Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Little Johnny Jones and his wife Letha

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. As perhaps the greatest of the post-war Chicago pianists, Otis Spann said of Jones: "My favorite piano player – I hate to say it, he was my first cousin, dead now and gone, we were two sisters' children – is Johnnie Jones.  I wind up teaching him, but he beat me at my own game." And as Bruce Igluaer wrote: "His fellow bluesmen remember him well, though, mostly as the pianist at Sylvio's, the huge tavern at Lake & Oakley that was the blues capital of Chicago's West Side during the 50's„ Johnnie played there with Elmore, with the Wolf, with second Sonny Boy Williamson, with Billy Boy Arnold, and with Magic Sam. Most nights Sylvio's had three bands, and Johnny would play with all of them! Dressed immaculately and with his hair and mustache perfectly groomed, he would open the shows singing his favorite risque classics, "The Dirty Dozens" and "Love Her With A Feeling." Billy Boy remembers, "He didn't sit there like a lot of piano players and just play– he rocked with the rhythm, he bounced. He used to sing "Dirty Mother F'or Ya" and that would just crack the house up! Johnnie and Elmore had Sylvio's sewed up five nights a week!"

Best known 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. We spin all of the sides Johnny cut as a leader, some superb live recordings by him and hear him backing artists such as Tampa Red, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Rogers and Big Joe Turner.

 Jones came to the city in 1946, at the age of 22, already an accomplished pianist. Friends recall his talking about his mother, Mary, who played piano in church in Jackson, Mississippi, and his father, George, an amateur guitarist and harp player. But Johnnie"s greatest influence was obviously the immensely popular Big Maceo Merriwether. When Johnnie first came to Chicago, he sought out Big Maceo and the other bluesmen 'who had put hit records for the RCA Bluebird label during the 30's and 40's – Tampa Red, Jazz Cillum, and the original Sonny Boy (John Lee) Williamson.  Big Maceo took Jones under his wing, honing Johnnie's piano technique and calling him his "son." In fact, it was Maceo who introduced Johnnie to his future wife, Letha Bethley. And it was Tampa Red who encouraged Johnnie to get a union card, and then hired him on his first gig, at the C&T Lounge at 22nd & Prairie, in 1947. After Big Maceo suffered a stroke, Johnnie took over the piano stool on Tampa's records, too.

Between 1949 and 1953 Jones and Tampa cut a number of sides together, including the popular "Early In The Morning", with Jones taking the lead vocal, and "Sweet Little Angel." 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. 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  Jones and Tampa. Clearly the infusion of new blood, chiefly Jones' rolling two fisted-piano playing and insinuating, warm vocal refrains he supplied plus the addition of drummer Odie Payne added an exciting new charge to Tampa's music. Jones also played the clubs with Tampa often working at the Peacock and C&T.

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. Throughout the 50's and 60's Jones backed a who's who of Chicago artists including Howlin' Wolf, Junior Wells, Albert King, Lee Jackson, Jimmy Rogers, Magic Sam and  Eddie Taylor among others.

Jones' 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. A few additional sides appear on the Flyright LP Live At The Fickle Pickle. 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 Records as a 45 in 1980. Letha Jones, Johnnie's widow, had an acetate of this and Jim O'Neal of Rooster Records licensed the rights from her to issue the 45.

Little Johnny Jones, Otis Spann & George 'Mojo' Buford, Chicago, late 1950's. Source: Living Blues 42 (1979), p. 24 ("Courtesy Letha Jones")

In 1964 Jones did some recording with Eddie Taylor and rejoined Howlin'Wolf's band who he was set to tour Europe with later in the year. Jones died from lung cancer November, 19, 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."

Show Notes:

George 'Harmonica' Smith was one of the most gifted contemporaries of Little Walter and Big Walter yet has received a fraction of their recognition. He was a powerful, inventive and swinging harmonica player and a superb singer. Likely his recognition would be higher if he wasn't based in L.A. He cut his first records for modern in the mid-50's which achieved some success. For the rest of the 50's and 60's he cut a slew of fine singles for small West Coast labels that didn't do much to raise his profile. By the late 60's he had a cut a couple of LP's and was quite active on record in the early and late 70's, keeping relatively quiet in the middle part of that decade. Smith was fairly active as a session player and today we hear him backing his occasional employer Muddy Waters as well as Champion Jack Dupree, Little Johnny Taylor, Big Mama Thornton, Sunnyland Slim, Luke Miles, Otis Spann and others. Smith had a profound influence on the style of younger west coast harmonica players like Johnny Dyer, Kim Wilson, James Harmon and in particular, Rod Piazza and William Clarke.

Allen George Smith was born on April 22nd , 1924 in Helena, Arkansas to Jessie and George Senior. His guitar and harmonica playing mother was something of a role model in his musical upbringing, helping him master the finer points of the harmonica. Around the age of twelve he was hoboing throughout he delta. During this period he was a semi-professional musician playing picnics and fish fries. With the help of a local musician, Smith continued to work in and out of the music business whilst holding down a Job as a projectionist in the town of Itta Bena. He found a way to utilize the amplifier and speaker taken from, presumably, a disused projector and, to amplify the sound of his harmonica. This makes him one of the pioneers in the amplified harmonica.

At the age of twenty-five Smith moved to Chicago. He got a job working with David and Louis Myers and then hooked up with Otis Rush. Smith and Little Walter became really close during this period. Both played chromatic as their chosen and preferred instrument. Unlike Walter, it was proving difficult for Smith to make a break through. Following the departure of Little Walter from Muddy Waters' band, Smith was to fill the vacated harmonica chair when fill-in Henry Strong was stabbed to death by a jealous girlfriend. For whatever reason, his stint with Waters was short-lived and he never recorded with him. Before leaving Chicago, Smith was involved in a Otis Spann session recorded at the end of 1954 which resulted in "It Must Have Been The Devil b/w Five Spot." Smith plays on the former holding his own among heavyweights B.B. King, Jody Williams, Willie Dixon and Earl Phillips.

In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip) heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith, and included classics like "Telephone Blues" and "Blues in the Dark." The relative success of these first recordings, resulted in Smith touring with many of the leading Rhythm & Blues acts of the time. While on the tour, he recorded with Champion Jack Dupree in November of 1955 in Cincinnati, producing "Sharp Harp" and "Overhead Blues", the latter we spin on today's program. Smith's excellent Modern sides are collected on Harmonica Ace: The Modern Masters on the Ace label. This disc is aptly described by note-writer Ray Topping as "a lasting memorial to one of the last great harp players of the postwar blues scene."

After touring in support of his first records the tour closed out on the West Coast and the Bihari brothers took Smith into the studio again, this time to work with saxophonist and arranger Maxwell Davis. Smith settled in Los Angeles for the rest of his life. In the late '50s he recorded for J&M, Lapel, Melker, and Caddy under the names Harmonica King or Little Walter Junior. Smith also worked with Big Mama Thornton on many shows. In 1960, Smith met producer Nat McCoy who owned the Sotoplay and Carolyn labels, and with whom he recorded ten singles under the name of George Allen. The bulk of these sides have been collected on Blowin' The Blues which has been issued on P-Vine, Official and the El Segundo labels. There are some real gems on this collection unfortunately sound quality is not always the best and some of the personnel is unknown. When James Cotton left Muddy Water’s band in 1966 he asked Smith to join him and they worked together for a while, recording for Spivey Records under the title The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band. Several years back Geffen/Chess issued Authorized Bootleg featuring Smith with Muddy recorded November 4-6, 1966 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Smith was captured with the band again in 1971 live at Washington and Oregon University and posthumously issued as The Lost Tapes on Blind Pig. Smith moved to Chicago to play with Waters. As before, it didn’t last, and Smith went back to Los Angeles. But he stayed friends with Muddy, and when Little Walter died two years later, Muddy’s band backed Smith on his highly regarded Tribute to Little Walter album on World Pacific.

Smith also appeared on the World Pacific album by Sunnyland Slim, Slim's Got His Thing Goin' On and the compilation Oakland Blues backing David Alexander and L.C. Robinson. In 1969, Bob Thiele produced an album of Smith on Bluesway, ..Of the Blues, and later made use of Smith as a sideman for his Blues Times label, including sets with T-Bone Walker and Harmonica Slim. Smith also recorded on the two albums Otis Spann recorded for Bluesway. Smith met the young Rod Piazza in the late 60's, and they launched the Southside Blues Band, which toured with Big Mama Thorton . In 1970 British producer Mike Vernon met the band, signed them to a European tour, and changed their name to Bacon Fat. They recorded a couple of albums for Vernon. All this material has been reissued on the 2-CD set George Smith & Bacon Fat: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions. In 1969 Luke “Long Gone” Miles and Smith recorded a batch of great songs for Kent, the bulk of which went unissued. The same year he backed Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner and was involved in the Super Black Blues jam album with T-Bone Walker, Otis Spann and Big Joe Turner. In 1970 he cut the album No Time For Jive and the same year he backed Big Joe Turner on the Kent album Turns On The Blues. In 1971 Smith cut the album Arkansas Trap. In 1972 he appeared on Eddie Taylor's I Feel So Bad and backed Big Mama Thornton again in 1975 on the album Jail. Through the 70's and early 80's he remained active working on record with Jimmy Witherspoon, Phillip Walker and others.

Around 1977, Smith became friends with William Clarke and they began working together. Their working relationship and friendship continued until Smith died on October 2, 1983. Of Smith, Clarke said: "He had a technique on the chromatic harp where he would play two notes at once, but one octave apart. He would get an organ-type sound by doing this. George really knew how to make his notes count by not playing too much and taking his time by letting the music unfold easily. He could also swing like crazy and was a first-class entertainer. …I have never heard George play a song the same way twice. He was very creative and played directly from his heart. He admired all great musicians but had his own sound and style. He was a true original. Mr. Smith would always give 100-percent on-stage whether or not there were 1 or 1,000 people listening. This was his performing style, always." His last studio album was Boogie'n With George produced by protege Rod Piazza.

Read Liner Notes

Tom Townsley describes Smith's technique in the following manner: "He often approached his soIos by using his tongue-blocked octave technique to imitate hom section riffs (as opposed to copying the single notes of a soloist). This gave his playing incredible power. He also knew how to coax a variety of tonal shadings and subtle pitch variations out of a single note by combining bends and microphone manipulation. He built suspense by phrasing his attack just behind the beat. As a result, his tunes swung relentlessly."

Show Notes:

An eclectic mix show on tap today spanning the 1920's through the 1960's. We have several album spotlights including a pair of cuts from a newly issued Son House collection, a trio of cuts by pianist Buster Pickens from a rare LP, two by Model T-Slim and a set of sides from two LP's that the Muddy Waters band cut for Victoria Spivey's label. In addition we spotlight a few tracks from the CD that accompanies John Tefteller's 2012 Classic Blues Artwork Calendar, a pair of sides spotlighting guitarist Chuck Norris, two sides featuring violinist  Eddie Anthony and two numbers from the obscure Elijah Brown.

We open the show with two vintage numbers from the vaults of John Tefteller. Both songs come from the CD that accompanies his 2012 blues calendar. Every year around this time Tefteller, through his Blues Images imprint, publishes his Classic Blues Artwork Calendar with a companion CD that matches the artwork with the songs. The CD's have also been one of the main places that newly discovered blues 78's turn up. This year's CD includes Lane Hardin's fabulous "Cartey Blues" from the only know copy which has never been reissued before and two acetate gospel discs by Blind Joe Taggart made for private use circa 1948. I'll be playing all of these these along with other rare sides on Sept. 11 when I interview Tefteller who owns some of the rarest blues records in the world. Today we spin Ora Brown's "Jinx Blues" and Furry Lewis' classic "Big Chief Blues." Later in the program we spin a couple of Tampa Red tracks from the CD (read below).

The Buster Pickens album we spotlight today is one I've been trying to track down for some time. I want to thank Michael Hortig who was gracious enough to make a copy for me of this very hard to find record. Mike is a fellow piano blues enthusiast and has written some fine pieces on pianists for Blues & Rhythm magazine. As Paul Oliver wrote in the liner notes: "Buster Pickens is a barrelhouse pianist who has played the sawmills, the turpentine camps and the oil 'boom' towns since his childhood. He has outlasted most of his contemporaries in their tough an often dangerous life and can lay good claim to be virtually the last of the sawmill pianists. …The great days of Texas blues were in the 'twenties, when Pickens began to play for a living, and in the thirties when he was one of scores of blues pianists whose fame went before them from town, to camp, to flagstop to chock-house and honkytonk. These were the days when such pianists as Son Becky and Pinetop Burks, Andy Boy and Black Boy Shine were enjoying big local reputations, though if it had not been for a freak of chance recording they might never have been known outside Texas. Others, like Pickens himself, remained unrecorded though no less well known …Buster Pickens knew them and worked with them, changed places with them in the never-ceasing blues entertainment of the barrelhouse joints."

Read Liner Notes

After serving in the military in World War II, Pickens returned to Houston and made his first record, accompanying Texas" Alexander (Alexanders' last record for the Freedom label in 1950). In addition, he performed regularly with Lightnin'" Hopkins and appears in some of Hopkins's records for Prestige / Bluesville in the early 1960s. He backed other  Texas artists in the 40's and 50's such as Perry Cain, Bill Hayes and Goree Carter among others. His solo album for Heritage, Buster Pickens, was recorded in in 1960, and reissued in the 70's on Flyright as Back Door Blues but has never appeared on CD. In 1962 Pickens appeared in the movie The Blues. His promising new career in the blues revival, however, was ended when he was murdered a few years later, at age forty-eight, as a result of a barroom dispute about a dollar on November 24, 1964, in Houston.

There are several unissued sides from the Pickens session and unfortunately I doubt they will surface anytime soon. There is also an interview with Pickens (conducted by Paul Oliver) which has only surfaced as a snippet on the Conversation With The Blues album that accompanied the book of the same name. Through Michael Hortig I may have access to this and will incorporate this in a more in-depth look at Pickens' music.

We feature two cuts today from Son House – In Seattle 1968, a 2-CD live concert has just been released by Arcola Records. The CD includes Son House's 1968 Seattle concert, vintage recordings plus an interview that label owner Bob West did with Son at the same time. Bob Groom and Dick Waterman have authored the liner notes for this release. This makes a nice companion to the new Son House biography, Preachin' The Blues, which has been getting excellent reviews.

We also spin two numbers by Model T-Slim from the album Somebody Done Voodoo The Hoodoo Man on Flyright.These recordings were made by independent record man Jerry Hooks from L.A. crica 1966-67. During his career Elmon Mickle was known by a variety of nicknames: Harmonica Harry, Model T Slim, Drifting Smith, but the stage name that stuck best was Driftin’ Slim. Born Feb. 24, 1919, to Eva and William Mickle, Mickle said, “I didn’t have to work on no sharecropper or nothing like that.” While still in his late teens, Mickle persuaded John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson I to coach him on harmonica. Later in life, Driftin’ Slim would brag he could perform every number John Lee Williamson ever recorded. Mickle lived and played in Little Rock in the 1940s and early ’50s. During this time, he cut songs like “My Little Machine” at area radio stations KDRK and KGHI. Mickle also recorded several tracks at a North Little Rock music store in the early 1950s with Ike Turner. Mickle moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and was based out of California for the rest of his career. He continued playing a variety of instruments and recorded for smaller labels like Wonder, Kent, Elko plus a fine album for Bluesville in the late 60's titled Somebody Hoo-Doo'd The Hoo-Doo Man. Mickle really found his voice when performing as a one-man band — singing and playing harmonica, guitar, hi-hat and bass drum. Mickle died in 1977 in California.

Chuck Norris worked in Chicago until the mid-'40s, when he moved out to the West Coast. He soon became one of the in-demand musicians in Hollywood backing artists such as Ray Agee, Charles Brown, Floyd Dixon, Roy Hawkins, Duke Henderson, Helen Humes, Etta James, Pete Johnson, Litle Willie Littlefield, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Otis, Johnny Watson, Jimmy Witherspoon and many others. From time to time he did sessions on his own for labels like Atlantic, Mercury, Imperial, Aladdin and others between 1947 and 1953. Norris had a live record released in 1980 on the European Route 66 label. Today we hear him rip it up behind pianists Pete Johnson and Little Willie Littlefield.

The Muddy Waters band cut two albums for Victoria Spivey's Spivey label which we spotlight today: The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band (1966) and The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2 (1968). The label was was the brainchild of noted author, historian, discographer, producer and publisher Len Kunstadt and his partner Victoria Spivey. In the mid 1950’s, Len Kunstadt and Victoria Spivey became companions and formed Spivey Records in 1961. After Spivey’s death in 1976, Kunstadt carried on the label, mixing newly discovered artists with classic bluesmen until his death in 1996. Most sessions took place at New York’s famous Cue Studios, while some happened late at night at Victoria and Lenny's home studio. Spivey put out some very eclectic records, with varying quality but through Spivey's connections she managed to get top notch artists to record for her including Big Joe Williams, Lonnie Johnson, Roosevelt Sykes, Otis Spann, Memphis Slim among many others. The label was slated to bee issued on CD several years ago (www.spiveyrecords.com) but nothing has materialized. One of these days I'll get around to doing a feature on the label. The Muddy Waters records are the only ones I know that have been issued on CD on the Japanese P-Vine label with several extra tracks. Here's the band list for the two volumes:

Vol 1: Victoria Spivey, voc; Otis Spann, voc, p, org; George Smith, voc, hca; Luther Johnson, voc, g; Samuel Lawhorn, g; Francis Clay, dr

Vol 2: Otis Spann, Lucille Spann, Luther Johnson, Sammy Lawhorn, Little Sonny Wimberley, S.P. Leary, Paul Oscher, Pee Wee Madison, Willie Smith

Elijah Brown made a handful of recordings for Pete Welding in 1965. As welding wrote: "Big Joe Williams, that tirelessly peripatetic bluesman, had directed me to Elijah Brown, an elderly Mississippi-born singer and guitarist whose gripping bottleneck guitar work on a poor, dimly-recorded tape made on a home recorder under Big Joe's supervision — so poorly recorded, in fact, as to allow only the faintest glimmer of the man's work to shine through — had nonetheless excited me greatly." Of his music Welding noted "…In that wistful, gentle voice was carried the rich, intense strain of the Delta blues in all its purity and emotional potency. Even more remarkable was his guitar playing — plangent and insinuating, the rhythms simple yet lilting, not far removed from those of work songs and early country dance pieces. This was the sound of the unadulterated old Mississippi blues, the music of the time and the place of Charlie Patton, Son House and Willie Brown — stark and unadorned, piercingly beautiful in its directness and gentle power." In all eleven songs were record with six having never been issued.

Eddie Anthony's gut-bucket fiddle is heard today on "Worrying Blues" listed as by Macon Ed and Tampa Joe and on "Lonesome Blues" with partner Henry Williams. Macon Ed was Eddie Anthony but the identity of Tampa Joe is unknown. Anthony worked with Peg Leg Howell throughout the 1920s' and early 1930's. Macon Ed and Tampa Joe cut eight sides together in 1930. He also recorded one 78 "Georgia Crawl b/w Lonesome Blues" with Henry Williams. Anthony died in Atlanta, Georgia in 1934.

Also worth mentioning are a couple of easy rider songs: Leadbelly's "Easy Rider" and Tampa Red's "Mama Don't Allow No Easy Riders Here"  (we play both version Tampa cut in 1929: as Tampa Red & Georgia Tom and as Tampa Red and his Hokum Jug Band). One of the fascinating things about the old blues to me is the lyrics but there's plenty of slang that's tough to decipher. Easy Rider's pretty easy to figure out – heck most of these terms are about sex, but here's what Stephen Calt wrote in his blues dictionary, Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary: "Although easy rider almost certainly lost most of its 1920s currency in black speech, it was nevertheless recorded by Folb as a 1960s/1970s teenage term denoting a 'sexually promiscuous female.' A slang for a sexually forward or promiscuous female, easy dates to the turn of the 18th century." The term was also used by female singers.

A varied show on tap today including twin spins by obscure Memphis bluesman Tom Dickson, prime 50's sides by Big joe Turner, a pair of previously unissued sides by Robert Nighthawk and two selections by Brooks Berry & Scrapper Blackwell from a long out of print LP. In addition we feature tracks from the Arhoolie album Louisiana Blues, a trio of cuts recorde by George Mitchell from the album Georgia Blues, a pair of John Lomax field recordings plus a set of tough blues ladies and a set of 50's and 60's blues from Detroit.

From The Blues of Brooks Berry and Scrapper Blackwell: My Heart Struck Sorrow (Bluesville, 1963) we feature two tracks. This album is long out of print and tough to come by and I want to thank Alan for making me a copy of this one. Berry's recorded legacy consists of this album whose recordings stem from sessions done in 1959 and 1961 and four live tracks recorded with Blackwell in 1959. As Art Rosenbaum, who recorded this album, wrote in the notes: "Brooks met Scrapper shortly after she moved to Indianapolis and thus began a long though at times stormy friendship that was to end suddenly some fifteen months after the last of the present recordings were made. On October 6, 1962. Scrapper was shot to death in a back alley near his home. Brooks has been, during the four years I have known her, reluctant to sing blues without her friend's sensitive guitar or piano playing behind her; and she will sing less and less now that he is gone."

During a trip to Toronto in 1965 Robert Nighthawk recorded five songs in a small Toronto studio. One of these sides, "Kansas City", was first issued in 2006 on Canada's Stony Plain label on 30 Years of Stony Plain. Now Stony Plain has issued 35 Years of Stony Plain with four more sides from this session. These sides were previously unknown an do not appear in blues discographies. Richard Flohil, one of the folks responsible for bringing Nighthawk to Canada, shared these recollections: "Beverly Lewis and I had brought Robert to Toronto to play at a now-vanished Toronto club called The First Floor Club. It was in the basement of a house, and we had already brought Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachell and Hammie Nixon, and the Muddy Waters Band, to the venue. …Beverly paid for the band to go into a small four-track studio in Toronto owned by a chap called Art Snider. It was a very small, very ill-equipped studio – but the place where Gordon Lightfoot made his first records. We cut half a dozen sides, with little idea of how we would use them." From those recordings we spin "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" which Nighthawk previously recorded in 1964 for the Maxwell Street documentary And This Is Free while "Back Water Blues" is the old Bessie Smith number, one that Nighthawk never recorded before.

From Big Turner we highlight two great Atlantic albums; Boss Of The Blues cut in 1956 and Big Joe Turner Rides Again cut in 1959. Boss Of The Blues matched Turner for one of the last times with his long time pianist Pete Johnson and also includes a variety of top swing players, several alumni from Count Basie's band: trumpeter Joe Newman, trombonist Lawrence Brown, altoist Pete Brown, tenor saxophonist Frank Wess, guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Cliff Leeman. From that album we hear the quintessential big Joe number, "Roll 'Em Pete" a song the duo first recorded back in in 1939 for John Hammond's Spirituals To Swing concert at Carnegie Hall. Big Joe Turner Rides Again is another great date featuring key sidemen like the great tenor Coleman Hawkins and trombonist Vic Dickenson. From this album we showcase the lovely "Hear Comes Your Iceman."

Read Liner Notes

We hear some excellent field recordings today from George Mitchell and John Lomax. From the album Georgia Blues on Rounder we spotlight a trio of songs recorded in 1967 by Mitchell. As Mitchell writes: "In 1967, I traveled a thousand miles-from Minnesota to Mississippi-to record blues in the Delta region. The following year I moved to Columbus, Georgia, a city of 175,000 on the Alabama line. I had lived there over a year before my wife Cathy and I finally decided to spend a Sunday afternoon searching for blues singers in the surrounding small towns. We did not really\y expect to fins any blues singers that day. But we did, and we spent our spare time for the next eight months searching for bluesman all over the Lower Chattaoochee Valley, the impoverished southwest section of Georgia. We never visited a town were we were not led to at least one blues musician." From the album I Can Eagle Rock: Jook Joint Blues Library of Congress Recordings 1940-1941 we ply excellent tracks by Tom Bell and Kid West. These recordings were the last made by Lomax for the library of Congress. As John Cowley write in the notes: "Alabama has been ill served in the investigation of regional blues traditions. Recordings made for the Lomaxes by Tom Bell in 1940 are, therefore, doubly important.  …As the titles to his performances indicate, Tom was an experienced dance musician, whose repertoire also included blues and ballad-like songs…" In Shreveport Lomax encountered Kid West, Oscar "Buddy" Woods and Joe Harris. Woods was the only one who had recorded commercially having made some great records in the 30's in variety of settings.

Also heard today are some top notch woman blues singers including Tiny Topsy, Lula Reed, Little Miss Jessie and Lucille Hegamin. The Tiny Topsy and Lula Reed sides come from the recent Ace CD Just A Little Bit: Federal's Queens of New Breed R&B. Tiny Topsy died at the young age of 34. Her entire output consisted of just seven singles: five on Federal between 1957 and 1959, one on Chess subsidiary Argo in 1961 and the final release, a year before her untimely death in 1963. Throughout her career, Lula was backed almost exclusively by the band of pianist Sonny Thompson, who eventually became her husband. Unlike Topsy, Ohio-born Lula’s career is better documented on CD reissues, her earlier sides for King Records having featured on Ace’s I'll Drown In My Tears. After departing King in 1956, she and Sonny spent the later part of the 1950's in recording limbo, apart from a short stint at Chess in 1958 where Lula featured on three unsuccessful Argo releases. Her recording career reignited when she returned to King in 1961 where she did several notable duest with Freddie King.

Stacy Johnson, Benny Sharpe, Little Miss Jesse

Little Miss Jesse (Jesse Smith) started in gospel and moved to R&B, making a name for herself on the St. Louis scene. Jesse worked with several bands and became an Ikette in the Ike and Tina Turner Revue in 1962. She left in 1966 to form the Mirettes and in the 70's was a member of Dr. John's backing vocal group. The storming gospel soaked "My Baby Has Gone" is unfortunately the only number cut under her own name.

Lucille Hegamin was the second person to make a Blues record after the initial success of Mamie Smith's breakthrough recordings in 1920. Hegamin's first record was "Jazz Me Blues" and "Everybody's Blues" on the Arto label. Lucille's next record came out a few months after her first record and was "Arkansas Blues" and "I'll Be Good But I'll Be Lonesome". "Arkansas Blues" was one of the most popular records of 1921. It was such a hit that Mamie Smith recorded a cover version of Hegamin's hit that same year and the Mound City Blue Blowers would also have a hit with it in 1924. In all, Lucille Hegamin recorded 68 selections between1920-26, two songs in 1932 and appeared on part of the1961 Bluesville album Songs We Taught Your Mother. From that album we hear her fine remake of "Arkansas Blues."

As always we play a number of fine pre-war blues including two sides by the utterly obscure Tom Dickson. Dickson waxed six sides in Memphis in 1928, two were unissued. Virtually nothing is known about Tom Dickson, apart from a remembrance by Mississippi’s Joe Callicott, who said he played "…around Memphis." We also feature exceptional  songs by Clifford Gibson, Charlie Jordan, Skip James and Charlie Patton. I'm always looking for the best sounding versions when I'm preparing for the show and hear we have the best sounding versions I've heard of Skip's "Special Rider Blues" taken form Yazoo's Times Ain't Like They Used To Be Vol. 4 and Patton's "Mean Black Cat" taken from Yazoo's Charlie Patton: Primeval Blues, Rags, and Gospel Songs.

Featured today are a batch of fine Detroit bluesmen: Robert Henry, Washboard Willie, Eddie Burns and Bobo Jenkins. African-Americans began arriving in drove in Detroit by the 1920?s, most settling in an area called Black Bottom, later named Paradise Valley. From the turn of the century until its demise by urban renewal in the early 1960?s, Hastings Street remained the center of business for Detroit’s east side community, made up largely of Jewish entrepreneurs and small black business owners. Lined with two-story family-owned shops and corner taverns, Hastings teemed by day with shoppers; at night it became transformed, into, what John Lee Hooker later described, as a “rough wide-open street.” Burns enjoyed a modestly successful musical career with a dozen records to his credit and a decade of weekend club gigs often with John Lee Hooker who waxed some of his best performances with Burn’s harmonica in support. It wasn’t until Washboard Willie AKA William Hensley was 31 years old that he decided to buy a washboard and begin to make music on it. In 1948 he moved north to Detroit and wasn’t until 1952, that he and a friend were out one night looking for John Lee Hooker, when they came upon Eddie Burns and his little group, playing at the Harlem Inn. After hearing the drummer playing out of time, Willie got his washboard from the car, and began playing along with the band. By the second song, the bar owner offered Hensley a job playing the washboard for the weekend. The band played there for three years. In 1956, he and Calvin Frazier recorded for Joe Von Battle. He continued to record for Von Battle from 1957 to 1962. In 1973, he toured with the American Blues Legends ’73 Tour, traveling all over Europe. He died on August 24, 1991, at the age of 82, in Detroit. In 1954 Jenkins, with the help of John Lee Hooker recorded "Democrat Blues"  for Chess Records. He recorded two more singles for the Boxer label in Chicago and Fortune Records in Detroit. he eventually formed his own label where he several albums including the Here I Am A Fool In Love Again, of which we play the title track.

We wrap up the show today with a track by Gil Scott-Heron who passed on May 27. Although he called himself a "bluesologist" he wasn't a blues artists in the traditional sense yet I remained a long time fan of his music. I was probably a senior in High School when I heard "Winter In America" on the radio. The song made a deep impression and I ran out the next and picked up a couple of his albums. His records, at least through the 70's and 80's, were consistently good and his songs always got me thinking. It's sad hat at the end of his life he fell into the very traps he sang about so eloquently in songs like "The Bottle" and "Home Is Where The Hatred Is." Still, he spoke truth to power and he did it with brains and a poetic touch. You'll be missed Gil.

Show Notes:

I've been doing a Christmas blues show for something like the past dozen years and was always frustrated with the lack of a really good collection of early blues Christmas songs. Luckily in 2005 I hooked up with the Document label to put together a 2-CD, 52 track collection of blues and gospel songs from the 1920's to the 1950's. The result was Blues, Blues Christmas and. Two  years ago Document contacted me about writing the notes to a sequel, Blues, Blues Christmas Vol. 2, another 2-CD set although I did not compile the tracks for this one (I did make a couple of suggestions which were included). I'm happy to say that this has been released last year and it also appears that Blues, Blues Christmas is now back in stock and has been remastered.

The idea of Christmas themed blues and gospel numbers stretches back to the very dawn of the recorded genres. "Hooray for Christmas" exclaims Bessie Smith to kick off her soon to be classic "At The Christmas Ball", which inaugurated the Christmas blues tradition when it was recorded in November 1925 for Columbia. A year later, circa December 1926, the gospel Christmas tradition was launched when the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers recorded "Silent Night, Holy Night" for Paramount Records. After these recordings it was off to the races with numerous Christmas blues numbers recorded by singers of all stripes, a pace that continued as blues evolved into R&B and then rock and roll. For some reason there's far fewer gospel Christmas songs although there were plenty of Christmas sermons in the 1920's and 1930's when recorded sermons rivalled blues in popularity among black audiences. Going hand in hand with Christmas is quite a number of New Year's songs, a good vehicle for juxtaposing the problems of the past year with the glimmer of hope that that the upcoming year will bring better fortune. Whether these artists sung these numbers as part of their regular repertoire is unclear but it's almost certainly the case that many of these songs were recorded at the prompting of the record companies. Like any business they were always looking for a new angle or gimmick to sell records and advertised these boldly, often with full-page ads, in black newspapers like the Chicago Defender.

Santa Claus Blues: The 1920's & 30's

The earliest Christmas blues songs that I tracked down date from 1925. On Oct. 8 of that year Eva Taylor featured with Clarence Williams' Trio cut "Santa Claus Blues" for the Okeh label and recut the tune again on Oct. 16 with a slightly larger band, the Clarence Williams' Blue Five. Both versions feature Louis Armstrong on cornet. The song is more pop than blues however. On November 18th Bessie Smith cut At The Christmas Ball [Lyrics] for Columbia. She recut the song again Dec. 9 but this version remained unissued. Many blues artists from the 20's cut Christmas songs including: Elzadie Robinson "The Santa Claus Crave" (1927), Victoria Spivey "Christmas Mornin' Blues" (1927), Blind Lemon Jefferson "Christmas Eve Blues" (1928), Bertha Chippie Hill "Christmas Man Blues" (1928), Blind Blake "Lonesome Christmas Blues" (1929), Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers w/ Frankie 'Half Pint' Jaxon "Christ Was Born On Christmas Morn" (1929)

Among Paramount's biggest blues stars of the 1920's were Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake who made their debuts for the label several months apart – Jefferson in December 1925 or January 1926 and Blake around August of 1926. Paramount ramped up their blues and gospel recordings considerably in 1927 and a new Jefferson and Blake record appeared every month. Paramount resorted to several novel promotions for their big artists; In 1924 Ma Rainey's sixth release was labeled "Ma Rainey's Mystery Record" with prizes given to the best title while Charlie Patton's "Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues" was listed as by The Masked Marvel with a corresponding advert that bore a drawing of a blindfolded singer – looking nothing like Patton – and the clue that he was an exclusive Paramount artist. Similarly, so successful was Jefferson, that a special yellow and white label was produced for Paramount 12650, "Piney Woods Money Mama" b/w ‘Low Down Mojo Blues" which bore his picture and the wording "Blind Lemon Jefferson's Birthday Record." In a similar vein Christmas records can be seen as just another promotional tool with ads for these records appearing annually in black newspapers every holiday season. Befitting his stardom, Lemon's lone holiday record "Christmas Eve Blues" b/w "Happy New Year Blues", was given a full-page advertisement in the December 12th, 1928 edition of the Chicago Defender. In Paramount's 1928 late fall Dealers' Supplement the label advertised scores of "CHRISTMAS, SPIRITUAL AND SERMON RECORDS THAT ARE DEPENDABLE SALES PRODUCERS" and warned that they "SHOULD BE IN YOUR STOCKS NOW." Blind Blake received the large sized treatment in the 1929 edition of the paper for his "Lonesome Christmas Blues," (also sharing the page was Leroy Carr's "Christmas In Jail – Ain't That A Pain?") his only Christmas record. The flip was "Third Degree Blues" – apparently Blake only had enough holiday spirit for one side!

The trend continued with more frequency in the 30's. Here are a few notable songs: Butterbeans & Susie "Papa Ain’t No Santa Claus" (1930), Charlie Jordan "Santa Claus Blues" ["Christmas Christmas, how glad I am you are here/ Well I ain’t had a chicken dinner for this whole round year/Shiny bones and naked bones gleaming from around my plate/ …So pass me that chicken, the turkey, duck and the goose/Well all you birds gonna be one legged when I turn you-a-loose"] (1931) and "Christmas "Christmas Blues" (1935), 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).

Mary Harris, who cut two sides for Decca at an October 31, 1935 session is most certainly Verdi Lee who cut sides on the exact same date, also in the company of fellow St. Louis musicians Peetie Wheatstraw and Charlie Jordan. It was a holiday themed session with the group cutting "Christmas Tree Blues", "No Christmas Blues", "Happy New Year Blues", "Christmas Christmas Blues" and "Santa Claus Blues" (the latter two with vocals by Jordan and Wheatstraw respectively). Paul Oliver noted that "it would be pleasant to think that each singer was inspired by the others to create a blues on the same subject but at this date, with Christmas two months away, it is more likely that it was a deliberate promotional device by [producer] Mayo Williams."

Merry Christmas Baby: The 40's & 50's

In the 40's there of course was more blues Christmas songs but there was a new music brewing called R&B. Evolving out of jump blues in the late '40s, R&B laid the groundwork for rock & roll. The era's biggest Christmas song was undoubtedly the immortal "Merry Christmas, Baby" cut by Charles Brown & The Blazers in 1947. This perennial classic has been covered numerous times including versions by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Lena Horne , Lou Rawls, Booker T. & the MG's, Otis Redding, James Brown and countless others. Charles Brown's smooth ballad style has become synonymous with Christmas ever since remaking "Merry Christmas, Baby" many times, cutting many other Christmas songs and full length albums including 1961's Charles Brown Sings Christmas Songs and Cool Christmas Blues in 1994.

Notable blues and R&B songs from this period include: Champion Jack Dupree's "Santa Claus Blues" (1945), Gatemouth Moore "Christmas Blues" (1946) [recut in 1977 as "Gate's Christmas Blues"], Little Willie Littlefield "Merry Xmas" (1949), Mabel Scott "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" (1947), Harman Ray Xmas Blues ["Hold it, hold it man/Don’t play me no jingle bells the way I feel this Christmas/Only kind of bells I want to have anything to do with is some of them mission bells/Man, play me the blues long, loud and lowdown"] (1947), Boll Weavil "Christmas Time Blues" (1947), Big Joe Turner "Christmas Date Boogie "(1948), Thelma Cooper "I Need A Man (For Xmas)" (1948), Smokey Hogg "I Want My Baby For Christmas" (1949), Amos Milburn "Let's Make Christmas Merry Baby" (1949), Harry Crafton "

Bring That Cadillac Back" ["I let you eat my turkey on Christmas morn/When I looked around you and my Cadillac was gone"] (1949), Felix Gross "Love For Christmas" ["You can have your turkey and your dressing/Sweet cakes and apple pie/Blue Champagne and Rock & Rye/Everything that money can buy"] (1949), J.B. Summers "I Want a Present For Christmas" ["Santa Claus, Santa Claus/Hear my plea/Open up your bag and give a fine brown baby to me/ …You can stop by my chimney/Drop her in the chute/ Leave your reindeer outside/Come in and get my loot"] (1949).

One other song from this era is the downright odd "Junior's a Jap Girl's Christmas for His Santa Claus" (1942) a Library of Congress recording by Willie Blackwell that defies categorization. Oher non-R&B Christmas songs from the 40's include a few by Leadbelly such as "Christmas Is A-Coming" [Lyrics], "The Christmas Song", "On A Christmas Day", Sylvestor Cotton "Christmas Blues" (1948), Washboard Pete [aka Ralph Willis] "Christmas Blues" (1948), Alex Seward & Louis Hayes "Christmas Time Blues" (1948), Walter Davis "Santa Claus" (1949).

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.

The 50's produced many more Christmas gems including: Lowell Fulson's oft covered ""Lonesome Christmas" (1950), Cecil Gant It's Christmas Time Again (1950), Roy Milton "Christmas Time Blues" (1950), Johnny Otis & Little Esther Phillips "Far Away Blues" [also known as "Faraway Christmas Blues"] (1950), Jimmy Liggins "I Want My Baby For Christmas" (1950), The Nic Nacs with Mickey Champion "Gonna Have A Merry Xmas" (1950), Larry Darnell "Christmas Blues" (1950), Sonny Parker with Lionel Hampton "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" (1950), Lloyd Glenn "Sleigh Ride" (1951), Sugar Chile Robinson "Christmas Boogie" b/w "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1950), Titus Turner "Christmas Morning" (1952), Lightning Hopkins "Merry Christmas" (1953), Chuck Berry "Run, Rudolph, Run" (1958) and "Merry Christmas Baby" (1958), John Lee Hooker "Blues for Christmas" (1959).

Please Come Home For Christmas Baby: The 60's To The Present

The 60's, less so in the 70's, produced a number of strong Christmas blues songs including at least one blues classic, Little Johnny Taylor's "Please Come Home For Christmas" (1969) which has become an oft covered holiday classic. Other notable 60's songs include: Sonny Boy Williamson II "Santa Claus" (1960), Lightnin' Hopkins "Santa" (1960) and "Heavy Snow" (1962), Black Ace "Santa Claus Blues" (1960), B.B. King "Christmas Celebration" (1960), Hop Wilson "Merry Christmas, Darling" (1961), Robert Nighthawk "Merry Christmas Baby" (1964), Lowell Fulson "I Wanna Spend Christmas With You" (1967), Louis Jordan "Santa Claus, Santa Claus" (1968), Charles Brown "New Merry Christmas Baby" (1969) featuring Earl Hooker, Bukka White "Christmas Eve Blues" (1969). In the 70's: Jimmy Reed "Christmas Present Blues" (1970), Lee Jackson "The Christmas Song" (1971), Clyde Lasley "Santa Came Home Drunk (1971), Albert King "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" (1974) and "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" (1974), Eddie C. Campbell "Santa's Messin' with the Kid" (1977).

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.

Let Me Hang My Stocking On Your Christmas Tree

Christmas blues as sexual metaphor? Of course! The blues has always been loaded with double entendres and Christmas blues offers plenty of examples: Roosevelt Sykes "Let Me Hang My Stocking In Your Christmas Tree" (1937), Jimmy Butler Trim Your Tree ["I’m gonna bring along my hatchet/My beautiful Christmas balls/I’ll sprinkle my snow up on your tree and hang my mistletoe on your wall"] (1955), Clarence Carter "Back Door Santa" (1968), "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" by Albert King (1974) and Sir Mack Rice (1982), Rufus Thomas "I’ll Be Your Santa, Baby" (1982) and Sonny Rhodes the same year, Chick Willis "(All I Want for Christmas Is To) Lay Around and Love On You" (1991).

Papa Ain't No Santa Claus

Those who listen to the blues know it's not all doom and gloom. The blues are laced with humor and that comes across in many blues Christmas songs: Butterbeans & Susie "Papa Ain’t No Santa Claus" (1930) [Lyrics], Big Jack Johnson "Rudolph Got Drunk Last Night" (1990), Clyde Lasley "Santa Claus Home Drunk", Billy Ray Charles "I Been Double Crossed By Santa Claus", Louis Armstrong "Zat You Santa Claus."

Empty Stocking Blues

Not everyone enjoys the holidays and many people suffer from the Christmas blues. If you want to wallow in your depression here's an appropriate blues soundtrack: Leroy Carr "Christmas In Jail – Ain't That A Pain?" (1929), Jimmy Witherspoon "Christmas Blues" [alternately titled "How I Hate To See Christmas Come Around"] (1947), Jimmy Grissom "Christmas Brings Me Down" (1948), Floyd Dixon "Empty Stocking Blues" (1950), "Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues" ["Unless you come home to me/I'll be drunk all day Christmas Day"]" (1951), Lowell Fulson's two-part "Lonesome Christmas" (1951), Freddie King's classic two sided 45 "Christmas Tears" b/w "I Hear Jingle Bells" (1961), Jerry McCain & B.B. Coleman "Sad, Sad Christmas" (1992).

Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus?

Recorded sermons were among the most popular and best selling of the "race records"in the 1920’s and 1930’s. These records provided a fascinating look into the views and concerns of black America at a time when very few outlets existed for black expression. Rev. J.M. Gates was the most popular and prolific of them all, waxing some two hundred titles between 1926 and 1941, which accounted for a staggering quarter of all sermons recorded during this period. It’s not surprising that Gates cut more Christmas sermons than anyone including: “You May Be Alive Or You May Be Dead, Christmas Day” (1927), "Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus?" (1927), “Where Will you Be Christmas Day” (1927), “Did You Spend Christmas Day In Jail?” (1929), “Will Hell Be Your Santa Claus” (1939) and “Gettin’ Ready For Christmas Day” (1941) which was his last recorded sermon. Rev. A.W. Nix also had a special affinity for the holidays as evidenced in recordings like "Death Might Be Your Christmas Gift" (1927), "Begin A New Life On Christmas Day – Part 1 & 2" (1928), "That Little Thing May Kill You Yet (Christmas Sermon)" (1929) and "How Will You Spend Christmas?" (1930). Also notable is Rev. Edward Clayborn's "The Wrong Way To Celebrate Christmas" (1928) and Rev. Emmett Dickinson's "Christmas – What Does It Mean To You" (1930).

Happy New Year Darling

While there's far more Christmas songs, New Year has inspired a number of noteworthy songs: Blind Lemon Jefferson "Happy New Year Blues" (1928), Mary Harris with Peetie Wheatstraw "Happy New Year Blues" (1935), Smokey Hogg "New Years Eve Blues" (1947), Lonnie Johnson "Happy New Year, Darling" ["It seems a long time since I been fightin' the Japs 'cross the deep blue sea/Yes, that's why I'm so glad darlin', to have a li'l wife still waitin' for me/It's so great to have you darlin', to have a li'l wife like you/My three brothers couldn't make it but they say happy new year to you"] (1947), Johnny Otis "Happy New Year, Baby" (1947), Lil’ Son Jackson "New Year’s Resolution" (1950), Roy Milton New Year’s Resolution Blues ["I’m gonna deal them from the bottom/Ain’t going to play it fair at all/Please believe me pretty baby/I’m going to have myself a ball/Going to give up my apartment, and you know they’re hard to find/ I don’t want no last year’s memories running through my weary mind"] (1950), Lightnin' Hopkins "Happy New Year" (1953), Charles Brown "Bringing In A Brand New Year" (1993), Lil Ed and Dave Weld "New Year’s Resolution" (1996).

Notable Christmas Blues Compilations

Blues, Blues Christmas (Document): Comprehensive 2-CD collection of jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and gospel recordings dedicated to the season. Collects 52 numbers spanning from 1925 to 1955 including tracks by Bessie Smith, Leroy Carr, Rev. J.M. Gates, Butterbeans & Susie, Lonnie Johnson, Roy Milton, Larry Darnell, Cecil Gant, Lightnin' Hopkins and many, many others.

Blues, Blues Christmas Vol. 2 (Document): Comprehensive 2-CD collection of jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and gospel recordings dedicated to the season. Collects 44 numbers spanning from 1925 to 1955 including tracks byBlind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Jesse Thomas, Cecil Gant, Fats Waller, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Lil Son Jackson, Lightnin' Hopkins and many, many others.

Where Will You Be Christmas Day? (Dust To Digital): Fine collection rare early Christmas gems by Leroy Carr, Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, Butterbeans and Susie, Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers, Lightnin' Hopkins, Kansas City Kitty, Bessie Smith and many others.

Soul Christmas (Atlantic): This 1991 reissue includes eight of the original 11 tracks included on the Atco 1968 release with 11 more tracks added from the Atlantic vaults. An essential set that includes Otis Redding's "White Christmas" and "Merry Christmas, Baby", Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa", Joe Tex's "I'll Make Every Day Christmas (For My Woman)" and others.

Blue Yule: Christmas Blues and R&B Classics (Rhino): A killer 18-song compilation. Includes hard to find tracks by John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Hop Wilson, Big Jack Johnson and other gems.

It's Christmas Time Again (Stax): A great collection of funky blues and soul from the Stax catalog. Standout tracks include "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" with versions by Mack Rice and Albert King plus Rufus Thomas' "I'll Be Your Santa Baby'" and Little Johnny Taylor's "Please Come Home for Christmas"

Merry Christmas, Baby (Paula): Some real gems on here although some can be found on other compilations. Includes fine songs like Johnny And Jon's "Christmas in Vietnam", Charles Brown's "Please Come Home for Christmas", Lowell Fulson's "Lonesome Christmas" parts 1 & 2 plus songs by Big Joe Williams, Sugar Boy Crawford, Louis Jordan, Jimmy Reed and others.

Jingle Blues (Platinum): Entertaining collection from the House of Blues. Includes a wide variety of styles by artists such as Bessie Smith, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B.B. King, Amos Milburn and others.

James Brown's Funky Christmas (Polygram): What would Christmas be without this funky collection? This 17-track compilation includes selections cut between 1966-1970. Highlights include "Go Power at Christmas Time", "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" and "Hey America" (It's Christmas Time).

Christmas Blues (Savoy): Fine Christmas blues from the vaults of Savoy like Gatemouth Moore's "Christmas Blues", Jimmy Butler's rocking "Trim Your Tree", the country blues of Ralph Willis' "Christmas Blues" and several other vintage tunes.

Rhythm & Blues Christmas (Hollywood): Budget priced collection that includes Charles Brown's "Merry Christmas Baby," Freddie King's "Christmas Tears/I Hear Jingle Bells", Mabel Scott's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" and others.