Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

A varied show on tap for today including some twin spins and featured anthologies. We open the show with two tracks featuring Johnny “Guitar” Watson,  plus double spins by Leroy Carr and Little Brother Montgomery plus sets featuring a great down home blues anthology, a fine collection of post-war St. Louis R&B and blues and a set revolving around a couple of related songs.

Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

I’ve been listening to a great recent reissue on the Ace label called Blues Belles With Attitude!!. All the tracks were cut for the Modern label with 18 of these sides previously unissued and a further eight that have not seen prior CD release. As the notes state: “The inspiration for this compilation was Cordella Di Milo sides, whose recordings we have released previously on a Johnny Guitar Watson CD as result of his stunning guitar backing. It dawned on us that this virtually unknown singer deserved to be featured on a collection of similarly aggressive female performances. This led to a trawl of the tracks held in the Modern files, which had not been previously issued or had not seen the light of day for over half a century.” Cordella De Milo’s “Ain’t Gonna Hush is a sassy answer song to the Big Joe Turner hit with some killer guitar from Watson and smoking sax from Maxwell Davis. In addition to that number, we spin Watson’s sizzling “Don’t Touch Me (I’m Gonna Hit the Highway)” from the Ace collection of his early sides, Hot Just Like TNT.

Leroy Carr was one of the most popular bluesmen of the 20′s 30′s and today we spin two of his great numbers, the evocatively titled “Shinin’ Pistol” and “Big Four Blues.” We also spin one by Carr’s partner, guitarist Scrapper Blackwell who’s “Penal Farm Blues” which comes from his first session under his own name. Blackwell began working with  Carr, whom he met in Indianapolis in the mid-1920’s. Carr convinced Blackwell to record with him for the Vocalion label in 1928; the result was “How Long, How Long Blues”, the biggest blues hit of that year. Blackwell and Carr toured throughout the American Midwest and South between 1928 and 1935 as stars of the blues scene, recording over 100 sides. Blackwell’s last recording session with Carr was in February 1935 for the Bluebird label. The recording session ended bitterly, as both musicians left the studio mid-session and on bad terms, stemming from payment disputes. Two months later Blackwell received a phone call informing him of Carr’s death due to heavy. Blackwell soon retired from the music industry. Blackwell returned to music in the late 1950’s where he was recorded first in 958 and was next recorded by Duncan P. Schiedt  in 1959 and 1960.  Art Rosenbaum recorded him in 1962 for the Prestige/Bluesville label resulting in his finest latter day recording, the album Mr. Scrapper’s Blues. In 1963 Rosenbaum recorded him again for Bluesville, this time with singer Brooks Berry resulting in the album My Heart Struck Sorrow which has yet to be issued on CD. Sadly Blackwell was shot and killed during a mugging in an Indianapolis alley in 1962. He was 59 years old.

I’ve played Little Brother Montgomery often on the show and today we spin two from his 1961 Folkways album Blues. He cut two others for the label including the fine Farro Street Jive and Church Songs: Sung and Played on the Piano by Little Brother Montgomery. We play his “Pleading Blues” which was originally cut at his third session back in 1935 and the wonderful instrumental “L&N Boogie.” I’ve always been a fan of Montgomery’s raspy, burred voice but he really had a knack for knocking out memorable instrumentals like early gems such as “Crescent City Blues”, “Farish Street Jive” and “Shreveport Farewell.”

We spotlight two great anthologies today: the 4-CD set Down Home Blues Classics Vol.1 1943-1953 and Mo Betta: St Louis R&B 56-66. The former set comes from the label Boulevard Vintage who for the past few years have been putting out intelligent, well conceived multi CD sets of post-war down home blues. The label has zeroed in on a very specific, rich vein of blues history, roughly 1945-1955 when a whole slew of enterprising small labels were catering to an audience that still craved down home blues. As Paul Vernon writes: “The migratory patterns from south to north to west added an essential ingredient to the new market for blues recording. Urbanization created tastes for a music that fit the new times and locations , contributing to the birth of what we now recognize as Rhythm & Blues. In Chicago, the southern rural styles, as we now all surely know, were connected directly to 110-volt wall sockets and booted through fuzzy amplifiers to create the sound that would eventually go around the world. Yet there was still an audience for the rough, exciting music of southern juke joints and street corners, of local radio broadcasts and house parties. Who was going to service that market?” The answer can be found on the 100 tracks found on this collection and the label’s subsequent sets: Down Home Blues Classics: Texas 1946-1954 (4-CD), Down Home Blues Classics: California & The West Coast 1948-1954 (2-CD), Down Home Blues Classics: Memphis & The South 1949-1954 (2-CD). The first box, which features music from all regions with no overlap with the other sets, has been  impossible to find but it seems to be back in print so I finally got a copy.  Two years ago I devoted a whole show to these sets.

Mo Betta St Louis R&B 56-66 is a terrific set of obscure St. Louis blues and R&B featuring electrifying recordings by Little Aaron, Johnny “The Twist” Williams, Little Miss Jesse, Screamin’ Joe Neal and Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. I had these tracks originally on the long treasured Red Lightnin’ LP’s Down On Broadway And Main and Condition Your Heart.

In the early 1940′s Ivory Joe Hunter had his own radio show in Beaumont, Texas, on KFDM, where he eventually became program manager, and in 1942 he moved to Los Angeles, joining Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers in the mid 1940′s. He wrote and recorded his first song, “Blues at Sunrise”, with the Three Blazers for his own label, Ivory Records, it became a regional hit. Fast forward seven years to 1952′s ”The Moon is Rising” which was recorded  by Nighthawk for the States label and was a staple of his King Biscuit shows. The song was an almost identical remake of Ivory Joe Hunter’s 1945 hit “Blues At Sunrise” (covered prior to Nighthawk’s version by Charley Booker who cut it as “Moonrise Blues” for Modern’s Blues & Rhythm subsidiary in 1952). Nighthawk’s drummer Kansas City Red often sang the song. Several other artists cut the song under Nighthawk’s title including John Lee Hooker and Earl Hooker.

Also worth mentioning are several featured guitarists including Lafayette Thomas, T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy and Mickey Baker. We hear Thomas’ dynamic guitar playing behind Roy Hawkins on the tough “Baby Please Don’t”, one of four songs he backs Hawkins’ on from a 1958 session for the Rhythm imprint. He was nicknamed “The Thing” due to his acrobatic style of playing. The bulk of his recordings were with Jimmy McCracklin’s combo in the 50’s and 60’s. During his lifetime only a scant fifteen sides were issued under his own name (a number were left unissued). His own records were made for small labels such as Jumping, Hollywood and Trilyte, but more often he cut odd titles at McCracklin’s 50’s sessions for Modern, Peacock (unissued) and Chess and three songs for King which were never issued. In his 1977 obituary Tom Mazzolini wrote: “Unquestionably the finest guitarist to emerge from the San Francisco-Oakland blues scene, there is hardly a guitarist around here today who doesn’t owe a little something to Lafayette Thomas…”

Speaking of Jimmy McCracklin, we feature a great 1965 number, “Steppin’ Up In Class”, one of a number of superb sides he cut for the Imperial label and the associated Minit label throughout the 60′s. The track comes from the the anthology I Had To Get With It: Imperial & Minit Years. I don’t think Thomas is playing on this track but McCracklin’s backing from this period is a bit murky so who knows? Lonesome Sundown did a cover of this number and local blues legend Joe Beard has been known to play this at his live shows. I’ve long been a fan of McCracklin and got the opportunity to interview him several years ago and meet him at the 2008 Pocono Blues Festival.

Thomas, like most guitarists of his generation, was influenced by T-Bone Walker. From Walker we spin “Mean Old World” from his classic 1959 album, T-Bone Blues. These recordings were cut in Chicago 1955 with Jimmy Rogers and Junior Wells plus another session cut in L.A. in 1956-1957, which included great jazz guitarist Barney Kessel.

Last week we spotlighted several cuts by Mickey Baker. Today we spin his T-Bone Walker inspired “Spinnin’ Rock Boogie.” In the early and mid-’50s, Baker did countless sessions for Atlantic, King, RCA, Decca, and OKeh, playing on such classics as the Drifters’ “Money Honey” and “Such a Night,” Joe Turner’s “Shake Rattle & Roll,” Ruth Brown’s “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” and Big Maybelle’s “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On.” He also released a few singles under his own name. Baker was also recorded as half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia.

Show Notes:

Unlike blues artists like Big Bill or Memphis Minnie who recorded extensively over three or four decades, Blind Boy Fuller recorded his substantial body of work over a short, six-year span. Nevertheless, he was one of the most recorded artists of his time and by far the most popular and influential Piedmont blues player of all time. Fuller could play in multiple styles: slide, ragtime, pop, and blues were all enhanced by his National steel guitar. Fuller worked with some fine sidemen, including Gary Davis, Floyd Council, Sonny Jones, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and washboard player Bull City Red. Initially discovered and promoted by Carolina entrepreneur H. B. Long, Fuller recorded for ARC and Decca. He also served as a conduit to recording sessions, steering fellow blues musicians to the studio.

What follows is a sketch of Fuller and some background on today’s featured artists. For an in-depth look at Fuller and the Piedmont blues I recommend Bruce Bastin’s exhaustive study Red River Blues. Bastin was assisted greatly by the efforts of Pete Lowry who was featured on the program recently.

Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina to Calvin Allen and Mary Jane Walker. As a boy he learned to play the guitar and also learned from older singers the field hollers, country rags, and traditional songs and blues popular in poor, rural areas. He married Cora Allen young and worked as a laborer, but began to lose his eyesight in his mid-teens. By 1928 he was completely blind, and turned to whatever employment he could find as a singer and entertainer, often playing in the streets. By studying the records of blues players like Blind Blake and the “live” playing of Gary Davis, he became a formidable guitarist, and played on street corners and at house parties in Winston-Salem, Danville, and then Durham, North Carolina. In Durham, playing around the tobacco warehouses, he developed a local following which included guitarists Floyd Council and Richard Trice, as well as harmonica player Sonny Terry and washboard player/guitarist George Washington.  In 1935, Burlington record store manager and talent scout James Baxter Long secured him a recording session with the American Recording Company (ARC). Allen, Davis and Washington recorded several tracks in New York City, including the traditional “Rag, Mama, Rag”. To promote the material, Long decided to rename Allen as “Blind Boy Fuller”, and also named Washington “Bull City Red.” Over the next five years Fuller made over 120 sides. In April 1936, Fuller recorded ten solo performances, and also recorded with guitarist Floyd Council. The following year, having auditioning for J. Mayo Williams, he recorded for the Decca label, but then reverted to ARC. Later in 1937, he made his first recordings with Sonny Terry. In 1938 Fuller was imprisoned for shooting a pistol at his wife, wounding her in the leg, causing him to miss out on John Hammond’s “Spirituals to Swing” concert in NYC that year. While Fuller was eventually released, it was Sonny Terry who went in his stead, the beginning of a long “folk music” career.Fuller was criticized by some as a derivative musician, but his ability to fuse together elements of other traditional and contemporary songs and reformulate them into his own performances, attracted a broad audience. He was an expressive vocalist and a masterful guitar player; best remembered for his up-tempo ragtime hits including “Step It Up and Go.” At the same time he was capable of deeper material. Fuller died in 1941 at the age of 33, of blood poisoning that resulted in kidney failure, popularly ascribed to his heavy drinking.

Floyd Council was born on the 2nd of September 1911 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and began his career playing in the streets of Chapel Hill in the mid-‘20s with musical brothers Leo and Thomas Strowd. Floyd occasionally worked with Blind Boy Fuller in the ‘30s, which may have led to his first recording sessions. In late January 1937 ACR Records scout John Baxter Long heard him, playing alone on a street in Chapel Hill. It was Long who had first brought Fuller to NYC to record in July 1935. Long invited Floyd to join Fuller on his third trip to New York. Floyd agreed, and a week later the three traveled to the city. During his second visit to New York in December, Floyd was used as a second guitar only. His solo tracks were later issued under the name ‘Blind Boy Fuller’s buddy’. In all he cut six sides under his own name and seven backing Fuller. Floyd performed around Chapel Hill through the ‘40s and ‘50s, both with Thomas Strowd and on his own. In the late ‘60s, a stroke partially paralyzed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills. Floyd moved to Sanford, North Carolina, where he died in June 1976. His final recordings, made in August 1970, did not, apparently, merit release.

Rev. gary Davis

Willie Trice and his brother Richard became close friends with Blind Boy Fuller and Fuller took them up to New York where they cut six sides together (two unissued) for Decca in 1937. Richard Trice recorded after the war for Savoy in 1946 as Little Boy Fuller as well as a couple of sides in 1948 and 1952/53. Richard Trice was later recorded by Pete Lowry but those recordings remain unreleased. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that Willie Trice recorded again. Blue And Rag’d , his sole album, was released on Lowry’s Trix label in 1973.

Gary Davis was a major influence on Blind Boy Fuller. In the late 1920′s he was one of the most renowned practitioners of the East Coast school of ragtime guitar. He backed Fuller on second guitar at a 1935 session. Davis moved to Durham in the mid-’20s, by which time he was a full-time street musician. Davis went into the recording studio for the first time in the 1930′s with the backing of a local businessman. Davis cut a mixture of blues and spirituals for the American Record Company label, but there was never an agreement about payment for the recordings, and following these sessions, it was 19 years before he entered the studio again.

Sonny Terry was born Saunders Terrell on October 24, 1911, in Greensboro, NC. He began traveling to nearby Raleigh and Durham, performing on street corners for tips. In 1934, he befriended the popular guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Fuller convinced Terry to move to Durham, where the two immediately gained a strong local following. By 1937, they were offered an opportunity to go to New York and record for the Vocalion label. Between 1937 and 1940 he backed Fuller on over two-dozen sides. A year later, Terry would be back in New York taking part in John Hammond’s legendary Spirituals to Swing concert. Upon returning to Durham, Terry continued playing regularly with Fuller and also met his future partner, guitarist Brownie McGhee, who would accompany Terry off and on for the next two decades. McGhee was initially sent to look after Terry by Blind Boy’s manager, J.B. Long. Long figured McGhee might get a chance to play some of the same shows as Terry. A friendship developed between the two men and following Fuller’s death in 1941, Terry and McGhee moved to New York.

Sonny Terry

In the late 1940 McGhee came into contact with washboard player Bull City Red who in turn introduced McGhee to talent scout J.B. Long. Long got him a recording contract with OKeh/Columbia in 1940; his debut session in Chicago produced a dozen tracks over two days. Long’s principal blues artist, Blind Boy Fuller, died in 1941, precipitating Okeh to issue some of McGhee’s early efforts under the alias of Blind Boy Fuller No. 2. McGhee cut a moving tribute song, “Death of Blind Boy Fuller,” shortly after the passing. McGhee’s third marathon session for OKeh in 1941 paired him for the first time with Sonny Terry. McGhee claimed to have never recorded with Fuller but in later years when someone played him “Precious Lord” he recalled that it was him singing with Fuller on guitar.

Bull City Red, whose real name was George Washington, is best known as a sometimes sideman on washboard to the likes of Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry, and Blind Gary Davis. Red led an otherwise blind group that included Fuller, Sonny Terry and, for a time, Blind Gary Davis as well, and with help from their manager, department store owner J.B. Long, landed a contract with Vocalion. At one point in their history, Red, Fuller, Terry, and guitarist Sonny Jones performed together as “Brother George and His Sanctified Singers,” and made several recordings of gospel-themed material. Red was later responsible for hooking Terry up with Brownie McGhee, whom he met while on a trip to Burlington. McGhee was partnered with a blues harpist and one-man band named Jordan Webb at the time, and Red introduced the two to Fuller and Terry as well as their manager. Red cut more than a dozen sides showing off his skills as a singer and guitarist as well as on the washboard, between 1935 and 1939.

Show Notes:

I’ve been trying to get a handle on my record collection in the last couple of weeks which seems to have escaped from my record room to take over the house. I still haven’t tamed my collection but did stumble upon some interesting records that are featured on today’s program. Among those are the following LP’s which are not available on CD: A Basket Of Blues (Spivey), James Brewer (Philo) and Indianapolis Jump (Flyright). A Basket of Blues is the the first album to be issued on Victoria Spivey’s Spivey record label and features sides by Lucille Hegamin, Hannah Sylvester, Victoria Spivey backed by a fine band featuring sax man Buddy Tate. A classic blues singer from the 1920′s, Lucille Hegamin survived long enough to be recorded again in the 1960′s. After performing in Seattle for a long period, Hegamin became one of the first blues singers to record in Nov. 1920, shortly after moving to New York. In addition to performing at clubs, Hegamin appeared in several Broadway shows in the 1920′s. She eventually left music, becoming a nurse in 1938. In the 1960′s she emerged, appearing at a few charity benefits before retiring from music again. 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. She died in 1970. James Brewer was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, moved to Chicago in the 1940′s where he spent the latter part of his life busking and performing both blues and religious songs at blues and folk festivals, on Chicago’s Maxwell Street and other venues. He was recorded by Swedish Radio in 1964, cut sides for the Heritage label and Testament plus cut the full-length albums Jim Brewer for Philo and Tough Luck for Earwig. Shirley Griffith learned first hand from Tommy Johnson as a teenager in Mississippi. Griffith missed his opportunity to record as a young man but recorded three superb albums: Indiana Ave. Blues (1964, with partner J.T. Adams), Saturday Blues (1965) and Mississippi Blues (1973), all of which are out of print.

Also while trying to organize my collection I stumbled upon a pile of CD’s on the Classics label which I evidently had plans to listen to at some point before they got buried. The Classics label is a French label that specializes in jazz and blues. Their Classics R&B series focuses on chronological resissues of post-war blues – essentially a post-war version of what the Document label does for pre-war blues. At this point the label probably has a couple of hundred releases out. The label provides a valuable service to collectors by resurrecting the output of many forgotten blues artists. Some are forgotten for a reason, others deserve a better fate but over all most don’t benefit from the chronological approach. To be fair these records were never intended to be listened to in this way, instead listeners back in the day bought the records one 78 at a time.

From the Classics catalog we spin records today by J.T. Brown, Andrew Tibbs, Tom Archia, King Perry and Jo Jo Adams. Andrew Tibbs got his start singing in church choirs. When he surreptitiously began singing blues in clubs, he used his middle name and his mother’s maiden name, becoming “Andrew Tibbs.” He was singing at Jimmy’s Palm Garden when Sammy Goldberg saw him at the club and signed him to Aristocrat; Leonard Chess saw commercial potential in recording Tibbs, and decided to invest in the company. Tibbs’ debut session has always been said to be the first one that Leonard Chess attended. After Aristocrat he cut sides for a variety of labels up until 1963. Sax man Tom Archia performed mostly in jazz and swing bands. He cut some R&B sides for Aristcrat in 1947-48 as well as backing blues singers Andrew Tibbs and Jo Jo Adams. Jo Jo Adams was among the most flamboyant singers of Chicago’s South Side who sang an urbane style of blues that prevailed in the 1940′s. He also danced, told dirty jokes, and showed off his wardrobe of loudly colored formal wear with extra-long coattails. More often than not he doubled as MC at the clubs he played. Between 1946 and 1953 he cut sides for Hy-Tone, Aristocrat, Aladdin, Chance and Parrot. Mississippi-born John T. Brown was a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels down south before arriving in the Chicago. By 1945, Brown was recording behind pianist Roosevelt Sykes and singer St. Louis Jimmy Oden, later backing Eddie Boyd and Washboard Sam for RCA Victor. He debuted on wax as a bandleader in 1950 on the Harlem label, subsequently cutting sessions in 1951 and 1952 for Chicago’s United logo as well as JOB. Brown also backed artists like Elmore James and pianist Little Johnny He issued sides on Meteor and a final 1956 date for United that laid unissued at the time. In January of 1969, he was part of Fleetwood Mac’s Blues Jam at Chess album, even singing a tune for the project, but he died before the close of that year.  King Perry played violin as a child, but switched to alto sax when he wished to join a local band. In 1945 he went to Los Angles, appearing in a show with Dorothy Donegan and Nat King Cole; while there he made his first recordings as a leader. He led a band called the Pied Pipers through the middle of the 1950′s, making many records and touring across the United States multiple times. He recorded for Melodisc, United Artists, Excelsior, De Luxe, Specialty, Dot, RPM, Lucky, Unique, Look, and Hollywood during this period. After 1954 Perry went into a hiatus from music, but returned to play after moving to Bakersfield in 1967. In the 1970s he played as a one-man band with organ, saxophone, and percussion. Around this time he also released a number of comedy albums for his own label, Octive.

Lots of piano blues on deck including sides by Sammy Brown, Roosevelt Sykes, Dr. Hepcat, Little Brother Montgomery, Cow Cow Davenport and Sunnyland Slim. Sammy Brown cut two issued sides for Gennett in 1927 possibly backed by pianist Cripple Clarence Lofton or his own piano. Charlie McFadden waxed two-dozen sides for a variety of labels between 1929-1937 backed by pianist Roosevelt Sykes on most. Lavada Durst Known as more colorfully as Dr. Hepcat was the first black disc jockey in Texas on Austin‘s KVET. He published The Jives of Dr.Hepcat based on his outlandish radio patter. As a piano player he was influenced by Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, and locally by Robert Shaw. He cut early records on Peacock, Uptown and later recordings on Documentary Arts. Cow Cow Davenport is remembered most for his famous song “Cow Cow Blues” which is one of the earliest recorded examples of the Boogie-Woogie. Davenport’s early career revolved around carnivals and vaudeville. He toured TOBA with an act called Davenport and Company with Blues singer Dora Carr and they recorded together in 1925 and 1926. Davenport briefly teamed up with Blues singer Ivy Smith in 1928 and worked as a talent scout for Brunswick and Vocalion records in the late 1920′s and played rent parties in Chicago. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1930 and toured the vaudeville circuit and recorded with Sam Price. In 1938 he suffered a stroke that left his right hand somewhat paralyzed and affected his piano playing for the rest of his life, but he remained active as a vocalist until he regained enough strength in his hand to play again. He died in 1955. Hound head Henry was a singer who cut eight issued sides in 1928 all backed by pianist Cow Cow Davenport and proves himself an expressive singer on “My Sweet Silver Dollar Mama.”

As usual a good dose of pre-war blues including sides by Tom Bell, Blind Boy Fuller, Memphis Minnie, JT Funny Papa Smith and Clifford Gibson. Gibson cut ten sides (four have either never been found or were never issued) in June 1929, four sides in November 1929, eight sides in December 1929 and two sides in 1931. In addition he did some session work and lasted long enough to wax a few scattered post-war sides in the 1950′s and 60′s. Funny Papa Smith who cut twenty issued sides between 1930 and 1931. He was a superb singer/guitarist and a marvelous lyricist. Tom Bell recorded eight sides for John Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1937 and 1940. Speaking of Lomax we jump to 1959 and a recording made of Boy Blue by Alan Lomax. Blue’s real name was Roland Hayes. “Joe Lee’s Rock” and a reading of John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” are part of a treasure trove of recordings he made in the deep South in 1959. “By nine o’clock the stereo machine was sitting on the bar,” Lomax recalled. “Forrest City Joe and his two-piece orchestra, Boy Blue and his two accompanists, along with their girlfriends and other connoisseurs of the blues, were lapping up the liquor and the music. No New York technician would have approved of the acoustics. Between takes the place was a bedlam. …The crowd danced during all the playbacks.”

Babe Stovall

Also worth mentioning are sides by two very different artists; Blu Lu Barker and Babe Stovall. Singer Blue Lu Barker was born, raised, and buried in New Orleans. In both the 1930′s and 40′s she was one of the more popular blues performers, often appearing alongside artists such as Cab Calloway and Jelly Roll Morton. Barker’s most famous recordings were done in 1938. The early Barker material features her husband Danny on banjo and guitar and the couple would continue performing together until his death. Her career continued after that, all the way up to a last recording taped live in 1998 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Born in 1907 in Tylertown, MS, Babe Stovall was the youngest of 11 children, most of them musicians. Stovall learned guitar when he was around eight years old, and was soon playing breakdowns, frolics, and parties in the area, even meeting and learning “Big Road Blues” from Tommy Johnson. In 1964 he moved to New Orleans, where he was “discovered” working as a street singer in the French Quarter. He recorded an LP for Verve in 1964, simply titled Babe Stovall, and did further sessions in 1966 and with Bob West in 1968 (which form the basis of The Old Ace, (released on Arcola in 2003 and the only collection currently available on CD), and became active on the folk and blues college circuit. He died in 1974.

Related Articles: (Word Docs)

-The Jives of Dr. Hepcat by Mike Rowe (Blues Unlimited no. 129, 1978)

-The Piano Blues of Dr Hepcat by Alan Govenar (Liner Notes, 1994)

-Lucille Hegamin – Blues & Views by Derrick Stewart-Baxter (Jazz Journal, 1970)