Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show spotlights Pete Welding’s Testament label. Welding had a fascinating career; not only was he a writer of note, he was an A&R man for Epic, Playboy, and for many years at Capitol’s special products division. In 1994, the Hightone label bought the Testament label and reissued all of the blues albums that were available plus some unissued sessions. From Pete welding: “I started Testament Records in 1963 to issue some of the recordings of blues and black folksong I had been making over the previous four or five years. During that time I had recorded, first in my hometown of Philadelphia and then in Chicago where I moved at the beginning of 1962, a fair number of artists whose music, I felt, deserved to be heard. Having a good-paying job at the time, I didn’t have to worry overmuch about the records paying for themselves, so I put out what I thought was interesting and worthwhile. Come to that, Testament never had any commercial pressures behind its releases, so these were as irregular as they were unusual and, I hope, valuable in documenting a number of the music’s overlooked genres and performers. some unreleased sessions. ” You can find out more about Welding and Testament by visiting the Pete Welding pages. Testament issued quite a number of records and below I discuss some of the more interesting ones featured on today’s program.

Welding clearly thought highly of Robert Nighthawk and Johnny Young: “Another artist who served as talent scout was Johnny Young, a fine, vastly underrated singer-guitarist-mandolinist who, like Big Joe, I recorded fairly extensively over the years both as featured performer and as accompanist to others. I issued the first of the many Young recordings I made on the compilation album Modern Chicago Blues… Johnny Young and Friends…presents this fine traditional blues artist in the entirety of his multi-faceted talent, as singer, guitarist and mandolinist in settings that range from solo performances to small-amplified ensembles. It’s one of the albums I’m proudest of doing, and one that still gives me great listening pleasure… I was unable to record a whole album’s worth of performances by the peripatetic Nighthawk but I did manage to do most of one in a session that resonates in my mind as perhaps the single finest one I was ever privileged to do. The combination of Robert’s lightly amplified guitar and controlled intensity, Young’s acoustic rhythm guitar and Wrencher’s quietly probing unamplified harmonica is breathtaking, almost chamber music-like in the perfection of its interlocking parts. This is my favorite Testament session. I’m Gettin’ Tired, from the album Robert Nighthawk/Houston Stackhouse, is a good example of why I still feel so.” Young pops up on quite a number of Testament recordings including the excellent The Chicago String Band an ad hoc group consisting of Carl Martin, John Lee Granderson and Big John Wrencher. The aforementioned Johnny Young and Friends is good but he cut better records for Arhoolie and Bluesway. Better is Robert Nighthawk/Houston Stackhouse which is a classic and there are also several other fine Nighthawk sides scattered on other Testament compilations.

Like Nighthawk and Young, John Lee Granderson and Big John Wrencher could be heard most Sunday mornings during the warm weather months performing on Chicago’s Maxwell Street open-air market area. In addition to the full length Hard Luck John, he cut sides on other Testament compilations with further sides appearing on various anthologies. Hard Luck John is a real gem featuring him in solo performances, duets, trios, and small electric combos with sterling backup from musicians like Johnny Young, Jimmy Walker, Bill Foster, Carl Martin, and others. He was a wonderful singer, tackling a mix of originals and cover of Arthur Crudup and Sonny Boy Williamson. It’s too bad Welding didn’t get around to recordings an album by Wrencher who would have to wait until the 70’s for albums under his own name.

It’s Johnny Young we owe thanks again for the “rediscovery” of Carl Martin. In 1966, Pete Welding with the help of Johnny Young, recorded Martin resulting in the terrific Crow Jane with Young playing accompaniment. Martin plays guitar and mandolin, tackling with gusto traditional material like “Corrina, Corrina”, “John Henry”, “Liza Jane” and then there’s two takes of the remarkable “State Street Pimp.”

Among other artists Welding recorded more extensively were Johnny Shines and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Welding cut Johnny Shines: Masters of Modern Blues Vol. 1 in 1966, Standing At The Crossroads in 1971 and Johnny Shines with Big Walter in 1969. All are fine records but the standout is Standing At The Crossroads with Shines performing solo and ranks among his finest efforts. “I was excited to find Johnny. He was one of the people that I was looking for all the time I was in Chicago. …I thought he was a marvelous player and just a wonderful, soft-spoken, scholarly man. I had the luxury of recording him over a long period of time. He came up with some pieces that he hadn’t played in a long time. I would interview him and during the course of the interview, he would start remembering all those old songs he had played. He’d start reconstructing them, and when we got together, he would record them.” Welding record two albums by Fred McDowell in 1964: My Home Is In The Delta and the stunning Amazing Grace. “While most of Fred’s many recordings over the years were of traditional Mississippi blues, he was equally, convincingly adept at religious song. This is well illustrated here by the stunning “Jesus Is On The Main Line” on which he was joined by the Hunter’s Chapel Singers of Como, Miss with whom he performed on Sunday mornings when at home in Como. It’s one of the highpoints of the album of Mississippi Delta spirituals Amazing Grace I recorded with the group in February of 1966.”

Welding issued a nice mix of modern Chicago blues as well as some very fine traditional material. Among the traditional albums were fine one by Bill Jackson, Blind Connie Williams and Jack Owens. “I started off with an album by Maryland singer and 12-string guitarist Bill Jackson who I had first met almost a decade earlier and had recorded fairly extensively. …Bill was one of the foremost discoveries I made during these years… Long Steel Rail, the album from which it has been drawn, was the first sampling of the black folksong traditions of rural Maryland and, three decades after its release, remains one of the albums I am proudest of having produced.” Jack Owens was recorded by David Evans, who ran into him in Bentonia, Mississippi in 1966 resulting in the superb It Must Have Been The Devil with partner Bud Spires. Owens was a contemporary of Skip James and played in a similar style. “Blind streetsinger Connie Williams, originally from Florida where he attended the same school for the blind that Ray Charles did a few years later, is another Philadelphia find…he was a superlative guitarist in the highly musical East Coast style.” Welding recorded him in 1961 resulting in the album Philadelphia Street Singer.

There were several interesting compilations issued on the label including Modern Chicago Blues, Can’t Keep From Crying, The Sound of the Delta, Mandolin Blues, San Diego Blues Jam plus a few unissued collections issued later by Hightone such as Down Home Slide, Down Home Harp and Bottleneck Blues. Modern Chicago Blues is among the strongest with excellent sides by Nighthawk, Young, Maxwell Street Jimmy while Mandolin Blues features fine tracks by older generation artists like Willie Hatcher, Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Can’t Keep From Crying is a moving collection of 13 topical songs on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy cut in the weeks following his death.

Today’s show is just a small sampling of the great music Welding cut for his Testament label over the course of roughly a decade. Thankfully all the label’s records are available on CD thanks to the Hightone label. The only record that seems to be omitted is The Legendary Peg Leg Howell the comeback record of 75 year old Peg Leg Howell which was recorded in 1963.

Show Notes:

As usual a wide variety of blues on tap today spanning from 1929 to the early 1980’s. The mix shows reflect things I’ve been listening to lately from my own collection as well as new things that I’ve picked up (just about every week!). Today’s show features three tracks from the fantastic, eclectic 3-CD set How Low Can You Go? : Anthology of the String Bass (1925-1941) from the Dust-to-Digital label. Dust-to-Digital is one of those great reissue labels like Revenant, Old Hat and Bear Family that puts out wonderful, lavish roots music collections that are clearly a labor of love. How Low Can You Go? is a survey into the early history of the string bass. Blues is only a small part of this collection and of the tunes we play today two include Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon and Georgia Tom: “Get The “L” On Down The Road” and “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone” the latter sporting the marvelous slide of Tampa Red. Up through 1931 Tampa and Georgia Tom made an unbeatable team, churning out dozens and dozens of sides with a number featuring the always entertaining vocals of Frankie Jaxon. Jaxon also pops up offering spoken encouragement on Bertha “Chippie” Hill’s marvelous “Pratt City Blues” with a great group including Georgia Tom, Ikey Robinson on banjo and Bill Johnson slapping the upright bass. I’ve played Hill before on the show and I’ve always felt she was an underrated singer. Another recent CD played today is Van Hunt: Field Recordings from Memphis, Tennessee (1976-1982) - Blues at Home Vol. 1 the Mbirafon label. Although the artist credit is to Mrs. Van Hunt, it also contains four songs recorded by her daughter Sweet Charlene Peeples and pianist Mose Vinson. Hunt spent the 1920’s in minstrel shows and was involved in the early Memphis blues scene. She cut “Selling The Jelly” in 1930 with the Noah Lewis Jug Band which we also feature today. The Van Hunt recordings were made by Lucio Maniscalchi and Giambattista Marcucci who previously had several volumes of field recordings issued on the Italian Albatross label . I’m not sure what the Mbirafon label’s plans are but I hope they reissue some of the field recordings issued on Albatross as the original LP’s have been hard to find.

Lucille Bogan

We also play a selection of country blues both old and new. I have to admit I’ve never been a huge fan of Buddy Boy Hawkins, a shadowy figure who recorded a dozen sides for Paramount between 1927 and 1929. I’ve sort of come around to him lately and today’s featured track, “Snatch It And Grab It”, is a superb ragtime flavored piece. We also spotlight a trio of fine blues ladies in Vera Hall, Lucille Bogan and Memphis Minnie. John Lomax met Vera Hall in the 1930’s and recorded her extensively for the Library of Congress between 1937-1940. Lomax wrote that she “had the loveliest voice [he] had ever recorded” and her haunting “Another Man Done Gone” certainly bears that out. Bessie Jackson was a pseudonym of Lucille Bogan, a classic female blues artist from the 20’s and 30’s. She hooked up with pianist Walter Roland in the 1930’s and the pair made more than 100 records together before Bogan stopped recording in 1935. Bogan almost exclusively focused on explicit sexual themes, like prostitution, adultery and lesbianism, and social ills such as alcoholism, drug addiction and abusive relationships. “Coffee Grindin’ Blues”, with Tampa on slide, is a fine example:

Ain’t nobody, it ain’t nobody in town can grind their coffee like mine
I drink so much coffee til’ I grind it in my sleep
And when it get like that you know it can’t be beat
It’s so doggone good and it made me bite my tongue

There’s not much that hasn’t been said about the incomparable Memphis Minnie. Her “Down By The Riverside” from 1941 is one of my favorite numbers by her.

I’ve written about the George Mitchell recordings recently and we play a set of those recordings today in anticipation of a full length feature in the coming weeks. George Mitchell made some remarkable field recordings throughout the South over a twenty-year period beginning in the early 1960’s. Many of these recordings have appeared on specialist labels like Southland, Revival, Flyright, Arhoolie and Rounder but are long out of print now. Several years ago the Fat Possum label acquired the Mitchell archive and began reissuing the recordings. J.W. Warren was the last artist Mitchell recorded in the field and his “The Escape Of Corinna” maybe his masterpiece. More of his fine recordings can be found on Fat Possum’s “Life Ain’t Worth Livin’.” From the 1960’s we spotlight two fine, under recorded figures, Houston Stackhouse and Maxwell Jimmy Davis. Never a prolific recording artist, Maxwell Jimmy had sides appear on Takoma, Sonet in the UK and the UK’s Bruce Bastin released some live material on his Flyright label. Jimmy’s last major outing was for Austria’s Wolf label, Chicago Blues Session Volume 11 issued in 1989. This track is from his only full-length record, Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, cut for Elektra in 1965 and unfortunately out of print . Stackhouse was a pivotal figure on the southern blues scene from the 1920’s through the 196o’s; he taught his cousin Robert Nighthawk guitar, was a friend of Tommy Johnson, played behind Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit show and knew just about every important figure you could name. Unfortunately he didn’t record under his own name until the late 1960’s. He first recorded for George Mitchell in August 1967 and six days later for David Evans. He cut scattered sides through the 1970’s until his passing in 1980. For more on Stackhouse I recommend reading his interview in The Voice of The Blues an illuminating insight into the southern blues scene form somebody who seemingly knew everybody.

We play a number of blues from the 1950’s through the early 1970’s including a cut off the Johnny “Guitar” Watson collection Untouchable!: The Classic 1959-1966 Recordings on Ace. His “In The Evenin’” is a sizzling after hours blues. From the Vee-Jay label we spin a pair from the label’s big hit makers, Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker; “I Know It’s A Sin” and “Canal Street Blues” are a pair of great moody blues. From 1957 we clock in with Buddy And Ella Johnson’s “You’ll Get Them Blues.” With his sister Ella serving for decades as his primary vocalist, pianist Buddy Johnson led a large jump blues band that enjoyed tremendous success during the 1940s and ’50s. In addition to their frequent jaunts on the R&B charts, the Johnson band barnstormed the country to sellout crowds throughout the ’40s. This cut from the four discs (104 tracks in all) 1953-1964 on Bear Family overs the sides they cut for Mercury, Roulette, and Old Town. Unfortunately this set appears to be out of print. We also spin some jump, horn driven blues from Gatemouth Brown and Wynonie Harris. We close things out with a pair of funky numbers in Freddie King’s infectious “Surf Monkey” instrumental and the timely “I Don’t Want To Be President” by the ever philosophical Percy Mayfield:

Now just suppose I had a girlfriend and called her, and she lived way across the lake
Why Congress would know the whole conversation because, you see, they’d have it on tape
Then they put me on the television to tell the whole world my private life
Hell I wouldn’t mind if people knowing but what about my wife

Mississippi John Hurt’s “Avalon” Blues” provided a road map some thirty plus years later to the singer just as Bukka White’s “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues” led to the rediscovery of White (John Fahey and Ed Denson addressed a letter to “Bukka White (Old Blues Singer), c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Mississippi”). Similar, but more roundabout was a clue the mysterious King Solomon Hill left back in 1932. In 1966 Stephen Calt contacted blues detective Gayle Dean Wardlow writing that he heard “goin’ Minden” in King Solomon Hill’s “The Gone Dead Train.” That correspondence led to the unraveling of one of the blues greatest mysteries. “… I went to Minden and began asking people on the streets in the black section if they heard of a King Solomon Hill who made records in 1932. One of them said, after listening to the King Solomon Hill cuts from the Sam Collins LP ( Origin Jazz Library OJL-10), ‘That sho’ ’nuff sounds like Joe Holmes. You go down there to Sibley. That where he come from.’” Sibley was the hometown of Holmes which resulted in Wardlow’s King Solomon Hill (78 Quarterly no. 1 (1967): 5-9) and One Last Walk Up King Solomon Hill (Blues Unlimited no. 148 (Winter 1987): 8-12) both reprinted in the book Chasin’ That Devil Music.

Roberta Allums, who was once married to Joe Holmes, is pictured here with (unidentified) neighbor holding a 1932 King Solomon Hill record. Photo Gayle Wardlow

Both Mississippi John Hurt and Bukka White were duly rediscovered and went on to successful comebacks during the blues revival. No such luck for King Solomon Hill who according to his ex-wife died in 1949. Hill’s legacy is the six sides he cut for Paramount in 1932: “Whoopee Blues”, “Down On My Bended Knee”, “The Gone Dead Train”, “Tell Me Baby”, “My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon” and “Times Has Done Got Hard.” The last two numbers were not found until 2002 by record collector John Tefteller. It seems particularly true in blues that quantity has no bearing on artistic achievement and obscure artists have issued music on par with their more established peers. King Solomon Hill is a case in point, all six sides small three minute masterpieces in there own way. King was closely connected to Crying Sam Collins and Blind Lemon Jefferson and their influence is evident, to some degree, in Hill’s style. Hill’s records are utterly captivating featuring his eerie falsetto and a raw, slide style featuring irregular rhythms and notes said to be stretched out by the use of a cow bone. The integration between his free form slide guitar and vocals perfectly compliment one another. “Whoopee Blues” is a version of Lonnie Johnson’s 1930 number “She’s Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight” although with a totally different guitar part and with a bleak, haunting quality missing in Johnson’s version. The flip side is the equally compelling “Down On My Bended Knee.” The Gone Dead Train” may be his finest number, a magnificent train blues apparently about a railroad disaster. The flip side, “Tell Me Baby”, is variation of Memphis Minnie’s 1930 number “What Fault You Find of Me, again with a different guitar part and given a wholly original treatment. If anything, the newly discovered Hill sides confirm his genius; “My Buddy, Blind Papa Lemon”is a heartfelt tribute to someone Hill clearly admired: “Hmmm then the mailman brought a misery to my head/When I received a letter that my friend Lemon was dead.” Hill ran with Lemon for about two months after he passed through Minden. Hill’s widow recalled that “he sung that song a whole lot ’bout Blind Lemon. Said he loved his buddy ’some way better than anyone I know.’” “Times Has Done Got Hard” is a superb hard time blues opening with knocking notes on the guitar as he sings “That’s the rent man/You know it must got tough he coming here before rent’s due/Ahh baby, sorry we got to move.”

Those who’ve been enthralled with haunting, otherworldly sounds of Robert Johnson and Skip James would do well to listen to King Solomon Hill, one of the more intriguing footnotes in pre-war blues history. With the newly discovered sides there is no one collection that contains all of Hill’s recordings. Six sides can be found on Document’s Backwood Blues 1926-1935, the newly found sides can be found oh the JSP set When The Levee Breaks plus several Hill tracks appear on various Yazoo compilations with superior remastering. Also make sure to make read Wardlow’s Chasin’ That Devil Music which details the known facts of Hill’s life and is an all around essential read for fans of early blues.

Whoopee Blues (MP3)

Down On My Bended Knee (MP3)

The Gone Dead Train (MP3)

Tell Me Baby (MP3)

My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon (MP3)

Times Has Done Got Hard (MP3)

Show Notes:

Lonnie Johnson’s talents have been justly praised, he’s by no means obscure, yet he seems to be overlooked by blues fans and collectors. When the early collectors were investigating the old blues singers they seemed to have singled out Mississippi, the Delta in particular, as the incubator for the real blues. They seemed to have favored the more obscure, down home artists in lieu of more popular, sophisticated artists like Lonnie. More urban, popular artists like Lonnie and Tampa Red seem to have their very popularity held against them in favor of artists deemed more authentic like Son House, Skip James and of course Robert Johnson. Lonnie’s guitar skills have been duly praised but less is said about just what made him so popular among black audiences, namely his bittersweet vocals, both confident and confiding, and his insightful songs into the human condition. Here then, is my tribute to Lonnie which due to time constraints focuses on his recordings from the 1920’s through the early 1950’s omitting his fine 60’s output. The below piece was something I wrote on Lonnie a few years back.

Lonnie Johnson was a true musical innovator who’s remarkable recording career spanned from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. During that time his musical diversity was amazing: he played piano, guitar, violin, he recorded solo, he accompanied down home country blues singers like Texas Alexander, he played with Louis Armtrong’s Hot Fives, recorded with Duke Ellington, duetted with Victoria Spivey and cut a series of instrumental duets with the white jazzman Eddie Lang that set a standard of musicianship that remains unsurpassed by blues guitarists. In Johnson’s single-string style lie the basic precedents of such jazz greats as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, while being a prime influence on bluesman as diverse as Robert Johnson, Tampa Red and B.B. King. Thus Johnson enjoys the rare distinction of having influenced musicians in both the jazz and blues fields. While his guitar skills have been justly celebrated less has been said about his bittersweet vocals, tinged with a world weary sadness and capable of a rare subtly and nuance. It was a perfect match for his well crafted and imaginative songs filled with dark imagery, longing and an unflinchingly misogynist view of woman and love. In an interview with valerie Wilmer he described his approach this way: “I sing city blues. My blues is built on human beings on land, see how they live, see their heartaches and the shifts they go through with love affairs and things like that— that’s what I write about and that’s the way I make my living. …My style …comes from my soul within. The heart-aches and the things that have happened to me in my life—that’s what makes a good blues singer. …I have my own original style, all my life I sang this way. I have also made quite a progress in singing ballads ’cause I sing blues, ballads, swing—anything.” Despite his amazing versatility and the longevity of his career, he remains a somewhat under appreciated figure particularly among blues scholars and collectors.

He was born Alonzo Johnson in New Orleans and his year of birth has been variously listed as 1889, 1894 and 1900. He was one of thirteen children, all of whom were groomed to play in their father’s string ensemble. “When I was fourteen years old I was playing with my family. They had a band that played for weddings—it was schottisches and waltzes and things, there wasn’t no blues in those days, people didn’t think about the blues.” Johnson began his career in earnest and bought his first guitar. In 1917 Lonnie sailed to London with a musical revue but few details have surfaced regarding this event. When he returned to New Orleans he was greeted with the news that virtually his entire family had been wiped out by the widespread influenza epidemic of 1918. Johnson moved north to St. Louis around this period with his surviving brothers. By this time he already had a successful career as a blues violinist, working steadily not only in New Orleans, but in a jazz band led by coronet player Charlie Creath. After a falling-out with Creath, Johnson discarded the violin and formed a trio with his brother James (Steady Roll), who played violin, and pianist DeLoise Searcy. Big Bill Broonzy, who played in St. Louis (but not with Johnson) recalled that “Lonnie was playing the violin, guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, and all the things you could make music on. . .”

In 1925 Johnson won a Blues contest held at the Booker T. Washington Theatre in St. Louis (for 18 weeks in a row, he said), sponsored by the Okeh record company. Part of the prize was a recording deal with the company. “I had done some singing by then”, he recalled, “but I still didn’t take it as seriously my guitar playing, and I guess I would have done anything to get recorded - it just happened to be a blues contest, so I sang the blues.” His first session in 1925 found him as the featured vocalist with Creath’s band and they cut “Won’t Do Blues” in November of 1925. By January 1926 Johnson’s first 78, “Mr. Johnson’s Blues”/”Falling Rain Blues” was on he market. Johnson proved an immediate success and he commenced to recording at an astonishing pace, cutting over 130 sides between 1925 and 1932, more than any make blues singer of the period. In addition to his own records he he appeared prominently on the records of other Okeh artist such as Clara Smith, Victoria Spivey, Texas Alexander and others. He became a respected name to jazz collectors because of his solos on records by Louis Armstrong such as “I’m Not Rough,” “Mahogany Hall” and and on Duke Ellington records like “Hot And Bothered” and “The Mooche.” He was also celebrated for a series of remarkable duets with white guitarist Eddie Lang (masquerading as Blind Willie Dunn) in 1928-29 that were utterly groundbreaking in their ceaseless invention.

Although Johnson’s earlier works continued to be issued until 1935, his live recording prospects in the mid-thirties were largely foreclosed by a dispute with Lester Melrose, the music publisher who largely ruled local recording. Apparently Melrose refused to record him unless he changed his too-familiar guitar style. Johnson refused to do so. The result was he enjoyed no sessions between 1932 and 1937. In person, he appeared in Chicago with the drummer Baby Dodds, and with such popular musicians as Roosevelt Sykes and John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson. Eventually he was forced to work outside of music when the Depression was in full swing. Johnson recalled: “I worked for a firm makin’ railroad ties in Galesburg, Illinois …I went to Peoria Illinois …and I work’ in a steel foundry there. Play the blues at nights…”

Johnson came back to recording life with a contract from Decca in 1937 with the first session recorded on 8th November of that year. During 1938 another session was done for a total of 16 titles. In 1939 he signed a contract with Bluebird. Johnson picked up right where he left off, selling quite a few copies of “He’s a Jelly Roll Baker” and cutting wealth of fine material that helped Johnson regain his former popularity. He recorded for Bluebird until 1944. Johnson next cut a half dozen records for the New York based Disc label in 1946 and then made his first amplified performances on record in June 1947 for Aladdin Records. Later that year he started a fruitful association with an emerging independent company in Cincinnati, King Records.

On December 11, 1947 Johnson entered the King Records studio at 1540 Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio and recorded what was probably the most successful record of his long career, King 4201 - “Tomorrow Night” - often subtitled on the King label as “Lonnie Johnson’s Theme Song.” By 1950 “Tomorrow Night” had sold a million copies. The December 1947 King session marked the beginning of Johnson’s six-year stay in Cincinnati spent recording for King Records, playing local clubs and touring occasionally. Johnson recorded prolifically scoring chart sucess with “Pleasing You”, “So Tired” and “Confused.” In 1952 Johnson made an 11 month tour of England. When he returned to the States his career took a downward turn when he contract with King Records ended in 1952.

The rest of the 50’s were a down time for Johnson who spent much of the decade outside of music working construction or toiling as a janitor. In 1959 Samuel Charters’ groundbreaking book “The Country Blues” was published which described Johnson’s situation in rather morbid terms: “He is not a young man, and the opportunities for an older singer to break into the teenage rock and roll craze that dominates the industry are very slight. For Lonnie it has been a long road, without much of an end.” In actuality things took an upswing when a year prior Johnson was rediscovered by jazz enthusiast Chris Albertson which rekindled a major comeback. As Albertson wrote in the liner notes to Johnson’s Bluesville debut: “I was interviewing Elmer Snowden on my radio show when I played an old record by Lonnie which I followed up with the remark: ‘I wonder whatever happened to Lonnie Johnson?’ Elmer replied: ‘I saw him in the Supermarket the other day’. A listener then called up and said that he worked with Lonnie at the hotel so I finally contacted him, brought him to my apartment and had him play for me. Having recorded his playing and singing and realizing that he was as good as ever I took the tapes to Prestige and Lonnie was on his way again.” Between 1960 and 1962 he cut five albums for the label, three of which were produced by Albertson, and showed that Johnson had lost little despite several years outside of music. He spent the early 1960’s working a busy schedule that eventually took him back to Europe for the 1963 American Folk Blues Festival. He also made records in England, Denmark and Germany. As he said to Valerie Wilmer in 1963: “I have enough work now back in the States to do me for the next fifteen years.”

As the 1960’s rolled on it seemed that the blues revival was passing Johnson by. As singer Barbara Dane noted: “This was largely true, because he was a very sophisticated player in a moment when the world was looking for the rough and earthy Delta players. …Lonnie had a strong attraction for the romantic pop songs like “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” etc. which he played when the audiences were looking for the gritty blues. People during the early ’60s searching for blues roots wanted to hear ‘funky and back-alley’ and Lonnie played clean and uptown. Lonnie craved respect for what he created, like any other musician. The (white) public at that time was mostly looking for someone who could personally introduce them to their fantasy of black culture. In other words, he was out of tune with the times.” In 1964 Johnson went to Toronto for a club appearance, found an ardent group of admirers and remained there until his passing. In 1969 he was hit by a car in Toronto where he was hospitalized for several months. He died the following year on June 16, 1970 from the effects of the accident.

Robert Nighthawk, Houston Stackhouse, Peck Curtis, Powell, MS, April, 1967

At the tail end of August 1967 George Mitchell recorded an impromptu combo who called themselves the Blues Rhythm Boys in Dundee, MS, a small town on route 61 roughly halfway between Tunica and Friars Point and just across the river from Helena, AR. The group consisted of Houston Stackhouse, Robert Nighthawk and James “Peck” Curtis. As I wrote in my notes to Prowling With The Nighthawk: “The music harks back to Nighthawk and Stackhouse’s early delta days. Tommy Johnson’s influence looms large with five of his songs being covered. In a way Nighthawk’s life had come full circle; he was once again playing with Stackhouse who taught how to play guitar, Stackhouse in turn learned directly from Tommy Johnson and here were the two old friends performing the songs of Johnson together one final time. Nghthawk died less than two months after these recordings on Nov. 5 1967 of congestive heart failure at the Helena hospital”

Houston Stackhouse & Carey Mason Crystal Springs, MS, August, 1967

The recordings have been justly celebrated and long available, with sides appearing on Arhoolie’s Mississippi Delta Blues- Blow My Blues Away Vol. 1 & 2 and Robert Nighthawk & Houston Stackhouse - Masters of Modern Blues Volume 4. These are beautiful recordings with Stackhouse singing magnificently as he delivers a perfect falsetto in the manner of Tommy Johnson coupled with some his fairly modern guitar playing while Nighthawk seconds on guitar and Peck Curtis provides ramshackle, clattering drums. Nighthawk took the lead on three numbers; “Nighthawk Boogie” was an inventive instrumental not far removed from the recordings he made on Maxwell Street three years earlier, “Blues Before Midnight” was a gorgeous mellow blues with a “Blues After Hours” feel while Carey Mason takes the vocal on “You Call Yourself A Cadillac.” Carey Mason was a guitarist/vocalist from Crystal Springs who was the main local partner of Stackhouse. The duo were recorded a few days later in Crystal Springs by David Evans and those recordings can be found on Wolf’s Big Road Blues.

It appears that some unknown sides have surfaced via Fat Possum’s reissue of the George Mitchell recordings. These are not listed in Blues Discography 1943-70. The Stackhouse sides are “Fare You Well Blues” and “See Here Woman” while the unlisted Nighthawk sides are “Down By The Wayside”, “Travelin’ Man Blues” and “Down By The Woodshed” (this track appears on Vol. 44 of Fat Possum’s 7″ record series). Furthermore it sounds like “Fare You Well Blues” and “Down By The Wayside” are the same song although different lengths and that the titles might be switched on the two Nighthawk sides (”Down By The Wayside” has lyrics that suggest the title should be “Travelin’ Man Blues”)!? The vocalist on the two Stackhouse sides and Nighthawk’s “Travelin’ Man Blues” is uncredited but I believe it’s Carey Mason who was obviously present at the recordings. I’ve been unable to contact George Mitchell regarding this session. Furthermore Blues Discography 1943-70 lists three unissued titles: “Country Shack”, “Stuttering Blues” and and untitled instrumental which could be one of the two newly issued Nighthawk instrumentals. One further bit of strangeness is the listing in Blues Discography 1943-70 of bassist Houston Goff on several sides who, as far as I know, has never been listed anywhere else as part of this session. This whole session is a bit confusing, which I guess is the nature of field recordings. A minor discographical puzzle to be sure, but as one who’s been researching Robert Nighthawk for some time it’s all a bit maddening!

Travelin’ Man Blues (MP3)

Down By The Wayside (MP3)

Nighthawk Boogie (MP3)

See Here Woman (MP3)

Canned Heat (MP3)

Show Notes:

Today’s show inaugurates a running series that I call Forgotten Blues Heroes. The idea is to provide shows devoted to lesser known blues greats who don’t have enough recordings to build a whole show around. Most shows will spotlight a few different performers who usually have some connection to one another. Our series kicks off with a batch of great unheralded Chicago artists who’s heyday was the 1950’s and 1960’s. Today’s featured artists cut very few numbers under their own name, in a few cases many sides were unissued for decades, and all did varying amounts of session work. Today’s show spotlights piano players Lazy Bill Lucas and Little Johnnie Jones, guitarist Big Boy Spires and multi-instrumentalist Baby Face Leroy Foster.

Arthur “Big Boy” Spires

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. Spires had only four released sides all of which we will play are featured today: “One of These Days”, “Murmur Low”, “Which One Do I Love” and “About To Lose My Mind.” Spires was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1912 and was inspired by local musicians. Lightnin’ Hopkins would come through Yazoo City and Spires would play second guitar. Spires moved to Chicago in 1943 and in the late 1940’s began playing the Southside clubs with Eddie El and Little Earl Dranes. The trio made some demo recordings and Spires was picked up by Chess Records. He first pairing was “Murmur Low b/w One of These Days” which was issued on Checker in 1952. In 1953 he cut a session for Chance resulting in one issued record: “About To Lose My Mind b/w Which One Do I Love.” He cut four other Chance sides that were not issued at the time but released decades later on various collections. Around this time he formed his own band called the Rocket Four playing various clubs around town until giving up music around 1959. In December 1954, Al Smith used his basement at 5313 South Drexel (which he normally employed as a rehearsal space) for two casual recording sessions. One was by Spires and pianist Willie “Long Time” Smith. Everyone on the date but Long Time Smith and the bassist was a member of Spires’ working group. Although Leonard Allen of the United label was interested in this session the the tapes went into the United vaults and he never released anything from it. This session first appeared on a Pearl LP, Morris Pejoe / Arthur “Big Boy” Spires: Wrapped in My Baby, in 1989. Delmark reissued it on CD in 1998. In 1965 Spires and Johnny Young cut a batch of sides for Testament that went unissued except for “21 Below Zero” which came out on a compilation on the Storyville label. After the Testament session he worked mainly outside music and passed away in 1990.

Piano player and vocalist, Lazy Bill Lucas, was born May 29, 1918, in Wynne, Arkansas, and came to Chicago in 1941 where he met Big Joe Williams and toured with John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson in the 40’s. Lazy Bill also played piano on records by Homesick James, Little Willie Foster, Little Hudson, Snooky Pryor and Jo Jo Williams. He cut “She Got Me Walkin b/w I had A Dream” for Chance in 1953. Two other songs from the same session, “My Baby’s Gone b/w I Can’t Eat, I Can’t Sleep”, were not issued until decades later. In 1955 he cut two sides for Excello with the group the Blue Rockers: “Calling All Cows b/w Johnny Mae” with Lazy Bill taking the vocals on the latter. He moved to Minneapolis in 1962 where he was active for close to two decades. He was the first host of the Lazy Bill Lucas Show on KFAI and cut three LP’s during this period: Lazy Bill (Wild, 1969), Lazy Bill Lucas & His Friends (Wild, 1970) and Lazy Bill Lucas (Philo, 1974). He remained active right up to his death on December 11, 1982.

Johnny Jones may never have made it past his 40th birthday but in that time he established himself as one of the finest piano players in Chicago. Best know for his rock steady accompaniment in Elmore James’ band he also backed just about everyone else worth mentioning on the Chicago scene. The handful of times he stepped in front as leader produced a number of excellent sides and more than a few classics.

Johnnie & Letha Jones

Jones blew into the windy city from Mississippi in 1946 and was first influenced by Big Maceo and followed him into Tampa Red’s group in 1947 after Maceo was stricken by a stroke. He even helped play right hand for the elder man on a few tunes. Jones quickly hooked up with Tampa playing piano behind him for RCA Victor between 1949-1953. During this period Jones also played piano behind Muddy Waters on a 1949 Aristocrat (soon to become Chess) session resulting in the tracks: “Screamin’ and Cryin”, “Where’s My Woman Been” and “Last Time I Fool Around With You.” At the tail end of this session Jones cut his lone 78 for the label “Shelby County Blues b/w Big Town Playboy” with Muddy Waters, Baby Face Leroy and Jimmy Rogers backing him up on both sides. His most famous association began in 1952 when he became the pianist for Elmore James and His Broomdusters. He remained with James through 1956 playing on classic recordings for the Bihari brothers’ Meteor, Flair and Modern labels as well as dates for Checker, Chief and Fire. The Broomdusters (with saxist J.T. Brown and drummer Odie Payne) held court on the West Side playing at Sylvio’s for five years. It was this association with James that resulted in his second stint as leader recording in 1953 for Flair. “I May Be Wrong” and “Sweet Little Woman” were issued as Johnny Jones and the Chicago Hound Dogs with backing from Elmore James and J.T. Brown. Jones last official stint as leader came in 1953 when Atlantic Records came through Chicago and teamed Elmore and the Broomdusters behind Big Joe Turner resulting in the classic “TV Mama.” Once again he recorded a couple of sides at the tail end of a session resulting in four songs: “Chicago Blues”, ‘Hoy Hoy’, “Wait Baby” and “Doin’ the Best I Can (Up the line).” Jones was backed by the full Broomdusters plus Ransom Knowling on bass.Jones wasn’t caught on tape again until 1963 where he was working with Billy Boy Arnold in a Chicago folk club called the Fickle Pickle run by Michael Bloomfield. Norman Dayron recorded Johnny on portable equipment which has been released on the Alligator record titled Johnny Jones with Billy Boy Arnold. Jones last session was recorded in 1964 and is something of a mystery. Possibly backed by Boyd Atkins on sax and Lee Jackson guitar he cut three songs: “Prison Bound Blues”, “Don’t You Lie to Me” and “I Get Evil” the last being unissued. “Prison Bound Blues b/w Don’t You Lie to Me” was subsequently issued on Rooster as a 45.

Johnny Jones died from lung cancer in 1964 leaving a huge space on the Chicago scene. Mike Leadbitter wrote at the time of Jones death, “In a Chicago full of guitarists and with comparatively few top-rate pianists, the death of Little Johnny Jones is a great loss, as it is to us, who were never really given a chance to appreciate him.”

Between 1948 and 1952 Baby Face Leroy Foster waxed a handful absolutely terrific sides under his own name for a number fledgling Chicago labels aided by some of the windy city’s best blues musicians. In addition his vocals, drumming, and guitar playing can be found backing some of the greatest Chicago blues records of the era. His death in 1958, at the age of 38, robbed the blues world of a singular, memorable talent and likely did much to hasten his unwarranted obscurity.

Foster was first cousin to Little Johnny Jones and Little Willie Foster and came up to Chicago in 1945 in the company of Jones and Little Walter. He worked for tips on Maxwell Street before graduating to the clubs playing with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson and Lee Brown. Around 1947 he became one of the founding members of the fabled “Headhunters”, a group who included Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers and got their name for cutting the heads of any musicians foolish enough to cross their path. Foster first appeared on record backing Lee Brown in 1946 and during this period also backed James (Beale Street Clark), Little Johnny Jones,Floyd Jones, Muddy Waters, Snooky Pryor and Sunnyland Slim.Foster made his debut for Aristocrat at the end of 1948 with “Locked Out Boogie b/w Shady Grove Blues” with the record billed as Leroy Foster and Muddy Waters. Foster’s next entry was a lone outing in 1949 record for J.O.B., “My Head Can’t Rest Anymore b/w Take A Little Walk With Me” backed by Snooky Pryor on harmonica and Alfred Elkins on bass. In 1950 Foster cut eight remarkable sides for the small Parkway label. The Baby Face Leroy Trio (featuring vocals by Leroy Foster) and Little Walter sides were recorded in one 8-tune session. Perhaps the most outstanding record was ”Rollin’ And Tumblin’ - Part 1 & 2″ issued as Parkway 501. The record was as primal and raw as anything waxed up North resembling more of a southern field recording than a commercial Chicago blues record. Leroy Foster returned to JOB after Parkway failed in the middle of 1950 (he had quit Muddy Waters’ band after recording for Parkway, in the mistaken belief that his Parkway releases would establish him as a bandleader). Backed by Sunnyland Slim and Robert Jr. Lockwood, Foster cut “Pet Rabbit b/w Louella” in 1951 and “Late Hours At Midnight b/w Blues Is Killin’ Me” in 1952. All of Leroy Foster’s sides under his own name, plus the four Little Walter Parkway sides, can be found on Leroy Foster 1948-1952 on the Classics label.