Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

For today’s show we continue with our ongoing series I call Forgotten Blues Heroes. For this installment we spotlight four great bluesmen who didn’t get the opportunity to record until the 1960′s and 1970′s: Scott Dunbar, Bill Williams, Babe Stovall and Frank Hovington. As the blues historian Paul Oliver wrote: “Throughout the Sixties, it seemed there was one ‘discovery’ or ‘rediscovery’ of a blues singer after another; a succession of methodical searches, happy accidents and dramatic events which brought not only a number of legendary figures to life, but also revealed that the wealth of talent in the black traditions had been even greater than might have been supposed.”

All of today’s featured artists were old enough to have been recorded earlier but opportunity passed them by until the blues revival of the 1960′s. In addition to the resurrection of the legendary artists of the past like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Skip James there were a slew of older artists uncovered who got a chance to make some recordings such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Pete Williams and Mance Lipscomb to name a few. Unlike those who recorded back in the 1920′s and 30′s for the commercial record companies and black consumers, those who recorded in the 1960′s and 70′s were being recorded primarily for a new found white audience, with the records issued usually on tiny specialist labels. The benefit wasn’t in sales of records so much as it was the fact that these recordings would be an entry way into the festival and coffeehouse circuit. Unfortunately many of these small labels never lasted into the CD era and hence many great albums remain long out of print. The bulk of today’s recordings fall into that category.

Scott Dunbar

In the notes to his sole album, From Lake Mary issued on the Ahura Mazda label in 1970, Karl Micheal Wolfe wrote that “Today Scott Dunbar is a fisherman and guide on Lake Mary, father of six, and resident blues singer of Woodville and rural Wilkinson County, Mississippi. There everyone knows old Scott. We hope this record will make him known to a wider audience.” Prior to the recordings in 1970 Dunbar was recorded by Frederic Ramsey, Jr. in 1954 as part of field recordings done under a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Ramsey’s recordings appeared on the ten volume series Music from the South on Folkways with four of Dunbar’s recordings on Music From The South Vol. 5: Song, Play And Dance and one side on Music From The South Vol. 10: Been Here And Gone. Three more issued sides were recorded in 1968, which appeared on the album Blues From The Delta, the companion album to William Ferris’ influential book of the same name.

Dunbar gave up the juke joints because they were too dangerous and in later years played primarily for whites. William Ferris wrote in Blues From The Delta that “I recorded thirty-seven songs during my visits with Dunbar and of these, two thirds were sung white style in the key of C. ” The thirteen songs on From Lake Mary are mostly blues, likely selected to appeal to the blues revival market while the vast majority of recordings from this session have not been issued, forty-eight unissued sides in total.  At lengthy recording sessions n February, April and August of 1970 Dunbar proves to be a true songster, laying down songs like “Wabash Cannonball”, “Sally Good’n”, “Blue Heaven”, “Tennessee Waltz” and  “You Are My Sunshine.” In 1994 Fat Possum reissued From Lake Mary on CD with no additional tracks.Dunbar passed away at the age of 90 in 1994 with his death largely unnoticed outside of a couple of obituaries in blues magazines and a recorded legacy of  nineteen issued sides.

Bill Williams, was a 72-year old bluesman from Greenup, Kentucky, when he made his debut for Blue Goose in the early 1970′s. Stephen Calt wrote that “The previously unrecorded Williams ranks among the most polished and proficient living traditional bluesmen, and has a large repertoire embracing ragtime, hillbilly, and even pop material. He is also the only known living associate of Blind Blake, his own favorite guitarist. …Disbelief is the inevitable reaction to incredible Bill Williams, a former partner of Blind Blake who is without doubt the most technically accomplished living country blues guitarist. …While living in Bristol, Tennessee in the early 1920′s Bill met the peerless Blind Blake who was then living with an elderly woman (perhaps a relative) in a desolate nearby country area. For four months Bill worked as Blake’s regular second guitarist…” Williams cut just two LP’s, both for Blue Goose: Low And Lonesome and The Late Bill Williams ‘Blues, Rags and Ballads plus had one song on the anthology These Blues Is Meant To Be Barrelhoused.

From the notes to The Late Bill Williams ‘Blues, Rags and Ballads, Stephen Calt wrote: “For a guitarist of such uncommon ability Bill Williams enjoyed an all-too brief period of public recognition. Within fifteen minutes of the time he first picked up an instrument in 1908 he was accomplished enough to play a song, but he was still completely unknown beyond his home town of Greenup, Kentucky before Blue Goose recorded him in the fall of 1970 and issued an album (Low and Lonesome) that brought him unqualified acclaim as a 73-year old folk find. A brief series of concert engagements (notably at the Smithsonian Institution and the Mariposa Folk Festival) followed, along with an extended recording session in New York, before a heart ailment brought about his musical retirement. In October of 1973, nearly three years to the day of his recording debut, he was fatally stricken in his sleep. This memorial album and its soon to be released sequel will constitute the remainder of Bill’s musical legacy.”

Jewell “Babe” Stovall was a Mississippi-born songster who was born in 1907 in Tylertown, MS, Babe 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. He moved to Franklinton, LA, in the 1930s, and split his time between there and Tylertown for several years, picking up whatever work he could as a farmhand. In 1964 he moved to New Orleans, where he was “discovered” working as a street singer in the French Quarter, his act featuring crowd-pleasing antics like playing his National Steel guitar behind his head and shouting out his song lyrics in a voice so loud that it carried well down the street. He recorded an LP for Verve in 1964, simply titled Babe Stovall (re-released on CD by Flyright in 1990), and did further sessions in 1966 released on Southern Sound as The Babe Stovall Story and with Bob West in 1968 (which form the basis of The Old Ace: Mississippi Blues & Religious Songs, released on Arcola in 2003), and became active on the folk and blues college circuit, as well as holding down a house gig at the Dream Castle Bar in New Orleans. Stovall died in 1974 in New Orleans.

Bruce Bastin called Frank Hovington or Guitar Frank as he was also known, “one of the finest singers to have been recorded during the 1970′s…steeped in a tradition which is as much part of him as is the countryside about him.” Bastin and Dick Spotswood recorded Frank in 1975, issuing the album Lonesome Road Blues on the Flyright label (reissued in 2000 as Gone With The Wind with several additional tracks). Frank was still in fine form when he reluctantly agreed to perform for Axel Küstner and Siegfried Christmann in 1980. The results were issued as part of their remarkable Living Country Blues series. Hovington started on ukulele and banjo as a child and teamed with Willliam Walker in the late ’30s and ’40s playing at house parties and dances in Frederica, Pennsylvania. Hovington moved to Washington D.C. in the late ’40s, and backed such groups as Stewart Dixon’s Golden Stars and Ernest Ewin’s Jubilee Four. Hovington moved to Delaware in 1967 where he passed in 1982.

Show Notes:

We open our latest mix show with a quartet of songs revolving around the Chatmon brothers including numbers by Bo Carter, Mississippi Blacksnakes, The Mississippi Sheiks and Sam Chatmon. One of the most popular bluesmen of the ’30′s, Bo Carter cut over a hundred sides between 1928 and 1940. Bo and his brothers Lonnie and Sam Chatmon also recorded as members of the Mississippi Sheiks with singer/guitarist Walter Vinson. Bo died in 1964 but Sam hung in long enough to take advantage of the blues revival, recording prolifically in the 1960′s and 70′s. Unfortunately most all of the LP’s he cut seem to be out-of-print. Today’s selection, “Hollandale Blues”, is from the 1979 Rounder album, Sam Chatmon’s Advice. The Mississippi Blacksnakes cut ten songs over three sessions in 1931for Brunswick with the likley personal of Bo and Sam Chatmon, Charlie McCoy with Walter Vinscon only on the first session.

Moving up to the 1960′s and 70′s we spin some great records by some lesser known players including Luke “Long Gone” Miles, Lum Guffin, Frank Hovington and John Lee Ziegler. Luke Miles was born in Louisiana in 1925 and moved to Houston in 1952. In the liner notes to his only full length LP Country Born (World Pacific, 1965) he said: “I went to Houston for one reason. I went to see Lightnin’ Hopkins. That’s what I went for and that’s what I did. Lightnin’ Hopkins taught me just about everything about blues singing. The first time I ever sang in front of an audience was in 1952 with Lightnin’. The first day I met Lightnin’ he named me “Long Gone” …and I’ve been Long Gone Miles ever since.” By 1961 Miles was in Los Angles were he cut some 45′s for Smash. After the World Pacific LP he cut singles for Two Kings in 1965, Kent in 1969 before supposedly leaving L.A. in 1970. Our selection comes from the LP Country Boy (Sundown, 1984) which is a collection of mostly unreleased sides from  1961 and 1962. Just recently a liver CD of of Miles surfaced from 1985 titled Riding Around In My V8 Ford Live in Venice, California. He died in 1987. Unfortunately just about all of Miles’ recordings remain out of print.

The other gentleman were recorded in the 1970′s, an extension you could say of the 1960′s blues revival that swept up many fine bluesman who never got the opportunity to record in their younger days. Lum Guffin was first recorded in the 1970′s by Swedish researcher Bengt Olsson when he was 70 and again in 1980 by Axel Kunster for the Living Country Blues series. The LP Walking Victrola was his sole record, released on the Flyright label in 1973. Some of these recordings appear on the CD On The Road Again. Frank Hovington was an exceptional guitarist in the Piedmont tradition who was reluctant to record but made some superb recordings in 1975 released (issued on the LP Lonesome Road Blues first on Flyright and then on Rounder with additional tracks on the CD Gone With The Wind) and 1980 for the Living Country Blues series. Ziegler passed away May of last year. He cut just a handful of recordings, the best recorded by George Mitchell in the late 1970′s plus some sides made in the 1990′s and issued on the Music Maker label.

We play a twin spin by John Lee Hooker from his Bluesway years. Hooker cut several albums for Bluesway in the 1960′s including: Live At Cafe Au-Go-Go (1966), Urban Blues (1967), Simply The Truth (1968), If You Miss ‘Im… I Got ‘Im (1970)and Kabuki Wuki (1973). Our selections come from Simply The Truth and the excellent Urban Blues featuring Hooker in the company of sidemen like Eddie Taylor, Wayne Bennett, and Louis Myers. Bluesway has been ill served reissue wise, with only a handful of releases issued on CD, usually by labels other than the parent company MCA, and in many cases these CD’s themselves are out of print. I’ll be doing a show on the label in the near future.  Urban Blues was issued on CD in 1994 by BGO with three bonus cuts. One of those bonus cut is the stomping “I Gotta Go To Vietnam” featuring some wild wah wah guitar from Hooker’s cousin Earl Hooker. The “The Motor City Is Burning” is a harrowing account of the 1967 Detroit riots. The flash point began at a drinking joint at Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue and quickly spread out. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the East Side. Within 48 hours, the National Guard was mobilized, to be followed by the 82nd airborne on the riot’s fourth day. As police and military troops sought to regain control of the city, violence escalated. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested. Hooker gives a vivid account of the action:

Ohhh the Motor City is burning, ain’t a thing in the world that I can do
Don’t you know, don’t you know the big D is burning
Ain’t a thing in the world that Johnny can do
My hometown is burning down to the ground, worster than Vietnam
Well it started on Twelfth Street and Clairmount this morning, I just don’t know what it’s all about (2x)
The fire wagon kept coming, the snipers just wouldn’t let them put it out
Firebombs bursting all around me, soldiers standing everywhere (2x)
I could hear the people screaming, sirens filled the air

Doctor Clayton

Also on deck today are some prime 1940′s Chicago blues by Sonny Boy Williamson I, Yank Rachel, Washboard Sam and Doctor Clayton. At the time of his untimely death in 1948 at the age of 34, Sonny Boy was still at his creative peak as she proves on “Sugar Gal” from 1947, a storming update of his classic “Sugar Mama Blues” with a some killer electric guitar from William Lacey. Rachel’s “Up North Blues (There’s A Reason)” from 194 sports some wonderful playing by Sonny Boy and is just one of a batch of sides they cut together between 1938 and 1941. Also on that track is the prolific Washboard Sam who is also heard on his “My Feet Jumped Salty” featuring some stunning amplified guitar from Big Bill Broonzy. Both Sonny Boy I and Washboard Sam will be featured in upcoming programs. Nearly 50 years after his untimely death the exceptional singer and masterful songwriter known as Doctor Clayton is little spoken of today. Clayton worked strictly as a vocalist (by some accounts he could play piano and ukulele), employing an impressive falsetto technique, later refined into a powerful, swooping style that was instantly recognizable. In addition he was an unparalleled songwriter, writing mostly original material with a rare wit, intelligence and social awareness. Clayton’s vocal style was widely emulated and a number of his songs became blues standards. Despite the high esteem he was held in by fellow blues artists and his popularity during his lifetime Clayton’s fine blues recordings remain largely ignored. “Watch Out Mama” is a fine example of his songwriting, filled with a dash of violence and humor:

You clown when you get ready, stay out late as you please
Come home drunk and staggering, and weak in your knees
But watch out momma, Doctor Clayton gonna sneak up on you
Yes, I’m gonna whip your nappy head, just as soon as I find you

As usual we spin some fine piano records including tracks by Big Maceo, Sammy Price and Robert McCoy. Alongside his protege Johnnie Jones and later Otis Spann, Big Maceo is among the greatest Chicago piano men. During the 1940′s he worked with Tampa Red and the duo made some magnifecnt sides including our selection, the romping “Texas Stomp.” Sammy Price fine boogie woogie playing is heard backing Nora Lee King on “Cannon Ball” her uptown rendition of Cow Cow Davenport’s immortal “Cow Cow Blues.” King cut a dozen sides between 1941and 1944 before fading into obscurity. Alabama barrelhouse pianist Robert McCoy had two rare LPs in the early 1960′s on the Vulcan label. A few years back Delmark acquired the masters and reissued the material on CD for the first time with many previously unissued tracks. Unfortunatley no tracks from his second Vulcan album have been included. These were his first recordings as leader although he recorded in the 1930′s accompanying Guitar Slim, Jaybird Coleman and Peanut The Kidnapper. McCoy was part of the fertile Birmingham piano tradition, learning piano from Cow Cow Davenport and Jabbo Williams.

In part one we discussed the some of the superb East Coast musicians Axel Küstner and Siegfried Christmann recorded while this time out we travel with the duo down to Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. It was Mississippi that occupied most of their time and form a good chunk of the recordings. Mississippi, particularly the Delta has been subjected to immense scrutiny among researchers and with good reason; in the 1920′s and 30′s men like Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Skip James and Son House recorded some of the greatest blues records ever made and it was the breeding ground for those who became famous up North like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and countless others. Yet some have said that the region has attracted too much attention among researchers, leaving other areas like the East Coast too sparsely documented. While this is certainly true there’s no denying that Mississippi was an immensely fertile region for the blues and remained so when Küstner and Christmann set up shop in 1980 over the course of eleven days.

Son Thomas

Among the finest bluesman they came across in Mississippi was James “Son” Thomas “discovered” in 1968 by William Ferris who wrote about him in his influential book Blues From The Delta. By 1980 Thomas was a regular on the festival circuit but had recorded little, just a handful of sides scattered on obscure anthologies. After 1980 he toured Europe, recorded prolifically, including several very strong albums but never did he sound better then the recordings he made for Küstner and Christmann. Thomas plays brooding, darkly hued delta blues with a tightly wound, controlled intensity. Thomas’ fourteen tracks, scattered over several volumes, are all traditional but he gives them a thoroughly invigorating, individual reading; thus he shakes the dust off material like “Bull Cow Blues”, “Rock Me Mama”, “Big Fat Mama”, “61 Highway Blues” laying these numbers down with a throbbing intensity, underpinned by his steady guitar rhythm and dramatic vocal delivery that often dips into a riveting falsetto. By far his most memorable performance is the six minute plus “Catfish Blues”, a hypnotic and downright dirty version of this delta standard. Also fascinating are several numbers Thomas performs with his running buddy Cleveland “Brooman” Jones who would pull a few handfuls of dirt out of his pocket, flip over the broom handle and scrape the floor to produce a bass sound that somehow perfectly meshed with Thomas’ music.

A true anomaly was 25 year old Lonnie Pitchford, the youngest musician recorded who played the most ancient of instruments, the one string diddley bow which he amplified and picked like a guitar. These were Pitchford’s first recordings and he truly sounds like no one else; the music is mesmerizing and hypnotic as he transforms chestnuts like “Boogie Chillen”, “My Babe” and a slashing “Shake Your Money Maker.” Pitchford was still evolving as an artist when AIDS claimed him at the age of 43. Thankfully due to the exposure from this series he was recorded extensively on anthologies and issued a lone album, the terrific All Around Man, for Rooster in 1994.

Lonnie Pitchford

The fact is that the bulk of these artists were older, the remaining holdouts of a fading tradition and the music often sounds like it was trapped in amber, virtually unchanged from the blues of fifty years ago. Certainly that’s the case with musicians such as Walter Brown, Joe Savage and Boyd Rivers. Brown and Savage bring alive the era of the field and levee camp hollers that could once be heard ringing all over the south and in later years primarily survived in prisons as documented by the Lomax’s, Harry Oster and Bruce Jackson. Both Brown and Savage lived hard lives and both men spent time in the notorious Parchman Farm. In fact John Lomax interviewed and recorded Joe Savage in Parchman in the 1940′s and said of him “he was by far the youngest and most damaged.” Jumping to 1980 we hear Savage recount his prison experience and sing on the harrowing “Joe’s Prison Camp Holler.” Küstner noted that “recording Walter Brown was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had. …I had the feeling he was just waiting for somebody to come around so that he could express himself and let his music come out.” His “Mississippi Moan” is a bone chilling account of what it’s like to be black in Mississippi where “The place, the town where time done come to civilization and they still call you a nigger.” His “Levee Camp Holler”, sung from experience, is equally arresting as is Savage’s unique spin on “Mean Ol’ Frisco.” The blues is so often romanticized but there’s nothing romantic about the lives of men like Brown, Savage and many of the others on this collection who have led unbearably tough lives under crushing poverty and persistent racism. “I actually thought he was the best and gave the most powerful performances of any that were recorded” Küstner said of Boyd Rivers. A one time bluesman, Rivers plays with unbridled passion, singing in a powerful, raspy voice coupled with hard edged Mississippi guitar attack. His nine selections are startling in there intensity which were his first and unfortunately only recordings.

Among the other notable musicians recorded in Mississippi the most famous was Sam Chatmon who was 81 at the time of these recordings and still in fine form. There are several fine performers one wishes had been recorded more including the excellent Stonewall Mays who’s two song are his sole legacy and Joe Cooper who was Son Thomas’ Uncle and very fine performer in his own right.

Sam “Stretch” Shields

The recordings made in Tennessee and Arkansas are less consistent although there are some very rewarding performances, chiefly from CeDell Davis and Sam “Stretch” Shields. “CeDell “Big G” Davis”,  Küstner wrote, “is probably the most amazing musician I have ever met. At the age of 10 he contracted polio and the disease left him without the full use of his hands. His fingers are crippled, but however, he manages to strum the guitar with his left hand, and chords and slides across the strings with an ordinary table knife that he put in his right hand. The resulting sound, coupled with his roaring voice, makes him a highly individual Blues artist.” Davis’ rough juke joint blues is perfectly encapsulated on numbers like “I Don’t Know Why” and a cover of Tampa Red’s “Let Me Play With Your Poodle.” Sam “Stretch” Shields’ harmonica style harks back to the pre-amplified era when harmonica soloists played now forgotten pieces like train imitations and set pieces like Lost John, Fox Chase, Mama Blues and other call-and-response pieces. Küstner recalled “With Sam, it was like going back in time. When you went into his living room, he had pictures of Franklin D Roosevelt up there. It was like the 1930s.” His unaccompanied renditions of “Bluebird Blues”, “Mellow Peaches” and the “The Hounds” are enthralling. Of the other performers from the region it sounds like Hammie Nixon has seen better days, pianist Memphis Piano Red is in good form although his piano is badly out of tune while Lottie Murrell delivers some powerful slashing slide guitar but is fairly well inebriated.  I would have liked to hear more from the superb Charlie Sangster who’s two numbers reveal a bluesman of very high order, very much in the classic Brownsville, Tennessee tradition of Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon.

Fans and collectors of early country and traditional blues will find hours of rewarding listening within the fourteen volumes that comprise Living Country Blues USA. Through the 1970′s country blues was still going strong in rural southern communities even if interest was low commercially. Thankfully a handful intrepid researchers stepped into the breach to record a music and culture that was virtually vanishing before their eyes.  As for complaints, well I do wish that some unreleased material was included which seems to me like a real missed opportunity. In addition while the original liner notes are included it would be nice to have some follow-up information regarding what became of these the artists after these recordings.

Son Thomas – Catfish Blues (MP3)

Boyd Rivers – You Got To Move (MP3)

Lonnie Pitchford – My Babe (MP3)

Walter Brown – Levee Camp Holler (MP3)

Joe Savage – Mean Ol’ Frisco (MP3)

Stonewall Mays – Jazz Boogie Woogie (MP3)

CeDell Davis – I Don’t Know Why (MP3)

Lottie Murrell – Spoonful (MP3)

Joe Cooper – She Run Me Out On The Road (MP3)

Charlie Sangster & Hammie Nixon – Moanin The Blues (MP3)