Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show revolves around the six CD’s in the Ace records series Modern Downhome Blues Sessions. The recordings span from 1948 through 1955 with a good chunk stemming from trips Joe Bihari Modern Records co-owner made with talent scout Ike Turner in the Deep South. Other tracks were recorded in Sam Phillips’ studio and leased to Modern. Modern Records’ partner Joe Bihari had made his first field trip to the South around September 1951 following the breakdown in relations with Sam Phillips. This was after Rocket “88″ by Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner ended up on Chess instead of Modern, and became a #1 R&B smash hit. Until then Phillips had been recording Modern’s Memphis-area artists including B.B. King, Joe Hill Louis and Rosco Gordon. Following the split with Phillips, Bihari hit paydirt with B.B. King’s “3 O’Clock Blues,” thus encouraging Bihari to authorize further trips in the South. Biharis launched a new label for these field recordings, Blues & Rhythm, in February 1952. The latest volume in the series moves to California. The link between Modern Records and these California artists was a small-time Oakland hustler and record label boss Bob Geddins who leased his records to different labels. The first major reissue of this material was in 1969 and 1970, issued as the Anthology Of The Blues 12-volume LP series on Kent. The Ace series features excellent sound, extensive notes and many unreleased tracks. In later years Joe Bihari said: “I was a gutsy kid who wasn’t afraid of anything, traveling during a period where there was immense segregation and discrimination against African Americans. Indeed, I am proud of myself for doing what I could to resist this horrific prejudice. Looking back, I think I made major contributions to this rich music that we have all over America – and all my hard work paid off as this blues music is now recognized worldwide.”

Modern Records opened for business in 1945 and, in order to capitalize on success in its home market on the West Coast, the company soon established a national distribution network utilizing the services of jukebox operators and distributors in most of the major cities throughout the US. Once this was in place (around 1947), Modern commenced leasing masters by successful artists from smaller labels that only had limited local distribution. Following success with down-home blues masters from labels such as Gold Star in Houston(Lightning Hopkins), Blue Bonnet in Dallas (Smokey Hogg) and Sensation in Detroit (John Lee Hooker), Modern decided to expand its search for this kind of material.

Travelling Record Man is sampler of Modern’s downhome recordings, serving as an introduction to the rest of the volumes. Several of these sides appear in the below collections.

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol.1: Arkansas and Mississippi 1951-1952 features recordings that Joe Bihari and his young talent scout Ike Turner made between November 1951 and January 1952 in North Little Rock, Arkansas and in Greenville and Canton, Mississippi. The featured artists include Elmore James, Boyd Gilmore, Drifting Slim, Junior Brooks, Sunny Blair, Houston Boines, Charley Booker and Ernest Lane.

Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 2: Mississippi & Arkansas – 1952 features recordings made in North Little Rock, Arkansas and Clarksdale, Mississippi in March 1952. The set includes seven previously unissued sides. The featured artists include Elmore James, Boyd Gilmore, Charley Booker, Houston Boines, Sunny lair, Babby Face Turner and Drifting Slim.

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 3: Memphis On Down focuses on recordings done in the early 1950′s in Memphis that Sam Phillips shopped to Modern/RPM in 1950/51, Helena, Arkansas and five cuts by the Dixie Blues Boys which were done in Los Angeles in 1955. The featured artists include Willie Nix, Howlin’ Wolf, Walter Horton, Joe Hill Louis, Bobby Bland, Alfred “Blues King” Harris, James “Peck” Curtis, Robert “Dudlow” Taylor and Jim Lockhart.

Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 4: The Southern Country blues Guitarists 1948-1952 features recordings mostly recorded in Atlanta and Dallas between 1948 and 1952. This is essentially an expanded version of the original Kent LP Blues From The Deep South. In around 1950 a group of artists sent in a batch of unlabeled acetates that were discovered at Modern in 1970. These recordings have remained a focal point for intense discussion ever since. When these sides were first issued on the Blues From The Deep South LP, so Arkansas Johnny Todd and Leroy Simpson were invented for two sides released. It turns out that Todd is actually Lane Hardin who cut the classic “Hard Time Blues b/w California Desert Blues” in 1935. He also backs Leroy Simpson who still remains a mystery. Other featured artists include Alex Moore, Charlie Bradix, Pine Top Slim, Jesse Thomas, Big Bill Dotson, Little Son Jackson and Smokey Hogg.

The Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 5: Back in the Alley 1949-1954 focuses on sides cut between 1949 and 1954 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the sides found their way to releases on the Modern family of labels, though some of them appear here for the first time. The common denominator is record label owner/manager/songwriter Bob Geddins, who was involved in the careers of all of the artists who recorded these 26 tracks. The featured artists include Jimmy McCracklin, James Reed, Johnny Fuller, Roy Hawkins, Lowell Fulson and Walter Robertson.