Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Lots of country blues on deck for today’s mix show. I’ve been re-listening to Tommy Johnson quite a bit lately and thinking about his influence. For a musician who cut just a handful of sides in 1928 and 1929 he was vastly influential. While his initial records sold well his influence stems mainly from those who learned directly from Johnson. David Evans began researching Johnson in the 1960’s, discovering many musicians who still performed Johnson’s songs and made field recordings of many of them during this period. He also wrote the excellent Tommy Johnson in 1971 which I’ve recently reread. Roosevelt Holts and Shirley Griffith both knew and learned songs from Tommy Johnson when they were living in Mississippi but didn’t record until the 1960’s. Holts cut records for Blues Horizon and Arhoolie and Griffith cut records for Bluesville and Blue Goose – all out of print. Jim Brewer moved to Chicago from Mississippi and became a street musician mainly playing on Maxwell Street. He appears on various anthologies and cut two records for Philo and Earwig – both out of print. We play Brewer’s version of “Big Road Blues” which is one of the best versions I’ve ever heard. We also play one of Johnson’s classics, “Cool Drink of Water Blues”, and “Trouble Hearted Blues” by Johnson’s close friend Ishman Bracey.

There’s a bunch more country blues including classics like “Delta Blues” by Son House recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. Willie Brown was also recorded during this session backing House and cutting “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor.” In addition to performing alongside Robert Johnson and Son House he appeared on many of the seminal sides cut by Charlie Patton between 1929 and 1934, including a legendary 1930 Paramount label session which also yielded two of the three existing Brown solo cuts, “M & O Blues” and “Future Blues.” Brown may or may not be the artist who cut one 78 as Kid Bailey in 1929. The debate will likely never be settled but it certainly sounds like Brown to my ears. Regardless, “Rowdy Blues”, is a magnificent tune. Moving up to Memphis we opened the show with “Going To Germany”by Cannon’s Jug Stompers. This is one of my favorite songs by the group spotlighting the terrific harmonica and singing of Noah Lewis.

We also feature some great more modern guitarists, relativity speaking, including Eddie Taylor and Earl Hooker. Both men had the ability to sound just like Robert Nighthawk when they chose to and Taylor does just that on the sizzling “The Moon Is Rising” featuring Kansas Red on vocals and drums. Red drummed and sang with Nighthawk in the 1940’s and he likely learned the song from Nighthawk during this period who in turn picked up the song from Ivory Joe Hunter’s 1945 hit “Blues At Sunrise.” Hooker also picked up plenty from Nighthawk but sounds like his own man on the infectious instrumental “The Leading Brand.” Son Seals heard Nighthawk when he played at his father’s Dipsy Doodle Club in Arkansas although he was more influenced by local hero Albert King. Here we close the show with “Going Back Home” off 1977’s Midnight Son my favorite album by Seals.

As usual we play a number of out of print records. In the early 1970’s Sunnyland Slim cut the fine, albeit oddly titled, “Plays The Ragtime Blues” for Bluesway backed by Carey Bell and the Aces. Like a good chunk of the Bluesway catalog this fine date remains unavailable on CD. Also on Bluesway, and yes out of print, is Johnny Young’s “I Can’t Keep My Foot From Jumping.” This is an all mandolin outing for Young and I really think one of his finest sessions. Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Spires cut a handful of brilliant down home sides for Checker and Chance in the 1950’s and unissued sides in the 1960’s for Testament before arthritis cut his career short. His burnished voice sounds marvelous on the gently propulsive “21 Below Zero” backed by Johnny Young on guitar. This one comes off the excellent compilation “Blues Scene USA Vol. 4: Mississippi Blues” on Storyville.” Junior Parker is best know for his classic Sun and Duke singles like “Feelin’ Good, “Mystery Train”, “”Next Time You See Me ” and “Driving Wheel.” He still sounded great on the album “You Don’t Have To Be Black To Love The Blues” circa 1971 backed by The Crusaders. The pairing works exceptionally well as you can hear on Parker’s revival of his old number “Man Or Mouse.” Sadly Parker died in November 1971 before he reached his fortieth birthday.

Johnnie & Letha Jones

The group cut two exceptional sessions in March and November of 1950 once again prominently featuring Jones’ vocal abilities. “195o Blues” opens with a watery, flowing slide solo and settles into a a marvelous sing along vocal, with both men wonderfully complimenting each other in an easy, playful manner. Tampa’s slide is particularly incisive as the two sing: “I’ve been you’re dog baby, since 1934, (spoken: And that’s a mighty long time)/But this is 1950 and I won’t be you’re dog no more.” Harking back to Tampa’s early days is the rollicking “It’s Good Like That” a boogie update of his big hit “It’s Tight Like That” while “Love Her with a Feelin’” is an inspired remake of 1938’s ” Love With A Feeling” and ‘Sweet Little Angel” was cut in 1934 as “Black Angel Blues” and originally waxed by Lucille Bogan in 1930, although Tampa claimed the composition for his own. The latter song was a hit for Robert Nighthawk who cut it in 1949 as “Sweet Black Angel” (the flip “Anna Lou” was another Tampa song) and later covered by B.B. King as “Sweet Little Angel” in 1956. “New Deal Blues” was another notable number from these sessions prominently spotlighting Tampa’s ringing slide as Jones urges him on with spoken asides.

1951 followed a similar pattern with two four song sessions in March and July. There was plenty of high energy, good time music including the rocking “She’s Dynamite”, “Boogie Woogie Woman”, “She’s A Cool Operator” which put the focus less on Tampa’s guitar, but not his kazoo, all featuring Jones’ ample, rock ribbed piano playing. For the first time Jones takes the lead vocal on the insinuating “Early in the Morning” and takes a fair share of the humorous “I Won’t Let Her Do It” which harks back to 1942’s “She Want to Sell My Monkey” where Big Maceo played the role that Jones does. Tampa’s slide resurfaces on the marvelous “Green And Lucky Blues” another song B.B. King would later record.

Around this time, Letha Jones (Johnnie’s wife), recalled: “Tampa stopped having a band. I think he got sick or he got tired, he kept saying he was gonna retire. He quit playing out in the clubs.” While Jones and Payne continued to play on Tampa’s records they had since teamed with guitarist L.C. McKinley and later with Elmore James. Playing with Tampa also got Jones noticed by rising star Muddy Waters who employed Jones on a 1949 session that produced “Screamin’ And Cryin.” Through Muddy he also recorded two seminal numbers for Aristocrat in 1949, “Big Town Play Boy” and “Shelby County Blues.” By 1952 Jones, Payne and Knowling became Elmore’s backing band, The Broom Dusters, appearing on dozens of classic sides.

Two more sessions followed in April and November of 1952 with the addition of Bill Casimir on tenor sax. These are not up to the standards of Tampa’s previous earlier sessions. “I’m Gonna Put You Down” is a driving number with Jones stretching out liberally but is otherwise unexceptional with “Look A There Look A There” in a similar mold. “True Love” has a rhumba beat but is rather tepid with the same being said for sing along numbers like”But I Forgive You” which sound a bit tired by this point. The highlight is “Got A Mind To Leave This Town” featuring a particularly sensitive vocal from Tampa.

Tampa cut his final three sessions in 1953. On January 29th 1953 Tampa Red briefly stepped away from Victor, cutting four sides for the independent Sabre label. Using the pseudonym Jimmy Eager, he was accompanied on guitar by L. C. McKinley (who was making his recording debut) and an unknown pianist and drummer (possibly Bob Call and Odie Payne). His final two sessions found Tampa in much more contemporary company. The September session featured Tampa’s regular band of Jones, Payne and Knowling beefed up with RCA session guitarist Willie Lacey and harmonica player, Sonny Boy Williamson. It was a solid outing with a fairly typical Jones/Tampa duet on “So Crazy About You Baby” and “If She Don’t Come Back”, perhaps the best of the bunch, with some wailing harmonica from Sonny Boy. Better was Tampa’s final Victor session in December with Walter Horton taking over for Sonny Boy. “Big Stars Falling Blues” with it’s fine group vocal and fleet fingered guitar from Lacey is a winner although Horton is a bit submerged in the mix while the romping “Evalena” showcases Horton and Lacey at their best. “Rambler’s Blues” is by far the highlight, a stunning, up-to-date blues with a rhumba lilt showcasing a terrific vocal from Tampa and a shattering harmonica solo from Horton. It’s a shame the group didn’t record more but it put a fine exclamation point on a long and illustrious career.

All of the Tampa/Jones sides can be found on volumes 14 and 15 of Document’s complete recordings of Tampa Red. Unfortunately these may be out of print.

Love Her With A Feelin’ (MP3)

1950 Blues (MP3)

She’s Dynamite (MP3)

Rambler’s Blues (MP3)

By the time Johnnie Jones had taken over the piano chair in Tampa Red’s band in March 1949 Tampa had been a recording star for twenty years. Outside of a national hit in 1949 Tampa’s career was on the wane and his recording career essentially ended in 1953 outside of two disappointing albums for Bluesville in 1960. Tampa suffered the fate of famous blues artists who cut some of their most memorable early on and had lengthy careers, which is in effect to have later material overlooked. Certainly Tampa’s partnership with Big Maceo from 1945 to 1947 has been justly praised pairing Maceo’s rolling, thundering piano with Tampa’s ringing slide ranking them in the upper ranks of great piano/guitar duos. Less celebrated is the teaming of Maceo’s protege, Johnnie Jones, with Tampa beginning in 1949 and lasting through 1953. Clearly the infusion of new blood, chiefly Jones’ rolling two fisted piano playing and insinuating, warm vocal plus the addition of drummer Odie Payne added an exciting new charge to Tampa’s music.

Before discussing his later sides it’s worth providing a bit of background. One of the best things written about Tampa was Jim O’Neal’s thoughtful notes to the 1975 2-LP set Guitar Wizard. He neatly sums up Tampa’s significance: “Few figures have been as important in blues history as Tampa Red; yet no bluesman of such stature has been so ignored or misunderstood by today’s blues audience. As a composer, recording artist, musical trendsetter and one of the premiere urban blues guitarists of his day, Tampa Red remained popular with black record buyers for more than 20 years and exerted considerable influence on many post-World War II blues stars who earned greater acclaim for playing Tampa’s songs than Tampa himself often did.” Tampa always adapted to changing musical styles as O’Neal observed about the later records: “His records show he was still on top of things-he was right there swinging with horns when big-band jump blues were in fashion, and he had the boogie numbers down, too; even on his last Victor sessions he had adapted to the mainstream ’50’s Chicago blues sound with featured harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) and Walter Horton. He was following trends, but also setting them too with numbers that many bluesmen were to re-record in later years.”

Big Maceo had a stroke in 1946 which left him unable to play piano although he continued to sing and resorted to using Eddie Boyd and then Johnny Jones on piano. With Maceo singing and Tampa on guitar, Boyd handles the piano chores on a February 1947 session with Jones popping up on a April 1949 session. Maceo took Jones under his wing when he arrived in Chicago and helped him hone his piano style. It was Tampa who encouraged Jones to get a union card and then hired him on his first gig at the C&T Lounge in 1947.

By the time of Tampa Red’s session in March 1949 Jones had been permanently installed as Tampa’s piano man. With bassist Ransom Knowling and drummer Odie Payne on board, it was an auspicious start featuring a pair of fine boogie numbers including the bouncy “It’s A Brand New Boogey” and “Come On, If You’re Coming” giving ample room for Jones’ robust two fisted piano. The highlight was the poignant “When Things Go Wrong with You”, with echoes of Tampa’s 1940 classic “It Hurts Me Too”, a perfect combination of fluid slide, rippling piano and wonderful duel vocal that would be one of their hallmarks. Tampa’s next session in July 1949 followed a similar pattern with the romping “That’s Her Own Business” and the sing along vocal of “I’ll Find My Own Way.” If Tampa was cutting some very up to date material during this period he never gave up his fondness for the kazoo, much to some critics lament. To be fair he played the kazoo with as much expressiveness as possible for the instrument. “Without doubt, however,” O’Neal notes, “Tampa became the most popular blues kazooist of all time-for what that’s worth-and he did inspire a number of other musicians to blow their own “jazz horns.”"

It’s A Brand New Boogey (MP3)

When Things Go Wrong With You (MP3)

Show Notes:

It’s not much of a stretch to call Otis Spann the greatest of the post-war Chicago piano men. Perhaps his only rival was Little Johnny Jones, who like Spann, never made it past his his fortieth birthday. Spann was born in Belzoni, Mississippi and inspired by local piano players Friday Ford and Tolley Montgomery, sibling of Little Brother Montgomery. He won a talent contest at age eight and began playing local vaudeville acts. After his mother died in the mid-40’s he headed to Chicago where his father and aunt lived. After playing with Morris Pejoe and others, he heard from Jimmy Rogers that Muddy Waters needed a piano player and he was promptly hired in 1951. Between 1953 and 1969 and played on the bulk of Waters’ Chess recordings. He also became a key session pianist backing Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Lowell Fulson, Junior Wells, Chuck Berry and many others.

Starting in 1960 he launched a solo career parallel to his day job with Muddy Waters. Despite being an almost daily presence in the Chess studios, he cut only two sessions as leader. His own Chess output was limited to a 1954 single, “It Must Have Been the Devil,” that featured B.B. King on guitar, and sessions in 1954 and 1956 that remained in the can for decades. Chess may not have been impressed but the sides hold up well and I’ve decided to play them all for this feature. Spann cut albums for numerous labels including Candid, Prestuge, Bluesway, Storyville, Testament, Spivey and Vanguard among others. Spann rarely sounded less than inspired but he was occasionally ill served by his record companies and his sidemen. Unqualified successes include his Candid recordings with Robert Lockwood (issued in it’s entirety with bonus cuts, but out of print, as the Complete Candid Recordings: Otis Spann/Lightnin’ Hopkins Sessions) as well as those for Storyville and two albums for Bluesway (issued together on Down To Earth: The Bluesway Recordings) backed by the Muddy Waters band. Also quite good are The Blues of Otis Spann, hailed as one of the best blues albums ever made in Britain and The Biggest Thing Since Colossus (reissued with many bonus cuts as the 2-CD set The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions) finding Spann backed by three-fifths of Fleetwood Mac. Less successful are recordings made for Vanguard, Prestige and the two albums for Spivey which have never been issued on CD.

Mahalia Lucille Jenkins began as a church gospel singer in Mississippi and continued to practice when her family moved to Chicago around 1952. She met Otis Spann in the 1960’s. The two began a musical collaboration and would later marry. Lucille and Otis performed regularly at college gigs and would record together until Otis passed in 1970. Lucille continued to work in music performing at the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival and making a few recordings before passing in 1994.

Lucille was a strong, gospel inflected vocalist who at times could be quite affective while at other times her vocals leaned to the histrionic side. Her 1960’s recordings are all in the company of her husband and she’s featured on recordings Otis did for Bluesway, Vanguard and Spivey. A couple of her best sides, “Chains of Love” and “Love With A Feelin’” (both on Chicago Blues Masters Vol. 3) were cut for World Pacific in 1968, and both featured in our show. There is also Last Call, recorded live in 1970, three weeks before Otis Spann passed, featuring Lucille taking all the vocals. Overall this is a depressing listening experience and not the way anyone would choose to remember Spann. In the 1970’s Lucille sang “Dedicated to Otis” at the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival which is on the 2-LP companion album, cut her only album, Cry Before I Go, for Bluesway in 1973 and waxed the 45’s Country Girl Returns Part 1 & 2 and Woman’s Lib for Torrid.

When I mention Shirley Griffith to anyone I invariably get the same two questions - he’s a man and his name is Shirley? and Shirley Griffith who? Yes to the first question and I’ll spend the rest of this post explaining the latter. In short Shirley Griffith was a deeply expressive singer and guitarist who learned first hand from Tommy Johnson as a teenager in Mississippi. Griffith missed his opportunity to record as a young man but recorded three superb albums: Indiana Ave. Blues (1964, with partner J.T. Adams), Saturday Blues (1965) and Mississippi Blues (1973). The fact that all three albums are out of print goes a ways in understanding why Griffith remains so little known. He also didn’t benefit all that much from the renewed blues interest of the 1960’s; he never achieving the acclaim of late discovered artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, the critical appreciation of a Robert Pete Williams or the excitement surrounding rediscovered legends like Son House, Skip James or Mississippi John Hurt. He did achieve modest notice touring clubs with Yank Rachell in 1968, performed at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 and appeared at the Notre Dame Blues Festival in South Bend, Indiana in 1971. Griffith passed away in 1974

Born in 1907 near Brandon, Mississippi Griffith was certainly old enough to have made records in the 1920’s and 30’s and in fact had at least two opportunities to do so. In 1928 his friend and mentor, Tommy Johnson, offered to help him get started but, by his own account, he was too “wild and reckless” in those days. In 1928 he moved to Indianapolis where he became friendly with Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. In 1935 Carr offered to take Griffith to New York for a recording session but Carr died suddenly and the trip was never made. It was Art Rosenbaum who was responsible for getting Griffith on record and who also precipitated the comeback of Scrapper Blackwell. Rosenbaum produced Griffith’s Bluesville albums. “I recall one August afternoon”, he wrote in the notes to Saturday Blues, “shortly after these recordings were made; Shirley sat in Scrapper Blackwell’s furnished room singing the Bye Bye Blues with such intensity that everyone present was deeply moved, though they had all heard him sing it many times before. Scrapper was playing , too, and the little room swelled with sound. When they finished there was a moment of awkward silence. Finally Shirley smiled and said: ‘The blues’ll kill you. And make you live, too.’”

Writing about another older musician who only recorded late in life, Tony Russell had this to say: “Through this streaked glass one can discern the outlines of a younger, quicker musician who unfortunately never recorded.” It would have been interesting to hear how Griffith sounded when he was younger but it’s hard to imagine him sounding much better than on these late recordings. His singing is superb on these recordings; warm, controlled and expressive, often drawing out his phrases in a relaxed, easy manner. His guitar playing is subtle, melodic and gently propulsive and contains hidden depths upon repeated listening. His guitar work stands on it’s own as evidenced on a pair of instrumentals: the bouncy “Shirley’s Jump” from Saturday Blues and the gently driving “Delta Haze” from Mississippi Blues. Griffith clearly absorbed elements from both Tommy Johnson and Scrapper Blackwell and his synthesis of their styles makes for compelling listening.

Both Saturday Blues and Mississippi Blues are absorbing recordings and there’s little discernible difference in quality even though they were recorded eight years apart. On the latter record his singing, still superb, has lost perhaps a bit of the smoothness of the earlier record. Tommy Johnson obviously made an indelible impression on the young Griffith one that is clearly evident on marvelous renditions of Johnson signature pieces “Maggie Campbell”, “Bye Bye Blues” and “Big Road Blues” that glow with the power of the originals. Griffith was also inspired by Johnson’s long time friend and partner Ishman Bracey where he learned “Left Alone Blues” and the ironic “Saturday Blues (both recorded at Bracey’s first 1928 Victor session) with it’s classic couplet derived from Johnson’s “Cool Drink of Water Blues:” “She’s the meanest woman that I ever seen/I ask for water, she gives me gasoline.” Much of Griffith’s repertoire is traditional or based on standards from the 1930’s such as “Meet Me In The Bottom” recorded by Bumble Bee Slim and others, a lovely version of “Mean Mistreater Mama” also recorded by Bumble Bee Slim as well as Tampa Red, Peetie Wheatstraw’s “King of Spades”, “Shaggy Hound Blues” which shares some lines with “Saturday Blues” and blues of more recent vintage in Mercy Dee Walton’s “One Room Country Shack.” Other notable songs, likely traditionally based, include the strutting “Cool Kind Papa From New Orleans”, “Flying Eagle Blues” and “River Line Jump” (versions appear on both albums) a number he put together with some Jackson pals containing the haunting lines: “I’m goin’ some place I ain’t never been before/Over In France, on the killin’ floor.”

Given his low profile I’m not sure how likely it is any of Griffith’s albums will be reissued on CD any time soon. Bluesville has reissued many of their albums on CD and doesn’t seem to be putting out any new reissues and no one has picked up the Blue Goose catalog, a sister label to Yazoo, which issued some fine records in the early 1970’s. As a side note I don’t own a copy of Indiana Ave. Blues although not for lack of trying. I’ve been outbid twice on eBay and judging by what the winners paid they obviously wanted this record much more then I did!

Shirley Griffith - Saturday Blues [From Saturday Blues] (MP3)

Shirley Griffith - River Line Blues [From Saturday Blues] (MP3)

Shirley Griffith - Mean Mistreater Mama [From Mississippi Blues] (MP3)

Shirley Griffith - Delta Haze [From Mississippi Blues] (MP3)

Show Notes:

The American Folk Blues Festival was an annual event that featured the cream of American blues musicians barnstorming their way across Europe beginning in 1962. German jazz publicist Joachim-Ernst Berendt first had the idea of bringing original blues performers to Europe and thought that European audiences would flock to concert halls to see them in person. Promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau would bring this idea to reality with the help of Willie Dixon. Dixon acted as talent scout, agent and recruited Chicago artists for the tour. The first festival was held in 1962, and they continued almost annually until 1972, after an eight-year hiatus reviving the festival in 1980 until its final performance in 1985. The impact of these annual tours had a profound impact on those that were in attendance. Future stars such as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page any many others were in the audience and were directly influenced by what they saw. The rise of blues based bands like the The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and Animals can be directly attributed to the AFBF.

The AFBF concerts have been well served on CD. The early years are collected on Evidence’s 5-CD box American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965 which also has a well written booklet by Bill Dahl. For the less committed there’s the single CD American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965: Highlights. The Bellaphon label has issued the following sets: American Folk Blues Festival 1965/1966/1967/1969 (4-CD), American Folk Blues Festival 1970/1972/1980/1981 (4-CD) and American Folk Blues Festival 1982/1983/1985 (3-CD). There’s also many single CD collections. For a complete discography visit the AFBF discography. There’s also four DVD’s of footage available through Hip-O Records which are highly recommended.

Show Notes:

[This is an updated version of an article I wrote in 2006]

When people think of the blues the sound is usually associated with guitar, piano and harmonica. Although little-heard on commercial recordings after the 1940s, the mandolin played an important role in blues and early rural black music. W.C. Handy makes mention of the mandolin, although not explicitly calling it blues, in his early writing. In 1903 Handy’s orchestra was playing a dance in Mississippi when a member of the audience asked if a local group could perform for the crowd during the band’s break. Handy agreed, and marveled at the ragged trio as it mounted the stage. With guitar, mandolin, and bass the trio pounded out an “up” number that threw the dancers into a frenzy drawing applause and cheers when they finished.

In the 1880’s a foreign group called the Spanish Students (subsequent groups used the same name) caused a sensation playing their native mandolin-like bandurrias, aiding greatly to the mandolin’s popularity. Soon mandolin clubs and orchestras appeared throughout the country and by the end of the nineteenth century significant numbers of mandolins were being produced. As new popular music styles emerged after World War I interest in the instrument began to decline and many disposed of their instruments. Large numbers of used, low priced mandolins were now available and began to find there way into the hands of Southern rural musicians. By the 1920’s companies such as Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward were aiding to the trend by making inexpensive mandolins available through mail order catalogs, enabling those in rural area to easily attain them. Southern musicians embraced the mandolin because of it’s capacity as a lead instrument and it is likely that the instrument’s similarities to the fiddle contributed to it’s broad acceptance. In addition to having a common tuning, the mandolin and the fiddle also share some performance characteristics, and since the technique of mandolin picking is similar to that of the guitar, many non-fiddle-playing musicians were able to emulate the sound of the fiddle to a certain extent by the use of double stops and sustained tremolo picking on the mandolin.

The mandolin can be heard on numerous recordings of the 1920’s and 1930’s particularly on several black string band and jug band recordings. The most famous of all the jug bands was the Memphis Jug Band who waxed some 80 or so sides between 1927 and 1934. The band was a collective of talented musicians, mostly street singers, that worked in various groupings and that were almost always led by singer/harmonica player Will Shade (a.k.a Son Brimmer). In 1927 when Charlie Polk, who usually played the jug, couldn’t make a session, Shade added Vol Stevens to the group. Stevens played a banjo-mandolin, which resembles a mandolin neck attached to a small banjo body. Played as a mandolin, the banjo skin gives the instrument more volume and a percussive sound. His work can be prominently heard on songs like “State of Tenessee Blues”, “Snitchin’ Gambler Blues”, “Evergreen Money Blues” and “Peaches In The Springtime.” Stevens also recorded with Charlie Burse, Picaninny Jug Band plus two tracks under his own name: “Vol Stevens Blues” and “Baby Got The Rickets (Mama’s Got The Mobile Blues.”

During the 20’s and 30’s jug bands flourished throughout the South and Mid-West. Bands like the obscure Walter Taylor’s Washboard Band in Indiana, King David’s Jug Band in Cincinnati (”Rising Sun Blues”), Georgia’s Scottdale String Band and the Birmingham Jug Band in Atlanta featuring unknown mandolinists playing banjo-mandolins. The Birmingham Jug Band’s eight recordings are characterized by a prominent lead mandolin and equally prominent harmonica; gruff, heavy vocals; and a throbbing rhythm enforced largely by the insistently pounding jug.In Texas the Dallas String Band were quite popular led by mandolinist Coley Jones as the band performed dance music and blues. Standouts from the group include “Dallas Rag” and “Sweet Mama Blues.” In Mississippi there were bands such as the one organized by Tommy Bradley which featured Eddie Dimmitt on mandolin on several songs such as “When You’re Down and Out” and the Chatmon family who put together a string band who became famous as the Mississippi Sheiks. The Chatmon Brothers - Sam, Lonnie and Bo form the group’s core with Walter Vinson added later. It should be noted that the group never recorded with a mandolin player.

The Mississippi Sheiks influenced a number of musicians like Carl Martin who played guitar and mandolin, featuring the mandolin in his later work with Howard Armstrong and Ted Bogan. Carl Martin was born near Stone Gap, VA, on April 1, 1906. His main instrument was mandolin but he also mastered the guitar.Martin not only performed solo, but also spent much of his career in a trio featuring Ted Bogan (guitar) and Howard Armstrong (violin). The trio enjoyed a career that spanned five decades and was known under several different monikers, including the Four Keys, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, and the Wandering Troubadours. Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong initially traveled all over the south entertaining at medicine shows, county fairs, and on the radio. Following years of playing solo, Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong reunited in the early ’70s and played the folk and blues festival circuit all over the country. Martin cut a session for Testament in 1966 where he prominently play mandolin. In 1966 Pete welding gathered together four veteran Chicago blues musicians (three of whom were playing electric blues at the time) and had them re-create the style of a 1920s/’30s string band. Carl Martin (60 at the time) was part of the original era, and he is heard on violin and guitar. Also featured in different combinations are Johnny Young on mandolin, guitarist John Lee Granderson, and John Wrencher on harmonica; all four musicians have their spots taking vocals. In addition Martin appears on the Testament compilation “Mandolin Blues” featuring tracks by Johnny Young, Yank Rachel and Willie Hatcher who last recorded in 1938. In the pre-war period Hatcher played mandolin on 1938 sessions by Speckled Red and Sonny Boy Williamson I.

A local musician, Charlie McCoy, followed the Mississippi Sheiks and eventually teamed up with individual members for recording sessions. McCoy played mandolin with Bo Chatmon (a.k.a. Bo Carter), Walter Vinson on sessions under their own names as well as with them in a group called the Mississippi Blacksnakes and with Vinson in the Mississippi Mud Steppers. With the latter band he cut his classic instrumental “Jackson Stomp”, based on the seminal “Cow Cow Blues”, (the song was modified as “The Lonesome Train That Took My Baby Away” at a Charlie McCoy session with Bo Carter on guitar) and with the Mississippi Blacksnakes he waxed the bawdy “Grind So Fine.”

Charlie McCoy ranked among the great blues accompanists of his era and his deft mandolin/guitar work can be heard on numerous recordings from the late 1920’s through the early 40’s. His younger brother Joe McCoy was another great sideman who’s slide style was most notably preserved on the landmark recordings of his wife Memphis Minnie. In addition to playing in jug and string band settings, McCoy proved that the mandolin had a place in the blues. McCoy was recording regularly by the late 1920s, often alongside Walter Vincson and sat in with many other Delta bluesmen who passed through the Jackson area in the years to follow, appearing on guitar and mandolin. A prime example is his work accompanying delta legend Ishman Bracey on two 1928 sessions. He played second guitar on a some sides and mandolin on “Brown Mama Blues.” He also made notable recordings on mandolin backing his sister-in-law Memphis Minnie, Big Bill Broonzy, Curtis Jones, Monkey Joe, Mary Butler and others. Between 1936 and 1939, he also cut a number of sessions with the groups Papa Charlie’s Boys including the memorable “Let My Peaches Be” and the Harlem Hamfats, (the latter also featuring his brother) with his mandolin playing featured prominently on a number of sides such as “Growling Dog”, “Bad Luck Man” and “What You Gonna Do.” McCoy also cut scattered sides under his own name between 1929 and 1935 cutting notable numbers like “Your Valves Need Grinding” and “Last Time Blues.” The war cut short McCoy’s career, and he made no more recordings after 1942, dying in Chicago on July 26, 1950.

Yank Rachell

Perhaps the primary mandolin player of the early era was James “Yank” Rachell. He met Sleepy John Estes in the early 1920’s and by 1929 they began recording for Victor, cutting several sessions into 1930 with Estes handling the bulk of the vocals backed by Jab Jones on piano and piercing mandolin from Rachell. Notable recordings by the group include “The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair”, “Diving Duck Blues” and “Whatcha Doin’.” Rachell cut sides on both guitar and mandolin in 1934 for Victor and ARC. In 1938 he participated in the legendary Aurora, Illinois, Bluebird sessions with notable mandolin playing backing Sonny Boy Williamson I on numbers such as “Decoration Blues”, “Down South”, “Shannon Street” and a session with Elijah Jones. Rachell cut two dozen sides under his own name for Bluebird in 1938 and 1941 in the company of Sonny Boy Williamson I, Elijah Jones, Big Joe Williams and Washboard Sam. Rachell is in peak form on sides like “Texas Tommy”, “Peach Tree Blues”, “Lake Michigan Blues” “It Seems Like A Dream” and “I’m Wild And Crazy As it Can Be.” Rachell retired from music and moved to Indianapolis in 1958. His wife passed away in 1961, and afterward he resumed performing. In 1962, Rachell was re-united with Nixon and Estes, and the three of them began performing on the college and coffeehouse circuit, recording for Delmark as Yank Rachell’s Tennessee Jug Busters. Estes died in 1977, and from that time Rachell worked mainly as a solo act. He recorded only sporadically in his last years and died in 1997.

Like Rachell, Howard Armstrong was also from Tennessee. He played violin, mandolin, and guitar in the black string band style and made a few recordings in the twenties and thirties. Howard Armstrong a.k.a. “Louie Bluie” was rescued from obscurity when he was the subject of the “Louie Bluie” film documentary in the 1980s, produced by Terry Zwigoff (more famous for his film Crumb). Armstrong, as “Louie Bluie”, issued a 1934 single under that name - “Ted’s Stomp” b/w “State Street Rag” which features Armstrong’s mandolin on the latter side. In his youth he was in bands with Carl Martin and guitarist Ted Bogan, including the Four Aces and the Tennessee Chocolate Drops. Armstrong revived his career in the 1970s and he reunited with Bogan and Martin to tour college campuses, coffeehouses and festivals. Armstrong passed in 2003.

Other notable pre-war mandolin sessions were the six sides cut in 1920 by guitarist Nap Hayes and mandolin player Matthew Prater and a 1931 session by Joe Evans and Arthur McClain who also recorded as the Two Poor Boys. Nothing is known about the Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater except that they were from Vicksburg, Mississippi. The versatile Joe Evans and Arthur McClain were from East Tennessee and may have formed part of a circle of players in the Knoxville area that included Carl Martin and Howard Armstrong.

Johnny Young

Although the mandolin is not an instrument commonly associated with Chicago blues, it has been used by Chicago-based string bands or on Chicago-made recordings by artists such as Carl Martin, Charlie and Joe McCoy, and Yank Rachell. However, the only artist to use it successfully in the later electric blues format was Mississippi-born bluesman Johnny Young. It was Charlie McCoy who inspired Young to pick up mandolin. Unlike Yank Rachell, whose mandolin playing retained an older string-band feel, Young’s style was firmly grounded in a more contemporary postwar blues idiom, and he interacted well with other electric blues artists. Through his life, he had worked with the major figures of blues history, including Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Walter Horton, and Otis Spann. Young was also a skilled guitarist and a fine vocalist. He made his earliest recordings in 1947 for Ora Nelle where he cut “Money Taking Woman” b/w “Worried Man Blues” and “My Baby Walked Out” b/w “Let Me Ride Your Mule” in 1948 for Old Swingmaster. Young’s mandolin activity declined as Chicago’s African-American blues audience demanded a more modern and urban sound and Young remained unrecorded in the 1950’s. During the late ’60s, an emerging white blues-revival audience proved eager for Young’s mandolin styling and he cut several records for labels such as Testament, Bluesway, Arhoolie (”Moaning And Groaning”) and Blue Horizon before passing in 1974.

Two mandolin players, Luther Huff and Herb Quinn, had roots in the pre-war era but made their records in the post-war era. Luther and brother Percy were born in Fannin, MS. Both men spent time in Jackson where they were influenced by the music of Slim Duckett, Tommy Johnson, Ishmon Bracey and Charlie McCoy. Under Luther Huff’s name the duo cut four sides for Trumpet in 1951. Herb Quinn was born in 1896 and dominated the music of Tylertown, MS where Tommy Johnson spent a good deal of time. He was proficient on mandolin, violin, string bass and piano. He had a string band that played in the region six nights a week for both black and white dances and taught many younger musicians in the area. Quinn recorded three sides under his own name in 1966 as well as backing Roosevelt Holts, Babe Stovall and Isaac Youngblood.

With the subsequent deaths of Yank Rachell in 1997 and Howard Armstrong in 2003 the old time string band and mandolin traditions have virtually disappeared. A few modern day revivalists keep the mandolin tradition alive including Taj Mahal, Steve James, Johnny Nicholas, Andra Faye (Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women), Rich DelGrosso, Big Jack Johnson, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Billy Flynn.

Memphis Jug Band - Snitchin’ Gambler Blues (RA)

Vol Stevens - Baby Got The Rickets (RA)

King David’s Jug Band - Rising Sun Blues (RA)

Dallas Rag - Sweet Mama Blues (RA)

Miss. Mud Steppers - Jackson Stomp (RA)

Miss. Blacksnakes - Grind So Fine (RA)

Ishman Bracey - Brown Mama Blues (RA)

Papa Charlie’s Boys - Let My Peaches Be (RA)

Sleepy John Estes - Whatcha Doin’ (RA)

Yank Rachell - I’m Wild As Crazy As I Can Be (RA)

Louie Bluie - State Street Rag (RA)

Johnny Young - Money Taking Woman (RA)

Johnny Young - Stealin’ (RA)

Selected Mandolin Blues Discography

The Jug Bands
Memphis Jug Band Complete Recorded Works Vol 1 1927 - 1928 (Document DOCD-5021)
Memphis Jug Band Complete Recorded Works Vol 2 1928 - 1929 (Document DOCD-5022)
Memphis Jug Band Complete Recorded Works Vol 3 1930 (Document DOCD-5023)
Best of the Memphis Jug Band (Yazoo 2059)
Dallas String Band - Texas Black Country Dance Music 1927-35 (Document DOCD-5162)
Memphis Jug Band with Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers (JSP)
Memphis Shakedown: More Jug Band Classics (JSP)
Ruckus Juice & Chitlins, Vol. 1: The Great Jug Bands (Yazoo 2032)
Ruckus Juice & Chitlins, Vol. 2: The Great Jug Bands (Yazoo 2033)

Charlie McCoy
Charlie McCoy 1928 - 1932 (Document BDCD-6018)

Charlie & Joe McCoy:
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order Vol. 1 (1934-1936) (Document BDCD-6019)
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order Vol. 2 (1936-1944) (Document BDCD-6020)

w/ The Harlem Hamfats:
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 1 (1936) (Document DOCD-5271)
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order Vol. 2 (1936-1937) (Document DOCD-5272)
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order Vol. 3 (1937-1938) (Document DOCD-5273)
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order Vol. 4 (1938-1939) (Document DOCD-5274)

w/Walter Vinscon
Complete Recorded Works (1928-1941) Document (DOCD-6017)

w/ Ishman Bracey
Ishman Bracey / Charley Taylor - Complete Recorded Works (1928-1929) (Document DOCD-5049)

w/ Memphis Minnie
Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 4 (1938-1939) (Document DOCD-6011)
Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 5 (1940-1941) (Document DOCD-6012 )

Howard Armstrong
Louie Bluie - Soundtrack from Terry Zwigoff 1985 documentary (Arhoolie 470)
Louie Bluie (Howard Armstrong and friends) (Blue Suit Records)

Carl Martin
Carl Martin / Willie ‘61′ Blackwell 1930 - 1941 (Document DOCD-5229)
Carl Martin - Crow Jane Blues (Testament)

Nap Hayes & Matthew Prater
String Bands 1926 - 1929 (Document DOCD-5167)

Luther & Percy Huff
Delta Blues - 1951 (Alligator)

Johnny Young
Johnny Young and Big Walter, Chicago Blues (Arhoolie CD325)
Johnny Young- Blues Masters Vol.9 ( Blue Horizon BM4609)
Can’t Keep My Foot From Jumping (ABC/Bluesways BLS 6075)
The Chicago String Band (Testament Records T220)
Johnny Young and His Friends (Testament Records T2226)

Yank Rachell
James “Yank” Rachell Vol.1 (1934-38) (Wolf Records - WSE 106)
James “Yank” Rachell Vol.2 (1938-41) (Wolf Records - WSE 107)
The Blue Goose album (released on CD by Random Chance)
Blues Mandolin Man” (Blind Pig - also released on CD by Random Chance)
Chicago Style (Delmark)
Tennesee Jug Busters (Delmark)

Contemporary Players
Rich DelGrosso - Get Your Nose Outta My Bizness! (Independent)
Billy Flynn - Chicago Blues Mandolin -(Easy Baby)
Alvin Younblood Hart - Territory - (Haniba)l
Alvin Younblood Hart - Down In The Alley (Memphis International)
Steve James- Fast Texas- (Burnside)
Steve James- Art & Grit - (Discovery)

Miscellaneous
Rags, Breakdowns, Stomps & Blues: Vintage Mandolin Music 1927-1946 - (Document DOCD-32-20-3)
Mandolin Blues - (Testament TCD-6004)
Mississippi String Bands & Associates 1928 - 1931( Document BDCD-6013)
Violin, Sing the Blues for Me (Old Hat Records )
Early Mandolin Classics, Vol. 1 (Rounder CD1050 )

Sources

-Komara, Ed. Encyclopedia of the Blues vol. 2 K-Z, Routledge, New York, 2006.
-Russel, Tony and Smith, Chris. The Penguin Guide To Blues Recordings, penguin, London, England, 2006.
-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.
-DelGrosso, Rich. Mandolin Blues, Living Blues no. 79 March/April 188 (p 22-4).

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

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

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

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

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

Arzo Youngblood - Bye and Bye Blues (MP3)

Shirley Griffith - Maggie Campbell Blues (MP3)

Roosevelt Holts - Big Road Blues (MP3)