Big Road Blues - Part 132

Big Road Blues Show 5/12/13: Good Scuffler Blues – Sideman Blues Part II

May 12, 2013March 20, 2016 Jeff 1 Comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Mary Johnson w/ Tampa Red	Death Cell Blues	Twenty First. St. Stomp: The Piano Blues Of St. Louis
James Stump Johnson w/ Tampa Red	Jones Law Blues	The Piano Blues Vol. 2 - Brunswick 1928-30
Texas Alexander w/ Lonnie Johnson	Long Lonesome Day	Texas Alexander Vol. 1
Mooch Richardson w/ Lonnie Johnson	Helena Blues	A Richer Tradition: Country Blues and String Band Music 1923-1942
Peetie Wheatstraw w/ Lonnie Johnson	Truckin' Thru Traffic	Peetie Wheatstraw Vol. 5
Lil Green w/ Big Bill Broonzy	Just Rockin'	Lil Green -1940-1941
Charlie Spand w/ Big Bill Broonzy	Rock And Rye	Roots N' Blues: Booze & The Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton w/ Big Bill Broonzy	Brownskin Girls	The Piano Blues Vol. 9: Lofton/Noble 1935-1936
Bumble Bee Slim w/ Casey Bill Weldon	This Old Life I'm Living	Bumble Bee Slim Vol. 5 1935-1936
Memphis Minnie w/ Casey Bill Weldon	When The Sun Goes Down	Four Woman Blues
Leroy Henderson w/ Casey Bill Weldon	Good Scuffler Blues	Charley Jordan Vol.3 1935-1937
Dorothy Baker w/ Roosevelt Sykes	Steady Grinding Blues	Barrelhouse Mamas
Teddy Darby w/ Roosevelt Sykes	The Girl I Left Behind	Blind Teddy Darby 1929-1937
Napoleon Fletcher w/ Roosevelt Sykes – She Showed It All	Grass Cutter BluesShe Showed It All	Roosevelt Sykes: The Essential
Alice Moore w/ Kokomo Arnold	Grass Cutter Blues	Kokomo Arnold Vol. 3 1936-1937
Roosevelt Sykes w/ Kokomo Arnold	The Honey Dripper	Roosevelt Sykes Vol. 4 1934-1936
Peetie Wheatstraw w/ Kokomo Arnold	Working On The Project	Broadcasting the Blues
Robert Lee McCoy w/ Sonny Boy Williamson I	Tough Luck	Prowling With The Nighthawk
Yank Rachel w/ Sonny Boy Williamson I	I'm Wild And Crazy As Can Be	Yank Rachell Vol. 1 1934-1941
Ma Rainey w/ Tampa Red	Black Eye Blues	Mother of the Blues
Victoria Spivey w/ Tampa Red	Don't Trust Nobody Blues	Victoria Spivey Vol. 3 1929-1936
Bessie Mae Smith w/ Lonnie Johnson	My Daddy's Coffin Blues	St. Louis Bessie & Alice Moore Vol. 1 1927-1929
Victoria Spivey w/ Lonnie Johnson	Dope Head Blues	Blues Images Vol. 4
Georgia White w/ Lonnie Johnson	Alley Boogie	Georgia White Vol. 3 1937-1939
Mary Johnson w/ Roosevelt Sykes	Rattlesnake Blues	Mary Johnson 1929-1936
Charlie McFadden w/ Roosevelt Sykes	Gambler's Blues	Charlie ''Specks'' McFadden 1929-1937
Washboard Sam w/ Big Bill Broonzy	Life Is Just A Book	Washboard Sam Vol. 6 1941-1942
Washboard Sam w/ Big Bill Broonzy	My Feet Jumped Salty	Rockin' My Blues Away
Big Joe Williams w/ Sonny Boy Williamson I	Please Don't Go	Big Joe Williams Vol. 1 1935-1941
Speckled Red w/ Sonny Boy Williamson I	You Got To Fix It	Speckled Red 1929-1938
Big Bill Broonzy w/ Papa Charlie Jackson	At The Break of Day	All The Classic Sides 1928-1937
Lucille Bogan w/ Papa Charlie Jackson	Jim Tampa Blues	Lucille Bogan Vol. 1 1923-1929
Big Boy Teddy Edwards w/ Papa Charlie Jackson & Big Bill Broonzy	Louise	Big Boy Teddy Edwards 1930-1936
Washboard Sam w/ Big Bill Broonzy & Roosevelt Sykes	River Hip Mama	Rockin' My Blues Away

Show Notes:

Tampa Red

A few months back I did a show called “Sideman Blues” where we shined the light on some superb session musicians who backed blues artists in the pre-war era. On today’s sequel to that show we focus on some of the stars of the pre-war blues era who were also active session artists. Artists featured today include some of the era’s big names such as Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, Roosevelt Sykes, Kokomo Arnold, Sonny Boy Williamson I and others who were also very active backing others on record. Bluesmen such as Big Bill, Tampa Red, Lonnie Johnson and Roosevelt Sykes in particular, backed dozens of artists, both well known and obscure on record. Many of these artists also acted in the role as talent scouts for the labels.

During his heyday in the 1920’s and 30’s, Tampa Red was billed as “The Guitar Wizard,” and his stunning slide work on steel National or electric guitar shows why he earned the title. His 25 year recording career produced hundreds of sides: hokum, pop, and jive, but mostly blues (including classic compositions “Anna Lou Blues,” “Black Angel Blues,” “Crying Won’t Help You,” “It Hurts Me Too,” and “Love Her with a Feeling”). Jim O’Neal neatly summed up Tampa’s place in blues history when he wrote the following in 1975: “Few figures have been as important in blues history as Tampa Red; yet no bluesman of such stature has been so ignored by today’s blues audience. As a composer, recording artist, musical trendsetter and one of the premier urban blues guitarists of his day, Tampa Red remained popular with black record buyers for more than 20 years and exerted considerable influence on many post-World War II blues stars who earned greater acclaim for playing Tampa’s songs than Tampa himself often did.”

Tampa was a very busy session guitarist mainly in the early years of his career, circa 1928-1929. Among those he backed include Big Maceo, Lucille Bogan, Bertha “Chippie” Hill, Lil Johnson, Frankie Jaxon, Victoria Spivey, Romeo Nelson, Ma Rainey, Mary Johnson and many others. Tampa’s work behind underrated singer Mary Johnson has always been among my favorites. Johnson cut six sides at two sessions in 1930. The April 8, 1930 was outstanding do in large part to the shimmering slide guitar of Tampa and the excellent piano of the under recorded Judson Brown. The two work beautifully behind Johnson on the mournful “Three Months Ago Blues” with Tampa shinning on “Dawn Of Day Blues” and the magnificent “Death Cell Blues.”

Lonnie Johnson was a true musical innovator who’s remarkable recording career spanned from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. During that time his musical diversity was amazing: he played piano, guitar, violin, he recorded solo, he accompanied down home country blues singers like Texas Alexander, he played with Louis Armtrong’s Hot Fives, recorded with Duke Ellington, duetted with Victoria Spivey and cut a series of instrumental duets with the white jazzman Eddie Lang that set a standard of musicianship that remains unsurpassed by blues guitarists. In Johnson’s single-string style lie the basic precedents of such jazz greats as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, while being a prime influence on bluesman as diverse as Robert Johnson, Tampa Red and B.B. King. Thus Johnson enjoys the rare distinction of having influenced musicians in both the jazz and blues fields. Like Tampa, Johnson backed dozens of artists on record including Texas Alexander, Jimmie Gordon, Merline Johnson, Alice Moore, Victoria Spivey, Peetie Wheatstraw, Johnnie Temple and a host of others.

Big Bill Broonzy

As Bob Riesman wrote in his biography of Big Bill Broonzy: “…Bill’s recording career took off in this era, and his prodigious output was nearly unmatched among blues musicians. From 1934 until 1942, when the combination of a musicians’ union ban and the diversion of shellac to the war effort halted virtually all recording for two years, Bill averaged better than thirteen double-sided 78 rpm records each year as a featured artist. In addition, he played on an average of forty-eight sides each year as a sideman. In other words, for nearly a decade, he averaged one new Big Bill record a month, and he appeared on two more as a studio guitarist. …As ‘Big Bill,’ he was one of the most productive and popular artists in the business, with a name that was familiar to his audiences and reinforced by his easily recognized singing style. At the same time, he became the first-call studio guitarist for dozens of recording sessions that Lester Melrose organized for several record companies, particularly Bluebird. In that capacity, he was an integral part of the distinctive sound of numerous musicians, including some of the most popular artists of the era. Two artists whose careers were interwoven with Bill’s were Washboard Sam and Jazz Gillum. Bill played guitar on a most every one of the more than 150 recordings that Sam made over a period of twenty years, as well as on many of the sides that Gillum recorded.”

Broonzy’s 40’s work with Washboard Sam really hit a high point with Big Bill laying down some lengthy, swinging amplified guitar on featured tracks like “Life Is Just A Book”, “My Feet Jumped Salty” and “River Hip Mama.” Washboard Sam recorded hundreds of records between 1935 and 1949 for the bluebird label, usually with backing by guitarist Big Bill. In 1932, Sam moved to Chicago, initially he played for tips, but soon he began performing regularly with Broonzy. Within a few years, Sam was supporting Broonzy on the guitarist’s Bluebird recordings. Soon, he was supporting a number of different musicians on their recording sessions, including pianist Memphis Slim, bassist Ransom Knowling, and a handful of saxophone players, who all recorded for Bluebird. In 1935, Sam began recording for both Bluebird and Vocalion Records. Throughout the rest of the ’30s and the ’40s, Sam was one of the most popular Chicago bluesmen, selling plenty of records and playing to packed audiences in the Chicago clubs.

Broonzy was also prominent on the recordings of Lil Green who’s “Just Rockin'” we feature today. Her professional career was launched around 1940, when the manager of a Chicago club hired her on the spot after a group of her friends had arranged for a bandleader to call her up from the audience to sing.By May 1940 Green had come to the attention of Lester Melrose, who brought her into the studio to record on the Bluebird label. He assigned a trio of musicians to back her, including Big Bill, Simeon Henry on piano, and New Orleans veteran Ransom Knowling on bass. That session produced her first hit, “Romance in the Dark.” As Broonzy noted in his autobiography: “I played for Lil Green for two years as her guitar player. I wrote some songs for her, like “My Mellow Man” and “Country Boy,” “Give Your Mama One More Smile” and some more that I fixed up for her.

Roosevelt Sykes

In 1929 Roosevelt Sykes met Jesse Johnson, the owner of the Deluxe Record Shop in St. Louis. Sykes, who at the time performed at an East St. Louis club for one dollar a night, quickly accepted Johnson’s invitation to a recording session in New York. In the early 1930s, Sykes moved to Chicago. During the Depression years, he recorded for several labels under various pseudonyms. For the Victor label, he recorded as Willie Kelly on the classic 1930 side “32-20 Blues.” Two years later, he cut his popular number “Highway 61 Blues” for Champion, the subsidiary label of Gennett Records. During the 1930’s, Sykes served as a back-up pianist for more than thirty singers including Mary Johnson and James “St. Louis Jimmy” Oden. Through the recruiting efforts of Mayo “Ink” Williams, Sykes signed with Decca Records in 1934. His 1936 Decca side “Driving Wheel Blues” emerged as a blues classic. Sykes settled in Chicago in 1941 and, within a short time, became a house musician for the Victor/Bluebird label. Although the label marketed him as the successor to Fats Waller, who recorded on the same label and died in 1943, Sykes found success as the creator of his own style and remained active as a session man.

Sonny Boy Williamson was already a harp virtuoso in his teens. He learned from Hammie Nixon and Noah Lewis and ran with Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell before settling in Chicago in 1934. Sonny Boy signed to Bluebird in 1937. Henry Townsend recalled driving Sonny Boy, Robert Nighthawk, Walter Davis and Big Joe Williams to Aurora, Illinois, in his 1930 A Model Ford for their 1937 sessions: “I transferred them to Aurora, Illinois. There was about eight or nine of us …we stacked them in the car like sardines.” This led to a marathon recording session resulting in six songs by Nighthawk (as Robert Lee McCoy), six by Sonny Boy Williamson I, four by Big Joe Williams and eight sides by Walter Davis. It was Sonny Boy’s songs, especially, “Good Morning Little School Girl”, “Bluebird Blues” and “Sugar Mama Blues” which were the biggest hits. Sonny Boy recorded prolifically for Victor both as a leader and behind others in the vast Melrose stable (including Robert Lee McCoy and Big Joe Williams, who in turn played on some of Williamson’s sides). Sonny Boy cut more than 120 sides in all for RCA from 1937 to 1947

Kokomo Arnold was born in Georgia, and began his musical career in Buffalo, New York in the early 1920’s. During prohibition, Kokomo Arnold worked primarily as a bootlegger, and performing music was a only sideline to him. Nonetheless he worked out a distinctive style of bottleneck slide guitar and blues singing that set him apart from his contemporaries. In the late 1920’s, Arnold settled for a short time in Mississippi, making his first recordings in May 1930 for Victor in Memphis under the name of “Gitfiddle Jim.” Arnold moved to Chicago in order to be near to where the action was as a bootlegger, but the repeal of the Volstead Act put him out of business, so he turned instead to music as a full-time vocation. From his first Decca session of September 10, 1934 until he finally called it quits after his session of May 12, 1938, Kokomo Arnold made 88 sides.Arnold also did session work backing Peetie Wheatstraw, Roosvelt Sykes, Alice Moore, Mary Johnson and others.

Papa Charlie Jackson

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

Despite several busy years in the recording studio and a couple of medium-sized hits (“Somebody Changed The Lock On My Door” and “We Gonna Move (To The Outskirts of Town)”), very little is known about Casey Bill Weldon. It was assumed he was the Will Weldon who played with the Memphis Jug Band but that remains in dispute. Between 1927 and 1935 he cut just over 60 sides for Victor, Bluebird and Vocalion. He was also an active session guitarist, appearing on records by Teddy Darby, Bumble Bee Slim, Memphis Minnie, Peetie Wheatsraw and others.

Big Road Blues Show 5/5/13: Sure Makes A Man Feel Bad – Field Recordings From The 1960’s & 70’s

May 5, 2013March 21, 2016 Jeff Leave a comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
J.B. Smith & Group	Sure Makes A Man Feel Bad	I'm Troubled With A Diamond: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 1
Joseph 'Chinaman' Johnson & Group	Drop 'em Down	Old Rattler Can't Hold Me: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 2
Houston Paige & Group	Down The Line	Old Rattler Can't Hold Me: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 2
J.B. Smith	Poor Boy	Old Rattler Can't Hold Me: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 2
Johnny Jackson & Group	Yellow Gal	I'm Troubled With A Diamond: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 1
Johnny Johnson & Group	In The Bottom	Wake Up Dead Man
Benny Richardson & Group	Grizzly Bear	Wake Up Dead Man
Eugene Rhodes	If She's Your Woman	Talkin' About My Time
Eugene Rhodes	Whosoever Will, Let Him Come	Talkin' About My Time
Eugene Rhodes	Talkin' About My Time	Talkin' About My Time
Eugene Rhodes	Don't Talk Me to Death	Talkin' About My Time
J.B. Smith	I Got Too Much Time For the Crime I Done	Ever Since I Have Been a Man Full Grown
Babe Stovall	The Ship Is At The Landing	Sorrow Come Pass Me Around
Robert “Nighthawk” Johnson	Can't No Grave	Sorrow Come Pass Me Around
Willard Artis “Blind Pete” Burrell	Do Lord Remember Me	Sorrow Come Pass Me Around
Chester Davis/Compton Jones/Furry Lewis	Glory Glory Hallelujah	Sorrow Come Pass Me Around
Willie Menifee & Mance Lipscomb	If I Get Lucky Mama	Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar
T.J. Jackson	Out And Down	Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar
Mance Lipscomb Papa Lightfoot	Angel Child	Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar
Nathaniel “Bill” Barnes	Jack Of Diamonds Is A Hard Card To Play	Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar
Babe Stovall	Worried Blues	Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar
Grey Ghost	Lonesome Traveler	Grey Ghost
Grey Ghost	A Good Gal Is Hard To Find	Grey Ghost
Grey Ghost	Hold That Train, Conductor	Grey Ghost

Show Notes:

J.B. Smith: Ever Since I Have Been a Man Full Grown

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

On today’s show we spotlight some remarkable field recordings from the 1960’s and 70’s. During the first hour we play recordings made in Texas prisons in the 60’s by scholar Bruce Jackson. Jackson is a professor in the University of Buffalo’s Department of English and has written or edited more than 30 books in the fields of folklore, ethnography, sociology and photography. Several collections of his field recordings have been issued although the bulk are long out-of-print. In the second hour we feature selections from the albums Sorrow Come Pass Me Around, Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar and a collection of recordings made by pianist the Grey Ghost. Sorrow Come Pass Me Around is a collection of spiritual and gospel songs recorded between 1965-1973 by David Evans performed by active or former blues artists. Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar is a collection of Texas field recordings capture by Tary Owens. Owens also recorded the Grey Ghost in 1965, eventually issuing these recordings in the 1980’s.

Bruce Jackson wrote: “I started recording in Texas prisons in July 1964. I think Texas had about 12,000 prisoners in 14 prisons back then …My primary interest in Texas was the black convict worksongs, which seemed to me to be part of an unbroken musical tradition going back to West Africa….Black convicts in Texas mostly called them ‘river songs,’ not ‘worksongs.’ That’s because all of the plantation prisons in Texas used to be located on the Brazos River or the Trinity River. Since I was interested in worksongs and since that tradition was already on the wane, I concentrated on prisons for long-term convicts and multiple recidivists, prisons populated by men who had been in for a long time or who had been in several times previously. I started out on the Ramsey farm, southwest of Houston, and visited Retrieve and Sugarland which aren’t far from the Ramsey. I also worked on Eastham, the Walls (the only prison in Texas with a wall around it), Wynne (at that time, a prison for physically infirm and geriatric inmates) and Ellis, all of them in or near Huntsville, which is 70 miles north of Houston. …The large plantations in the U.S. South were based on West African agricultural models and, with one major difference, the black slaves used worksongs in the plantations exactly as they had used them before they had been taken prisoner and sold to the white men. The difference was this: in Africa the songs were used to time body movements and to give poetic voice to things of interest because people wanted to do their work that way; in the plantations there was added a component of survival. If a man were singled out as working too slowly, he would often be brutally punished. The songs kept everyone together, so no one could be singled out as working more slowly than everyone else.”

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

J.B. Smith was recorded by Jackson in 1965 at Texas’s Ramsey Prison Farm. From the liner notes: “Smitty – J.B. Smith – is eleven years into a forty-five year sentence that begun in 1954; he is 48 years old. This is his fourth time in prison in Texas and he does not expect to be paroled for some time.” Jackson wrote in his book Wake Up Dead Man that, when he met him, Smith had already been in prison three times on burglary and robbery by assault charges. At the time of the recording, he was back in for the murder of his girlfriend, an act Smith recalled being born of “insane jealousy mixed up with love “So many of us do that,” he told Jackson, referring to his crime. “Lot of fellas in here today on those same terms.” The murder, according to Jackson, brought Smith back to Ramsey with “a forty-five-year sentence, which, because of his age, looked pretty much like life.” Jackson did continue, parenthetically: “He was paroled in 1967, lived in Amarillo for a while and did some preaching. I heard recently (1972) that he’d returned to prison for a parole violation.”

J.B. Smith noted that “the oldtimers still sing. That is, if whoever is carrying (in charge of) the squad will let them. In some cases the boss won’t let them sing. …The young men don’t get a chance to work with the older men and they haven’t experienced working with older men. A lot of them have never been in the system before. And the crews they work with don’t even know the songs, the worksongs that they work by. But once they get to working with the older men, they learn the songs and they try to carry them on when they can. But like I said, in most cases they can’t because they’re not permitted.”

Jackson recorded an entire album devoted to smith titled Ever Since I Have Been a Man Full Grown issued on Takoma in 1965. As far as I know this is the only LP devoted to a single unaccompanied singer of prison worksong. As Jackson wrote: “He had been a member of groups doing work songs I had recorded at Ramsey during the summers of 1964 and 1965, when I returned in November 1965 he offered to tap some of the songs when he was working alone picking cotton or cutting sugarcane. He knows all the group songs and their melodies – he used to sing lead back in the days when he was younger and worked lead hoe…” Other songs by Smith appear on the anthologies I’m Troubled With A Diamond: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 1 and Old Rattler Can’t Hold Me: Texas Prison Songs Vol. 2. In addition to Smith, we spotlight several tracks from the latter collections; both of these were cassette only releases issued in 1990 with only 250 copies of each produced. We also spin two tracks from Wake Up Dead Man the companion to the book – “making it in Hell”, says Bruce Jackson, is the spirit behind the sixty-five work songs gathered in this remarkable book.

Today we feature selections from all those albums that were issued of Bruce Jackson’s recording except for one omission. I left off Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons (Elektra, 1965) which I did not locate until the show was already assembled. I will feature this on another field recording show at some point.

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

Jackson also recorded Eugene Rhodes who was doing a ten- to 25-year stretch at the Indiana State Prison, which was where the album Talkin’ About My Time was recorded, 15 songs and a little talking that was eventually released on the Folk-Legacy label in 1963. In the ’20s and ’30s, Rhodes had traveled through the south as a one-man band, including a harmonica rack with a special mount on the side for a horn, a foot pedal powered drum, and of course, a guitar. He reportedly played in the Dallas area, where he claims to have met Blind Lemon Jefferson. He also crossed paths with Blind Boy Fuller in the Carolinas and Buddy Moss in Georgia.

At some point by the end of the year I plan to devote a show to the field recordings of David Evans. Today we spotlight Sorrow Come Pass Me Around a beautiful collection of spiritual and gospel songs performed in informal non-church settings between 1965-1973. Most are guitar-accompanied and performed by active or former blues artists. The songs were recorded between 1965 and 1973 . Evans writes: “Most records of black religious music contain some form of gospel singing or congregational singing recorded at a church service. This album, though, tries to present a broader range of performance styles and contexts with the hope of showing the important role that religious music plays in the Southern black communities and in the daily lives of individuals.” The album was originally issued on Advent in 1975 and has just been reissued on vinyl on the Dust-To-Digital label.

Our show concludes with recordings made by Tary Owens. Shortly after the death of folklorist Tary Owens on September 21, 2003, Brad Buchholz, wrote that, “Tary Owens devoted most of his life to music, though only rarely to his own. The greater mission, to Owens, was to champion the music of forgotten or unsung Texas bluesmen—to put their songs on records, to place them on a stage, to encourage a larger public to celebrate their artistry.” Funded by a Lomax Foundation grant in the 1960’s, Owens traveled around Texas recording a variety of folk musicians, including guitarists Mance Lipscomb, Freddie King, and Bill Neely, as well as barrelhouse piano players Robert Shaw and Roosevelt T. Williams, also known as the “Grey Ghost.” Owens remained involved in the lives of these musicians for the next several decades and, in some cases, was largely responsible for helping rescue them from obscurity and resurrect their professional careers.

Owens wrote: “In 1962 and 1963 while a graduate student at Indiana University, I did some folklore and sociology research in prisons in Missouri and Indiana. I decided it might be interesting a southern prison system to see what had happened to the various traditions documented by John A. and Alan Lomax and Herbert Halpert in the 1930’s.” In the sixties Jackson received a four-year fellowship to Harvard Society of Fellows that gave him “the resources to work anywhere I wanted; that’s when I started working in Texas, mostly recording music and then looking at the prison cultural scene.”

Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

From an article in National Geographic magazine: “He says he got the name Grey Ghost back when he was hired to play in various small towns. Someone would meet every arriving train or bus, but Williams was never aboard–yet mysteriously he would show up in time to perform. ‘They said like a ghost I come up out of the ground, and then I was gone,” he grinned. “I had come and gone by freight train. I would put overalls over my suit and tie, and that’s the way I traveled.'” Williams was born in Bastrop, Texas and received only basic musical training when he was a teenager. He traveled to the area dances and roadhouses by riding empty boxcars. In 1940, author William A. Owens made a live recording of Williams singing “Hitler Blues,” a song written by Williams. The song received mention in Time and was broadcast by BBC Radio on a program hosted by Alistair Cooke in 1940 about the American musical response to World War II. There’s an entire chapter devoted to Grey Ghost in Owens’s third volume of autobiography Tell Me A Story, Sing Me A Song; A Texas Chronicle. In 1965 Owens recorded several Grey Ghost songs. After decades of relative obscurity, Owens tracked down Grey Ghost again in the mid-1980s. Williams was long retired, but Owens not only issued the 1965 recordings on his Catfish Records label in 1987, but also convinced Williams, now 84, to start playing again and introduced him to a new generation of blues fans. Owens arranged for Williams to make a CD of new recordings at the age of 89. which was released in 1992 on Owens’ Spindletop label. The City of Austin proclaimed December 7, 1987, as Grey Ghost Day, and he was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 1988. Williams performed regularly until the time of his death in Austin at the age of 92 in 1996.

Related Material:

–Tary Owens, Texas Folklorist and Musician A Life Remembered by Ruth K. Sullivan (Austin-American Statesman, March, 2000) [PDF]

Big Road Blues Show 4/28/13: Come On Baby, Take A Little Swing With Me – Down South Blues

April 28, 2013December 21, 2022 Jeff Leave a comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Drifting Slim	Down South Blues	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 1
Drifting Slim	My Little Machine	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 1
Baby Face Turner	Blues Serenade	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Junior Brooks	She's The Little Girl For Me	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 1
Sunny Blair	Step Back Baby	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Papa Lightfoot	After Awhile	Down Home Blue Classics 1943-1953
Papa Lightfoot	Mean Ol' Train	Blues Harmonica Wizards
Joe Hill Louis	She Treats Me Mean and Evil	The Be-Bop Boy with Walter Horton and Mose Vinson
Joe Hill Louis	She Comes to See Me Sometime	The Be-Bop Boy with Walter Horton and Mose Vinson
Joe Hill Louis	Boogie In The Park	Boogie In The Park
Boyd Gilmore	Believe I'll Settle Down	Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950-1958
Boyd Gilmore	Ramblin' On My Mind	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 1
Boyd Gilmore	All In My Dreams	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Drifting Slim	Good Morning Baby	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Drifting Slim	My Sweet Woman	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Joe Hill Louis	Tiger Man	The Be-Bop Boy with Walter Horton and Mose Vinson
Joe Hill Louis	We All Got To Go Sometime	The Be-Bop Boy with Walter Horton and Mose Vinson
Joe Hill Louis	Keep Away From My Baby	Boogie In The Park
Papa Lightfoot	Blue Lights	Blues Harmonica Wizards
Papa Lightfoot	When The Saints Go Marching	Blues Harmonica Wizards
Baby Face Turner	Gonna Let You Go	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Sunny Blair	Five Foot Three Blues	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 1
Baby Face Turner	Best Days	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 2
Junior Brooks	Lone Town Blues	The Modern Downhown Blues Sessions Vol. 1
Drifting Slim	15 Years My Love Was In Vain	Somebody Done Voodoo The Hoodoo Man
Drifting Slim	Somebody Done Voodoo The Hoodoo Man	Somebody Done Voodoo The Hoodoo Man
Joe Hill Louis	She's Takin All My Money	Jook Joint Blues
Joe Hill Louis	Eyesight To The Blind	Boogie In The Park
Joe Hill Louis	Hydromatic Woman	Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950-1958
Papa Lightfoot	Jump The Boogie	Blues Harmonica Wizards
Papa Lightfoot	Wine, Women, Whiskey	Juicy Harmonica Vol. 3
Papa Lightfoot	My Woman Is Tired of Me Lyin'	Goin' Back to the Natchez Trace

Show Notes:

Come on baby take a little swing with me (2x)
We gonna jump awhile, ’cause things ain’t what they used to be
(Papa Lightfoot, Jump The Boogie)

Read Liner Notes

Today’s show spotlights a batch of rough and tumble blues artists who cut some great down-home blues records in the South during the 50’s and 60’s. At the heart of today’s show are some remarkable sides cut for the Modern label in the years 1951-52 when Ike Turner was employed by the Bihari brothers, owners of the Modern label, to record new talent for the label. At a session held in Greenville, Mississippi in January of ’52 he recorded the tough juke joint blues of Boyd Gilmore, and in the spring of ’52 Turner and Jules Bihari hit Little Rock, Arkansas where they recorded a bunch of musicians that revolved Drifting Slim and guitarist Baby Face Turner. They also recorded harmonica blower Sunny Blair and guitarist Junior Brooks who were part of the same circle. Also featured today is Joe Hill Louis, the great one man band who cut some terrific sides for labels like Sun, Modern and Checker and harmonica ace George Papa Lightfoot who waxed some wild sides for a slew of different labels through the 50’s.

Drifting Slim was born Elmon Mickle on February 24, 1919 in Keo, Arkansas. He first became interested in singing the blues in his late teens when he saw a performance in town by John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson, together with Yank Rachell. He was so impressed by Sonny Boy’s renditions of ‘Sugar Mama” and ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” that he would never be satisfied until he could sing and play these numbers just like Sonny Boy. He spoke to Sonny Boy after the show, who promised to spend the night with him and teach him to play. During them mid-forties, Elmon and Sonny Boy became firm friends and played frequently together at local clubs and dances. In 1952, Elmon formed his now legendary band consisting of himself on harmonica, Baby Face Turner and Crippled Red on guitars and Bill Russel on drums. Crippled Red is better known by the name he used on record – Junior Brooks. Sunny Blair joined the band very shortly afterwords, having been taught by Elmon to play the harmonica. Almost immediately after the first recording session, Junior Brooks died of a heart attack, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and so Elmon started to practice on the guitar in order to fill in. Sometime later he also learned to play the drums and became a one-man band. In 1957, he decided to leave Arkansas and so he and his wife packed their things and set off for Los Angeles. His first recordings in Los Angeles were for J.R. Fullbright’s Elko label, other sides were cut for his own label E.M., also some titles on the J. Gems label and he also was recorded by Jerry Hooks, an independent black record producer in Los Angeles circa 1966/67 (collected on the Flyright album Somebody Done Voodoo The Hoodoo Man). In the late 60’s Milestone issued his only full length album, Somebody Hoo-Doo’d The Hoo-Doo Man, recorded by Pete Welding in 1966 and 1967. Mickle died in 1977.

Guitarists Baby Face Turner and Junior Brooks with Sunnv Blair ( real name Sullivan Jackson) on harmonica were from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Bill Russel completed the band on drums . The first session saw two sides each by Blair, Brooks and Mickle issued on Modern and RPM, with Baby Face Turner playing lead guitar on them all . Mickle played harmonica on one side of the Brooks and saw his own sides issued as by Drifting Smith; both being Sonny Boy Williamson I songs. A second session on April 6 saw further sides by Blair, Turner and Mickle issued with Ike Turner on piano. This time Mickie’s pseudonym, on RPM, was Drifting Slim. Unissued sides recorded under Blair’s and Turner’s names were first made available on a Kent LP and eventually issued on CD.

Boyd Gilmore was supposedly a cousin of Elmore James and may have had some connection to Robert Johnson and Robert Lockwood. Gilmore recorded seven sides for Modern in 1952 plus some alternate takes backed by Ike Turner on piano on on some sides. In 1953 he cut another version of “Believe I’ll Settle Down” for Sun backed by Earl Hooker, Pinetop Perkins and Willie Nix that was a superior to the Modern version. Gilmore passed in 1976. Baby Face Turner’s legacy rests on just three sides (one other record, an acetate of the song “44 Blues”, was cut but never found) and he playing guitar on records by Sonny Blair, Junior Brooks and Drifting Slim. Musician CeDell Davis recalled Turner: “He was such a good guitar player …He was one of the old-timers, played nothin’ but the old-time Delta cotton patch stuff.” Turner was reportedly murdered in Mississippi sometime in the early to mid-60’s. Blair cut just four sides at sessions in 1952 and 1952 as well as backing Drifting Slim on record. He went on to play with the King Biscuit Boys in Helena, Arkansas. Blair died in 1966.

Born Alexander Lightfoot in Natchez, Mississippi,he taught himself harmonica as a child. Lightfoot earned a living early on shining shoes on the river docks but soon graduated to the more lucrative work of playing music for tips. His first opportunity to record came in 1949 in Houston for the Peacock label, but the two resulting sides were not issued. The following year he recorded as “Papa George” in Natchez for the tiny Sultan label, and in 1952 he recorded for the Aladdin imprint in New Orleans. Lightfoot then worked with Champion Jack Dupree and toured and recorded with him through 1953. Lightfoot returned to New Orleans to record for Imperial in 1954. After an unissued date for Jiffy as “Little Papa Walter,” he traveled to Atlanta for a 1955 session for Savoy. It is theorized that two songs cut by “Ole Sonny Boy” for Excello in 1956 were actually by Papa Lightfoot, although no existing label documentation verifies it. By the late 50’s he had left music. Steve LaVere tracked down the Lightfoot in Natchez, cutting the album Goin’ Back to the Nachez Trace for Vault in 1969. Lightfoot appeared at the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival and was on the verge of an anticipated comeback when he died the following year of cardiac arrest at age forty-seven.

Joe Hill Louis was born Lester (or possibly Leslie) Hill on September 23, 1921 in Raines, Tennessee. He ran away from home at age 14, living instead with a well-heeled Memphis family. A fight with another youth that was won by young Hill earned him the “Joe Louis” nickname. He picked up Harp first and by the late ’40s, his one-man musical attack was a popular attraction in Handy Park and on WDIA, the Memphis radio station where he hosted a 15-minute program billed as The Pepticon Boy. Louis’ recording debut was made for Columbia in 1949, and his music was released on a variety of independent labels through the 1950s, most notably recording for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records,for whom he recorded extensively as a backing musician for a wide variety of other singers as well as under his own name. “Boogie in the Park” (recorded July 1950 and released August 1950) was the only record ever released on Sam Phillips’ early Phillips label before founding Sun Records. Louis cut sides for Checker Records, Meteor and Ace with his final records cut for House Of Sound shortly before his death from tetanus in Memphis in August 1957.

Related Material:

–Drifting Slim Discovered by Frank Scott (Blues Unlimited 40, January 1967 p. 5-7) [PDF]

–Alexander Papa George Lightfoot! by Steve C La Vere (Blues Unlimited 68, January 1969 p.12) [PDF]

Big Road Blues Show 4/21/13: Mix Show

April 21, 2013April 8, 2016 Jeff Leave a comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Jimmy Dawkins	You Got To Keep On Trying	Fast Fingers
Jimmy Dawkins	Welfare Blues	All For Business
Annie Summerford	'Fo Day Blues	Eddie Heywood & The Blues Singers 1923-1926
Catherine Henderson (Edmonia Henderson)	Four-Thirty Blues	Eddie Heywood & The Blues Singers 1923-1926
Evelyn Thompson	I Got A Papa Down In New Orleans, Another Papa Up In Maine	78
James Shelby	I Love You Girl	45
Ben Harper	Which-A-Way	45
Blue Smitty	Elgin Movements	Genesis: Beginnings Of Rock Vol. 3 - Sweet Home Chicago
Sonny Boy Williamson & Memphis Slim	Nine Below Zero	In Paris
Howlin' Wolf	Speak Now Woman	The Back Door Wolf
Clifford Gibson	Drayman Blues	Clifford Gibson 1929-1931
Sylvester Weaver	Southern Man Blues	Sylvester Weaver Vol. 2 1927
Lewis Black	Spanish Blues	The Great Race Record Labels Vol. 2: Columbia
Robert Lowery	She Always Treats Me Mean	45
Charles Conley	Greyhound Blues	45
Muddy Waters	Cold Up North	One More Mile
Scott Dunbar	It's So Cold Up North	Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices Of The Mississippi Blues
Rabbit Muse	Haunted House Blues	Muse Blues
Rabbit Muse	Jailhouse Blues	Muse Blues
Levi Seabury	Motherless Child	Packin' Up My Blues: Blues Of The Deep South 1950-1961
Woodrow Adams & the Three B's	Train Time	Sun Records The Blues Years 1950-1958
"Doc'' Dasher	West Palm Beach Blues	Eddie Heywood & The Blues Singers 1923-1926
Ki Ki Johnson	Look What A Hole I'm In	Hokum Blues 1924-1929
Feathers & Frogs	How You Get That Way	Hokum Blues 1924-1929
Big Boy Henry	Mr. Ball's Warehouse	Mr. Ball's Warehouse EP
Algia Mae Hinton	Goin' Down This Road	EP Audio Arts
Bukka White	Poor Boy	Living Legends
Eugene Powell	Police In Mississippi	Police In Mississippi
Eugene Powell	Blues In G	Police In Mississippi
Johnny “Big Moose Walker	Chicago Here I Come	Going Home Tomorrow
Willie James Lyons	Chicago Woman	Chicago Woman

Show Notes:

Jimmy Dawkins

A wide ranging mix show on tap for today. We open up with the sad news of the passing of Jimmy Dawkins. As the years roll on and more and more blues artists pass I realize I’m grateful I am that I go to see many of them. I only saw Dawkins once but it certainly was a memorable show in Cleveland probably a decade or so ago. Also on deck today are some long forgotten blues ladies from the 20’s, several equally little remembered bluesmen and groups from the same era, twin spins of Rabbit Muse and Eugene Powell, a batch of excellent 45’s, some vintage Chicago blues and some excellent down-home blues.

Jimmy Dawkins passed away from undisclosed causes on April 10, 2013. Dawkins moved up to Chicago from Mississippi at the age of 19 in 1955. He became a part of the so called West Side blues scene in Chicago, playing with and befriending Magic Sam, Luther Allison, Otis Rush and Billy Boy Arnold, among many others. In 1969, thanks to the efforts of his friend Magic Sam, he released his first album Fast Fingers on Delmark Records. In 1971 Delmark released his second album All For Business with singer, Andrew “Big Voice” Odom, and the guitarist, Otis Rush. Dawkins began to tour in Europe and Japan and recorded more albums in the United States and Europe. Dawkins also contributed a column to the blues magazine Living Blues. In the 1980s he released few recordings, but began his own record label, Leric Records, and was more interested in promoting other artists.

Read Liner Notes

Regular listeners to the show know that I always like to spotlight some of the forgotten blues ladies of the 20’s. Everyone knows the stars like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey but there were hundreds of lesser known ladies who cut perhaps dozens of records or maybe maybe just a handful. Some are forgotten for good reason while others were fine singers who just never made it. Annie Summerford, for instance, was a rich, expressive singer who cut one fine 78 in 1924, “‘Fo Day Blues b/w Low Down Blues” backed by Eddie Heywood’s Black Bottom Ramblers. Then there was Edmonia Henderson who cut 14 sides between 1923 and 1926 for Paramount, Okeh and Vocalion. Our selection, “Four-Thirty Blues” was cut under the pseudonym Catherine Henderson with backing from just Eddie Heywood on piano. Finally there’s Evelyn Thompson’s “I Got A Papa Down In New Orleans, Another Papa Up In Maine” from 1927. Thompson also recorded as Evelyn Preer and recorded as a vocalist for the Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson bands.

Born in 1908 in Franklin County, VA, Lewis “Rabbit” Muse performed for white and black audiences from the 1920’s until the ’80s. A consummate entertainer, he played, sang and danced at medicine shows and folk festivals. He recorded a pair of hard to find albums, Muse Blues and Sixty Minute Man, for Rocky Mount’s Outlet Records label in the 1970’s. He passed in 1982. I’ve been searching for these records for some time and finally tracked down a copy of Muse Blues – still looking for the other one if any knows where I can get a copy! This is an absolutely charming record featuring blues and pop numbers played with equal verve.

We also spin two by Eugene Powell. Powell was born in Utica, Mississippi, December 23, 1908. He started playing the guitar at age eight. His mother ran a juke house so he grew up around music. He took the name “Sonny Boy Nelson” after his step father. His early experiences around Hollandale were with Robert Nighthawk, Robert Hill, and the great blues instrumentalist Richard “Hacksaw” Harney. In 1936 Eugene and wife “Mississippi Matilda” along with Willie “Brother” Harris traveled with the Chatmon Brothers to New Orleans to record for the Bluebird label. Powell moved to Greenville in the 1940s and played with several bands until the early 1950s. He remained largely musically inactive until 1972 when he performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Powell made few recordings during the following twenty years, with only the Italian LP, Police in Mississippi Blues, on Albatros being his only full-length album. I’ve been featuring a few albums on Albatros lately and may do a show devoted to the label. There’s just a few more on the label I need to track down.

Another future show will be devoted exclusively to 45’s that haven’t been issued on album or CD. I’ve never been a huge collector of 45’s although I do have quite a few and my friend Axel Künster recently dubbed me some rare ones. Today we play a couple of 45 sets including one featuring James Shelby and Ben Harper. James “Son” Shelby was born in Jasper, TX. in 1927. Blind at birth, he learned how to play harmonica from his father who was a local musician. Shelby worked local dances and other functions in his youth, and later learned how to play guitar from a man by the name of Charlie Hafford. Shelby moved to Beaumont sometime in the 1940’s and worked as a street musician for tips through the early 1970’s. He also played at the South Texas State Fair from 1970 to 1972. His last documented performance was at the University of Texas in Austin in 1972. Today I spin a 45 he cut in 1972 for the Swoon label. I was unable to track down anything concrete on Harper outside of the fact he cut nine sides in Los Angeles between 1960 and 1962 for the Talent, Cenco and Sylark labels. “Which-A-Way” finds Harper backed by a rocking band sporting some great sax and background harmony. The song is a really interesting update of the standard “Red River Blues.”

45’s by Robert Lowery and Charles Conley were issued on the Blues Connoisseur label. The label was run by Donald Lindenau between 1972 and 1975. The label issued fifteen singles by artists such as Richard Riggins, Boogie Jake, Charles Conley, K. C. Douglas, Little Willie Littlefield, Robert Lowery, Sonny Rhodes, and Schoolboy. The majority of these sides have not been issued on album or CD and would make a terrific anthology if someone ever collected them together.

Some strong Chicago blues today including tracks by Blue Smitty, Sonny Boy Williamson with Memphis Slim, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Johnny “Big Moose Walker and Willie James Lyons. Claude “Blue Smitty” Smith allegedly taught Muddy Waters, already an accomplished slide guitar player in the 1940’s, how to finger the fretboard of his instrument. Smitty cut just a few sides for Chess (under the name Blue Smitty & His String Men) in 1952 which were unissued at the time.

Read Liner Notes

In 1963 Sonny Boy was headed to Europe for the first time, as part of the American Folk Blues Festival. He loved Europe and stayed behind in Britain when the tour headed home. He started working the teenage beat club circuit, touring and recording with the Yardbirds and Eric Burdon’s band, whom he always referred to as “de Mammimals.” Sonny Boy was truly appreciative of all the attention, and contemplated moving to Europe permanently but went back to the States and made some final recordings for Chess. He returned to England in 1964 and one of his final recordings, with Jimmy Page on guitar, was entitled “I’m Trying to Make London My Home.” Today we spin his classic “Nine Below Zero” backed by Memphis Slim from 1963 which comes from an album called Live In Paris.

The Black & Blue label was a French record company established by Jean-Marie .Monestier in 1966. Isabel was a subsidiary label that operated between 1977–1984 wholly devoted to blues, including albums by Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Magic Slim, and Lucky Peterson. From that label we play Johnny “Big Moose Walker’s Going Home Tomorrow and Willie James Lyons’ Chicago Woman both cut for the label in 1979. Both play on each others album backed also by Big Mojo Elem on bass and Odie Payne on drums.

We feature some excellent down-home blues today including tracks from the 50’s by Woodrow Adams and Levi Seabury and sides from the 80’sby Algia Mae Hinton and Big Boy Henry. Adams learned both harmonica and guitar during childhood, but was 35 years old before he made his first record. He cut his debut single for Checker in 1952, cut some unissued sides for Sun the same year, followed by a single for Meteor in 1955, a single for Home of the Blues in 1961 and some final sides in 1967 that remain unissued. He passed in 1988. Very little is known about James Levi Sebury. He was probably an Alabama blues singer and harmonica player. He came to Memphis in 1956 to record for B.B. King’s short-lived Blues Boys Kingdom label. B.B. didn’t keep the label in business very long due to his own recording and touring schedule, and Seabury was one of the very few artists that recorded for it. B.B. produced Seabury’s session and plays guitar on his recordings. Seabury never had a chance to record again. It is documented that he died in Dixon Mills, AL. on January 12, 1957.

Both the Big Boy Henry and Algia Mae Hinton EP’s featured today were produced by Lightnin’ Wells for the Audio Arts label. Wells has produced several recordings by Piedmont artists and currently serves on the board of Music Maker Relief Foundation.