Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Paramount records recorded some of the greatest blues artists of the 20′s and early 30′s and today we kick off the second of a multi-part feature on the label. In addition we’ll also be airing and interview I did with Alex van der Tuuk the author of Paramount’s Rise And Fall. Paramount Records was founded in 1917 as a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company of Port Washington, Wisconsin. The chair company had made some wooden phonograph cabinets by contract for Edison Records. Wisconsin Chair decided to start making its own line of phonographs with a subsidiary called the “United Phonograph Corporation” at the end  of 1915. It made phonographs under the “Vista” brand name through the end of the decade; the line failed commercially. In 1917 a line of phonograph records was debuted with the “Paramount” label. They were recorded and pressed by Chair Company subsidiary “The New York Recording Laboratories, Incorporated.” In its initial years, the Paramount label offered recordings of standard pop-music fare, on records recorded with below-average audio fidelity pressed in below-average quality shellac. In the early 1920′s, Paramount was still racking up debts for the Chair Company while producing no net profit. Paramount began offering to press records for other companies at low prices. The Paramount Record pressing plant was contracted to press discs for Black Swan Records. When that later company floundered, Paramount bought out Black Swan and thus got into the business of making recordings by and for African-Americans. These so-called “race music” records became Paramount’s most famous and lucrative business. Paramount’s “race record” series was launched in 1922 with its 1200 “race” series exclusively devoted to black music. The early catalog was dominated by female blues singers such as Lucille Hegamin, Alberta Hunter and Monette Moore and a bit later with records by stars Ida Cox and Ma Rainey. A large mail-order operation and weekly advertisements in black owned newspapers like the Chicago Defender were keys to the label’s early success. The label’s successful recordings by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake shifted the focus from women singers to male. The label went on to record some of the era’s most celebrated male blues artists such as delta legends Charlie Patton, skip James, Tommy Johnson, Son House, Willie Brown plus diverse artists such as Buddy Boy Hawkins, the Mississippi Sheiks, Charlie Spand, Papa Charlie Jackson among many others. The onset of the depression crippled the recording industry and Paramount was eventually discontinued in 1932.

We open part two of our Paramount feature as we did our first, with some of the women who dominated the label’s catalog in the early years before being eclipsed by the popularity of the solo male blues artists. Today we spin tracks by Edna Hicks, Ida Cox, Edna Taylor, Edmonia Henderson, Lena Wilson Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters and others.

Blues singer Edna Hicks was born in New Orleans and was the half-sister of Lizzie Miles and her brother was the trumpet player Herb Morand. Edna left New Orleans sometime around 1916 and worked in a variety of vaudeville and musical comedy shows. She began recording in 1923 with Victor and went on to make records with Brunswick, Gennett, Vocalion, Ajax, Columbia and Paramount. In 1925 she died due to burns that she suffered in an accident involving gasoline in her home in Chicago.

Ida Cox sang in church choirs as a child in Georgia. She ran away from home in 1910 when she was a teenager and performed in minstrel and tent shows as a comedienne and singer. She toured the country throughout the Teens and 1920s sometimes singing with Jazz greats like Jelly Roll Morton and with King Oliver at the Plantation Cafe in Chicago. In 1923 she began her recording contract with the Paramount label, who billed her as the Uncrowned Queen of the Blues. She cut around ninety sides for the label through 1929.

Alongside Bessie Smith, who recorded for Columbia, Ma Rainey is one of the most celebrated woman blues singers of the era. Rainey first appeared onstage in 1900, singing and dancing in minstrel and vaudeville stage revues. In 1902 she married the song and dance man William “Pa” Rainey and from then on became known as Ma Rainey. The couple formed a song and dance act that included blues and popular songs. They toured the country, but primarily the South and became a popular attraction as part of Tolliver’s Circus, The Musical Extravaganza and The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, where Rainey befriended a young Bessie Smith. It was not until 1923 that Ma Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount. She was billed as the “Mother of the Blues”, recording 100 songs between 1923 and 1928 for the label.

Ethel Waters was one of the most popular African-American singers and actresses of the 1920s. She moved to New York in 1919 after touring in vaudeville shows as a singer and a dancer. She made her recording debut in 1921 on Cardinal records but switched over to the Black Swan label, and recorded “Down Home Blues” and “Oh Daddy” the first Blues numbers for that company. In 1924 she cut five sides for Paramount. She frequently sang with Fletcher Henderson during the early 1920s, but by the mid-1920s Waters had became more of a pop singer.

The heyday of woman blues singers started to fade toward the mid to late 20′s. Paramount’s earliest male blues star was Papa Charlie Jackson who made his debut in 1924 followed by in 1926 by big selling artists Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake. In addition to those artists, who we profiled in part one,  we spin tracks by Frank Stokes and several fine piano players including Charlie Span and Will Ezell. Frank Stokes and partner Dan Sane recorded as The Beale Street Shieks, a Memphis answer to the musical Chatmon family string band, the Mississippi Shieks. Stokes was already playing the streets of Memphis by the turn of the century, about the same time the blues began to flourish. A medicine show and house party favorite, Stokes was remembered as a consummate entertainer who drew on songs from the 19th and 20th centuries. Solo or with Sane and sometimes fiddler Will Batts, Stokes recorded 38 sides for Paramount and Victor.

Next to nothing is known about barrelhouse pianist Charlie Spand (PDF). He waxed 22 sides for Paramount between 1929 and 1931 and two final sessions for Okeh in 1940. Spand first made a name for himself on the Detroit scene of the 1920′s.

Ezell’s early career was spent as an itinerant musician playing dances, labor camps and logging mills in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. Ezell had a recording career that lasted for four years beginning in 1927 and he produced total of 17 tracks (including alternative takes) for Paramount Records. It was in his role as “house pianist” for Paramount that he supported artists such as Blind Roosevelt Graves, Bertha Henderson and was rumored to have worked for Bessie Smith. His success disappeared during the Depression and nothing is known of him after his last recording session in 1931.

Show Notes:

A shortened show today due to the station’s Rochester Jazz Festival coverage. Still, we have a wide and diverse mix today including several sets of artists like Blind Blake, the group of Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Henry Armstrong, Calvin Leavy and a set of songs revolving around Lightnin’ Hopkins. We also spotlight  great new releases on Smithsonian Folkways and Southland.

We launch the program on a sad note with a trio of  sides by Calvin Leavy who passed on June 8th, a year before his release date from his Arkansas state prison sentence. He was 70. Leavy was a fine singer and songwriter who’s music intersected at the crossroads of blues and southern soul. Between the mid-1960′s and the early 1980′s he cut a string of strong singles for Acqurian, Soul Beat and Downtown including 1968′s “Cummins Prison Farm” which became a  big hit down south. That song was the result of serving time in Arkansas’ Cummins Penitentiary for a minor crime. Issued first on the small Soul beat label, the song was picked up by producer Shelby Singleton for his SSS International label and issued on the Blue Fox imprint. Leavy cut some terrific songs including “Going to the Dogs, Part 1 and 2,” “Born Unlucky, “Is It Worth All I’m Going Through,” plus excellent covers like “Nine Pound Steel”, “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had”, and “It Hurts Me Too.” Leavy had been locked up since 1992, when he was convicted of multiple drug-related counts in Little Rock. His life plus 25 years sentence was commuted to 75 years by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. As far as I can tell, there’s only a couple of collections of Leavy’s material available: The Best of Calvin Leavy on Red Clay and the harder to find Cummins Prison Farm on the Japanese P-Vine label. Despite his talents, Leavy remained mostly known in the south where he had a devoted following and his records were staples of the local jukeboxes. He remained outside the view of the blues revival scene, strictly cut singles and never toured widely.

We spin  a pair by Blind Blake,  one of the most popular bluesmen of the 1920’s. His only rival in popularity was fellow Paramount artist Blind Lemon Jefferson. Despite his popularity and much investigation, Blake remains a shadowy figure; What was his real name? Where was he from? And perhaps most mysteriously, how did he simply disappear after a final session circa June 1932? As for biographical details there is the following from his first Defender advertisement: “Early Morning Blues” is the first record of this new exclusive Paramount artist, Blind Blake. Blake, who hails from Jacksonville, Florida, is known up and down the coast as a wizard at picking his piano-sounding guitar. His ‘talking guitar’ they call it, and when you hear him sing and play you’ll know why Blind Blake is going to be one of the most talked about Blues artist in music.” Whatever his background there’s no doubt regarding his guitar skills. As Tony Russell elaborates: “Blind Blake’s most remarkable achievement as a recording artist was that in a career lasting almost six years, in which he made about 80 sides, he was never reduced, whether by slipping skill, waning inspiration or the single-mindedness of record company executives, from a multifaceted musician to a formulaic blues player.”

Martin,  Bogan & Armstrong were one of  the last of the old time black string bands, who surprisingly reunited after some three decades. Carl Martin played guitar and mandolin; Ted Bogan, rhythm guitar, Howard Armstrong, fiddle and mandolin (Howard’s son Tom on “doghouse bass”). They group recorded three albums, drawing from their enormous repertoire of blues, sentimental and popular songs (mostly from the 20′s, 30′s and 40′s). Our selection, “In The Bottom”, comes from the CD, That Old Gang of Mine which collects all 19 tracks from their second (Martin, Bogan & Armstrong) and third (That Old Gang of Mine) albums.

Classic Appalachian Blues From Smithsonian Folkways is an excellent new collection  spanning the late 50′s through the early 80′s. There’s great early cuts by Sticks McGhee and Sonny Terry, Pink Anderson, Gary Davis and Brownie McGhee but what’s particularly interesting  is the tracks recorded between 1971-1982. These cuts have been recently digitized thanks to a preservation grant from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and were made at Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife. From that festival we spotlight songs by Virginian blues artists John Tinsley and Archie Edwards. Tinsley played local house parties before waxing a single for the Mutual label in 1951 or 1952. He quit playing until coming out of retirement in the 70’s playing several festival and making a few recording including an album for Swingmaster in 1981. Edwards  made some fine recordings late in life for the L+R label and Mapleshade plus songs scattered on several anthologies.

As usual we hear some great piano players including a set featuring Henry Brown, Memphis Slim and Roosevelt Sykes. Brown’s “Papa Slick Head” comes from the newly reissued Henry Brown Blues. This session was recorded by Paul Oliver in August 1960 in St. Louis and issued originally on the 77 label and now reissued on CD for the first time on Southland. The last track, “Henry Brown’s Talking Blues”, was not on the LP, and is nearly nine minutes of Brown’s off-the-cuff reminiscing on the St. Louis scene of his youth underpinned by some superb playing. Notes are identical to the LP with an additional photo of Brown playing at Pinkey Boxx’s Beauty Parlor in St. Louis. I’ve always been a big fan of Brown’s recordings, not only his superb 30′s recordings, but also his later recordings, including the one we spotlighted last week, The Blues in St. Louis, Vol. 2: Henry Brown and Edith Johnson: Barrelhouse Piano and Classic Blues.

We turn our attention to Folkways again with fine piano records from Memphis Slim and Roosevelt Sykes. Slim cut several albums for the label including Memphis Slim and the Real Boogie-Woogie from 1959 of which we play the lively ”Down The Big Road Blues.” Slim was also on hand to produce Sykes’ lone album for the label, Blues by Roosevelt “The Honeydripper” Sykes from 1961. Our selection, “Ran the Blues Out of My Window” a variation on “The Cannon Ball”, a song he cut back in 1936 which seems related to Cow Cow Davenport’s seminal “Cow Cow Blues.”

Other sets include one revolving around Lightnin’ Hopkins and another twin spin of sorts. We play a couple of tributes to Hopkins including “Look Out Lightning” by Juke Boy Bonner and Brownie McGhee’s “A Letter To Lightnin’ Hopkins.” On the former Bonner addresses Hopkins:

You know I heard you were the last of the blues singers
But you know you go to make some room for me
You know it may take a long time now Lightnin’
But I’m catching up to you by degrees

On “A Letter To Lightnin’ Hopkins” McGhee boasts:

I’m going to Houston Texas, Lightnin’ Hopkins is the man I want to see (2x)
Well if you can’t stand my jivin’, Sam I’m going to give you the third degree
They say you know you’re business, but I’ve got some news for you
I’m the captain of the ship, you just a member of the crew
I’ll be in Texas in the morning, you better buy a lock and key
You’ll be lookin’ for you’re woman Sam, yes and she will be with me

Show Notes:

1924 Paramount Catalog

Paramount Records recorded some of the greatest blues artists of the 20′s and early 30′s and today we kick off a multi-part feature on the label. In addition we’ll also be airing and interview I did with Alex van der Tuuk the author of Paramount’s Rise And Fall. Paramount Records was founded in 1917 as a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company of Port Washington, Wisconsin. The chair company had made some wooden phonograph cabinets by contract for Edison Records. Wisconsin Chair decided to start making its own line of phonographs with a subsidiary called the “United Phonograph Corporation” at the end  of 1915. It made phonographs under the “Vista” brand name through the end of the decade; the line failed commercially. In 1917 a line of phonograph records was debuted with the “Paramount” label. They were recorded and pressed by Chair Company subsidiary “The New York Recording Laboratories, Incorporated.” In its initial years, the Paramount label offered recordings of standard pop-music fare, on records recorded with below-average audio fidelity pressed in below-average quality shellac. In the early 1920′s, Paramount was still racking up debts for the Chair Company while producing no net profit. Paramount began offering to press records for other companies at low prices. The Paramount Record pressing plant was contracted to press discs for Black Swan Records. When that later company floundered, Paramount bought out Black Swan and thus got into the business of making recordings by and for African-Americans. These so-called “race music” records became Paramount’s most famous and lucrative business. Paramount’s “race record” series was launched in 1922 with its 1200 “race” series exclusively devoted to black music. The early catalog was dominated by female blues singers such as Lucille Hegamin, Alberta Hunter and Monette Moore and a bit later with records by stars Ida Cox and Ma Rainey. A large mail-order operation and weekly advertisements in black owned newspapers like the Chicago Defender were keys to the label’s early success. The label’s successful recordings by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake shifted the focus from women singers to male. The label wnet on to record some of the era’s most celebrated male blues artists such as delta legends Charlie Patton, skip James, Tommy Johnson, Son House, Willie Brown plus diverse artists such as Buddy Boy Hawkins, the Mississippi Sheiks, Charlie Spand, Papa Charlie Jackson among many others. The onset of the depression crippled the recording industry and Paramount was eventually discontinued in 1932.

Like all the early race labels, Paramount’s fledgling catalog was dominated by women singers. As Tony Russell wrote: “Blinded by the aurora of Blind Lemon Jefferson and his fellow bluesman, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that for much of the ’20s blues was almost exclusively women’s business, whether on the vaudeville stage or amidst the smoking lights of the tent show.” We open the program with tracks by Alberta Hunter, Monette Moore, Lucille Hegamin, Trixie Smith and Ma Rainey. Hunter would become one of Paramount’s top sellers and her releases were given full-page ads in the Chicago Defender. According to Alex van der Tuuk, Hunter “had been working for a couple of years at the Dreamland Theater in Chicago and had started her recording career with Black Swan in New York, but had become disenchanted with them because they did so little to ptomote her records in contrast with the big buildup they were affording Ethel Waters.” She switched to Paramount in 1922 where her recordings launched Paramount’s 1200 race series. Hunter wrote a lot of her own material and her song “Down Hearted Blues”, became Bessie Smith’s first record in 1923. Hunter staid with the label through 1924, cutting around three-dozen sides.

Alongside Bessie Smith, who recorded for Columbia, Ma Rainey is one of the most celebrated woman blues singers of the era. Rainey first appeared onstage in 1900, singing and dancing in minstrel and vaudeville stage revues. In 1902 she married the song and dance man William “Pa” Rainey and from then on became known as Ma Rainey. The couple formed a song and dance act that included blues and popular songs. They toured the country, but primarily the South and became a popular attraction as part of Tolliver’s Circus, The Musical Extravaganza and The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, where Rainey befriended a young Bessie Smith. It was not until 1923 that Ma Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount. She was billed as the “Mother of the Blues”, recording 100 songs between 1923 and 1928 for the label.

Less well remembered are Monette Moore, Lucille Hegamin and Trixie Smith. Monette Moore began her career accompanying silent films in Kansas City and then toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist and singer. In the early 1920s she made her way to New York and became active in musical theater. Her recording career began in 1923. She cut over a dozen sides for Paramount. Lucille Hegamin was the second African-American Blues singer to release a record in 1920, just few months after Mamie Smith’s groundbreaking success with “Crazy Blues.” Hegamin’s first record was “The Jazz Me Blues” and “Everybody’s Blues” for Arto Records and it sold well enough, but her next record in 1921 “Arkansas Blues” and “I’ll Be Good But I’ll Be Lonesome” was one of the most popular records of 1921 and made her a star of the blossoming Blues scene. It was issued on several different labels including paramount. Trixie Smith was born in Atlanta and around 1915 moved north to New York to work in show business. At first she worked in minstrel shows and on the TOBA vaudeville circuit. In 1922 Smith made her first recordings for the Black Swan label and later that year she won a blues singing contest in New York beating out Lucille Hegamin and others with her song “Trixie’s Blues.” In 1924 Smith made her debut for Paramount, cutting twenty sides for the label through 1926.

The heyday of woman blues singers started to fade toward the mid to late 20′s. Paramount’s earliest male blues star was Papa Charlie Jackson who made his debut in 1924 followed by in 1926 by big selling artists Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake as well as the lesser known, but superb slide player, Bo Weavil Jackson who’s records made virtually no impact among the blues buying public.

“Papa” Charlie Jackson was a six-string banjo who was one of the earliest and most successful of the solo blues singer/instrumentalists. ackson settled in Chicago on the famed Maxwell Street around 1920 where he began earning a living by playing on street corners and at house parties. In 1924 he cut his first solo sides “Papa’s Lawdy Blues” and “Airy Man Blues” for the Paramount label. During this period Jackson also became a sideman with many of the hot groups in and around Chicago.He also recorded with Ma Rainey and Ida Cox before his subsequent death around 1938.

In 1925 Blind Lemon Jefferson was discovered by a Paramount recording scout and taken to Chicago to make his first records either in December 1925 or January 1926.  Jefferson was the first male blues artist to attain a national audience. His extremely successful recording career continued until 1929 when he died under mysterious circumstances. He recorded over 100 sides all for the Paramount label, except one 78 for OKeh. Forty-four ads for his records in the Chicago Defender between 1926 and 1930.

Blind Blake was one of the most popular bluesmen of the 1920’s with his  only rival in popularity was label mate Blind Lemon Jefferson. Blake’s records were advertised heavily in the Chicago Defender with twenty-four ads featured. And as Tony Russell sums up: “Blind Blake’s most remarkable achievement as a recording artist was that in a career lasting almost six years, in which he made about 80 sides, he was never reduced, whether by slipping skill, waning inspiration or the single-mindedness of record company executives, from a multifaceted musician to a formulaic blues player.”

Paramount is famous for its roster of delta blues artists which boasted Son House, Charlie Patton, Tommy Johnson, Ishman Bracey, Skip James, Willie Brown, Louise Johnson, Geeshie Wiley and Rube Lacy. Credit for much of this talent goes to Henry C. Spier, a music store owner from Jackson, Mississippi who scoured the south for talent and was responsible for getting Son House, Skip James and Charlie Patton on record. Paramount asked Gennett to record 14 tunes by Patton at their Richmond, Indiana studio in June 1929. “Pony Blues” b/w “Banty Rooster Blues” was the first issued and was a hit. In all, Patton recorded 38 numbers for Paramount in 1929. Patton cut one more session for Paramount in 1930 and three final sessions for Vocalion in 1934.

In 1930, Arthur Laibley who had produced Patton’s last session for Paramount, stopped in Lula to arrange another session with Patton. Patton was famous throughout the Delta and had already recorded close to forty sides for Paramount. Patton told Laibley about House and about two other musicians Willie Brown and Louise Johnson, setting the stage for one of the blues most legendary recording sessions. The group headed to the Paramount studios in Grafton, WI, where House recorded six songs at the session, Brown four (“Kicking In My Sleep Blues b/w Window Blues” has never been found – or has it?), Johnson four and four by Patton backed by Brown.

-Listen to the Alex van der Tuuk interview (edited, MP3, 1 hr.)

Show Notes:

Blind Willie McTell, Chicago Defender Ad, August 27, 1930

Today’s show is the fourth installment of an ongoing series of programs built around a particular year. The first year we spotlighted was 1927 which was the beginning of a blues boom that would last until 1930; there were just 500 blues and gospel records issued in 1927 and increase of fifty percent from 1926 a trend that would continue until the depression. To feed the demand other record companies conducted exhaustive searches for new talent, which included making trips down south with field recording units. Between 1927-1930 Atlanta was visited seventeen times, Memphis eleven times, Dallas eight times, New Orleans seven times and so on. The record companies advertised their records in black newspapers, mainly in the Chicago Defender, which was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper.

The Depression, with the massive unemployment it brought, had a shattering effect on the pockets of black record buyers. By 1931 race record sales accounted for only about 1% of total industry sales, as against 5% four years earlier. By the fall of 1929, the Depression closed down a lot of the large touring shows and theaters. Record companies went bankrupt and sales plummeted. However, by 1937, the industry recovered and by 1937 they were almost as many new blues records produced as the peak years of the 1920′s.  The depression hit the record business hard; Columbia for example was pressing 11, 000 blues and gospel records in 1927 and by May of 1930 they were pressing 2,000 records, with the number halving by year’s end. Blind Willie Johnson’s first records had sold no better than the average disc in the Columbia 1400D series – in early 1929 they would manage about 5,000 as against Barbecue Bob’s 6,000 and Bessie Smith’s 9,000 or 10,000. In mid-1930 the blind evangelist  became the star of the list – his records were still selling 5,000 copies, although Barbecue Bob was down to 2,000, Bessie Smith to 3,000 and the average release had initial sales of only just over 1,000. The other labels were hit equally hard: Paramount placed their last ad in the Chicago Defender in April, Victor placed its last ad in December, the Gennett imprint was discontinued in 1930 and Warner, who owned the Brunswick group of labels, discontinued field trips at the end of 1930. Despite the hard times, there was some superb records being produced and today we spotlight some of the big names of the blues along with several who remain utterly forgotten.

Bessie Smith, Chicago Defender Ad, July 2, 1930

With the gradual rundown of Paramount, Brunswick became the leader in the race market. Among their stable of artists was Leroy Carr and Tampa Red, among the era’s biggest blues stars. Brunswick continued to record in the field and in 1930 they made recordings in Memphis where they recorded Memphis Minnie, Robert Wilkins, Jim Jackson and Garfield Akers among others. Today we spin Jim Jackson performing a rousing version of  ”St. Louis Blues” and Garfield Akers’ “Dough Roller Blues.” Akers made his debut in 1929 backed by Joe Callicott and waxed the classic “Cottonfield Blues” Pts. 1 & 2 for Vocalion which was advertised in the February 2nd, 1930 Chicago Defender. In Knoxville they recorded Leola Manning and the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and in Dallas they recorded Gene Campbell.

In February 1930 the OKeh field unit called at Shreveport, Louisiana, to do some recording at  the request of a local radio station. while there, they recorded  a small black group who called themselves the Mississippi Sheiks. Their records went down so well that OKeh recorded 14 more numbers in San Antonio in August and a further 16 in Jackson, Mississippi, just before Christmas. The Mississippi Sheiks became the most popular string bands of the late ’20s and early ’30s. The band blended country and blues fiddle music and included guitarist Walter Vinson and fiddler Lonnie Chatmon, with frequent appearances by guitarists Bo Carter and Sam Chatmon, who were also busy with their own solo careers. The Sheiks had their first and biggest success with “Sitting on Top of the World,” which was a crossover hit and multi-million seller. The Mississippi Sheiks’ popularity peaked in the early ’30s, and their final recording session happened in 1935 for the Bluebird label.

In 1930, when most companies were considering cutting back on their race issues, the American Record Corporation entered the field. ARC had been formed in August 1929 by the merger of three small companies: the Cameo Record corporation, whose labels included Banner and Oriole, and the Pathe Phonograph and Radio Corporation, owners of Perfect. In April 1930 ARC decided to revive the Perfect race series, and this time they made sure that they used currently popular artists singing up-to -the-minute material. In April 1930 they recorded some solo blues by Georgia Tom, and some Tampa Red styled numbers by a group called The Famous Hokum Boys that included Georgia Tom and Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy. ARC also recorded five solo records by him and issued them under the name Sammy Sampson. In September ARC had another recording session involving once again Georgia Tom, Sammy Sampson and The Famous Hokum Boys. Hokum had been hot since Tampa Red & Georgia Tom’s “It’s Tight Like That” was a huge smash in 1928 and the labels continued to try and cash in on the craze. “Hokum” was a common vaudeville term for rowdy comedy or clever stage business.

In February 1930 Vocalion recorded sides by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, with the duo hitting big with “Bumble Bee” issued in May. Columbia had recorded the duo the year before but didn’t issue all the titles. Once they saw how well “Bumble Bee” was selling they belatedly, in August 1930, issued the version they had recorded fourteen months previously.

Bukka White, Chicago Defender Ad, November 11, 1930

Among some of the other major blues artists who cut records in 1930, we spin tracks by Blind Willie McTell, Bessie Smith, Bukka White, Big Bill Broonzy and Blind Blake. White made his debut in 1930 for Victor, cutting two 78’s, one blues coupling and one gospel under the name Washington White. His “I Am In The Heavenly Way” was advertised on October 11, 1930 in the Chicago Defender. Blind Blake, one of the most popular bluesmen of the 1920’s. His only rival in popularity was Blind Lemon Jefferson, also a Paramount artist. Blake was advertised heavily in the Chicago Defender between 1926-30,with twenty-four ads appearing. He cut some 80 sides before mysteriously disappearing after a final session circa June 1932. In her heyday Bessie Smith was the highest paid black entertainer in America. She was advertised as The Empress of the Blues a title hard to argue with. She recorded prolifically between 1923-1931 with a final four-song session in 1933. Broonzy made his debut in 1928 and was an in demand session guitarist as well as waxing hundreds of sides under his own name. Today we spin Broonzy’s superb “I Can’t Be Satisfied” as well as “Pig Meat Strut” in the company of The Famous Hokum Boys.  The group was a studio outfit that consisted of Big Bill Broonzy, Georgia Tom, Frank Braswell who cut close to two-dozen sides in 1930 .

OK, shameless plug time. Blues, Blues Christmas Vol. 2, a sequel to my 2005 release is now out on the Document label and features more  jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and gospel recordings dedicated to the season. With lively Boogie-woogie and R & B, reflective blues and the odd cautionary sermon thrown in for good moral measure, this double CD covers all the bases. The 2-CD set collects 44 numbers spanning from the 1920’s through the 1950’s, many of which have not been anthologized before. Artists include Blind Lemon Jefferson, Rev. A.W. Nix, Blind Blake, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Smokey Hogg, Fats Waller, Jesse Thomas, Gatemouth Moore, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chuck Berry and many, many others. You can read my notes by visiting the writing page. It also appears that the elusive Blues, Blues Christmas is now back in stock and has been remastered. For some reason this one was extremely hard to come by when it first came out. This one sports an eleven page booklet written by myself and I also compiled all the tracks.  The CD collects 52 numbers spanning from 1925 to 1955, many of which have not been anthologized before. Artists include Bessie Smith, Leroy Carr, Rev. J.M. Gates, Butterbeans & Susie, Lonnie Johnson, Roy Milton, Larry Darnell, Cecil Gant, Lightnin’ Hopkins and many, many others. Just a heads up that I’m not selling these so buy them where available at your favorite store.

Show Notes:

Today’s wide ranging mix show spans the years 1927 through 1977. We have a whole slew of fine pre-war recordings on tap today including a set of fine female singers and a set of excellent piano players. We get things rolling today with “Going To Germany” sung in a wonderful, lazy, dreamy style by Noah Lewis. Gus Cannon was the best known of all the jugband musicians and a seminal figure on the Memphis blues scene. Cannon led his Jug Stompers on banjo and jug in a historic series of dates for the Victor label in 1928-1930. The ensemble usually included a second banjoist or guitarist, one of whom often doubled on kazoo, and the legendary Noah Lewis on harmonica. Lewis was one of the finest early harp blowers, cutting over a dozen titles with Cannon’s Jug Stompers as well eight sides under his own name.

Compared to Lewis, Blind Blake was one of the biggest blues stars of the 1920′s. His “Georgia Bound” was recorded on 17th August 1929 in Richmond in Illinois. It has a very similar melody line to the subsequent “Four Until Late” by Robert Johnson and was clearly an influence on him.

The Mississippi Moaner was another fine, if obscure,  vocalist who’s real name was Isaiah Nettles. He recorded four sides for Vocalion Records in Jackson, MS, on October 20, 1935. Only one 78 from the session was ever officially released, “Mississippi Moan” b/w “It’s Cold in China Blues” with “Chicago Blues” b/w “Good Doin’ Papa” tantalizingly unreleased.

Another mysterious and highly revered figure featured today is Geeshie Wiley, represnted by “Pick Poor Robin Clean.” Don Kent wrote in the notes to Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-35 that “If Geeshie Wiley did not exist, she could not be invented: her scope and creativity dwarfs most blues artists. She seems to represent the moment when black secular music was coalescing into blues.” Wiley recorded just two 78′s in 1930 and 1931, both highly sought after and worth a fortune to 78 record collectors. There are no known photographs and little is known about her. She recorded “Last Kind Word Blues” and “Skinny Leg Blues” in Grafton, Wisconsin for Paramount Records in March of 1930, with Elvie Thomas backing her on second guitar. Thomas also recorded two songs for Paramount at the session, “Motherless Child Blues” and “Over to My House,” Wiley, providing second guitar and vocal harmonies. In 1931 Wiley and Thomas returned to Grafton to record two more sides for Paramount, “Pick Poor Robin Clean” and “Eagles on a Half.”

There are several fine female performers featured today including Bessie Smith, arguably the greatest woman blues singers of her era, Lottie Kimbrough, Bertha “Chippie” Hill and the obscure Johnnie Strauss. From Bessie’s last session in 1933 we spin her sensational “Gimmie A Pigfoot” featuring a crack band that included Frankie Newton, Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman and Chu Berry. Lottie Kimbrough was a Kansas City blues woman whose brief recording career spanned the years 1924 to 1929. Kimbrough was a famously large woman, nicknamed “the Kansas City Butter-ball.” Her “Rollin’ Log Blues” is a tune of haunting beauty propelled by the driving guitar of Mile Pruitt. Backed by Richard Jones Jazz Wizards, “Chippie” Hill turns in a powerful performance on her “Do Dirty Blues.” Compared to the others, Johnnie Strauss is a mere footnote, waxing just four sides for Decca in 1934 backed by Roosevelt Sykes. Her hoarse, yet powerhouse vocals, backed by a fine unknown violinist make for a compelling performance on her “St. Louis Johnnie Blues.”

We spotlight a quartet of excellent piano performances from the 1930′s by Little Brother Montgomery, Judson Brown, Pinetop Burks and Jesse James. Montgomery cut some of the greatest piano blues records if the 1930′s including a remarkable eighteen song session recorded on October 16, 1936 at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans. Less well known and far less prolific are Judson Brown who cut just one side for Brunswick in 1930 (he also backed singers such as Marry Johnson, Jenny Pope, Mozelle Alderson and others), Jesse James who cut one four soong session in 1936 (two sides were unissued) and Pinetop Burks who cut six fine sides in San Antonio in 1937.

We feature is a trio of tracks from the LP BluesScene USA Vol. 2 – The Louisiana Blues on Storyville. The LP  collect sides cut for the Goldband label in the 1950′s and 60′s including several sides never issued. Goldband was based in Lake Charles, LA and formed by Eddie Shuler in 1945. From that album we hear excellnet sides by lesser known artists such as Big Chenier, Jay Stutes and Ashton Savoy.

In anticipation of our feature on Excello Records next week, we spin a pair of tracks by Lonesome Sundown. Cornelius Green AKA Lonesome Sundown was hired as one of Clifton Chenier’s guitarists in 1955 (Phillip Walker was the other). A demo tape was sent to producer Jay Miller who began producing him in 1956, leasing his “Leave My Money Alone” to Excello. Over the next eight years, Sundown’s Excello output included a host of memorable swamp classics before his 1965 retirement from the blues business to devote his life to the church. It was 1977 before Sundown could be coaxed back into a studio to cut Been Gone Too Long, an excellent comeback. He did some scattered live dates before passing in 1995.

We wrap up our program with two tracks by Rev. Gary Davis off the just released 3-CD set Live At Gerde’s Folk City 1962.  These sides were recorded by Stefan Grossman at Gerde’s Folk City in New York City with a two track Tandberg tape machine. Davis was Grossman’s guitar teacher at the time. These are the first time these sides have seen the light of day and sound quality is excellent.

Show Notes:

Today’s show is the first installment of an ongoing series of programs built around a particular year. The bulk of the information for today’s show notes comes from the books Recording The Blues (reprinted along with two other titles in Yonder Come The Blues) by Robert M.W. Dixon and John Godrich and Blues & Gospel Records, 1890-1943 by Robert M.W. Dixon, John Godrich and Howard Rye.

The year 1927 was the beginning of a blues boom that would last until 1930; there were just 500 blues and gospel records issued in 1927 and increase of fifty percent from 1926 a trend that would continue until the depression. Paramount, the market leader at the time, brought talent up to their northern studios. To feed the demand other record companies conducted exhaustive searches for new talent, which included making trips down south with field recording units. Between 1927-1930 Atlanta was visited seventeen times, Memphis eleven times, Dallas eight times, New Orleans seven times and so on. The record companies advertised their record in black newspapers, mainly in the Chicago Defender, which was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper.

After neglecting the race market, Victor decided to jump in the field in 1926 with negligible results. Victor’s fortunes turned around when they hired Ralph Peer who had been responsible for building up the race and hilliby catalogs for OKeh. In February 1927 Peer ventured out with the Victor filed unit to Atlanta, Memphis and finally New Orleans. Among the artists recorded in Memphis were the Memphis Jug Band, Furry Lewis and Frank Stokes. In Atlanta recordings were made by Julius Daniels, Blind Willie McTell and others. In New Orleans the major find was songster Richard “Rabbit” Brown who recorded six sides.

Early in 1927 Mayo Williams, who had built up the Paramount catalog, formed his Black Patti label. The recordings were made by Gennett, with half the material issued on Gennett’s own labels. Black Patti Records debuted with advertisements in May of 1927, with some two dozen discs said to already be available. The repertory included jazz, blues, sermons, spirituals, and vaudeville skits, most (but not quite all) by African American entertainers. A total of 55 different discs were manufactured. Williams found running his own label not as lucrative and easy as he had hoped, and closed up operations before the end of 1927. Among the notable blues artists recorded were Papa Harvey Hull, Sam Collins, Clara Smith, Jaybird Collins among others.

When Black Patti folded in August 1927, Vocalion quickly hired him as a talent scout. Williams hit pay dirt with Jim Jackson’s “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues” which was released in December 1927 and was an immediate hit.

Gennett began recording blues in 1923 but was the only major label not to have a separate race series. Gennett recorded most of their recordings at their Richmond, Indiana and New York studios. They made one group of recordings in the South in Birmingham Alabama in 1927. Among those recorded during this trip were Jay Bird Coleman, Daddy Stovepipe,, William Harris and Joe Evans.Other artists to appear on the label included Sam Collins and Cow Cow Davenport.

Columbia’s race records  were primarily issued on the 1400-D series which ran from December 1923 through April 1933. The first country blues singer to appear on the series was Peg Leg Howell who was recorded in Atalanta in November 1926 and the following year in April.  Also recorded in April 1927 were Robert Hicks aka Barbecue Bob. According to Robert M.W. Dixon John Godrich in their book Recording The Blues, 10, 850 copies of “Barbecue Blues” b/w “Cloudy Sky Blues” were pressed. Initial sales were so good that Hicks was called to New York in the middle of June to record 8 more numbers, and when Columbia returned to Atlanta in November they not only recorded a further 8 selections by Barbecue Bob, but also 6 by his brother Charley Lincoln, who sang the same sort of songs in very much the same style. In December 1927 the Columbia field unti went to Dallas and Memphis.  Notable artists recorded in Dallas inluded Blind Willie Johnson, the Dallas String Band, Lillian Glinn while Memphis yielded important recordings by Reubin Lacy and Pearl Dickson.

In 1926 Columbia and OKeh merged but the labels were run by separate management for three years after the merger and did not compete for the same artists. Since 1927 OKeh had been issuing a new record every six weeks by Lonnie Johnson and issued some two-dozen sides by him in 1927. Johnson also backed other OKeh artists that year including Texas Alexander and Victoria Spivey. OKeh also recorded two sessions by Blind Lemon Jefferson, exclusively a Paramount artist, but these were never issued. Today’s show features tracks by all these artists as well as the duo of Butterbeans & Susie who cut close to 70 sides for the label between 1924 and 1930.

The only race company that made no field trips was Paramount. Despite this Paramount remained the market leader in records released and singers recorded. Paramount issued records by the many of the blues biggest stars. In 1927 the label issued records by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake both of whom were extensivley advertised in the Chicago Defender. Other big names were Ma Rainey, Lucille Bogan Ida Cox, and Papa Charlie Jackson.

Dry Bone Shuffle (MP3)

As we continue our mission to reprint the blues advertisements that appeared in the Chicago Defender we turn our attention to Blind Blake, one of the most popular bluesmen of the 1920′s. His only rival in popularity was Blind Lemon Jefferson, also a Paramount artist, who had a whopping forty-four ads in the Chicago Defender between 1926 and 1930. Blake too was advertised heavily with twenty-four ads in the Chicago Defender during the same time span. Today we spotlight “Dry Bone Shuffle” recorded April 1927 and “Wabash Rag” from November 1927.

Before we discuss Blake it’s worth giving some background on how Paramount advertised their records. Record collector John Tefteller provides some context: “In the mid-1920′s, Paramount began advertising in the now legendary Chicago Defender, carefully promoting each new blues release with clever artwork and appropriate hype. The artwork and advertisements were produced in Wisconsin [Paramount's headquarters] and then sent to Chicago for publication. Apparently, all the printing was done by the local newspaper in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. As the Great Depression took its toll, Paramount stopped advertising in the Defender (though they continued to produce artwork and promotional materials they sent directly to record stores) and eventually folded in 1933.”

So who was Blind Blake? Despite his popularity and much investigation, he remains a shadowy figure; What was his real name? Where was he from? And perhaps most mysteriously, how did he simply disappear after a final session circa June 1932? As to his name,  Bruce Bastin notes that “on occasion he is named Arthur Phelps, but copyright submissions on behalf of Chicago Music for his Paramount recordings give his name as Arthur Blake. They state his name in a variety of manners: Blind Blake (“Blake’s Worried Blues”), Arthur (Blind) Blake (“Bootleg Whiskey” and “Goodbye Mama Moan”), Blind Arthur Blake (“Cold Hearted Mama Blues”), and simply Arthur Blake (“Detroit Bound”).” During the recording “Papa Charlie And Blind Blake Talk About It,” Papa Charlie Jackson asks him, “What is your right name?” Blake responds, “My name is Arthur Blake.”

As for biographical details there is the following from his first Defender advertisement: “Early Morning Blues” is the first record of this new exclusive Paramount artist, Blind Blake. Blake, who hails from Jacksonville, Florida, is known up and down the coast as a wizard at picking his piano-sounding guitar. His ‘talking guitar’ they call it, and when you hear him sing and play you’ll know why Blind Blake is going to be one of the most talked about Blues artist in music.” The Paramount Book of the Blues (issued in 1924 and 1927 with photographs and short bios to promote Paramount recording artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Ma Rainey) had the following bio: “We have all heard expressions of people ‘singing in the rain’ or ‘laughing in the face of adversity,’ but we never saw such a good example of it, until we came upon the history of Blind Blake. Born in Jacksonville, in sunny Florida, he seemed to absorb some of the sunny atmosphere–disregarding the fact that nature had cruelly denied him a vision of outer things. He could not see the things that others saw–but he had a better gift. A gift of an inner vision, that allowed him to see things more beautiful. The pictures that he alone could see made him long to express them in some way–so he turned to music. He studied long and earnestly–listening to talented pianists and guitar players, and began to gradually draw out harmonious tunes to fit every mood. Now that he is recording exclusively for Paramount, the public has the benefit of his talent, and agrees, as one body, that he has an unexplainable gift of making one laugh or cry as he feels, and sweet chords and tones that come from his talking guitar express a feeling of his mood.”

Blake’s disappearance only adds to the aura of mystery and legend. “I figure he went back to Jacksonville when his recording contract was over,” says researcher Gayle Dean Wardlow. “No one’s ever found out what happened to him. Gary Davis said that Blake was hit by a streetcar, and that’s the only rumor of his death that I know of. Maybe he got robbed and killed, ’cause he was blind.” Josh White never saw him after 1930 and believed he was murdered in the streets of Chicago, Big Bill Broonzy thought he died in Joliet prison in 1932 while Blind John Davis suggested Blake had died in the 1930′s in St. Louis, although he had been told this by Tampa Red.

Whatever his background there’s no doubt regarding his guitar skills. Paramount boldly promoted his skills: “He accompanies himself with that snappy guitar playing, like only Blind Blake can do,” read copy for “Bad Feeling Blues.” The company claimed that “Blind Blake and his trusty guitar do themselves proud” on “Rumblin’ & Ramblin’ Boa Constrictor Blues,” while “Wabash Rag” was “aided by his happy guitar.” Woody Mann stated, that “playing with a terrific flair for improvisation…he is at once subtle and ornate.” Gary Davis, never generous with praise, stated “I ain’t heard anybody on record yet beat Blind Blake on the guitar. I like Blake because he plays right sporty.” And as Tony Russell sums up: “Blind Blake’s most remarkable achievement as a recording artist was that in a career lasting almost six years, in which he made about 80 sides, he was never reduced, whether by slipping skill, waning inspiration or the single-mindedness of record company executives, from a multifaceted musician to a formulaic blues player.”

Blake cut quite a number of rags, even if they had “blues” in the title; “rags in blues clothing,” Russell calls them. “Dry Bone Shuffle” and “Wabash Rag” fall in the rag category. Blake was backed by an unknown rattlebones percussionist (“the accompaniment of rattling bones makes it an exciting number” the ad states) for “Dry Bone Shuffle” b/w “One Time Blues” and performs solo on “Wabash Rag” b/w “You Gonna Quit Me Blues.” Both of the flip sides feature a straight blues. The prominent bones player does a good job keeping pace with Blake as Blake offers running spoken encouragement:

Let’s go boys
That’s the way to play them bones, boy
Whup them bones into grace!

Wabash Rag (MP3)

“Wabash Rag” is another lively rag taken at a slightly slower pace. Recorded in Chicago, it’s a reference to Wabash Ave. (“lively as Wabash Ave. itself” the ad proclaims) located in the historic Bronzeville section on Chicago’s South Side. Bronzeville was known as the “Black Metropolis” and between 1910 and 1920, during the peak of the “Great Migration,” the population of the area increased dramatically when thousands of African-Americans fled the south and emigrated to Chicago in search of better opportunities.

Show Notes:

Today’s program revolves around record collector John Tefteller who’s record collection contains some of the rarest blues 78′s in existence. I’ve interviewed him on two separate occasions and each time I’ve found him to be extremely knowledgeable regarding blues from the 1920′s with a keen insight into how the record companies operated and how they marketed blues records. Due to some technical issues some of the most recent interview was not broadcast quality so I’ve combined some of the salvageable segments with the interview I conducted a few years back. What follows is some background on Tefteller as well as some context for today’s selections.

Tefteller has been buying and selling rare phonograph records for the past 30 years. According to his website he has the world’s largest inventory of blues, rhythm & blues and rock & roll 78′s with over 75,000 in stock. He also has a selection of over 100,000 45′s from the 1950′s and early 1960′s in the following categories: blues, rhythm & blues, rockabilly, rock & roll, girl groups, surf and country. His company, Blues Images, was established in 1998. As he notes: “At the time, we had no idea that in just a few short years we would have a previously unseen photograph of Charley Patton and a treasure trove of original Paramount Records label artwork. When that collection was discovered and purchased, we knew it would only be a short time before Blues Images would become a reality. The vision of this company is to provide the world with the very finest reproductions of classic Blues Images.”

In addition Tefteller regularly makes his collection available to reissue companies including Yazoo as well as issuing his own CD compilations. Like Yazoo and a few other labels, Tefteller’s CD’s contain some of the best sounding transfers of blues 78′s. Credit for this goes to Richard Nevins of  Yazoo. According to Tefteller, Nevins has about thirty different 78 needles and painstakingly tries each needle on the 78 to find out which one works best, making a test of each one. Apparently the right needle is the one that fits the groove the best and thus extracts the most music out of the grooves. After this some filtering is done, some removal of clicks and pops but unlike unlike other reissue labels they don’t lop off the high end which  makes the record sound old and tinny.

Every year around June/July 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. Several years ago Tefteller uncovered a huge cache of Paramount promotional material. Paramount marketed their “race records”, as they were called, to African-Americans, most notably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, the weekly African-American newspaper, and sent promotional material to record stores and distributors. Tefteller bought a huge cache of this artwork from a pair of journalists who rescued them from the rubbish heap some twenty years previously. The depression essentially killed off Paramount’s advertising budget so many of these images were never sent out and hence have not been seen by anyone since they were first produced. Tefteller’s annual calendars have been the main vehicle for reprinting these ads. A book in conjunction with artist Robert Crumb is planned with the tentative title, Sellin’ The Blues. “The book of all the artwork should be ready in a year or so”, Tefteller said. “I am just waiting for Robert Crumb to finish his current project illustrating the Bible.”

I should make a quick aside and pay tribute to the late Max Vreede who in the 1960′s first discovered some of the blues advertisements while doing research for his book, Paramount 12000/13000 Series . Paramount’s “race” series started with issue No 12000 and finished with No 13156. Vreede found, on microfilm,  old issues of the Chicago Defender, which contained some of the artwork. His book (long out of print) reproduced a few of the images for the first time but left much to be desired quality-wise. Tefteller purchased Vreede’s papers and record collection in 1998.

Why are these old blues 78′s so rare is a question Tefteller fields often. There’s a few factors: African-Americans were often displaced and unable to hold on to collections, low press runs especially during the depression (although Tefteller has the Paramount files that state press runs were higher that was previously thought) and 78′s were used for shellac during the war, perhaps millions (Paramount donated a warehouse full of their old records) were given to the war effort which were used to make the olive colored paint for tanks and battleships. “When you’re looking at that”, Tefteller told me, “you’re looking at melted down Charley Patton records.”

King Solomon Hill signed to the Paramount label in 1932, soon traveling to Grafton, Wisconsin to record six tracks – two of them alternate takes – which comprise his known discography; songs like the eerie “Gone Dead Train” and “Down on Bended Knee” are masterly performances featuring Hill’s eerie falsetto and raw, unorthodox guitar work. In 2002 Tefteller went to Grafton and discovered the long lost Hill 78 “My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon”/”Times Has Done Got Hard” in mint condition. Not much is known of Hill – whose real name was Joe Holmes. He was closely connected to Sam Collins and traveled with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Rambling Thomas. He roamed through Louisiana and Texas playing and in 1932 was invited to record for Paramount along with Ben Curry and Marshall Owens. After this lone session, Hill returned to the juke joint circuit, eventually vanishing from sight; reputedly a heavy drinker, he died of a massive brain hemorrhage in Sibley, Louisiana in 1949.

Jaydee Short was born in Port Gibson, MS on Dec. 26, 1902 and moved to St. Louis in 1923. He made his first recordings for Paramount in 1930. One of them, Paramount 13012 “Steamboat Rousty”/”Gittin’ Up On The Hill”, has yet to be located. In 1932 he recorded for Vocalion using the name Jelly Jaw Short. Peetie Wheatstraw recorded duets with “Neckbones” who is believed to be Short. In 1933, using the name Joe Stone, he recorded for Bluebird. Short recorded again in 1958 for the Delmark label and was filmed by Sam Charters for the 1963 documentary “The Blues.” He died on Oct. 21, 1962 in St. Louis.

In November 1929 at the Paramount Recording Studios in Grafton, Wisconsin, four songs were recorded at 78 rpm by a Louisiana street musician named Joe Sheppard who, on the run from the law, used the name Blind Joe Reynolds. Within a year, the four songs were released on two records. Neither record sold well, but almost 40 years later, one of the two attracted the attention of Eric Clapton who heard the song “Outside Woman Blues” on a reissue album. In 1967, Clapton and his Cream bandmates Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce recorded a more modern day version of “Outside Woman Blues” on their classic LP “Disraeli Gears.” The second record recorded in Wisconsin on that day, “Ninety Nine Blues” backed with “Cold Woman Blues” has been lost since it was first released in October of 1930. No copies in any condition were ever located until just a few years ago. Bruce Smith, a school teacher from Ohio with an appreciation for old blues records, was attending a teachers’ conference in Nashville. With an hour to kill before catching a flight home from a school conference, he wandered into the Nashville Flea Market and found the record in a stack of old 78′s. The records were without sleeves and not in particularly good condition, but the price was right at $1.00 each. He purchased three records-two were common blues records of the 1930′s and the third was the long lost Blind Joe Reynolds (Paramount 12983.) Unaware of its value, he purchased it simply because it “looked interesting.” Not realizing quite what he had, the teacher began searching the internet to figure out exactly who Blind Joe Reynolds was and if this record might be of some significance. One site referred him to Gayle Dean Wardlow’s book Chasin’ That Devil Music. A chapter in that book called “A Devil of a Joe” tells the story of Blind Joe Reynolds and the significance of his recordings. It also said that there was a missing Blind Joe Reynolds recording, which turned out to be the one purchased at the flea market. Realizing he had stumbled upon a rare find, Smith contacted Tefteller for an appraisal, but ended up selling it to him for an undisclosed amount.

It appears that all of Patton’s 78′s have been found although there have been some significant Patton finds. Found in the material Tefteller purchased in Grafton was a full length photo of Patton. In the 1960′s a small, grainy of only Patton’s head was found in Georgia on a Paramount advertising flyer by blues collector Max Tarpley. It was until, the newly found photo, the only existing photo of Patton. There was also some confusion regarding how Patton spelled his name. According to Tefteller: “Final proof of this occurred in 2008 when Bernard MacMahon found Patton’s original handwritten military draft papers for World War I where Mr. Patton clearly signs his name ‘Charley’.”

A close friend of Charley Patton, Willie Brown played second guitar on many of Patton’s records and Patton played second guitar on at least one of his. Brown had a small amount of success, selling perhaps a few hundred copies of “M&O Blues” simply because the song became a big seller by Walter Davis. Brown made two other records, both of which have yet to be found. Not one single copy of is known to exist of Paramount 13001 “Grandma Blues”/”Sorry Blues”, which was not even known to exist until Tefteller found Paramount artwork advertising this record in 2002, or Paramount 13099 “Kickin’ In My Sleep Blues”/”Window Blues.” Tefteller has offered a $20, 000 reward for either of those records in playable condition.

In 1930, Arthur Laibley who had produced Charley Patton’s last session for Paramount, stopped in Lula to arrange another session with Patton. Patton was famous throughout the Delta and had already recorded close to forty sides for Paramount. Patton told Laibley about Son House and two other musicians Willie Brown and Louise Johnson. The group headed to the Paramount studios in Grafton, WI, where House recorded six songs at the session. Two songs, “Clarksdale Moan”/”Mississippi County Farm Blues” were issued as a 78, but no copy has ever been found until just a couple of years ago. Circumstances are hazy as to it’s discovery but apparently the collector who had it owned it for some time before making the disclosure. All the collector has said was that the record was found in the south. Tefteller has since purchased the record. Could there be another missing Son House record? Tefteller had this to say: “There was a notation in Max Vreede’s files of a Son House/Skip James double sided coupling on Paramount. He assigned it to be one of the missing numbers, but there was no information as to song titles or where he got the information. Son House, in interviews in the 60′s, insists that he recorded 16 songs for Paramount which would be eight 78′s. There are four records (eight sides) known and accounted for…along with a one sided test for “Walking Blues” but there sure could be another one issued on one of the missing numbers and also the others could exist on test pressings but none have been found (outside of “Walkin’ Blues”).”

In 2007 Tefteller issued what is apparently the only known copy of Blind Willie McTell & Mary Willis’ “Talkin’ To You Wimmen’ About The Blues.” The track and it’s flip side, “Merciful Blues”, was issued on the CD that accompanies Tefteller’s 2008 blues artwork calendar. To quote Tefteller: “the record…apparently has not been heard by anyone since its release back in the late fall of 1931. I have had this record in my collection for almost ten years. I had no idea that it was potentially a one-of-a-kind record! …Late last year, legendary Blues reissue producer Larry Cohn called me about his upcoming Blind Willie McTell box set. He told me he would like to borrow certain records from my collection …I sent him a list of what I had. To my amazement, he called immediately with the comment, “I’ve never heard the Mary Willis record!” Apparently, there is no master in the Columbia vaults. Cohn is aware of no other copy of the record anywhere. Finding this hard to believe, I started calling “all the usual suspects” and sure enough, none of them had the record or had ever heard it.”

“Night And Day Blues” b/w “Sun To Sun” (Paramount 13123) was discovered in 2007 when it was retrieved from an old steamer trunk in a trailer park in Raleigh, NC, and acquired by Old Hat Records. In either May or October 1931, Paramount cut four Blake sides and the other record for this session, “Dissatisfied Blues”/”Miss Emma Liza” has also never been found. The Blake records were acquired by Old Hat Records along with records by Charley Jordan, Buddy Moss, Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Jackson, Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell, Casey Bill, Georgia Tom, and the duo of Daddy Stovepipe & Mississippi Sarah, to name just a few. Tefteller had this to say regarding other possible missing Blake sides: “In a Paramount recording ledger which was found in the 60′s, there are notations of at least six more songs that Blake recorded for Paramount but were never released and no tests have ever been found. They could exist on tests but we will never know for sure until one turns up.”

Issued on Tefteller’s newest CD are two test pressings of “Home Town Skiffle” a super group of Paramount’s biggest selling artists including Charley Spand, Will Ezell, The Hokum Boys, Papa Charlie Jackson and Blind Blake. According to Tefteller: “Paramount, however, told a lie on this one – claiming on both the record label and the ad that Blind Lemon Jefferson appears on this record. Not true! Collectors long suspected that Blind Blake simply imitates Jefferson’s guitar licks and they are correct! Newly discovered test pressings of other takes of the song reveal this. We include one of those complete tests on this year’s CD so you can clearly hear for yourself that Jefferson was not in the room for these sessions.”

A welcome surprise in recent years has been the discovery of several Tommy Johnson recordings of unissued material. In 1985 an untitled Tommy Johnson test pressing was found and issued on Document as “Boogaloosa Woman”/”Morning Prayer.” Yazoo has issued “Morning Prayer” with the title “Button Up Shoes.” In around 2001 yet another important batch of records came to light. A box of unissued Paramount and QRS test pressings (the QRS material likely obtained by Paramount from Art Satherley in 1930/31) has been found by an antique dealer in Wisconsin. Tefteller purchased the Tommy Johnson test pressing of “I Want Someone To Love Me” for over $12,000. The record has since been issued on the CD that accompanies the 2004 Blues Images calendar. Our selection today is “Alchohol And Jake Blues.” The flip side is “Ridin’ Horse Blues” and is the only known copy of this 78 which was issued as Paramount 12950 purchased by Tefteller in November 2007.

John Tefteller Interview [edited version] (MP3)

Show Notes:

On the last mix show we spotlighted recordings by the recently passed Lula Reed and this week starts on a similarly somber tone as we spin sides by the recently departed Chuck Carbo. R&B singer Chuck Carbo passed away on July 11th after a lengthy battle with cancer. I first became acquainted with Carbo with the two excellent comeback records he cut for Rounder: Drawers Trouble (1993) and The Barber’s Blues (1996). I recall these records getting quite a bit of play on my radio program at the time. I soon tracked down his early recordings with the Spiders, a fabulous New Orleans vocal group who had a string of R&B hits in the 1950′s, led by Carbo and his brother Chick. Just about all these sides can be found on Bear Family’s 2-CD The Imperial Sessions. After the Spiders Carbo cut a number of 45′s, only a few that I’m familiar with, and returned to music after a long absence. We open today with a trio of great sides by Carbo and the Spiders and conclude the show with a track by Carbo fronting The Clowns and a 45 he cut under his own name.

We have a couple of twin spins on today’s program with sides by Jimmy McCracklin and Big Joe Turner. In his heyday, from the late 1940′s through the 1960′s, he led one of the toughest, hardest rocking blues bands on the West Coast. He was a prolific and witty composer, a fine singer/pianist and was a real pioneer in defining the soul-blues style made so popular by Little Milton, Bobby Bland and others. With a pair of excellent records in the 1990′s for Bullseye he achieved some wider exposure although during his hit making days he remained something of a neglected figure with a stature that seems to have always been higher in the black community. At 87, McCracklin is still active and I was thrilled to get a chance to see him at this year’s Pocono Blues Festival. We go back to 1947 to hear Big Joe Turner teaming up with Wynonie Harris on “Blues” as Wynonie has this to say to Big Joe: “Yes the girl that used to sleep with you, Joe Turner she’s sleeping with Mr. Blues now.” This is one of four songs Turner and Harris recorded together for Imperial in 1947. We jump ahead a few years to hear Big Joe’s “Sweet Sixteen” from 1952.

On today’s show we spotlight recordings from two recent releases: Blues Images Presents Vol. 6 and And This Free. Blues Images Presents Vol. 6 is the companion CD to the latest blues calendar put out by record collector John Tefteller. Several years back Tefteller uncovered a huge cache of Paramount promotional material. Paramount marketed their “race records”, as they were called, to African-Americans, most notably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, the African-American newspaper, and sent promotional material to record stores and distributors. Tefteller bought a huge cache of this artwork from a pair of journalists who rescued them from the rubbish heap some twenty years previously. The depression essentially killed off Paramount’s advertising budget so many of these images were never sent out and hence have not been seen by anyone since they were first produced. Tefteller has been making these gorgeous ads available in his Classic Blues Artwork Calendar since 2004 and the 2009 version has just been printed. The accompanying CD is a collection of songs that match the artwork. For pre-war blues fans these CD’s are eagerly anticipated as that always include some newly discovered sides. This year is no exception with newly discovered titles by Blind Blake, Ben Curry and two test recordings of the Paramount All Star’s “Home Town Skiffle.” The Blind Blake sides were discovered in 2007 and I’m very glad to be able to play “Night And Day Blues” a very nice laid back number sporting some fine guitar solos. We also play one of the “Home Town Skiffle” tests which was a group consisting of The Hokum Boys, Georgia Tom, Will Ezell, Blind Blake, Charlie Spand and Papa Charlie Jackson. This was made as a sampler to advertise Paramount artists. It was thought Blind Lemon Jefferson was on this but he is clearly not after listening closely to these test recordings.

After languishing out of print for many years, Mike Shea’s legendary film on Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market, And This Is Free, has finally been reissued. Housed in a soft covered fold out set is a two disc set containing the 50 minute documentary And This Is Free, the 30 minute documentary Maxwell Street: A Living Memory, some fascinating archival footage, an interview with sound man Gordon Quinn, a separate CD of performances by artists associated with Maxwell Street. Form the CD we play Blind Percy & His Blind Band’s “Fourteenth Street Blues” which is supposedly a pseudonym for Blind Taggart who recorded primarily gospel material.

The most recent song on today’s show is Junior Wells’ “Trouble Don’t Last Always” cut circa 1969/1970. The song comes from Southside Blues Jam which is easily one of Wells’ best records from this era featuring longtime partner Buddy Guy along with Otis Spann. Spann’s rumbling, two-fisted piano adds much to this date and is his last studio recording before his untimely death in April 1970. Fittingly the album is dedicated to Spann.

Among the other early blues we spin are fine sides by Bayless Rose, Blind Willie McTell, Leroy Carr, Little Brother Montgomery, J.T. “Funny Papa” Smith plus blues ladies Victoria Spivey and Merline Johnson. The mysterious Bayless Rose recorded 3 sides in 1930 plus several unissued sides and there’s some dispute if Rose is a white or black performer. “Frisco Blues” is a gorgeous instrumental sporting some amazing quick fingered playing and crystal clear, fluid tone. I’ve played Little Brother often on the show and today’s selection, “No Special Rider Blues”, was cut in 1960 but is a reprise of a song he cut at his very first session for Paramount back in 1930. This version comes from the Bluesville album Tasty Blues, one of his finest records and featuring the wonderful guitar of Lafayette Thomas. Montgomery also shows up on another song we play, “Ethel Bea”, by Little Son Joe which also features Joe’s wife, Memphis Minnie. Speaking of piano blues we play Leroy Carr’s timeless “Midnight Hour Blues.” Little is known about Merline Johnson who was one of the most prolific female blues artists of the 1930′s. She recorded over 70 sides between 1937 and 1941and on our selection, “He May Be Your Man” she’s ably supported by Blind John Davis and Lonnie Johnson. I’ve been listening quite a bit to J.T. “Funny Papa” Smith who cut twenty issued sides between 1930 and 1931. He was a superb singer/guitarist and a marvelous lyricist as he shows on the salacious “Hoppin’ Toad Frog:”

I’m harmless as I can be, I stays out of all peoples way (2x)
I’m just a little old toad, I’m gonna hop back to my home someday

I’ll hop down in your basement, don’t mean to harm a single soul (2x)
I’ll shake all of your ashes, then shovel you in some brand new coal

I don’t have no friend, by myself I’m always on the road (2x)
Just let me hop for you one time mama and you’ll keep me for your little old toad

Mama would you let a poor little old toad frog hop down in your water pond (2x)
I’ll dive down and come right out and I won’t stay in your water long

I ain’t no bottle stopper, I ain’t no police copper, I ain’t no cradle rocker, you know I ain’t the baby’s papa
But I know for my self, in your front yard is where I get my load
Well you talk you like my hoppin’, why don’t you keep me for your little toad

Mama do you know one thing, your water tank is just deep enough (2x)
I can dive down to the bottom, take my time and then tread right back up