The pair was playing in Houston’s Third Ward in 1946 when talent scout Lola Anne Cullum came across them. She cut Alexander out of the deal and paired Hopkins with pianist Wilson “Thunder” Smith, getting the duo a recording contract for the Los Angles based Aladdin label. They recorded as “Thunder and Lightnin’”, a nickname Sam was to use for the rest of his life. A load of other labels recorded Hopkins after Aladdin, both in a solo context and with a small rhythm section: Modern/RPM (his ”Tim Moore’s Farm” was an R&B hit in 1949); Gold Star (where he hit with “T-Model Blues” that same year); Sittin’ in With (”Give Me Central 209″ and “Coffee Blues” were national chart hits in 1952) and its Jax subsidiary; the major labels Mercury and Decca; and, in 1954, some of his finest sides for the New York based Herald label. Hopkins’ dropped out of sight for a three year stint in the late 50’s. Fortunately, folklorist Mack McCormick rediscovered the guitarist, who he presented as a folk-blues artist. Pioneering musicologist Sam Charters produced Hopkins in a solo context for Folkways Records in 1959, cutting an entire LP in Hopkins’ tiny apartment (on a borrowed guitar). The results helped introduced his music to an entirely new audience. By the early 1960’s Hopkins went from gigging at back-alley gin joints to starring at collegiate coffeehouses, appearing on TV programs, and touring Europe. He was recording more prolifically then ever, laying down albums for World Pacific, Vee-Jay, Bluesville, Bobby Robinson’s Fire label, Candid, Arhoolie, Verve and, in 1965, the first of several LP’s for Stan Lewis’ Shreveport-based Jewel logo.

L.C. Williams was a singer/tap dancer who also occasionally drummed behind Hopkins. He arrived in Houston in 1945 and was one of the many characters who hung around in Lightning’s orbit sitting on stoops drinking beer and wine, shooting the breeze with passers-by. He made his first record in 1947 with Hopkins on piano and guitar. Hopkins plays guitar on a four-song session for Gold Star in 1948 wih Williams making some final sides for Eddie’s and Freedom between 1948-1950. He died in Houston of TB in 1960.

Frankie Lee Sims claimed to be a cousin of Lightnin’ Hopkins. Sims cut his first 78s for Blue Bonnet Records in 1948 in Dallas, but didn’t taste anything resembling regional success until 1953, when his “Lucy Mae Blues” did well down south. Sims recorded fairly prolifically for Los Angeles-based Specialty into 1954, then switched to the Ace label in 1957 to cut great rockers like “Walking with Frankie” and “She Likes to Boogie Real Low.” He recorded for Bobby Robinson in late 1960 but these sides were unreleased and didn’t surface until decades later when they were released on the British Krazy Kat label. Robinson ran the NYC based labels Fire, Fury and Enjoy. Sims died at age 53 in Dallas of pneumonia.

Thunder Smith plays piano behind Hopkins on his first two sessions for Aladdin in 1946 and 1947, never achieving the success that Hopkins did. Hopkins backed Smith on a four song session for Aladdin in 1946 with Smith cutting one session apiece in 1947 for Gold Star and in 1948 for Down Town. He reportedly died in Houston in 1965.

Luke “Long Gone” Miles was born in Louisiana in 1925 and moved to Houston in 1952. In the liner notes to his only full length LP ) “Country Born” (World Pacific, 1965) he said: “I went to Houston for one reason. I went to see Lightnin’ Hopkins. That’s what I went for and that’s what I did. Lightnin’ Hopkins taught me just about everything about blues singing. The first time I ever sang in front of an audience was in 1952 with Lightnin’. The first day I met Lightnin’ he named me “Long Gone” …and I’ve been Long Gone Miles ever since.” By 1961 Miles was in Los Angles were he cut some 45’s for Smash. After the World Pacific LP he cut singles for Two Kings in 1965, Kent in 1969 before supposedly leaving L.A. in 1970 where he wasn’t heard from again.

The bulk of the Lightnin’ Hopkins sides played todaycome from two JSP box sets: Lightning Hopkins: All The Classics 1946-1951 and Lightning Special: Volume 2 of the Collected Works. In addition the latter box sets also collects a number of sides by L.C. Williams, Frankie Lee Sims and Thunder Smith.

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 that big room and they go watch me through the glass wall and I don’t feel like nothing. Oh, course those records are good, ’cause everything I do is good - but they ain’t the best. The best only happens when I’m feeling easy.” Lightning must have been feeling pretty easy during this period maintaining an exceptionally high standard particularly on some remarkable sides for Herald such as ruminative numbers like “Shine On Moon”, “Remember Me”, “Lonesome in Your Home”, “Life I Used to Live” plus stomping boogies like “Had a Gal Called Sal”, “Moving On Out Boogie” and the wild “Hopkins Sky Hop.” Also quite good are a pair of 1956 numbers he waxed for Chart before a three year absence from the studio and an interesting duet from 1954; “Walkin’ the Streets” and “Mussy Haired Woman” are a perfect marriage of vocals and over-amped guitar while “That’s Alright Baby” features the down-home vocals of Ruth (Blues) Ames is the only female duet that I think I’ve ever heard him perform.

There were a number of artists “who hung out in Lightning’s orbit” like drummer/singer/tap dancer L.C. Williams. Williams was a strong singer, often back by Lightning on guitar and piano, who cut a number of excellent sides between 1947 and 1951. Eight sides are collected here including moody down-home numbers like “Strike Blues”, “The Lazy J” and boogies like “You Can’t Take It with You Baby” and the bouncy “Boogie All the Time.” When Lola Ann Cullum decided to take Lightning and pianist Thunder Smith to Los Angeles to record for Aladdin she had Smith in mind to be the star. Smith was a solid pianist and appealing singer, if not star material, as he displays on the half dozen sides here including the rollicking “Little Mama Boogie” and fine mid-tempo fare like “Big Stars are Falling” and “West Coast Blues” one of several numbers with Lightning on guitar. Frankie Lee Sims claimed to be a cousin of Lightning but the association helped him little on the charts. Sims possessed a wonderful gravelly voice and a powerful boogie guitar style. His four session 1948 debut for Blue Bonnet is included, and while solid, doesn’t match the terrific sides he waxed for Specialty and Ace. Nothing is known of J.D. Edwards but Lightning backs him on pair of numbers including the stomping “Hobo” with Lightning unleashing some torrid over-amped guitar. One artist that’s sadly overlooked is singer Luke “Long Gone” Miles a Lightning protégé who cut some fine sides for Smash and World Pacific in the early 1960’s. Unfortunately Miles made his recordings a tad late to make it on to this set which, like all JSP sets, takes advantage of the European 50 year copyright law.

Lightning’s personal connection to the other artists are tenuous outside of a similar style; Lil’ Son Jackson recorded for Gold Star and was right up there in sales with Lightning’, Manny Nichols was a powerful, rough voiced singer who brings to mind Tommy McLennan, Ernest Lewis worked in a similar vein although “In My Girlish Days” finds him backing a marvelous, mysterious singer who went by the handle singer Miss Country Slim. I found myself quite captivated by Soldier Boy Houston’s (Lawyer Houston was his real name) eight sides. I first heard him on an Atlantic LP years ago and he’s a very appealing singer with a light tenor voice backing himself with some springy guitar work. His songs are captivating tales packed with loads of descriptive detail, much seemingly based on his real life experiences: “In the Army Since 1941″, “Lawyer Houston Blues” (”My name is Lawyer Houston and I’m a private first class/It seem like everywhere I go I got to have a special privilege pass’), “Lawton, Oklahoma Blues” (When I re-enlisted in the Army/They send down to Fort Sill/We’ll I learned that the women in Lawton will get a good soldier killed”).

Schoolboy Cleve - Strange Letter Blues [From Juke Joint Blues] (MP3)

Earl Hooker - Ride, Hooker, Ride [From Juke Joint Blues] (MP3)

Lightning Hokins - Walking The Streets [From Lightnin’ Special] (MP3)

J.D. Edward - Hobo [From Lightnin’ Special] (MP3)

Jesse Thomas recorded sporadically from the late 1920’s through the early 1990’s and despite his longevity didn’t achieve much in the way of success or recognition. In 1929, at 18, Thomas cut four excellent sides for Victor showing a prowess beyond his years. Three of the number are strongly indebted to Lonnie Johnson while the session highlight, “Blues Goose Blues”, is clearly inspired by Blind Blake. By the post-war era Thomas had developed a brilliant, highly individual style unlike anyone else. For proof just listen to Document’s “Jesse Thomas 1948-1958″ which collects 28 tracks the enterprising Thomas cut for nine different West Coast labels over the course of a decade (”Gold Mine Blues” cut in 1948 is not included for some reason). For a complete discography click here.

The music ranges from solo down home numbers, rollicking band driven R&B and smoky after hours cuts. Thomas’ guitar playing is dazzling; by this time he had developed a harmonically sophisticated style, playing highly unpredictable, inventive guitar phrases in a manner that incorporated both down home and uptown styles. His guitar playing, while highly individual, still bears a Lonnie Johnson influence but also owes a debt to T-Bone Walker. Thomas developed his sound, as Chris Smith notes, “in part by transferring saxophone solos and his own piano playing to electric guitar.” Thomas’ singing is equally striking, a deep burnished voice that a times sounds like Robert Johnson.

The solo sides, featuring superb integration between guitar and vocal, find him at his best. High points include the catchy “Same Old Stuff”, “Mountain Key Blues” and “Zetter Blues.” All display fine songwriting and characteristic of many of his songs, he inserts long pauses between lyrics that enhance the dramatic effect, punctuated by short, unpredictable guitar runs. The remarkable “Double Due Love You” opens with a tongue twisting run of words that is sort of a vocal equlivalent to his knotty guitar phrases. On the laid back, conversational “Gonna Move to California”, a variation on the classic “Kansas City”, Thomas plays some deft acoustic guitar.

The small group recordings are generally successful backed by a combination of piano, bass drums and saxophone. “Melody in C” is a jazzy instrumental backed by unknown bass and piano that finds Thomas playing in very sophisticated style with a nod to T-Bone Walker. “Let’s Have Some Fun” is a rocking full band number with wailing tenor and baritone featuring some draw dropping electric guitar solos while the shuffling, irresistibly catchy “I Can’t Stay Here” benefits from the rippling piano work of Lloyd Glenn. Glenn pops up to good effect on all four of Thomas’ Swing Time numbers including the bouncy “It’s You I’m Thinking Of.” Backed by an unknown band and booting sax man, Thomas rocks on “Cool Kind Lover” from 1951 that is as close to rock & roll as he ever got. Another highlight is “Another Fool Like Me” a propulsive boogie number with Thomas just accompanied by a unknown but wailing harmonica blower.

Jesse Thomas died in 1995 and continued cutting material intermittently on his own Red River imprint, Ace and Delmark. However, he never quite matched the sheer brilliance of these late 40’s and 50’s sides.

Double Due Love You (MP3)

I Can’t Stay Here (MP3)

Gonna Move To California (MP3)

Whistlin’ Alex Moore certainly knew intimately about this area as he related to Oliver: “Oh they were tough joints…I’d play them all, from North Dallas to the East Side…Froggy Bottom…Central Tracks…well they had just about everything up and down there from beer joints to saloons.” Moore was a resident of Dallas all his eighty years and had spent most of his working life as a cart driver, and later, hotel porter. Moore had a long career, punctuated by large recording gaps, cutting ten sides in 1929, sessions in 1947, 1951, sessions for Arhoolie and cut an album for Rounder the year before he died in 1988. Oliver describes Moore as a “folk blues poet par excellence” and “one of the most poetic blues singers on record, Alex Moore had developed as a remarkable pianist in the purest boogie and blues tradition with an eccentric inventive flair both in his vocals and his playing.” Moore’s poetic flair is on display on “Heart Wrecked Blues” and particularly his “West Dallas Woman” [MP3]: “Met a woman in West Texas, she had been left out there all alone/Out by the “Hooking Cow” crossing, where I wasn’t even known/She fell for me, a raggedy stranger, standing in the drizzling rain/She said “Daddy I’ll follow you, tho’ I don’t know your name”/We snuggled closely together, muddy water round our feet/No place to call home, wet, hungry and no place to eat/The wolves howl till midnight, wild ox moan till day/The Man in the Moon looked down on us—but had nothing to say.” He displays a sly sense of humour on “They May Not Be My Toes” and “Blue Bloomer Blues” [MP3]: “While standing at the car line, reckon’ what that old girl done/I said she hugged and kissed me and bit me on my tongue/I asked her to give me what mama did, when I was three months old/She said I’ll make you a sugar tit daddy, I can’t stand that to save my soul/She pulled off them bloom bloomers, begin to whine and frown.” Even tough tales like “Ice Pick Mama” and “Bull Con Blues” are laced with plenty of amusing wit.

Moore was perhaps the last of the early Texas piano although a couple of others survived long enough to make some latter day recording. Edwin ‘Buster’ Pickens and Robert Shaw ran around with the pianists who worked the Santa Fe railroad townships. Both Robert Shaw and Buster Pickens didn’t record under their own name until the 1960’s. Pickens did some session work, most notably behind Lightnin’ Hopkins and cut one full-length record in the 1960’s for the Heritage label. Oliver describes him in the 60’s, as “virtually the last of the barrelhouse and saw-mill pianists, for his contemporaries are nearly all dead …Pickens, born in 1915, was younger then many of them though he shared the work, and small, compact and tough, he is still playing. His world has been one of railroad routes and this is reflected in many of his blues.” A prime example is his “Santa Fe Train [MP3].” As Pickens himself noted: “I travelled by freight trains. I rode freight trains practically all over the country. …These other piano players-son Becky, Consih Burks, Black Boy Shine, Andy Boy, and all these men-they went out different routes-hardly ever paired up. Each lookin’ for his own bread.” Robert Shaw cut one 1963 album for Almanac which was reissued on the Arhoolie label, plus some additional sides in the 1970’s. All these sides are collected on the CD “The Ma Grinder” issued by Arhoolie. Like Pickens, Shaw was a member of the Santa Fe pianists and on his 60’s recordings plays dazzling dance tunes, in a relaxed boogie style, with touches of ragtime mixed in, and tough lowdown blues. As Shaw said: “When you listen to what I’m playing you got to see in your mind all them gals out there swinging their butts and getting the mens excited. otherwise you ain’t got the music rightly understood. I could sit there and throw my hands down and make them gals do anything. I told them when to shake it, and when to hold back. That’s what this music is for.” His remarkable technique is in full display on the Texas piano staple, “The Ma Grinder[MP3].”

After World War II the early Texas piano tradition virtually evaporated. Oliver wrote that after “…the War, the juke boxes, and the law had combined to bring an end to both the barrelhouse circuit and the Texas piano player who, in Son Becky’s words had “spread some joy” on the Santa network. …The group dispersed: Andy Boy made his way to Kansas City where he was last heard of in the 1950’s, while Joe Pullum migrated to California. Rob Cooper disappeared after woman trouble, and Cowboy Washington was forgotten. Down on Houston’s McKinney Street they don’t stomp The Cows or The Ma Grinder any more.”

Sources:

-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.

-McCormick, Mack. Notes accompanying The Ma Grinder, 1993, Arhoolie.

-Oliver, Paul and Smith, Francis. Notes accompanying The Piano Blues Vol. 15: Dallas 1927-1929, 1980, Magpie.

-Oliver, Paul. Conversation With The Blues. Horizon Press, New York, 1965.

Show Notes:

Piano blues seems to have gotten overshadowed by the emphasis on the guitar. Today the piano blues tradition is in steep decline. This week’s show harks back to the glory days of barrelhouse piano, in particular a remarkable group of piano men who where based in Texas during the 1920’s and 30’s. As Paul Oliver observed: “Texas was as rich in piano blues as Mississippi was in guitar blues …A cursory glance through the discographies will emphasize the fact that a remarkable number of blues pianists came from Texas.”

All the background for this week’s show can be found in a multi-part article I posted on the Texas piano tradition:

Texas Piano Blues - 1920’s & 1930’s Part 1

Texas Piano Blues - 1920’s & 1930’s Part 2

Texas Piano Blues - 1920’s & 1930’s Part 3

Texas Piano Blues - 1920’s & 1930’s Part 4

After discussing the early Texas piano players and the Santa Fe group we turn to Dallas which was the home of a number of distinctive piano players and singers they accompanied. Among them were Texas Bill Day, Neal Roberts, Willie Tyson, Whistlin’ Alex Moore and singer Billiken Johnson. Oliver notes that “as far as is known, they were more or less contemporaries, being born at the turn of the century (Alex Moore, specifically, in 1899).” He goes on to describe Dallas during this period: “Then there were 9000 blacks in Dallas, a quarter of the population. By 1930 they totalled just short of 50,000 and made up a significant part of the whole population. The hub of the black community was an area known as Central Tracks, where honky-tonks ’saloons, beer-parlours and brothels were wedged between warehouses, furniture stores and places of entertainment like Ella B. Moore’s Park Theatre, or Hattie Burleson’s dance hall. Urban expansion in Dallas was largely due to its importance as a railhead, and many railroads whose names are familiar to blues collectors had termini there. Among them were the “Katy”, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line; the Fort Worth and Denver; the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe; the Rock Island; and the Texas a Pacific, along whose line Central Tracks was situated.”

Despite the brash and nosey environment the “Dallas blues piano style of Dallas is slow or medium-paced and contemplative in its nature …Blues in the Dallas school is about Dallas; in fact no other blues schools, with the exception perhaps, of Chicago, gives us quite such a picture of the urban life which inspired it. ..These are blues that are intended to be listened to, with words that have a strange folk lyricism about them. Here the piano is used as a complementary poetic instrument, setting off the words and the mood of the blues instead of challenging it with pyrotechnic displays.”

It’s not surprising that the railroad figure prominently in the blues of Dallas. Singer Billiken Johnson was obviously well acquainted with the rail lines as they figure in number of his blues. Johnson is a key figure though he did not play piano. His speciality was vocal effects, and he was considered rather a clown by his blues musician friends. On “Frisco Blues” [MP3] (a reference to the St. Louis—San Francisco line) Johnson provides the train sounds over the gently rolling piano of Neal Roberts who also sings. Johnson provides the same role on “Sun Beam Blues” (also known as the “Sunshine Special” that ran on the Missouri— Pacific line to St. Louis) evocatively imitating the lonesome train whistle as the unknown Fred Adams takes the vocals. Johnson also vocalizes on “Interurban Blues” which refers to the short haul trains which brought country people into the city. On these tracks Willie Tyson plays piano. Johnson’s vocal effects are also on display on “Billiken’s Weary Blues” with steady piano support from Texas Bill Day who plays in a similar style as the aforementioned Neal Roberts. Johnson surfaces again on Day’s lustily sung “Elm Street Blues” [MP3] where the pianist sings: “Ellum Street’s paved in brass, Main Street’s paved in gold/I’ve got a good girl lives on East Commerce, I wouldn’t mistreat her to save nobody’s soul/These Ellum Street Women, Billiken, do not mean you no good/If you want to make a good woman, have to get on Haskell Avenue.” The song, as Oliver says, refers “…to the respective success of the black sector of “Deep Ellum”, or Elm Street, which ran by Central Tracks, and the downtown business sector of Main.”

Sources:

-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.

-Oliver, Paul and Smith, Francis. Notes accompanying The Piano Blues Vol. 15: Dallas 1927-1929, 1980, Magpie.

-Oliver, Paul. Conversation With The Blues. Horizon Press, New York, 1965.

Harold Holiday, known as Black Boy Shine, was one of the acknowledged leaders among the Santa Fe group of pianists. He recorded more prolifically then the rest; cutting 18 issued sides in 1936 and 1937 as well as leaving a batch of unissued sides in the can. As Oliver relates: “He played in a mellow style, with a subtler release than the sharp snap favoured by several of the piano men, and he sang in a slightly world-weary voice of the days when the “Chophouse” operated on West Dallas Street. It was a haven for pianists down on their luck, where the proprietor would prepare soup and sandwiches for them, and cook any rabbits they’d managed to club on the waste lots that still dotted the black wards of the city.” He describes this vividly in one of his best numbers, “Dog House Blues”: “Well I’m going to the Dog House/Down On West Dallas Street/When I get broke and hungry/I know I can get a feed.” “When times were better”, Oliver wrote, “and the barrelhouses were open again, Shine was to be found at Sugarland, near the sugar refineries and the State Farm Unit, or way out at Richmond. The latter is a run-down, predominately black township still, an unlovely place of old buildings fronting on the railroad tracks close to the Brazos River. Behind the tracks the roads fall back steeply for a couple of blocks to the old haunt of hustlers and whores, Mud Alley. There on Mud Alley was the Brown House, Shine’s base when he wasn’t travelling…” Both places feature in Shine’s songs; In “Sugarland Blues” he sings “I dump sugar all day/Clean until broad daylight/I done everything for that woman/Still she don’t treat me right” and in “Brown House Blues” he sings “Woke up this morning with the muddy alley blues/ I lost all my money and my alley shoes/I was playing boogie-woogie and having my fun” and then goes on describe a raid in detail, obviously a common occurrence in these kind of joints. In general his lyrics vividly reflect the harsher side of black life such as songs like “Hobo Blues” and “Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues.”

Both Pinetop Burks and Leon Calhoun known as Son Becky, at least on record, were more boisterous players then Shine. Both shared a single session in October 1937, each cutting six sides apiece. Oliver notes that “Black Boy Shine closely resembled Conish “Pinetop” Burks both in appearance and in piano style, at least in the recollections of their contemporaries. On record “Connie” Burks used more boogie bass figures than Shine and employed more varied approaches to his blues, a matter of some surprise to those who knew them, who considered Shine the better pianist. Burks was born and raised close by Richmond and heard all the good piano men as they passed through” Becky “…had been raised by a relative near Wharton and was known by her surname, as “Son” Becky. Becky played for country suppers and followed the barrelhouse circuit east to the Piney Woods. Here traditions met, with the Louisiana and E Texas pianists running into their Houston and Santa Fe contemporary Dave Alexander, who was known as Black Ivory King, was one of eastern group who worked the ‘Flying Crow’ line between his home to of Shreveport and Port Arthur on the Gulf Coast, where Ivory Joe Hunter knew him.” Burks lays down strong, propulsive boogie piano, displaying his skill on several fine extended solos and has a deep, expressive voice. His boogie piano is heard to good effect on “Fannie Mae Blues” a song addressed too his wife and the rollicking “Shake the Shack” which owes a strong debt to “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie.” His “Mountain Jack Blues” features a thumping bass, ragtime flavour and is a variation of the Texas staple “”The Cows” while his “Jack of All Trades” was a re-working of Bernice Edwards’ blues of the same name. Becky was accompanied by a guitarist and a washboard player on some of his tracks, and the trio make an enjoyable ruckus on the driving “Midnight Trouble Blues” and “Mistreated Washboard Blues.” The more contemplative “Cryin’ Shame Blues” is a fine mid-tempo number featuring some strong rolling piano. King cut four sides in 1937 and had a simpler, less aggressive style than Burks and Becky. He was a fine rough voiced singer, using his limited range to fine effect particularly on the sublime “The Flying Crow” where he enhances the song with moans and piano flourishes that emulate the sound of the train. Trains also figure in “Match Box Blues” and “Gingham Dress (Alexander Blues)” while “Working For The PWA” is a fine topical number.

Santa Fe Tracks

The Santa Fe group acquired their name not only because they rode the Santa Fe from job to job, but also because, according to the Houston Pianist Robert Shaw, “anyone enquiring the name of a selection was invariably told, “that’s the ‘Santa Fe’.” The style was rooted in the wide-open towns of Richmond, Houston and Galveston. As Oliver notes, “here were to be heard the hard-hitting boogie and blues pianists like Conish Burks and Son Becky, Rob Cooper and Black Boy Shine, Andy Boy, Robert ‘Fud’ Shaw and Edwin ‘Buster’ Pickens, and the singers Joe Pullum and Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington. …There is a broad stylistic and thematic similarity in the music of the pianists who followed the Santa Fe through the barrelhouses of Ford Bend, Houston and Galveston counties, and down in the Brazos Bottoms. …Immediately recognisable with its rolling basses, its often ragtimey blues accompaniments, its anticipatory beat—this is the Santa Fe group.” This group travelled the branches of the Santa Fe line to the lumber camps, oil fields and towns. In the cities “they were to be heard in the red light district of Galveston’s Post Office Street or Church Street, on Houston’s West Dallas Street or in Richmond’s Mud Alley.”

Among the best of the Santa Fe group were Rob Cooper of Houston, and Andy Boy of Galveston. Both men show the influence of Hersal Thomas and both men’s style share strong ragtime elements. Stylistically, Oliver notes, “Andy Boy (Boy was his surname) and Rob Cooper were a few years older than Hersal Thomas” and “careful listening to the playing of Andy Boy reveals hints of the connection between them; in spite of the themes that he sang and played with their somewhat more modern sound, Galveston born Andy Boy was a pianist whose formative years were spent in the company of Hersal and his fellow pianists.”

Andy Boy cut only eight sides under his own name as well as backing both Joe Pullum and Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington. Andy Boy had a rough, expressive voice offset with his sprightly blues piano laced with ragtime flourishes. Andy Boy’s songs are filled with vivid imagery, humour, clever wordplay and a times a deep pathos. One of his most memorable numbers was the rollicking “House Raid Blues” (MP3) (a close cousin to Little Hat Jones’ “Kentucky Blues”) as Andy Boy wittily describes a police break-in at Charlie Shiro’s Galveston club: “Then out the widow I did hop/Followed closely by a cop/Then around the corner I did run/I heard the shot from some law’s gun/Said it ain’t no use in shooting ‘cause I ain’t gonna be here long/…Then I was long gone, from Kentucky, long gone/Got away lucky and left so keen/I left like a submarine.” The vigorously sung “Church Street Blues” (MP3) was perhaps his finest number where he evocatively sang: “Going down to the Gulf/Watch the waves come in . . .” and “I was born and raised in that good old seaport town/Where we all had fun and stomped The Grinder down.” In the sombre “Evil Blues” he sang: “I got the evil blues, prejudicy on my mind” and was in quite a different frame of mind on the bouncy “Jive Blues” where he sings “Now the good book says thou shall not break the ten commandment law/I’m gonna break the ten commandments on you’re jaw.”

Both Andy Boy and Rob Cooper play on the records of Joe Pullum, one of the era’s most distinctive and imaginative vocalists. As Tony Russell describes, “Pullum’s voice was pitched very high and clear, yet it always sounded relaxed, and his timing was impeccable. The effect-plaintive, appealing, penetrating-was like that of a muted trumpet solo, piercing it’s way through the blues, occasionally soaring in sudden leaps. …The piano-playing behind Pullum is always satisfying stuff, whether the work of Andy Boy (who was on the third and longest session) or that of Robert Cooper (on the other three).” Cooper’s lively, ragtimey piano can be heard to good effect on the Texas staple “Cows, See That Train Comin’” (MP3) and the mostly instrumental “Blues With Class” while Andy Boy’s accompaniment displays more invention then own his own records. Cooper’s solo output under his own includes only two numbers; two marvellous versions of “West Dallas Drag”, a stomping, good time ragtime number that makes one wish he had recorded more solo sides. Any Boy also backed the tough voiced Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington on all four of his numbers, providing wonderful backing to evocative tales like “Ice Pick Mama” (MP3) and “West Dallas Woman” (a reference to the main stem of Houston’s Fourth Ward).

Sources:

-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.

-Oliver, Paul. The Story of the Blues. 4th edition. Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1997.

-Silvester, Peter J.. A Left Hand Like Boogie: A History of Boogie-Woogie Piano. DA Capo, Ne York, 1988.

-Oliver, Paul and Smith, Francis. Notes accompanying The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937, 1978, Magpie.

-Oliver, Paul and Smith, Francis. Notes accompanying The Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937, 1979, Magpie.

-Russell, Tony. Talking Blues 2 - Joe Pullum, Jazz Monthly, No 191 (1971), p. 23-24.

I’ve always been a huge fan of barrelhouse piano, which doesn’t seem to garner as much enthusiasm among blues fans as do the guitar players. In the 1920’s and 1930’s many of these itinerant piano players were captured on record. Along with St. Louis one of the more distinctive piano blues traditions arose in Texas. The Texas pianists were thankfully fairly well recorded and they left behind some marvelous music. On the 7/29 show I’m devoting an entire show to them and thought I would provide a bit of background on this fascinating tradition.

The Texas piano tradition flowered in the 1920’s and was at its peak during the 1930’s when a number of the tradition’s best players were recorded. Today, seventy years down the line, much has changed; blues is no longer a music performed and listened to strictly by African-Americans, the piano blues tradition has virtually evaporated and regional styles have effectively disappeared. The Texas piano tradition was a rich and vibrant one and luckily fairly well documented on record. As Francis Smith notes: “With the two major recording centers of New York and Chicago a thousand miles to the North, it was extremely fortunate that so many pianists of this important close knit Texas group were recorded—all three record companies of the time being involved.” The three companies were Columbia, Victor and Vocalion in addition to Bluebird and Okeh. These companies, either singularly or in various combinations, made field trips to Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio in 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1941.

As Paul Oliver observed: “Texas was as rich in piano blues as Mississippi was in guitar blues, which is not to say that there were no great blues guitarists in Texas, or piano men in Mississippi. A cursory glance through the discographies will emphasize the fact that a remarkable number of blues pianists came from Texas. They can be grouped into “schools”, characterized by certain similarities of style and approach, that were partly a reflection of the environments in which they worked, of their friendships and associations with other pianists, and by the isolation of Texas from other states.” One school was the so-called “Santa Fe group” who were based in the southwestern part of the state where the cities of Galveston, Houston and Richmond lie. Here was where the music thrived and pianists could be found like Pinetop Burks, Son Becky, Rob Cooper, Black Boy Shine, Andy Boy, Big Boy Knox, Robert Shaw, Buster Pickens and the singers who worked with them like Walter “Cowboy” Washington and Joe Pullum. The other important school was a cluster of pianists and singers based in Dallas such as Alex Moore, Texas Bill Day, Neal Roberts Willie Tyson, and singer Billiken Johnson. 

While the above artists were recorded in Texas there was an earlier Texas piano tradition that was recorded out of state. This early tradition was based around the remarkable Thomas family who made the bulk of their recordings between 1923 and 1928. The music sounds quite different as Paul Oliver notes: “It is this distance in time that seems to place the Thomas circle quite apart from the pianists and singers of Houston and Galveston seaports… Their records were made a decade later, between 1934 and 1937, and in our perspective of blues history they seem to belong to quite a different age.” As David Evans states: “It is likely that no family has contributed more personalities to blues history than the Thomas family of Houston, Texas, whose famous members included George W. Thomas, his sister Beulah “Sippie” Wallace, their brother Hersal Thomas, George’s daughter Hociel Thomas, and Moanin’ Bernice Edwards who was raised up in the family.”

 Before discussing the individual piano players it’s worth providing a bit of context into how the piano tradition arose in Texas and surrounding areas. It was the lumber industry which was the incubator of the piano tradition in these regions. By the 1830′ s large scale lumber operations were in full swing but mainly concentrated in the east. By the 1850’s inroads had been made into the Southern Forest. As Peter J. Silvester notes “It is this Southern Forest, parts of which are referred to as the Piney Woods… …which acted as host to the beginnings of the musical style which was to become know as boogie woogie. It was the black labor force working throughout the length and breadth of this entire region which… …ensured it’s survival by providing sympathetic audiences and venues for the music. …It was mainly the brawn and muscle of black laborers which swung the axe or pushed and pulled on the crosscut saw to fell the trees of the Piney Woods.” One of the by products of the lumber industry was turpentine (made from resin from the pine trees) and side-by-side of the lumber camps were the turpentine camps as well as sawmill camps. Silvester describes the conditions: “The logging camp could consist of a half-dozen boxcar like shacks of weathered wood, two or three bunkhouses to accommodate from seventy-five to 150 men… …All are set along a spur of the logging railway that runs back through old cuttings to the mills. These boxcar-like shacks would in fact be converted railroad boxcars, or could be boxlike structures built on railroad flatcars. …One of these shacks functioned as combination dancehall, crap-game dive and whorehouse. This was known as the barrelhouse, the honky tonk, or the juke. Furnished by the lumber company with drink and piano, it was a rough, tough place.” Black musicians, particularly piano, players followed the tracks to find work in these camps. “Barrelhouse circuits” developed, one of which was the southwest corner of Texas around the towns of Galveston, Houston and Richmond which the “Santa Fe group” used as their base. The Santa Fe railroad, with a main line running north from Galveston and Houston through Texas and Oklahoma served eight-eight Texas counties. “From playing in the back streets of Galveston, Houston and Richmond, the Santa Fe group of pianists would travel via the numerous lines of the Santa Fe railroad-around the barrelhouse circuits to play in the various camps and towns.”

The Texas piano tradition was first documented on record by the Thomas family. George Washington Thomas, Jr., the oldest of twelve children was born in Little Rock, AK in 1883 but had moved to Houston by 1900. As David Evans states “it was the ragtime and blues of this city and the surrounding region of southeast Texas served by the Santa Fe railroad that would shape the piano styles of various family members.” George move to New Orleans and then Chicago where he published and composed close to a hundred pieces, mostly blues with many sung on the vaudeville stages by his sister Sippie Wallace and his daughter Hociel Thomas. He recorded three piano rolls in 1924 and is though to be the man behind the pseudonym Clay Custer who recorded “The Rocks” [MP3] (a song composed by Thomas) in 1923 and two other numbers.

George’s brother, Hersal, is described by Francis Smith: “That Hersal, the child prodigy, was a highly influential pianist among his peers there is no doubt; even though he left Houston in his very early ‘teens he had established a reputation there which remains still in the folk memory.” In the early 1920’s he followed his brother to Chicago where he recorded extensively behind his sister Sippie Wallace and her niece Hociel Thomas. His appearance in Chicago, Paul Oliver notes, “created a sensation and profoundly influenced the piano players who heard his grumbling basses and highly poetic melodic inventions.” Under his own name he cut a piano roll in 1924 plus “Suitcase Blues” and “Hersal Blues” in 1925. He died a year later due to a case of food poisoning. Bernice Edwards is most obscure of the group and it’s not clear how closely tied she was to the Thomas family. She cut sixteen sides between 1928 and 1935 and as Evans states “her piano playing displays a fully developed “Santa Fe” style…” Her last session was recorded in Fort Worth with backing from Texas musicians J.T. “Howlin Smith and pianist Black Boy Shine.

Sources:
-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.