Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

At Izzy young’s Folklore Center, MacDougal Street, NYC, l-r Sam charters, Izzy Young, Memphis Willie B., Furry Lewis, and Gus cannon, 1964 (Photo by Ann Charters)

Samuel Charters played a central role in the folk revival of the 1950′s and 1960′s. His fieldwork, extensive liner notes, production efforts, and books served as an introduction to many who had never heard of artists like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Robert Johnson. Charters was born in 1929 and graduated from Sacramento City College in 1949. In 1951, at the age of 21, he moved to New Orleans. After a two-year stint in the Army, he began to study jazz, but soon felt himself drawn to rural blues. Encouraged by fellow jazz researcher Frederic Ramsey, Charters began recording jazz and blues artists in 1955. The following year Folkways Records began issuing his recordings. Charters  work as a field recorder and researcher  would be poured into his first book in 1959, The Country Blues. “…The Country Blues was the first full-length treatment of the topic,” wrote Benjamin Filene in Romancing the Folk, “and its evocative style inspired thousands of whites to explore the music.” Unlike the more formal music histories written by Paul Oliver, Charters’ book was a popular history designed to pass on his enthusiasm for the blues to others. A companion album, also titled The Country Blues, would simultaneously be released on Folkways’ RBF reissue series for which Charters produced about twenty albums. His other claim to fame during this period was his re-discovery, after a lengthy search, of Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins who he recorded for Folkways in 1959.

In the 60′s Charters wrote several books including The Poetry of the Blues and The Bluesmen. A 1961 trip for Prestige Records yielded records by Furry Lewis, Memphis Willie B., Baby Tate and Pink Anderson. Charters visited St. Louis to do recording sessions in 1961 and 1962 resulting in several albums by Henry Townsend, Henry Brown and Edith Johnson, Dady Hotcakes, J.D. Short, Speckled Red and Barrelhouse Buck. In 1963 he was hired by Prestige as an A&R representative, and oversaw the Bluesville and Folklore series.

Sam charters recording Sleepy John Estes, Brownsville, TN, 1962 (Photo by Ann Charters)

Charters’ Prestige recordings of Homesick James, Billy Boy Arnold, and Otis Spann were some of the first electric blues releases aimed at the revival market. He continued in this vein as an independent producer for Vanguard with the influential three-volume anthology Chicago: The Blues Today as well as solo albums by Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Charlie Musselwhite.

In the early 70′s Charters moved to Sweden where he worked as a producer for Sonet. The twelve-volume series Legacy of the Blues resulted in a similarly titled book. He also recorded zydeco albums during this period by Clifton Chenier and Rockin’ Dopsie.

On today’s program we track recordings charters made from the late 1950′s through the early 70′s’. Much of the background on today’s artists come from Charters’ own writings, either taken from the original liner notes or Walking A Blues Road: A Blues Reader 1956-2004 a collection of his writings issued in 2004. The First half of the show is devoted primarily to acoustic blues artists. As Charters wrote: ”In the first years of the blues rediscoveries there was a heady level of excitement just at finding that the blues was more than names on old phonograph records. For any of us who had come to the blues through our interest in classic jazz or through our involvement in the folk movement, the modern electric blues was considered with some wariness as an intrusion on the ‘folk’ spirit of the blues. For myself, there was also a sense of urgency. The younger blues artists in places like Chicago or Detroit could wait – whatever we thought of their style of the blues. The older blues artists who were still living in rented rooms or tenement apartments in cities like Memphis or Atlanta didn’t have so many years ahead of them, and if we didn’t save their stories and their music their rich legacy would slip away from us.”

“My life as a record producer began with a duet session that I set up and recorded with Billie and Dee Dee [Pierce] in the spring of 1954. …The material from the session was released by Folkways as part of the series I recorded and complied with some tracks done by other field collectors in the city titled The Music of New Orleans. Billie and Dee Dee were included in Volume Three of the series, Music of the Dance Halls… …If you’re interested in the old New Orleans jazz styles there are still a dozen places to hear bands, even if most of them don’t have music every weekend, and you never know who’s going to play unless one of the musicians calls you. What we knew about Luthjen’s was that every night on the weekends Billie Pierce would be sitting on the bench of the place’s much battered piano and singing the blues, and her husband Dee Dee Pierce would be sitting on an old kitchen chair beside her,  adding the lyric trumpet fills that are an indispensable musical complement to the classic blues style.” From the above mentioned album we play ”Married Man Blues.”

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

We spin  a pair of cuts by Lightnin’ Hopkins who Charters located after a lengthy period of not recordings. ”On a windy winter morning in January 1959 I was driving along Dowling Street, in Houston, Texas. I stopped at a red light and a car pulled up beside mine. The window was rolled down, and a thin, nervous man, wearing dark glasses, leaned toward me.

‘You lookin’ for me?’
‘Are you Lightnin’?’
‘Lightnin”, I said, ‘I sure am.’

“I had been looking for lightnin’ Hopkins, off and on, for the five years that had passed since I first heard him on record. …I was in and out of Houston for the next five years, recording, interviewing musicians, and asking about Lightnin’ Hopkins. …When I finally found him he was anxious to begin recording again, and after I’d rented an acoustic guitar for him  I carried the tape recorder I had in the trunk of my car into his shabby room on Hadley Street. He sang all afternoon, becoming more emotional and even more musically exciting as the hours passed.” The results were issued on a self-titled album on Folkways.  The results helped introduced his music to an entirely new audience. Soon after Hopkins went from gigging at back-alley gin joints to starring at collegiate coffeehouses, appearing on TV programs, and touring Europe. He was recording more prolifically then ever, laying down albums for World Pacific, Vee-Jay,Bluesville, Bobby Robinson’s Fire label, Candid, Arhoolie, Verve and, in 1965, the first of several LP’s for Stan Lewis’ Shreveport-based Jewel logo. During the 70′s his recording activity slowed, cutting just a handful of sessions for verve and Sonet with several live collections issued. He was still touring widely and made trips to Mexico, Japan and Germany.  After a final gig at Tramps in New York in November 1981 he returned to Houston where his health declined rapidly. He passed January 30, 1982.

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

Charters visited St. Louis to do recording sessions in 1961 and 1962 resulting in several fine albums of material. As Charters wrote: “I first visited St. Louis on the long research trip for The Country Blues in January 1959 …We were in the city again for two recordings trips, the first in May of 1961, and the second, to film J.D. Short for the documentary film The Blues, in the summer of 1962. Two of the albums, by Henry Townsend and Barrelhouse Buck, were released at the time of recording. One album, with J.D. Short, was released as part of the Legacy of the Blues series in 1973, and the other albums were released by Folkways in 1984.

George “Daddy Hotcakes” Montgomery was born in Georgia and came moved to St. Louis in 1918. He began singing the blues as a youngster and worked as an entertainer during the 1920’s. Sometime in the late 30’s he had an opportunity to record through blues artist and talent scout Charlie Jordan but the recording session fell through. He was still occasionally playing parties when Charters recorded him in 1961. These are his only recordings. As Charters wrote: ”I am still also as surprised -when I listen to what we recorded in his room over the next two or threes days – at the complete, natural spontaneity of his blues. …Using his imagination and a store of familiar blues phrase to help him through occasional hesitations he simply made up the songs as he went along. I had some of the same experience when I recorded Lightnin’ Hopkins and Robert Pete Williams but even as loose and free as they were with their blues I still could anticipate most of what they were going to do. With George, however, I never could be sure what might come next if I asked him to repeat anything.” …The songs George recorded in his room – as far as I know these were his only recordings -made me conscious again of the haphazard circumstances that left their mark on what we knew of the blues. How many singers were there like George, who missed a recording trip because they didn’t get the times right? How many were there who never were heard by anyone who knew where to send them to get their songs on record?” these recordings were issued on Folkways under the title The Blues in St. Louis, Vol. 1: Daddy Hotcakes (originally planned to be issued on Bluesville).

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

While in St. Louis Charters cut an excellent album by veteran bluesman Henry Townsend backed his friend Tommy Bankhead. The results were issued on Bluesville as Tired of Being Mistreated and on Folkways as The Blues in St. Louis, Vol. 3: Henry Townsend.  Townsend was one of the only artists to have recorded in every decade for the last 80 years.  He first recorded in 1929 and remained active up to 2006. ”One of the things that was most intriguing for me about working with Henry was that this was the first time I’d ever recorded anyone playing an electric guitar. …The first blues they ran down together wiped out an lingering prejudices I had against electric instruments. It wasn’t electric guitars that had changed the blues. It was the life in the African American ghettos, the new society, experiences of the people who created the blues that had changed, and it was the new instrument and their changes sound that expressed the new conditions of  their lives.”

Charters also recorded  a fine session by Edith Johnson and Henry Brown. The results were issued on the album The Blues in St. Louis, Vol. 2: Henry Brown and Edith Johnson – Barrelhouse Piano and Classic Blues. Edith Johnson recorded eighteen sides in 1928/29 as “Edith North Johnson”, “Hattie North” and “Maybelle Allen.” Henry Brown worked clubs such as the Blue Flame Club, the 9-0-5 Club, Jim’s Place and Katy Red’s, from the twenties into the 30’s. Recorded for Brunswisck with Ike Rogers and Mary Johnson in 1929, for Paramount in Richmond and Grafton in ‘29 and ‘30. He served in the army in the early ’40s, then formed his own quartet to work occasional local gigs in St. Louis area from the ’50s, and worked the Becky Thatcher riverboat, St. Louis in 1965. In addition to his pre-war recordings, he was recorded by Paul Oliver in 1960 and by Adelphi in 1969.

J.D. Short recorded two sessions in the early ’30s for Paramount and Vocalion, then quickly faded into obscurity. Charters recorded Short at his transplanted home base of St. Louis in 1961. As Charters writes in the notes: “The recording that we did in his house that summer – mostly in the kitchen to get away from the noises in the street – was his last, but we didn’t have any idea of it. I was filming him for a sequence in The Blues and trying to get his ideas about the backgrounds and the aesthetics of the blues for The Poetry Of The Blues so we recorded a lot of music – new versions of songs he’d done before – new songs – and his own comments about the styles and the music.” Short unexpectedly passed away shortly after this session at the age of 60. Charters’ recordings of Short can be found on the albums J.D. Short and Son House: Blues from the Mississippi Delta and album as part of  The Legacy of the Blues series released in the 70′s.

St. Louis was always a good piano blues town, and in addition to recording Henry Brown, Charters also captured Barrelhouse Buck and Speckled Red. Barrelhouse Buck McFarland cut his final session for Folkways and an unissued session in 1961 that was belatedly released a few years back on Delmark. The recordings Charters made were released on Folkways as Backcountry Barrelhouse. He died shortly afterward. McFarland was born in Alton, Illinois in 1903 in the same area as two other exceptional piano players, Wesley Wallace and Jabbo Williams, all three of which made names for themselves on the bustling St. Louis blues scene. McFarland got his shot in the recording studio waxing ten sides; two for Paramount in 1929, two for Decca in 1934 and four more for Decca in 1935, which were not issued. Speckled Red (born Rufus Perryman) was born in Monroe, LA, but he made his reputation as part of the St. Louis and Memphis blues scenes of the ’20s and ’30s. In 1929, he cut his first recording sessions. One song from these sessions, “The Dirty Dozens,” was released on Brunswick and became a hit in late 1929. In 1938, he cut a few sides for Bluebird. In the early ’40s, Red moved to St. Louis, where he played local clubs and bars for the next decade and a half. Charlie O’Brien, a St. Louis policeman and something of a blues aficionado “rediscovered” Speckled Red on December 14, 1954, who subsequently was signed to Delmark Records as their first blues artist. Several recordings were made in 1956 and 1957 for Tone, Delmark, Folkways, and Storyville record labels. The recordings Charters made were issued on Folkway under the title The Barrel-House Blues of Speckled Red.

Charters also spent time in Memphis getting to know and record some of the city’s pre-war blues recording artists. ”Will Shade, the guitar and harmonica player who had organized the Memphis Jug Band for victor Records in 1927, had remembered Furry in a conversation in February 1959. …I looked out the window,  over the roofs toward Beale Street, and said to him, thinking out loud as much as anything else, ‘I certainly would like to have heard some of those old blues singers, Jim Jackson, Furry Lewis, John Estes, Frank Stokes…’ Will leaned out of his chair and called to his wife, Jennie Mae, who was working in the kitchen. ‘Jennie Mae, when was the last time you saw that fellow they call ‘Furry’?’ ‘…Furry Lewis you mean? I saw him just last week.’” Charters eventually found Furry: ”He no longer had a guitar and he hadn’t played much in twenty years, but when I asked him if he could sing and play he straightened and said, ‘I’m better now than I ever was.’”  Lewis returned to the studio under Charters’ direction, first cutting a self-titled album for Folkways in 1959 and then two albums for the Prestige/Bluesville label in 1961.

“Usually I stop by Will’s whenever I’m in Memphis, and over the years he’s led me to other singers like Gus Cannon, Charlie Burse and Furry Lewis. …I stopped by in April 1961 …he mentioned that one of the blues singers he’s known in the 1930s has stopped by his place a few weeks before. ‘His name’s Willie B. I don’t know what all his name is, but that’s what we call him. Willie B. He’s one of those real hard blues singers like you’re always asking about. …He”ll sing the real old hard blues for you.’” Charters recorded Borum at a  session at the Sun studios for Prestige’s Bluesville label, with one more session to follow. The albums were issued as Introducing Memphis Willie B. and Hard Working Man Blues. Borum, was a mainstay of the Memphis blues and jug band circuit. He took to the guitar early in his childhood, being principally taught by his father and Memphis medicine show star Jim Jackson. By his late teens, he was working with Jack Kelly’s Jug Busters. This didn’t last long, as Borum joined up with the Memphis Jug Band. Sometime in the ’30s he learned to play harmonica, being taught by Noah Lewis, the best harp blower in Memphis and mainstay of Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers. Willie B. began working on and off with various traveling Delta bluesmen, performing at various functions with Rice Miller, Willie Brown, Garfield Akers, and Robert Johnson. He finally got to make some records in 1934 for Vocalion backing Hattie Hart and Allen Shaw, but quickly moved back into playing juke joints and gambling houses with Son Joe, Joe Hill Louis and Will Shade until around 1943, when he became a member of the U.S. Army. Memphis Willie B. passed in 1993.

Read Liner Notes

In South Carolina Charters made important recordings by Pink Anderson and Baby Tate. Anderson was born in South Carolina and early on sang in the streets for pennies. He was self-taught as a guitarist and toured throughout the Southeast with a variety of medicine shows during 1915-1945, picking up work wherever he could. He was employed not only as a musician and a singer but as a dancer and comedian. Anderson recorded four titles in 1928 with his partner Simmie Dooley but did not make another record until 1950 for Riverside, sharing an album with Rev. Gary Davis. Anderson continued to work at parties, street fairs, and medicine shows during the first half of the 1950s before retiring for a time due to ill health. But in 1961 the Bluesville label sent Charters to record him. He recorded three albums of unaccompanied performances by Anderson, documenting him in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Carters also recorded one album by Anderson that was issued on Folkways as Carolina Medicine Show Hokum And Blues. Anderson stayed active on a part-time basis up until the time of his death in 1974.

Guitarist Baby Tate recorded only a handful of sessions, spending the bulk of his life as a sideman, playing with musicians like Blind Boy Fuller, Pink Anderson, and Peg Leg Sam. When he was 14 years old, Tate taught himself how to play guitar. Shortly afterward, he began playing with Blind Boy Fuller, who taught Tate the fundamentals of blues guitar. For most of the ’30s, Baby played music as a hobby, performing at local parties, celebrations, and medicine shows. Tate picked up music again in 1946, setting out on the local blues club circuit. In the early ’50s, Baby moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he performed both as a solo act and as a duo with Pink Anderson. In 1962, Charters recorded Tate for the album, See What You Done Done for Bluesville. The following year, he was featured in Charters’ documentary film, The Blues. For the rest of the decade, Baby Tate played various gigs, concerts, and festivals across America. With the assistance of harmonica player Peg Leg Sam, Baby Tate recorded another set of sessions in 1972. Pete Lowry recorded him extensively in 1970 but theses sides remain unreleased. He died on August 17, 1972.

Charters first foray into recording Chicago electric blues were a batch of albums for Prestige/Bluesville including sessions by Otis Spann, Homesick James and Billy Boy Arnold. Born in Chicago, Billy Boy was gravitated who was a big influence. Still in his teens, Arnold cut his debut 78 for the obscure Cool logo in 1952. “Arnold made an auspicious connection when he joined forces with Bo Diddley and played on the his two-sided 1955 debut smash “Bo Diddley”/”I’m a Man” for Checker. That led, in a roundabout way, to Billy Boy’s signing with rival Vee-Jay Records. Arnold’s “I Wish You Would,” utilizing that familiar Bo Diddley beat, sold well and inspired a later famous cover by the Yardbirds. Thhe group also took a liking to another Arnold classic on Vee-Jay, “I Ain’t Got You.” Other Vee-Jay standouts by Arnold included “Prisoner’s Plea” and “Rockinitis,” but by 1958, his tenure at the label was over. Other than an excellent Samuel Charters-produced 1963 album for Prestige, More Blues on the South Side, Arnold retained a low profile until signing with Alligator in the 90′s.

Homesick James was playing guitar at age ten and soon ran away from his Tennessee home to play at fish fries and dances. His travels took the guitarist through Mississippi and North Carolina during the 1920s, where he crossed paths with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller, and Big Joe Williams.Settling in Chicago during the 1930s, Williamson played local clubs. Williamson made some fine sides in 1952-53 for Chance Records. James also worked extensively as a sideman, backing harp great Sonny Boy Williamson in 1945 at a Chicago gin joint called the Purple Cat and during the 1950s with his cousin, Elmore James. He also recorded with James during the 1950s. Homesick’s own output included 45′s for Colt and USA in 1962, and the album for Blues On The South Side produced by Charters.

“I came to Chicago for the first time in the winter of 1959, as part of the long research trip for the book The Country Blues. …For the next few years I was in and out of Chicago – and after so many nights down on the south side listening to the  bands, I was becoming more and more impatient to go into a recording studio to document some of the unforgettable music I was hearing. But the companies I was involved with – Folkways and Prestige – either didn’t have the money for the sessions, or they weren’t ready to record the electric blues.” Fortunately Charters  hooked up with Vanguard Records who were more receptive to the idea.

In early 1966, Vanguard issued three-volume set, Chicago/The Blues/Today!. Every artist on the three volumes had recorded before (some, like Otis Rush and Junior Wells, had actually seen small hits on the R&B charts), but these recordings were largely their introduction to a newer — and predominately white — album-oriented audience. This series accurately portrayed a vast cross section of the Chicago blues scene as one could hear it on any given night in the mid-’60s. Rather than record full albums (which Charters had neither the budget nor the legal resources to pull off), each artist simply came in for a union-approved session of four to six songs, with each volume featuring three different groupings. Other notable records Charters cut for Vanguard include Buddy Guy’s A Man And The Blues,the guitarist’s first album away from Chess and Junior Wells’ It’s My Life Baby, a mix of studio recordings and live tracks recorded at Pepper’s Lounge in Chicago.

Charters and his family moved to Sweden in1971 and began working with a local record company called Sonet. He was eventually asked to do a blues series for the label. The series, Legacy of the Blues, ran to twelve albums with Charters producing the series as well as writing extensive liner notes for each. The notes were expanded for a book of the same name which was published in 1975. The entire series has been reissued on CD by Verve in 2006. As was often the case, Charters was able to coax some exceptional performances resulting in some  excellent albums by Memphis Slim, Robert Pete Williams and Snooks Eaglin.

Show Notes:

Mission statement released after United had been in existence for one year

The United Record Company was launched in July 1951, by Leonard Allen and Lew Simpkins, a veteran record man who had worked for the Miracle and Premium Records and brought many of their former artists to the new label. A news item in the trade press dated July 21, 1951, announces the formation of the United Recording Company. “The guiding force behind this new company is a Chicago area entertainment entrepreneur by the name of Lewis Simpkins. He had previous experience with the local Miracle and Premium labels in the Chicago areas. Simpkins is unique because he is one of the very few Black record company owners producing this music that is largely by and for the Black community. He joins the Rene Brothers in California (Excelsior and Exclusive) and soon to be executives Vivian Carter and James Bracken in nearby Gary Indiana with the Vee-Jay label.”

United enjoyed early success, scoring hits by Tab Smith, Jimmy Forrest, and the Four Blazes; during its first year it was outdoing its local rival Chess on the charts. The United label took off impressively, scoring two number one R&B hits among its first ten releases: Tab Smith’s “Because of You,” and Jimmy Forrest’s “Night Train.” United formally opened for business with a long recording session on July 12, 1951. The company was able to expand and open a new imprint called States in May 1952. United and States recorded a substantial roster of jazz artists. The company also recorded a substantial amount of blues including artists like Roosevelt Sykes, Memphis Slim, J. T. Brown, “Big” Walter Horton, J. T. Brown, Robert Nighthawk, Junior Wells and others. The label also recorded a fair bit of gospel and vocal harmony groups.During its first 2 1/2 years of operation, the company recorded 463 masters. The death of Lew Simpkins, who died suddenly on April 27, 1953, was a serious blow; Leonard Allen was left to run the enterprise with limited help until the label’s demise in 1957. While the company remained fairly healthy during 1954, activity dropped off sharply after that. Of the 281 sides that the company cut during this period, 130 were done in 1954. By the end of 1956 Leonard Allen was reduced to selling off half of the house music publishing company to pay his tax bill. Too many years without hits finally brought United and States down after the company’s Christmas releases in 1957. Bob Koester of Delmark Records acquired most of the label’s masters in 1975 and has reissued the bulk of this material on LP and CD. I want to thank the folks at Delmark for sending me several titles that made this show possible. Below is some background on some of today’s featured artists, most of which comes from the The Red Saunders Research Foundation website.

Roosevelt Sykes, like Nighthawk, was recorded on United’s first day of sessions on July 12, 1951. He cut two additional sessions in August 1951 and March 1953. There is speculation that Nighthawk plays guitar on the first Sykes session. Robert Nighthawk was recorded by United on their very first day of sessions and two of United’s first five releases were by Robert Nighthawk and his Nighthawks Band. Sales never took off and Nighthawk headed back south and wouldn’t record again until 1964. Leonard Allen scoffed: “Robert Nighthawk? I didn’t think nothin’ of him. I didn’t go into those joints where they were playing. Lew knew him- he had Robert Nighthawk in mind for the first session. So after he cut the session it did nothin’.” Nighthawk recorded two sessions for United, one on July 12, 1951 and one on October 25, 1952 for its subsidiary States. His complete recordings for the label are collected on the CD Bricks in My Pillow.

Memphis Slim cut around 30 sides for United at sessions in 1952, 1953 and two in 1954. This was a particularly inspired period for Slim who added his first permanent guitarist, Matt Murphy to his band. These recordings have been reissued on the Delmark CD’s Memphis Slim U.S.A. and The Come Back. Memphis Slim had been recording since 1940. Based in Chicago during this phase of his career, he had been a mainstay at three postwar independents: first Hy-Tone, then Miracle, and finally Miracle’s successor entity Premium. After Premium collapsed in the summer of 1951, Slim cut three sessions for Mercury in Chicago. Lew Simpkins, who knew Slim from the days when he was moving 78′s for Miracle and Premium, brought him to United as soon as he could.

J.T. Brown also recorded during United’s first day – and his “Windy City Boogie” was credited by United proprietor Leonard Allen with “saving our first money.” J.T. is best remembered for the accompaniments he provided for Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Roosevelt Sykes, Johnny Shines, and J.B. Lenoir. In his liner notes for the United reissues on Delmark, Jim O’Neal remarked that he “was a bluesman. By jazz standards, he was not a great instrumentalist. His lack of sophistication, subtlety, and tonal variations prevented him from moving into more ‘progressive’ circles.” Brown first performed as a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels in the South before moving to Chicago in the early 1940′s.

One of the top R&B records of 1952, “Mary Jo” provided a moment in the national spotlight for one of Chicago’s hottest vocal combos, The Four Blazes. The single moved rapidly to the top, displacing Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” as the #1 R&B song in the nation at the end of August. Bassist Tommy Braden was the main lead singer while all members provided backup harmony vocals. “Jelly” Holt was the founder and drummer in the group, while Floyd McDaniel and “Shorty” Hill played guitars. The Four Blazes formed in 1940 and made their recording debut with a few sides for Aristocrat in 1947 before landing at United in 1952.

In what was likely a response to Chess’ success with Little Walter, United signed harp ace Junior Wells. After a youthful apprenticeship in the Aces and then the Muddy Waters band (when Little Walter went out on his own he took over the Aces, while Junior moved into his chair in Muddy’s band, and appeared on one of Muddy’s sessions for Chess), he was ready to make his first sides as a leader for the States subsidiary.  Down Beat’s Pete Welding wrote “In their power, directness, unerring taste and utter consistency of mood, these may well be the most perfectly distilled examples of Wells’ music ever recorded, taking their place alongside of those of Waters, Walter, Wolf and other masters of the period.” These historic sessions also feature Louis and Dave Myers, Willie Dixon, Johnnie Jones, Fred Below and Odie Payne Jr. Recorded by United Records in 1953 and 1954 at Universal Studio in Chicago, eight sides were issued on the subsidiary States label.

Walter Horton moved to Chicago in the late 1940′s, but during 1951-54 made frequent trips to Memphis to record for Modern, behind other artists and under the name Mumbles. He also made sideman appearances for Chicago-based labels, with Muddy Waters for Chess (January 1953) and Johnny Shines for JOB (the same month). He recorded under the name Big Walter Horton for the first time when he signed with United in 1954. Horton also backed singer Tommy Brown the same year. Brown’s United session on August 26 featured an all-star lineup of Walter Horton (harmonica), Harold Ashby (tenor sax), Memphis Slim (piano), Lee Cooper (guitar), and Willie Dixon (bass); the drums are unknown. Brown remains an active performer.

Leonard Allen  recorded blues artists Morris Pejoe and Big Boy Spires in Al Smith’s basement (5313 South Drexel). Although the Pejoe session was interesting enough to justify putting matrix numbers on it, Allen eventually backpedaled, most likely because of the less-than-professional sound quality. Neither saw release until Delmarkr put them out on an album in 1989. Pejoe was born Morris Pejas in Louisiana, and began his music career on the violin. After moving to Beaumont, Texas, in 1949, he switched to guitar. In 1951 he was in Chicago, performing with pianist Henry Gray. During 1952-53 he recorded three sessions for Checker, accompanied by Gray among others. The United session was held in December 1954.

Arthur “Big Boy” Spires was born in Natchez, Mississippi; he started playing guitar only in the late 1930s. Spires came to Chicago in 1943, and played house-rent parties during the decade. It was not until 1950 or 1951 that he graduated to nightclubs. He first recorded for Checker in 1952 (which produced his best known record, “Murmur Low”), and did a strong session for Chance in January 1953. In December 1953, Big Boy Spires and His Rhythm Rocking Three was advertised as the feature act in the grand opening celebration of the Palace Inn (the ad failed to list an address). The date of the Spires session for Leonard Allen seems to be December 1954 or shortly thereafter.

The most down-home blues session ever recorded by Leonard Allen featured harmonica player Alfred “Blues King” Harris and drummer James Bannister. Bannister got the vocals on “Blues and Trouble” and “Gold Digger,” which were the only titles to be released from the session at the time; States 141 is a very rare record. Harris sang on the rest, which did not see issue until they appeared on a Delmark LP many years later. Bannister had made unissued recordings for Sun in Memphis and for Chess before cutting this session for States. Harris, who could sing in the B. B. King manner and often billed himself as Blues King, made one track for Modern in Memphis. He was booked into the Be-Bop Club for 6 months in 1954 when Allen recorded him. He waxed five sides for United that same year. In the late 1950′s, Harris put out a single on J. Mayo Williams’ low-circulation Ebony label. He dropped off the Chicago scene after 1959 and his later movements are untraced.

Other performers featured today include Jimmy Coe, Eddie Chamblee, Arbee Stidham, L.C. McKinley and Ernie K-Doe among others. United recorded several fine sax players who’s music straddled the line between R&B and jazz. Many are featured on Delmark’s three volume Honkers & Bar Walkers series including Jimmy Coe and Eddie Chamblee. From 1941 to 1946 Chamblee worked as a musician in Army bands; after his discharge he put together his own combo. His first notable work was on the Miracle label, particularly on the huge hit “Long Gone” by Sonny Thompson, which recorded for 1947. After Chamblee went out on his own in 1948, his records for Miracle and Premium sold well, and Lew Simpkins no doubt remembered him. In addition to putting out sides under his own name he also played on many sides backing the Four Blazes. On our selection, “La! La! La! Lady”, Chamblee also takes the vocal. Arbee Stidham was the last blues artist to record for Leonard Allen, and was responsible for the very last release on States. He came to Chicago in the 1940s and his first recording for RCA Victor in 1947 produced a number one R&B hit on the Billboard race chart, “My Heart Belongs To You.” Subsequently he cut sides for Victor, Checker, Sittin’ With and Abco before signing with States in 1957. Only rone record was issued featuring the guitar of Earl Hooker. L. C. McKinley was T-Bone Walker disciple who made from Mississippi to Chicago in 1951. In the early 1950′s he was a regular headliner at the famed 708 Club. In 1951 and 1952, he recorded as a sideman with pianist Eddie Boyd for JOB, appearing on Boyd’s biggest hit, “Five Long Years.” He first recorded as a leader in 1953 for the Parrot label, but Al Benson chose not to release his session. McKinley signed with States around the beginning of 1954 and cut four sides for the label. In 1955 United became the first to record Ernie K-Doe, who was living and performing in Chicago at the time under his real name, Ernest Kador. K-Doe spent nearly his entire life in New Orleans, but in 1953, after winning several singing and dancing competitions back home, he came to Chicago for a brief time to live with his mother. He met the Four Blazes at the Crown Propeller Lounge; the Blazes introduced him to A&R man Dave Clark, who was doing some work for United at the time and supervised the session. In early November he was singing at the Apex Country Club in Robbins, Illinois (13624 Claire Blvd) as “Ernest Kado.” The Chicago Defender ad (12 November) was already billing him as “United Recording Artist.”

Show Notes:

We have a wide ranging mix on today’s program spanning the years 1925 to 1978. We feature many artists from the 1920′s and 30′s including several artists like Lonnie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Eugene Powell, Victoria Spivey and Robert Wilkins who bridge both the pre-war and post-war eras. We spotlight three from Lonnie Johnson. Unlike many blues artists who recorded in the 1920′s and were later rediscovered, Lonnie was only out of the music business for a relatively short spell; he was not musically active and made no recordings between 1954 and 1959. He came back strong in the 1960′s through the assistance of Chris Albertson who got Lonnie signed to Bluesville, resulting in a number of strong recordings and an active touring schedule. Featured today are “I’m Not Rough” one of six sides Lonnie recorded with Louis Armstrong in 1927 and 1929. From the 1961 Bluesville album, Another Night To Cry, we spin “Fine Booze and Heavy Dues” and from 1963 “Lonnie’s Traveling Light” from the LP Spivey Blues Parade. The latter record is a grab bag of previously unreleased numbers recorded for the Spivey label and put together as a blues revue. Other artists include Sippie Wallace, Sonny Boy Williamson and Walter Horton among others.

Among the other artists who recorded in both the pre-war and post-war eras we spin tracks by  Son House and Mississippi John Hurt. We hear Son on the magnificent “Pearline” which like “Empire State Express” and “Louise McGhee” are newer songs. Hurt’s wonderful “Richland Woman Blues” is from a 1965 Oberlin College concert which has been issued in various configurations and sequences by several labels under different titles and with different cover art over.

Victoria Spivey, Otis Spann and Samuel Lawhorn

Victoria Spivey made her last pre-war blues in 1937 and reemerged in the early 1960′s. Shortly before she formed her own Spivey label in 1961, Spivey made a fine duo album, Woman Blues!, with  Lonnie Johnson whom she had last recorded with back in 1929. Today’s two tracks come from her Spivey LP’s; “Diving Mama” finds her teamed up with Otis Spann and comes from the album The Muddy Waters Blues Band: They Done It Again! Vol. 2 while “Inter-Mission State” finds her partnered with Walter Horton and comes from the album Spivey’s Blues Parade.

Less well known than the above artists is Eugene Powell who also recorded in the pre-war and post-war eras. In 1936, Eugene Powell, along with Mississippi Matilda, Willie Harris and some of the Chatmon family traveled to New Orleans to record for the Bluebird label. Setting up at the St. Charles Hotel, Powell cut six sides during these sessions under the moniker Sonny Boy Nelson. From that session we spin “Pony Blues.” In the 1970′s Powell began playing festivals and recording again. He died in 1998.

Among the other fine early blues performances are some excellent piano blues. Charlie McFadden was an expressive  St. Louis singer who made some superb sides between 1929 and 1937 backed by St. Louis pianists like Roosevelt Sykes (heard on our selection, “Gambler’s Blues”), Eddie Miller and “Pine Top” Sparks.
The exciting barrelhouse pianist Louise Johnson cut four songs for Paramount at the legendary 1930 session that also included sides by Charlie Patton, Willie Brown and Son House. You can hear Patton, Son House and Willie Brown shouting encouragement in the background. Turner Parrish cut eight sides between 1929 and 1933 including the the rollicking instrumental “The Fives”, a song also recorded by Hersal Thomas, Cripple Clarence Lofton and Jimmy Yancey.

Also worth mentioning is the mysterious Kid Cole of whom we play his “Niagra Fall Blues” which coincidentally makes no reference at all to the famous landmark. Kid Cole was a Cincinnati blues artist who cut four sides for Vocalion in 1928. According to Steven C. Tracy’s Going To Cincinnati, Cole most likely also recorded as Bob Coleman, cutting three sides under that name in 1929 and two sides with the Cincinnati Jug Band the same year. It’s also been suggested that he recorded under the moniker Sweet Papa Tadpole for a six song 1930 session with Tampa Red and the same year as Walter Cole for Gennett.

Also on tap are some fine Chicago blues including sides by Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Eddie Boyd and Sunnyland Slim. Muddy’s “Forty Days And Forty Nights”comes from the new release, Authorized Bootleg: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium – San Francisco Nov 04-06 1966. This excelelnt set features the great George “Harmonica” Smith who played with Muddy for only a short stint. From the out-of-print LP Blues Southside Chicago we spin Eddie Boyd’s “Where You Belong” a session supervised by Willie Dixon. Mike Leadbitter discusses the aim of the record in his liner notes: “This album was recorded In Chicago’s Southside by Willie Dixon with one aim in mind-to provide the English enthusiast with blues played as they are played in the clubs, without gimmicks and without interfering A & R men. This album is not intended to be commercial in any way and by using top artists and top session men an LP has been produced that doesn’t sound as cold as studio recordings usually do.”

Show Notes:

[The first four paragraphs are taken from my Earl Hooker entry in the Encyclopedia Of The Blues (Routledge, 2006)]

Among his peers, Earl Hooker is widely considered the greatest guitarist of his generation. His wild performances attracted a loyal following wherever he went as he entertained the crowds by playing behind his back, picking the guitar with his feet or teeth or doing flips on stage without missing a note. Hooker always had a predilection for the latest electric guitar technology becoming famous for his double-neck guitars and even making the wah-wah pedal work in a blues context. In addition to blues he had incorporated Country and Western music in his repertoire early on. Hooker was the archetype of the rambling bluesman having spent most of his life on the road. Along the way he cut singles for a host of tiny labels that did little to get the word out. The result was that he remained little known outside the insular blues world until the late 60′s.

Born in Mississippi, Hooker arrived in Chicago as a child. As a youngster he began playing music in the streets with future blues artists Bo Diddley and Louis Myers. He met Robert Nighthawk in Chicago in the early 40′s and it was Nighthawk who became his primary influence, teaching him the rudiments of his remarkable slide technique. Hooker would eventually surpass his mentor, developing an entirely new language for the slide guitar. Hooker frequently ran away from home, often heading down south to play music. During these trips he reunited with Nighthawk, played with Ike Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson and others. He formed the Roadmasters in the early 50′s and with constantly changing personnel played all over the country for the next twenty years.

Hooker’s initial recordings were in 1952 for King with Johnny O’Neal, cutting sides the following year for Rockin’ and Sun. By the early 50′s he was back in Chicago cutting singles for Argo, C.J., and Bea & Baby before joining with producer Mel London (owner of Chief and Age) in 1959. For the next four years, he recorded both as sideman and leader for the producer, backing Junior Wells, Bobby Saxton, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, Big Moose Walker and A.C. Reed plus cutting notable instrumentals like “Blue Guitar” and “Blues in D-Natural.” He also contributed slide work to Muddy Waters’ 1962 Chess waxing “You Shook Me”. After Age folded Hooker recorded sporadically between 1964 and 1968 for tiny outfits like Cuca, Jim-Ko, Duplex and again for C.J.

He finally drew increased attention during the late ’60s starting with “Two Bugs & a Roach,” his first full-length album, for Arhoolie in 1968. In 1969 he hooked up with *ABC-BluesWay churning out several albums for the label in addition to playing on records of Bluesway artists like Andrew Odom, Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, Charles Brown, his cousin John Lee Hooker and others. In late 1969, Hooker traveled to Europe to play in the *American Folk Blues Festival. By this time, he was quite ill with advancing tuberculosis, a condition he battled his entire life, and after his return was admitted to a Chicago sanitarium where he passed away in April 21, 1970.

Today’s show spotlights recordings spanning 1953 through 1969 featuring records Hooker cut under his own name, with a slew of journeyman singers like Little Sam Davis, Johnny O’Neal, Andrew Odom and others backing artists such as Ricky Allen, A.C. Reed, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Charles Brown to name a few. No matter the setting Hooker’s brilliantly inventive guitar always makes its presence known and like the best session men he elevates every recording he appears on. We also play a number of Hooker’s dazzling instrumentals. Hooker was never confident about his vocal abilities but he was a fine singer as several of today’s tracks prove.

From the 1950′s we spin a tracks Hooker cut for King, Rockin’, States, C.J. and Profile (he also cut sides for Argo and Vee-Jay during this period). Hooker’s first sides were cut for King on November 26, 1952 where he backed singer Johnny O’Neal on four numbers (two unissued) plus four instrumentals under his own name. From those sessions we play uptempo “Johnny Feels The Blues” with O’Neal sounding quite a bit like Roy Brown.  Hooker next landed at on the tiny Rockin’ label in 1953, a Miami, FL based label run by Henry Stone who also ran the Glory label which issued country music. There Hooker backed singer/harmonica bluesman Little Sammy Davis on four fine numbers. Six titles were cut under Hooker’s name but only “Sweet Angel” and “On The Hook” were released with the others sitting in the can for decades. Hooker found his way to Sun the same year where he waxed ten sides (one featuring vocals from Boyd Gilmore, one with vocals from Pinetop Perkins). All these sides were unissued at the time and surface on decades later. in 1957 Hooker did some session work for States including the excellent “Look Me Straight In The Eye” featuring vocals by Arbee Stidham. Hooker bounced over to the Chicago based C.J. label in 1959 run by Carl Jones. From those sessions we play “Yeah Yeah”, issued as Earl Hooker & His Road Masters a band that included pianist Johnny “Big Moose” Walker who would become a long time partner of Hooker’s. Hooker takes the vocals and turns in a superb vocal performance in addition to plenty of guitar fireworks. also in 1959 Hooker teamed up with Juniro Wells and producer Mel London. London formed the Chief label in 1957 and Hooker cut prolifically for London on Chief and its subsidiary imprints like Profile, Age and Mel-Lon through 1964. Cut in 1959 and released in 1960 on Profile, the infectious “Little By Little”, with Junior Wells on the vocals, became a hit staying on the R&B charts for three weeks and climbing to 23.

For the next four years Hooker recorded both as sideman and leader for the London, backing Junior Wells, Bobby Saxton, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, Big Moose Walker and A.C. Reed plus cutting several notable instrumentals. Among the more striking instrumentals cut during this period are ”Blues In D Natural”, “Universal Rock “, “Blue Guitar” and “The Leading Brand.” As Sebastian Danchin wrote in his superlative biography Earl hooker – Blues Master: “The period between 1959 and 1963 was a productive one, both in terms of quality and quantity. Through Mel London, Hooker was involved in over a dozen recording sessions, and his playing was featured on some forty titles and twenty-five singles, a dozen of which were released under his own name, the rest being ascribed to Junior Wells, A.C. Reed, Lillian Offitt, and Ricky Allen.” In 1960 Hooker cut a couple of sides for the Bea & Baby label of which we spin the rocking “Trying To Make A Living” featuring vocals by Bobby Saxton. In 1962 Hooker was involved in some recording for Chess and its Checker subsidary. One single was issued for Chess, “Tanya” b/w “Put Your Shoes On Willie”, and we play the former, a slide driven version of the Jimmy Liggins song. Hooker also laid down some instrumental tracks that were dubbed later with Muddy Waters’ vocals resulting in “You Shook Me”, “Little Brown Bird”, “You Need Love” plus three unissued tracks.

Between 1964 and 1967 Hooker cut several sessions for the tiny Cuca label, many of which were unreleased. Jim Kirchstein’s Cuca label was based out of Sauk City, Illinois and issued a variety of ethnic music as well as jazz, gospel and R&B. Kirchstein initially issued 45′s but always had the intention of releasing a whole album on Hooker which finally came to light in 1968 under the title The Genius of Earl Hooker. Hooker’s Cuca output was mostly instrumental guitar showcases although vocalists like Muddy Water Jr., Frank “Crying Shame” Clark and A.C. Reed were employed. From those sessions we play the swinging “Swear To Tell The Truth” featuring a fine vocal from Hooker (the song was first cut for Age in 1960 with Harold Tidwell on vocals), the instrumentals “The Foxtrot” and “Something You Got” plus “You Took All My Love “boasting a terrific vocal from Frank “Crying Shame” Clark.  Although unlisted, the sax player on “Something You Got” is J.J. Jackson who moved to Utica, NY in the 1960′s. In the 1990′s he worked with Rochester bluesman Steve Grills and his band the Roadmasters. In addition to Hooker, Jackson also worked with John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Maybelle, the Buddy Johnson Orchestra and Lee Cooper. Jackson died in 1998. ithe Cuca LP The Genius of Earl Hooker has been reissued in several forms including a vinyl reproduction on Sundazed in 2006, Do You Remember The Great Earl Hooker (Bluesway, 1973), There’s A Fungus Amung Us on both Catfish and Red Lightnin’ in 1999 and the Cuca collection Earl Hooker: Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker! issued on Black Magic in 1985 and reissued under the same title for Black Top in 1993.

Hooker finally drew increased attention during the late 1960′s starting with Two Bugs & a Roach, his first full-length album for Arhoolie in 1968. Label owner Chris Strachwitz was looking to record some Chicago blues and asked the advice of Buddy Guy on who he should record. According to Strachwitz, Guy said “If you ever ask a Chicago bluesman about who is the best guitar player in town, they will admit it’s Earl Hooker.” Hooker’s crack band for the session included Pinetop Perkins, Andrew Odom, Freddy Roulette, Carey Bell and Louis Myers. Hooker cut another album for Arhoolie in 1969. Hooker And Steve featured organist Steve Miller who had a band called the Prophets who had sometimes shared the bill with Hooker when Hooker worked the clubs in Waterloo, Iowa which was Miller’s hometown.

In 1969 Hooker hooked up with ABC-BluesWay playing on records of Bluesway artists like Andrew Odum, Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, Charles Brown, his cousin John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Hooker also cut the album Sweet Black Angel in 1969 a mostly instrumental outing produced by Ike Turner. From that session we play the lone vocal, sung by Hooker, a wah wah soaked version of “Sweet Home Chicago” finding Hooker in superb voice. Although Ike Turner is credited as the pianist I’ve talked to Ernest Lane (Lane played piano on some of Hooker’s 1950′s recordings for Sun) who tells me he was the pianist on this session and I have no reason to doubt him. Hooker’s lone Bluesway album under his own name, Don’t Have To Worry, has unfortunately not be issued on CD although some tracks appear on the Bluesway collection Simply The Best issued in 1999. From Don’t Have To Worry we play the rocking “You Got To Lose” featuring a good vocal from Hooker and some wild wah wah guitar. We wrap up the show with Hooker playing behind Bluesway artists Charles Brown and longtime buddies Andrew Odom and Johnny “Big Moose” Walker. Odom’s first release under his own name, Farther On Down The Road, was recorded in 1969 but not released until several years later. While sporting mostly blues standards, Odom’s debut is a terrific outing featuring marvelous rapport between Hooker and Odom but unfortunately the album, like much of the Bluesway catalog, has yet to be issued on CD. Big Moose Walker also made his full length debut for the label with Rambling Woman a fine outing marred by Otis Hale’s electric sax but featuring superb playing from Hooker as evidenced on today’s selection, “The Sky Is Crying.” Rambling Woman has also never been issued on CD although some tracks appear on Simply The Best.

In late 1969, Hooker traveled to Europe to play in the American Folk Blues Festival. Four tracks from his October, 3rd appearance at the Royal Albert Hall have been issued. We wrap our show with “Going Up And Down” among the last songs ever recorded by Hooker. By this time, he was quite ill with advancing tuberculosis, a condition he battled his entire life, and after his return was admitted to a Chicago sanitarium where he passed away in April 21, 1970.

There were several tracks that had to be trimmed due to time limitations. I’ve included the omitted songs below.

The Hucklebuck [Sun, 1953] (MP3)

Square Dance Rock w/ Magic Sam [Chief, 1960] (MP3)

Rocking Wild [Chief, 1961] (MP3)

Bright Sounds [Age, 1962] (MP3)

That Man [Age, 1962] (MP3)

Off The Hook [Two Bugs And A Roach, 1968] (MP3)

The Moon Is Rising [Hooker And Steve, 1969] (MP3)

I Feel Good [Sweet Black Angel, 1969] (MP3)

If You Miss ‘Im…I Got ‘Im… [John Lee Hooker: If You Miss 'Im...I Got 'Im..., 1969] (MP3)

Drifting Blues [Charles Brown: Legend!, 1969] (MP3)

Show Notes:

We cut a wide swath today, tackling blues spanning from 1925 through 1980. The half-dozen tracks from 1980 come from the series Living Country Blues USA. In 1980 two young German blues enthusiasts, Axel Kuestner and Siegfried A. Christmann, came to America with the idea to document the remaining country blues tradition. With their station wagon and portable recording equipment they hit the road spending 2-1/2 months documenting blues, gospel, field hollers and work songs throughout the South. Hundreds of hours of tape was used and the resulting project came out as 14 LP’s on the German L&R label. In 1999 Evidence Records reissued some of these sides domestically as a 3-CD set. These recordings represent one of the last large scale field recording trips to canvas the south.There’s was still plenty of music to be found although it’s interesting to note that two of the great field researchers, Peter B. Lowry and George Mitchell, had both called it it quits in 1980 and after Kuestner and Christmann recordings made in the field has almost become a thing of the past. For many of the artists these were their first recordings and many never recorded again. The set also contains the debut of such artists as Cephas and Wiggins (Lowry recorded them but never issued the sides )and Lonnie Pitchford who went on to greater fame. Some like Hammie Nixon and Sam Chatmon had been pre-war recording stars. Others had learned directly from the blues masters such as Cedell Davis who played with Robert Nighthawk and Arzo Youngblood and Boogie Bill Webb who learned from the legendary Tommy Johnson. The series has finally been issued on CD although the CD’s don’t seem to be available in the US. I was able to get copies of the few CD’s I needed to complete the series and will being doing a whole show devoted to these recordings on November 9th.

Speaking of field recordings we spin some tracks recorded by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Among those are Kelly Pace & Convicts of Cummins Farm, Gould, Arkansas singing a wonderful version of  “Rock Island Line.” This was the same prison where Lomax recorded Leadbelly and supposedly Leadbelly picked up the song after hearing this group perform it. The song would become one of his most famous numbers although he didn’t record it until 1937. Willie Ford & Lucious Curtis deliver a terrific slide driven version of “Payday.” John and Ruby Lomax were in Natchez, MS when they made recordings by Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford in October 1940. The town was still in mourning for the victims of a terrible dance-hall fire that April in which over 200 hundred people had died, including most of the Walter Barnes Band. Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford cut fourteen sides that day. From the infamous Angola Penitentiary John Lomax recorded the accomplished Ernest Rogers on the tough “Oh Oh Low Down Dirty Dog” which unfortunately is his sole recording. Moving up to the 1970′s we play a wonderful track by the obscure Rabbit Muse. Muse played ukelele and kazoo and has two 1970′s LPs on the Outlet label which have yet to be released on CD. Our selection, “Jailhouse Blues”, comes from the excellent compilation Western Piedmont Blues. This collection comes from a series of albums issued by the Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College, Virginia. I believe there was something like eight volumes in this series (not all blues) which have been issued on CD through the Global Village label. The bulk of the recordings are from the 1970′s and early 1980′s.

We play a a couple of twin spins by guitarists Sylvester Weaver and Guitar Nubbit. Weaver cut over two dozen selections accompanying Sara Martin through 1927.  Sara Martin began her career as a vaudeville singer around 1915 in Illinois. In 1922 she was signed to a recording contract with Okeh Records. Martin was said to have excelled as a live performer and was a star on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920′s. While primarily a popular singer Martin could get low down on the blues and was billed as the “famous moanin’ mama” as well as “the colored Sophie Tucker” reflecting her dual roles as a blues and vaudeville performer. She toured the country until the early 1930′s and recorded with Okeh until 1928. In the early 1930′s Marin retired from show business. She died in 1955. The solo “Penitentiary Bound Blues” features one of Weaver’s best vocals.

Regarding Guitar Nubbit, it was Peter Lowry who brought the obscure bluesman to the attention of collectors. I asked him about this and he offered the following recollection: “Ah, Guitar Nubbit! The year was 1964 and I was a graduate student at Rutgers in Biology. While driving around New Brunswick, NJ, I happened upon a combination shoe shine parlor/record store – it was downstairs half a flight from the front of the four-story house, on the road-side. You essentially went under the porch from the side! I found 45s of often interesting stuff, and not always stuff that I heard on WNJR out of Newark.. They had Nubbit’s single on the Bluestown label (“GA Chain Gang”)… I ended up buying all that they had after hearing the first copy I purchased. Then, I sent a copy to Mike Leadbitter, editor of Blues Unlimited, for whom I was just beginning to write. They were a mystery. Someone traced the label to Chicago (!), and others tried to track down the publishing company. No luck. I don’t remember who finally got onto Skippy White, a Boston DJ, and found out that it was his label (there were a couple more Nubbit discs [Alvin Hankerson], and a couple of singles by Hibbard “Alabama” Watson). They were quite anachronistic for the day! Right up there with Atlantic recording McTell in 1949 – hardly great commercial potential, no matter how good was the music!” I’ve attached below a couple of articles I found on Nubbit.

In addition to the aforementioned Sara Martin, today’s program also spotlights a several excellent blues ladies including Victoria Spivey, Mae Glover, Big Mama Thornton, Olive Brown, Laurie Tate and Lucille Spann. “Dirty T.B. Blues” backed by a crack band is Spivey’s follow-up to her popular “T-B Blues” from 1927 and she also cut “TB’s Got Me” in 1936.  Mae Glover’s sassy, bouncy “I Ain’t Givin’ Nobody None” features the excellent guitar work and spoken accompaniment of John Byrd as Glover tells her man:

I’ll Wash you your clothes in the morning, cook jellyroll at night
When you come, home try to be so doggone nice

She cut two-dozen sides but only one short session with Byrd, a shame as those are her best sides. Moving on up we spin a pair by Big Mama Thornton; “Rockabye” finds Big Mama backed by Johnny Otis’ band with Johnny himself on vibes and some vicious fret work from Pete “Guitar” Lewis while 1967′s “Don’t Do Me This Way” finds her in more soulful vein. I know nothing about big voiced Olive Brown outside the fact that she cut a handful of sides in the the late 1940′s, 50′s and 60′s. “Roll Like A Big Wheel” is a tough rocker sporting a ripping tenor player that comes from the fine LP Don’t Freeze On Me: Independent Womens Blues on the Rosetta Label. Lucille Spann was a fine gospel-inflected singer, although she occasionally indulges in histrionics, who spent most of her in the giant shadow cast by her husband Otis, “Cry Before I Go” is the title track off her very good, and only, album cut for Bluesway in the early 1970′s. Like most of the Bluesway catalog this one remains out of print.

Also worth mention are cuts by two obscure pre-war blues artists, Oliver Cobb and Ollie Shepard. Cobb was a St. Louis trumpet player and singer who patterned himself after Louis Armstrong. He cut one 78 in 1929 for Brunswick and one 78 in 1930 for Paramount. Henry Townsend remembered him many years later: “Oliver Cobb worked around St. Louis quite a bit-he was a pretty famous guy around here. …Oliver Cobb was more jazz than blues. He could play blues, but seemingly his desire was to be in the jazz field. But even at the time he got more call for blues styles. That’s why he got a chance to go up on the session, because he kinf iof put himself into the category of playing the blues, and that’s what was in demand. …He was a great imitation of Louis Armstrong…the closest I’ve heard…” According to Townsend, Cobb drowned shortly after his June 1930 recording session with Paramount. “The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas” is a wonderful risque blues firmly in the Armstrong mold. Despite recording close to four-dozen sides between 1937 and 1941, little is known about singer/pianist Ollie Shepard.Shepard rarely rose above the ordinary by “Drunk Again”, backed by his Kentucky Boys and Lonnoe Johnson, finds him in good voice on this number which is one of best efforts.

Guitar Nubbit – Boston’s Own (Word Doc)

Guitar Nubbit – Re-Living The legend (Word Doc)

Guitar Nubbit – From Blues Unlimited 17 (Word Doc)

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