Sun 28 Dec 2008
Big Road Blues Show 12/28/09: Forgotten Blues Heroes Pt. 3 – 1960’s Country Blues
Posted by Jeff under 1960's Blues, 1970's Blues, Playlists
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| ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
|---|---|---|
| James Brewer | I Don't Want No Woman... | I Blueskvarter Vol 1 |
| James Brewer | Interview | I Blueskvarter Vol 1 |
| James Brewer | Poor Kelly Blues | Live At The Fickle Pickle |
| James Brewer | Big Road Blues | Blues Scene USA Vol. 4 |
| Shirley Griffith | Oh Mama How I Love You | Indiana Ave. Blues |
| Shirley Griffith | River Line Blues | Saturday Blues |
| Shirley Griffith | Saturday Blues | Saturday Blues |
| Shirley Griffith | Mandolin Stomp | Indianapolis Jump |
| Roosevelt Holts | Another Kickin' In My Stall | Presenting The Country Blues |
| Roosevelt Holts | Let’s Talk All Over Again | Presenting The Country Blues |
| Roosevelt Holts | I’m Going To Build… | Presenting The Country Blues |
| Roosevelt Holts | Maggie Campbell Blues | Presenting The Country Blues |
| Houston Stackhouse | Cool Water Blues | Blow My Blues Away Vol. 1 |
| Houston Stackhouse | Canned Heat | Blow My Blues Away Vol. 1 |
| Houston Stackhouse | Big Road Blues | Blow My Blues Away Vol. 1 |
| James Brewer | St. Louis Blues | Jim Brewer |
| James Brewer | Good Morning Blues | Jim Brewer |
| James Brewer | St. Louis Blues | Jim Brewer |
| James Brewer | Tough Luck | Tough Luck |
| Shirley Griffith | Left Alone Blues | Saturday Blues |
| Shirley Griffith | Big Road Blues | Mississippi Blues |
| Shirley Griffith | Shaggy Hound Blues | Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 5 |
| Shirley Griffith | Delta Haze | Mississippi Blues |
| Roosevelt Holts | My Phone Keeps Ringin’' | Goin' Up The Country |
| Roosevelt Holts | I’ll Catch That Train And Ride | Roosevelt Holts & His Friends |
| Roosevelt Holts | Packing Up Her Trunk To Leave | Roosevelt Holts & His Friends |
| Roosevelt Holts | Home Town Skiffle | South Mississippi Blues |
| Houston Stackhouse | That’s All Right | Big Road Blues |
| Houston Stackhouse | Mean Black Spider | Big Road Blues |
| Houston Stackhouse | My Babe | Crying Won't Help You |
| Houston Stackhouse | Bricks In My Pillow | Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival Vol.4 |
| Shirley Griffith | Cool Kind Papa From New Orleans | Mississippi Blues |
Show Notes:
For today’s show we continue with our ongoing series I call Forgotten Blues Heroes. For this installment we spotlight four great Mississippi bluesmen who didn’t get the opportunity to record until the 1960’s: James Brewer, Shirley Griffith, Roosevelt Holts and Houston Stackhouse. All these gentlemen were old enough to have been recorded earlier but opportunity passed them by until the blues revival of the 1960’s. In addition to the resurrection of the legendary artists of the past like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Skip James there were a slew of older artists uncovered who got a chance to make some recordings. Unlike those who recorded back in the 1920’s and 30’s for the commercial record companies and black consumers, those who recorded in the 1960’s were being recorded primarily for a a new found white audience with the records issued usually on tiny specialist labels. The benefit wasn’t in sales of records so much as it was the fact that these recordings would be an entry way into the festival and coffeehouse circuit. Unfortunately many of these small labels never lasted into the CD era and hence many great albums remain long out of print. The bulk of today’s recordings fall into that category and it seems only Houston Stackhouse is lucky enough to have just about all of his recordings available on CD. In upcoming installments of this series I plan on spotlighting other who made their debuts in the 1960’s and 70’s such as James “Son” Thomas, Sam Chatmon, Scott Dunbar, Joe Callicott, Bill Williams, Babe Stovall and Frank Hovington to name a few.
James Brewer was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi on October 3rd 1920 and moved to Chicago in the 1940’s where he spent the latter part of his life busking and performing both blues and religious songs at blues and folk festivals, on Chicago’s Maxwell Street and other venues. While playing on the streets of Brookhaven in the 1930’s he learned most of the religious songs that he continued to perform throughout his life. His father told him he could make more money playing blues and as he grew older he started performing at parties having learned his repertoire from records. Following the death of his mother the family moved to Chicago where he eventually found his way to Maxwell Street. in the early 1950’s he settled in St. Louis playing streetcars and taverns and also joined a washboard band for a spell. By the mid-50’s he was back in Chicago where he married his wife Fannie. Brewer’s new mother-in-law bought him an electric guitar and amplfier. Returning to Maxwell Street he devoted himself exclusively to religious music. In 1962, however, he was offered an opportunity to play blues at a concert at Northwestern University and also began a regular gig at the No Exit Cafe which lasted for two decades. He went on to play major festivals and clubs in the United States, Canada and Europe. He was recorded by Swedish Radio in 1964, cut sides for the Heritage label and Testament plus cut the full-length albums Jim Brewer (Philo, 1974) and Tough Luck (Earwig, 1983).
Born in 1907 near Brandon, Mississippi Shirley 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.
Shirley Griffith missed his opportunity to record as a young man but recorded three superb albums: Indiana Ave. Blues (Bluesville, 1964, with partner J.T. Adams), Saturday Blues (Bluesville, 1965) and Mississippi Blues (Blue Goose, 1973). In addition some field recordings from the early 1960’s were issued on the Flyright album Indianapolis Jumps. The fact that all these 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
Roosevelt Holts was a country bluesman of considerable skill who in a small way was caught up in the blues boom of the 1960’s, finally getting the opportunity to record scattered sides and a couple of LP’s in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Holts, who was born in 1905, likely would have achieved greater recognition if he had gotten the chance to make records in the 1920’s and 1930’s as David Evans emphasized: “If he had been able to get to a record studio in the 1930’s, his records would now be highly prized collector’s items, reissued on albums and talked about by blues fans everywhere. He might have even been “rediscovered” and brought north to the cities for concerts and coffee house engagements before an audience of young whites who were not even born when he recorded his famous numbers.” Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and he took up the guitar when he was in his mid-twenties. He started to get serious about music in the late 1930’s when he encountered Tommy Johnson. Folklorist David Evans began recording Holts in 1965 resulting in two LP’s (both out of print): Presenting The Country Blues (Blue Horizon,1966) and Roosevelt Holts and Friends (Arhoolie, 1969-1970) plus the collection The Franklinton Muscatel Society featuring his earliest sides through 1969 which is available on CD. In addition selections recorded by Evans appeared on the following anthologies (all out of print): Goin’ Up The Country (Decca, 1968), The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (Matchbox, 1972), South Mississippi Blues (Rounder, 1974 ?), Way Back Yonder …Original Country Blues Volume 3 (Albatros, 1979 ?), Giants Of Country Blues Vol. 3 (Wolf, 199?) and a very scarce 45 (“Down The Big Road” b/w “Blues On Mind”) cut for the Bluesman label in 1969.
 |
| Houston Stackhouse |
Stackhouse’s family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi in the mid-1920’s, where he learned songs from Tommy Johnson and his brothers and took up guitar. In the early 1930’s, he moved to Hollandale, Mississippi where his cousin, Robert Lee McCullum (later known as Robert Nighthawk) lived. It was Houston who taught Robert Nighthawk how to play the bottleneck guitar. In 1946, Houston moved to Helena, Arkansas where he played with Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) on The King Biscuit Time show, on KFFA Radio. His association with the King Biscuit show and his living in Helena brought him in contact with many of the great blues players. He played with Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Roosevelt Sykes and Earl Hooker. From the late 1940’s and up until 1954, Houston worked for the Chrysler Corporation in Helena. He continued to play, but less frequently after he married in the late 1950’s. Periodically, he returned to the King Biscuit show. In 1967 he made his first recordings cutting field recordings for George Mitchell and shortly after for David Evans. 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. These 1967 recordings have been justly celebrated and long available, with the Mitchell 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 while the Evans recordings are available on Big Road Blues on the Wolf label. In 1972 Stackhouse recorded Crying Won’t Help You for the Adelphi label. He was part of The Memphis Blues Caravan, traveled around the Eastern states, toured Europe in 1970 and played the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues Festival with Joe Willie Wilkins under the name The King Biscuit Boys. He died in 1980
Related Articles: (Word Docs)
-Shirley Griffith/Yank Rachell Concert Review by Leo Kunstadt (Record Research 9, 1968)
Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom “Christmas Morning Blues” (1934) [Lyrics], Verdi Lee “Christmas “Tree Blues” (1935), Tampa Red “Christmas And New Years Blues” (1934), Peetie Wheatstraw “Santa Claus Blues” (1935), Bumble Bee Slim’s “Christmas And No Santa Claus and “Santa Claus Bring Me A New Woman” (1936), Black Ace “Christmas Time Blues (Beggin’ Santa Claus)” (1937), Casey Bill Weldon “Christmas Time Blues” (1937), Bo Carter “Santa Claus” (1938), Walter Davis “Santa Claus” (1935), Sonny Boy Williamson I “Christmas Morning Blues” (1938).
There was a time you could hit the charts with an instrumental as pianist Lloyd Glenn well knew, scoring big with “Old Time Shuffle Blues” which hit #3 on the R&B charts in 1950 and “Chica Boo” which hit #1 in 1951. He seemed to have a knack for being on hit records, accompanying T-Bone Walker on his 1947 hit “Call It Stormy Monday”, and in 1949 he joined Swing Time Records as A&R man, recording a number of hits with Lowell Fulson, including “Everyday I Have The Blues” and the #1 R&B hit “Blue Shadows”. In sunny Los Angeles on April 1951 he waxed the shuffling “(Christmas) Sleigh Ride.” Glenn’s distinctive piano work can also be found on a five-song session Jesse Thomas waxed for Swingtime also in April 1951 which included “Xmas Celebration.” Glenn was also present when Lowell Fulson cut his classic two-parter, “Lonesome Christmas Pt. 1 & 2 “in 1951.
There seems to be a dearth of quality Christmas songs in the 70’s and 80’s. By the late 80’s the rise of the CD caused the demise of the 45 record which was one of the main vehicles for putting out holiday songs. However in lieu of the 45 labels began releasing Christmas themed compilations and there have been a number of very good collections. Some of the best include: Austin Rhythm and Blues Christmas (1989) from the Antone’s label [reissued on Epic in 1986 and Sony in 2001], Alligator Records Christmas Collection (1992), Ichiban Blues At Christmas Vol. 1-4 (1991-97) [Best of Ichiban Blues at Christmas was issued 2002], Bullseye Blues Christmas (1995), Stony Plain’s Christmas Blues (2000), Blue Christmas (2000) from the Dialtone label, Blue Xmas (2001) on Evidence. A number of artists issued Christmas themed records including Charles Brown, Huey “Piano’ Smith, Johnny Adams, B.B. King and Etta James. Also with the dominance of the CD age labels went back into their vaults to put together compilations of classic Christmas blues. Many of the songs listed earlier in this article can be found on these collections and the best of these will be listed below.
The following day Weaver cut four vocal numbers: the instrumentals “Soft Steel Piston” and “Off Center Blues” with the latter two numbers unissued and no copy of “Off Center Blues” found. “Soft Steel Piston” first surfaced in the 1970’s and like “Six String Banjo Piece”, no file information exists on this number. It was first issued on the album Folk Music In America Vol. 14 – Solo And Display Music part of a 15 LP Library of Congress series to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976. Both numbers were likely provided titles by Dick Spottswood who compiled and wrote the notes for the series. “Soft Steel Piston” is lovely, gentle mid-tempo number featuring Hawaiian style slide with Weaver accompanied by guitarist Walter Beasley. “Dad’s Blues” is a beautiful twelve-bar blues as is “What Makes A Man Blue” with a musically similar approach. “Can’t Be Trusted Blues” is languorously sung blues as Weaver delivers menacing lyrics quite at odds with his mellow vocals:
Weaver was back in the studios for two sessions on November 26th and 27th. Walter Beasley appears alongside Weaver on all numbers and Helen Humes recorded eight numbers with the duo. In 1977 Jim O’Neal interviewed Humes (Living Blues No. 52, 1982) and she recalled Weaver and the circumstances behind these recordings:
“This gourmand’s confession is one of several intriguing and previously undocumented recordings which have emerged from the CBS archives. No information in their extensive files revealed its existence; a sample pressing was made to determine what the music was. Though we are certain about the performers’ identities, the title of the song is taken from song’s words.”
Nothing is known of Beasley and when asked Humes did not remember him. The duo cut loose on two instrumentals: the breakneck masterpiece “Bottleneck Blues” and a gorgeous, seductive reading of “St. Louis Blues.”
Today’s show is a mix show, which includes a sort of sequel to last week’s program. Last week we featured classic albums with Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee which featured music and spoken commentary. For the first hour we play more interesting tracks from Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Among those are Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953 a remarkable 2-CD set of Broonzy recordings that just surfaced a couple of years ago, selections from Blues In The Mississippi Night which feature music and candid commentary with Big Bill, Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson I plus live recordings of Sonny & Brownie playing with Lightnin’ Hopkins. The second hour of the show is a our standard mix show that we do on a regular basis.
The album was so controversial that its release was delayed 13 years, finally released by United Artists in 1959.
Other country blues on tap include fine field recordings of Willie Brown and Cat Iron. Willie Brown was recorded by John and Alan Lomax at Sadie Beck’s Plantation in Arkansas. Lomax wrote the following in his book The Land Where The Blues Began: “Well, I ain’t got no voice, but I’ll give you the words of an old Memphis song.” William Brown began to sing in his sweet true country voice, poking in delicate passages at every pause, like the guitar was a second voice commenting with feeling on the ironic words of the blues….This was the real blues…. The blues in print give you the skeleton only. If you’ve never heard the blues, get yourself a record and listen and then come back and join us…. William Brown’s song can last until the morning….” In 1958, folklorist Frederic Ramsey, Jr. recorded someone named Cat-Iron in Buckner’s Alley in Natchez, Mississippi. Ramsey wrote a detailed poetic description of his discovery of Cat-Iron for The Saturday Review which offered no background on the artist. Cat-Iron’s sole testament is the album Cat-Iron Sings Blues and Hymns for the Folkways label.
weeks later, Weaver cut his first pair of solo recordings, “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag” for the same label. The Sara Martin selections represented the first time on records that a popular female singer had been backed up solely by guitar, and were an immediate success. Two more recordings with Martin were recorded at this session, “Roamin’ Blues” b/w “Good-Bye Blues.” Both “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag” are smooth, melodic slide numbers probably played with a knife. It was “Guitar Rag” (Weaver recorded it again in 1927) that would prove influential as 
Weaver cut four solo instrumentals in 1924 at two sessions in New York: “Smoketown Strut”, “I’m Busy And You Can’t Come In”, Mixin’ ‘Em Up In C” and “Weaver’s Blues.” “Smoketown Strut” was the lone number cut at a May 28th session and showcased Weaver on a wonderful mid-tempo ragtime number. On June 10th Weaver cut three numbers including the driving “I’m Busy And You Can’t Come In” played in a similar style to “Smoketown Strut” and based on the well known tune “Keep-A-Knocking But You Can’t Come In.” “Mixing Them Up In C” and “Weaver’s Blues” are performed in a similar style but at a slower tempo. Weaver hardly played any fast pieces. This latter pairing was advertised in a 1925 Christmas ad in the Chicago Defender: Sylvester Weaver wants you to hear one of his best Okeh records. At the time of the first LP reissue of Weaver’s sides, Smoketown Strut (
would prove to be Weaver’s busiest on record and also his last. The year began with four sessions in April in New York. For the April 6 session he formed a vocal trio with Sara Martin and her future second husband Hayes B. Withers. Four religious titles were recorded with two unissued. “I Am Happy In Jesus” b/w “Where Shall I Be?” features Weaver playing rather sedately on the latter number but more sprightly on the former with just a hint of ragtime flavor. These sides are also the first to present Weaver’s vocals on record, albeit as background with Withers’ in service to Martin’s lead. The following day Weaver accompanied Martin on two superb slow blues “Gonna Ramble Blues” b/w “Teasing Brown Blues.”
