Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today show is call Jazzin' The Blues and as the title suggests, we explore the jazzy side of early blues recordings and the bluesy side of jazz. Not surprisingly we play a number of women blues singers of the 1920's who were often backed by jazz bands. When Mamie Smith cut “Crazy Blues”, the first recorded blues by a black singer, her band was called the Jazz Hounds. Following in that tradition, singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Victoria Spivey were often paired with top flight jazz musicians such as King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Johnny Dodds, Coleman Hawkins and others. As the era of the classic woman blues singers faded the men gained the spotlight, first playing and singing solo, then evolving to bigger bands that often included horns and elements of jazz and swing. Many of the jazz outfits of this period incorporated plenty of blues and today we hear the bluesier side of artists such as Louis Armstrong, Hot Lips Page, Freddie Keppard and others.

Throughout today's backing band are quite a few jazz luminaries who backed the classic blues ladies of the 1920's. We spin several sides today featuring King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. King Oliver made his landmark recordings in 1923 with his Creole Jazz Band featuring his protege Louis Armstrong,  clarinetist Johnny Dodds, trombonist Honore Dutrey, pianist Lil Harden, and drummer Baby Dodds. Oliver continued to make recordings through 1931 although he seemed to fade from the spotlight not long after his initial recordings. From May to December, 1928, Oliver did some 22 sessions with his old friend, Clarence Williams, who had played with him around Louisiana and who had manged clubs like the Big 25 and Pete Lala's. Williams had become a music publisher, entrepreneur and early A&R man around New York. Seeing Oliver down on his luck, Williams used him as a backup player for several blues singers. Prior to 1928 Oliver had accompanied artists such as Butterbeans & Susie in 1924 ("Kiss Me Sweet b/w Construction Gang"), Sippie Wallace in 1925 ("Morning Dove Blues b/w "Every Dog Has His Day" and "Devil Dance Blues"), Teddy Peters ("Georgia Man"), Irene Scruggs ("Home Town Blues b/w Sorrow Valley blues"), Georgia Taylor in 1926 ("Jackass Blues") plus several others.

Among the notable recordings of 1928 included six sides backing Sara Martin including the superb "Death Sting Me Blues" which features a suitably mournful solo from Oliver plus equally fine playing on "Mean Tight Mama" and "Mistreating Man Blues."  His two numbers with Texas Alexander, "Tell Me Woman Blues b/w Frisco Train Blues," work surprising well with Oliver playing some beautiful, sympathetic fills on both numbers offset by the elegant guitar work of Eddie Lang. Lang and Oliver also back Victoria Spivey on "My Handy Man b/w Organ Grinder Blues" although Oliver is less prominent. Among the best recordings from this period are his backing of the terrific Elizabeth Johnson, an obscure singer who waxed only four sides at two session in 1928. "Empty Bed Blues Part 1 & 2" has Johnson's expressive vocals finding a marvelous counterpoint in Oliver's earthy responses.

In the early 1990's the Affinity label issued the comprehensive Louis Armstrong And The Blues Singers 1924-1930, a six CD set that I believe covers all the sessions Armstrong did backing blues singers. During 1924-26 (and to a lesser extent 1927-30) Armstrong made many recordings other than his own sessions, arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams Those he backed include some of the era's best woman blues singers like a Ma Rainey, Sippie Wallace, Bertha "Chippie" Hill, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith and Victoria Spivey. We also spin the marvelous  "I'm Not Rough" as recorded by Louis Armstrong & The Hot Fives featuring Lonnie Johnson.  This is the final recording session with the "classic" Hot Five lineup (plus Lonnie Johnson). Hereafter, the "Hot Five" would be whoever Armstrong happened to be recording with.

Other classic jazz artists who appear more than once on today's program are Freddie Keppard and Johnny Dodds. After playing with the Olympia Orchestra Keppard joined Frankie Dusen's Eagle Band, taking the place recently vacated by Buddy Bolden. Soon after Bolden was off the music scene Keppard was proclaimed "King Keppard" as the city's top horn player. About 1914 Joe "King" Oliver won a musical "cutting contest" and claimed Keppard's crown. Keppard made recordings in Chicago between 1924 and 1927 including two versions of "Salty Dog", which we feature today,  from 1926 featuring Papa charlie Jackson. Jackson first cut the song in 1924 which made him a recording star. We also hear him back Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon on the rollicking "Down At Jasper's Bar-B-Que." Jaxon was a vaudeville singer, comedian and female impersonator. He traveled extensively throughout the United States between 1916 and 1921 and in the early 1920's he often appeared on the bill with King Oliver and Freddie Keppard in Chicago. Throughout the rest of the 1920's and 1930's he continued to tour the vaudeville circuit, and record. On record he was backed by jazz musicians such as Keppard, Punch Miller, Henry “Red” Allen and others.

Johnny Dodds was one of the greatest clarinetist of the 1920's who had a very soulful, bluesy style of playing.He worked with most of the major Hot Jazz bands of the era including the bands of Kid Ory, King Oliver amd Louis Armstrong. Dodd's appears on several of today's recordings including those with Keppard, Armstrong, as a member of Jasper Taylor's Original Washboard Band, backing Sippie Wallace on the 1929 version of her classic "I'm A Might Tight Women" and backing guitarist Blind Blake.  We hear Dodds backing singer Julia Davis who cut one 78 for Paramount in 1924 and one final terrific record in 1928, "Jasper Taylor Blues b/w Geechie River Blues", backed by the Original Washboard Band featured washboard player Jasper Taylor.

During the spring of 1928 Blind Blake cut some of his most ambitious records. Jimmy Bertrand manned xylophone for "Doggin' Me Mama Blues" and played slide whistle on our featured track,  "C.C. Pill Blues" while the great Johnny Dodds soloed on clarinet. Dodds and Bertrand provided more accompaniment on Blake's "Hot Potatoes" and "South Bound Rag." Bertrand, Dodds, and Blake were also teamed on "Elzadie's Policy Blue b/w Pay Day Daddy Blues" with singer Elzadie Robinson.

We spin several jazz artists and groups who often worked on the bluesy side of the street including Papa Celestin, Hot Lips Page and the Washboard Rhythm Kings. Papa Celestin was one of the most popular of New Orleans cornet players, and considered a major player in the development of jazz. Most of the great New Orleans players up to 1950 played for him one time or another. In 1910 Celestin started the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra which would become one of the most enduring bands and featured Louis Armstrong among others. elestin began recording with his own groups for Okeh from 1925 until the Depression forced him to give up the group. With singer Sam Morgan we hear him on "Short Dress Gal."

In his early years, Hot Lips Page played in circuses and minstrel shows and backing such blues singers as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox. Page's main trumpet influence was Louis Armstrong. He joined the Blue Devils circa 1927, staying until1931, when he joined the Bennie Moten Orchestra, the leading dance band out of Kansas City.Though not a regular member of the band, Page appeared as a vocalist, emcee and hot trumpet soloist with Count Basie's Reno Club orchestra after the Moten band finally disbanded upon that leader's sudden death in April, 1935. Page embarked upon a solo career during this period, playing with small pick up bands out of Kansas City. We hear his wonderful "Down On The Levee" cut for Decca in 1938.

The Washboard Rhythm Kings were a loose aggregation of jazz performers, many of high calibre, who recorded as a group for various labels between about 1930 and 1935. The band played good-time swinging music, featuring spirited vocals, horns, a washboard player and occasionally kazoo. Today we feature their swinging "Down by the Ohio" from 1931.

Show Notes:

As I was putting the finishing touches on this week's show I received the news that Louisiana Red had passed. He died  in Germany at the age of 79. By his own account he had a hard life as he announced in his haunting "The Story of Louisiana Red" which opens today's show: "Now this here's a sad one. It's about my life." He lost his parents early in life through multiple tragedies; his mother died of pneumonia a week after his birth, and his father was lynched by the Klu Klux Klan when he was five. Red began recording for Chess in 1949 (as Rocky Fuller). His early sides were heavily indebted to Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. He joined the Army and after his discharge, he played with John Lee Hooker in Detroit for almost two years in the late '50s, and continued through the '60s and '70s with recording sessions for Chess, Checker, Atlas, Glover, Roulette, L&R, and Tomato, among others. Louisiana Red moved to Hanover, Germany in 1981, and maintained a busy recording and performing schedule through the subsequent decades.

Red recorded prolifically through the years. Among his better efforts was the album The Lowdown Backporch Blues (1963) featuring striking topical numbers like the humorous "Red's Dream" and "Ride On Red, Ride On." The single "I'm Too Poor to Die"  had minor chart success in 1964. We also feature two tracks from the out-of-print Midnight Rambler, a compilation of sessions cut for the Blue Labor label in 1975-1976. We play his update of  "I'm Too Poor to Die"  and the chilling "Sweet Blood Call:"

Also on tap today are a trio of 1920's blues queens, a pair of songs apiece by piano men Blind John Davis and Freddie Shayne plus we spin a batch of great long out-of-print blues records. Rosa Henderson is the least known of today's featured blues queens. In 1963 Len Kunstadt tracked down Henderson and wrote a feature on her in Record Research: "She began her career about 1913 in her uncle's carnival show. She played tent and plantation shows all over the South with one long streak of 5 years in Texas. She sang nothing but the blues. During this period she married Slim Henderson, a great comedian and showman, and she became professionally, ROSA HENDERSON. Slim joined up with John Mason and from this association a troupe was born which included Rosa. They played the country from one end to the other. In the mid 20s the Mason Henderson troupe really began to hit big time with headline attraction bill¬ing in many of the larger theatres. Rosa also received star billing in some independent ventures. …From May 1927 through September 1927 Rosa Henderson was a top race blues recurring artist. She was on Victor, Vocalion, Ajax, Perfect, Pathe, Brunswick, Paramount, Emerson, Edison, Columbia, Banner, Domino, Regal, Oriole, English Oriole, Silvertone and others. Besides her own name she was Flora Dale on Domino; Mamie Harris and Josephine Thomas on Pathe and Perfect; Sally Ritz (her sister's name) on Banner; and probably Sarah Johnson and Gladys White on other labels….In 1927 Rosa was hitting her real stride as a single but just a year later Rosa quit in her prime due to the unexpected death of husband, Slim." She made her final recordings in 1931. From 1926 we spin her remarkably outspoken "Chicago Policeman Blues:"

Policemen in Chicago they can't police at all (2x)
They only wear their uniform, or blue just for a song (?)
Most every cop in town, black and white all have a grudge (2x)
If you don't know you better, then to say good morning judge

I've got the blues, Chicago policeman blues (2x)
They wouldn't give a pick (?) of you for Peter or Paul
They send you away for absolutely nothing at all
I've got the blues, Chicago policeman blues (3x)

I'm expressin' my opinion, just the way I feel
Pigs about the only things supposed to squeal
I've got the blues, Chicago policeman blues

We hear some fine piano blues from Blind John Davis and Freddie Shayne. From 1938 we spin Davis' jazzy brand of blues as heard on "Booze Drinking Benny" and "Anna Lou Breakdown" both featuring the electric guitar of George Barnes (one of the first Chicago musicians to record with an electric guitar). In 1973 Davis was interviewed by Melody Maker: "I started recording in 1937—Big Bill Broonzy was a friend of my Dad's and he fixed for me to play on one of his sessions 'Sweet William Blues' I think it was. That was for Vocalion or Columbia. …They all seemed to like my playing so I got  to play on most of the sessions around at the time….I was top piano player for Lester Melrose's Wabash Music Company. …"I could play for anybody  excepting Big Boy Crudup. I think no piano player in the world could play for him 'cos he plays so damn irregular. …In 1949 I made my first recordings under my own name— for MGM, that was. Before I had no desire to sing and the record producers told me I didn't sound Southern enough. They got me recording again in '51 — this time with George Barnes on guitar and Ransom Knowling playing bass. I cut a lot of records over in Europe with Big Bill Broonzy — but we wasn't paid for none of them. I kept copies of all my recordings, but my house burned out in 1955 and I lost everything!"

Freddie Shayne is a shadowy figure who spent his life working in Chicago. He first time on record was backing singer Priscilla Stewart on “Mr. Freddie Blues.” Shayne also made a very rare piano roll of this song. In 1935 Shayne recorded a solo record, “Original Mr. Freddie Blues b/w Lonesome Man Blues.” “Mr. Freddie Blues” became something of a boogie standard covered by many artists including Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson, Jimmy Blythe, Art Tatum and others. In the 40's he made some recordings for the Circle label where he also backed singer Bertha “Chippie” Hill.

From the out-of-print file we spin records by George and Ethel McCoy, Daddy Hotcakes, Bee Houston and Mabel Hillary. George and Ethel McCoy were a brother and sister guitar duo who lived in St. Louis. Their aunt was Memphis Minnie who taught Ethel first hand. They recorded the album Early In the Morning for the Adelphi label in 1969 and later saw some recordings out on the Swingmaster label.

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 Sam Charters recorded him in 1961. The Blues in St. Louis, Vol. 1: Daddy Hotcakes is his only recording.

Read Liner Notes

Bee Houston played in the backing bands of Little Willie John, Junior Parker, Bobby "Blue" Bland and others in the late '50s and early '60s. After a two-year army stint, Houston moved to the West Coast. He toured and recorded frequently with Big Mama Thornton in the '60s, and also accompanied several visiting blues players during West Coast visits. Houston recorded for Arhoolie in the '60s and '70s, and also made several festival appearances and club dates. Our selection, "Ten Years To Life", was issued as a 1970 single on the Joliet label (Joliet 203).

A member of The Georgia Sea Island Singers, Mable Hillery was less known than leaders, Big John Davis or Bessie Jones. Between 1961 and 1965 she toured the college circuit of campuses, coffee houses, church basements, and festivals, from Berkeley to Philadelphia, from the Ash Grove in Los Angeles to the Café à Go-Go in New York City. She toured Europe in the 60's and cut a session in London in 1968 for Transatlantic which was issued as It's So Hard To Be A Nigger on their budget Xtra label. Other scattered sides appeared on anthologies.

We also spin a track by fellow Georgia Sea Island singer Bessie Jones. Our cut, "Beggin' the Blues", was recorded by Alan Lomax. In the 1960s, with the assistance of Lomax, Bessie Jones, together with John Davis, Peter Davis, Mable Hillery, Emma Ramsey, and Henry Morrison, formed the Georgia Sea Island Singers and traveled to colleges and folk music venues throughout the country.

Show Notes:

We close out the year on a somber note as we pay tribute to several recently passed blues artists: Kansas City legend Myra Taylor, blues and R&B singer Lee Shot Williams, legendary guitarist Hubert Sumlin and singer Howard Tate. Also on tap are great pre-war blues including Blind Lemon Jefferson and a couple of his admirers, a quartet of fine blues ladies and a batch of superb piano players. We also spin more contemporary blues including a trio of ace harmonica blowers and some hard hitting sides form the 60's and 70's.

Myra Taylor and Charlie Parker (left)

Myra Taylor, one of the final links to Kansas City’s heyday as a jazz mecca, died December 9th in Kansas City. She was 94.In the 1930's, she became a regular in the clubs in the 12th and Vine, 18th and Vine and 12th and Woodland districts, where she performed along with musicians as a dancer. There, she mingled with the likes of Big Joe Turner, Pete Johnson, Bennie Moten, Lester Young, Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie. Her career as a singer began in the early 1930s in Kansas City, which led to a stint through the Midwest with Clarence Love and his band. In 1937, she moved to Chicago, where she worked with jazz greats Warren “Baby” Dodds, Lonnie Johnson, Roy Eldridge and Lil’ Hardin Armstrong. She recorded ten sides at two sessions in 1946 and 1947. We open the show with a trio of her 40's sides: the silky "I'm In My Sins This Morning", "Tell Your Best Friend Nothin'" a reworking of "Don't Advertise Your Man" (a 20's anthem sung by Clara Smith, Sippie Wallace and Rosa Henderson) and the swinging "The Spider And The Fly."

The death of Hubert Sumlin made a bigger splash than Taylor's, garnering obituaries in many major papers. Sumlin died Dec. 4 at the age of 80. Sumlin began appearing on Howlin’ Wolf’s recordings in 1954, first appearing on "Baby How Long? b/w Evil Is Goin' on" alongside fellow guitarist Jody Williams. Sumlin’s partnership with Howlin’ Wolf lasted until the singer’s death in 1976. Speaking of their collaborations in a 1989 interview with Living Blues magazine, Sumlin said: “Hubert was Wolf, Wolf was Hubert. I got to where I knew what he wanted before he asked for it, because I could feel the man.”  He met Howlin’ Wolf while still a teenager, when Mr. Sumlin was performing in and around West Helena, Ark., with the blues harmonica player James Cotton, and first recorded with him, under the supervision of Sam Phillips, at Sun Studios in 1953. Sumlin also made more than a dozen albums under his own name; the first was recorded in Europe in 1964, and the last in 2007. Today we showcase a pair of early numbers with Wolf, "I'll Be Around" (1954) and "Who Will Be Next" (1955) plus Hubert's own "No Title Boogie" recorded at the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival when he was touring Europe with Wolf.

Hubert Sumlin and Howlin' Wolf

In recent years Lee Shot Williams was best known for such raunchy songs as “Meat Man” and “Starts With a P,” but he had a long career as a blues and R&B singer in Chicago where he first recorded in 1962 with a style similar to Bobby “Blue” Bland. His best known hits were “You’re Welcome to the Club” (1962) and “I Like Your Style” (1967). We spin a pair of blistering early sides, "I'm Tore Up" (1963)" featuring Bobby King on guitar and "Hello Baby" (1962) featuring Freddie Robinson on guitar and Mack Simmons on harmonica and the from the 70's his raunchy "Drop Your Laundry" (he updated the number on his stellar 1995 album, Cold Shot, released on the Black Magic label.

We close out the show with a soulful rendition of  "How Blue Can You Get?" (1966) by Howard Tate. Tate, who in collaboration with producer and songwriter Jerry Ragovoy, recorded such late 1960's soul classics as “Ain’t Nobody Home,” “Stop” and “Get It While You Can,” died Dec. 2 at 72. After struggling with cocaine addiction and homelessness, Tate became a preacher only to re-emerge in 2003 with the critically acclaimed album Rediscovered.

It's hard to overestimate the influence and popularity of Blind Lemon Jefferson who began recording in 1926. His records made him nationally known among the black audiences who bough race records as influencing many blues artists. In December 1925 or January 1926, he was taken to Chicago to record his first tracks. Jefferson's first two recordings from this session were gospel songs ("I Want to be like Jesus in my Heart b/w "All I Want is that Pure Religion"), released under the name Deacon L. J. Bates. This led to a second recording session in March 1926. His first releases under his own name, "Booster Blues" and "Dry Southern Blues," were hits; this led to the release of the other two songs from that session, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues," which also became hits. The latter number reworked by two of our featured artists; The Mississippi Moaner and Jesse Thomas. The Mississippi Moaner was the name used by Isaiah Nettles when he recorded five sides for Vocalion Records in Jackson, MS, on October 20, 1935. Only one 78 from the session was ever released, "Mississippi Moan" b/w "It's Cold in China Blues" (the song title was a lyric used in Blind Lemon's song). Jesse Thomas remarkable 1948 number, "Double Due Love You" opens with a tongue twisting run of words (taken from the Blind Lemon song) that is sort of a vocal equivalent to his knotty guitar phrases.

We spin several rather obscure blues ladies today including Margaret Thornton, Mary Johnson, Geeshie Wiley plus the better known Sippie Wallace. Thornton cut one lone record for the short-lived Black Patti label in 1927, "Texas Bound Blues b/w Jockey Blues." Thornton was a wonderful singer backed by the fine barrelhouse playing of the equally obscure Blind James Beck. St. Louis singer Mary Johnson is in superb form on "No Good Town Blues" backed by pianist Judson Brown. Brown  who cut just one side under his own name for Brunswick in 1930 as well as backing singers such as Jenny Pope and  Mozelle Alderson. Don Kent wrote in the notes to Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-35 that "If Geeshie Wiley did not exist, she could not be invented: her scope and creativity dwarfs most blues artists. She seems to represent the moment when black secular music was coalescing into blues." We feature her haunting "Skinny Leg Blues" which is worth quoting in full:

And I’m a little bitty mama, baby and I ain’t built for speed
Cryin’ I’m a little bitty mama, baby and I ain’t built for speed
Aaaaaaah and I ain’t built for speed
I’ve got everything that a little bitty mama needs

I’ve got little bitty legs, keep up these noble thighs (2x)
Aaaaaah, keep up these noble thighs
I’ve got somethin’ underneath them that works like a bo' hog's eye

But when you see me comin’, pull down your window blind (2x)
You see me comin’, pull down your window blind
So your next door neighbor sure can hear you whine

I’m gonna cut your throat baby, gonna look down in your face (2x)
Aaaaaaaaa, gonna look down in your face
I’m gonna let some lonesome graveyard be your restin’ place

Among the triumvirate of boogie-woogie pioneers, which include  Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, Jimmy Yancey is my favorite. Yancey had a more delicate and subtle style then his hard driving peers as heard to good effect on the marvelous "Rollin' The Stone" from 1939. Far more obscure are Rudy Foster who cut one 78 for paramount in 1930. "Black Gal Makes Thunder" is a driving barrelhouse romp with the enigmatic lyric "black gal makes it thunder, yellow gal makes it fall down rain." James "Boodle It" Wiggins was a wonderfully expressive, heavy voiced singer who cut eight issued sides for Paramount in 1928 and 1929. His "Gotta Shave 'Em Dry" is an infectious number with terrific backing from pianist charlie Spand. As Paul Oliver noted in his Screening The Blues: "Shave 'Em Dry" …seems to have been favored by women though a number of men also sang it on record. As a term 'shave 'em dry' appears to have layers of meaning; at one level it refers to mean and aggressive action but as a sexual theme it refers to intercourse without preliminary love-making. Big Bill Broonzy put it succinctly: 'Shave 'em dry is what you call makin' it with a woman; you ain't doin' nothin', just makin' it.'" Among those who cut versions were Lucille Bogan, Ma Rainey, Lil Johnson and Papa charlie Jackson.

Show Notes:

Today's show spans from the 1920's through 1980, covering a wide variety of recordings and styles.  Among the artists featured include a trio by the recently  departed Honeyboy Edwards, a pair by the obscure McKinley James, two by fine Louisiana guitarist/vocalist Leroy Washington and two by the great Memphis blues and gospel artists Robert Wilkins. Also on tap are a batch of fine field recordings, some classic female blues singers, a set of piano blues, some fascinating topical recordings and the usual  batch of hard to find albums.

We open things up by paying tribute to Honeyboy Edwards who just passed on August 29, 2011 in Chicago. A couple of weeks back we played his slashing version of "Sweet Home Chicago" that he cut for Sun in 1953. Today we open with "Build A Cave", Honeyboy's commercial debut cut for the ARC label in 1950 recorded under the moniker Mr. Honey (the flipside was "Who May Your Regular Be").  The song is related to Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's 1951 Cold War/the Korean War number " I'm Gonna Dig Myself A Hole" which was also recorded the same year by Robert Lockwood and is also kin to Jimmy Rogers' "The World Is In A Tangle" also the same year. We spin another early number, "Drop Down Mama", part of a four song session he cut for Chess in 1953. "Drop Down Mama" eventually surfaced on the 1970 Chess album of the same name. As far as I know the remaining three sides have never been issued.

We feature both sides of  McKinley James' 1966 45 "Tuskegee Boogie b/w Ain't Gonna Pick No Cotton." James was a blues musician who was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1935 and raised in Macon County, Alabama. "Tuskegee Boogie" rolls along at an easygoing pace, featuring some fine low-down slide guitar. McKinley began singing gospel in The Golden Four Quartet and joined The Wings of Victory two years later, where he sang and played guitar. From there he became a one-man band and played at local shows that ranged from jails to fish fries to weddings and funerals. "I was here, there and everywhere, just like Old MacDonald's farm," McKinley recalled with a laugh. In 1955, several well-known bluesmen including Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Jimmy Reed played in Tuskegee. McKinley was inspired to make a go at a blues career. Work was hard to find but he was able to get gigs singing 15 minute spots on local radio programs. In 1965, he joined a federal adult-education program and ended up playing "Tuskegee Boogie" at his class graduation party. He'd written the song in 1962 about Tuskegee's first black sheriff, Lucious Amerson and his personal war on public drunkenness.

When the teachers saw how much the audience like the song, they decided to arrange a recording session in Columbus, GA which McKinley raised the $250 to pay for. He recorded "Tuskegee Boogie" and "Ain't Gonna Pick No Cotton" which were released as a 45 on the Tomahawk label. McKinley strapped all 500 copies to his bicycle and rode around selling them for 50 cents each in Tuskegee, Notasulga and Opelika. In 1973 he recorded another 4, "Misunderstanding b/w A Closer Talk" which was distributed locally, but neither record was picked up by a larger label. Despite that, McKinley became a prominent musician in the region and played many times at the Chattahoochee Folk Festival in Columbus, GA.

Read Liner Notes

Little is known about Leroy Washington, who recorded several sessions between 1957 and 1961 for Jay Miller. He was recalled by Miller as perhaps his favorite blues guitarist. He only released a handful of sides, however, he had recorded a considerable legacy of material for Miller, which had lain unissued for decades. As Bruce Bastin wrote: "Like another fine Miller guitarist, Guitar Gable, Leroy Washington was from Opelousas. …Washington's polite, easy-going nature and keenness to record made him a highly suitable artist for Miller, who carefully built up his artist's sessions, in order to create a satisfactory potential "hit' record. Three couplings submitted by Miller to Ernie Young of the Nashboro Record Co. saw release on his Excello label in 1958-59 but Miller clearly submitted material which did not find favor." Today we play "Hello Stranger" and "Woman Are Trouble" from 1959, both unissued at the time.

I've played Robert Wilkins often on the show and today we contrast one of his pre-war songs with one of his post-war recordings. Wilkins passed away in 1987 and it's a shame he made so few recordings in his later years. He did make one of the great albums of the blues revival, Memphis Gospel Singer cut in 1963 for the Piedmont label and sadly never issued on CD (it was reissued on vinyl in 1984 on the Origin Jazz Library label.) Andy Cohen has been threatening to issue this on CD with bonus tracks but that was announced several years ago and I have no idea what the current status is. There's a few other scattered tracks available including some live cuts from the Newport Blues Festival and the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival plus excellent sides on the Biograph CD When I Lay My Burden Down and the Adelphi CD …Remember Me. I should also mention This Old World's In A Hell Of A Fix on Biograph which has four great Wilkins sides but like the Piedmont this is long out of print.

I've always been intrigued by topical songs and and field recordings and we play both today. Awhile back I played songs by Lawrence Gellert off the album Negro Songs of Protest issued on Rounder in the 70's. Today we spin three from the follow-up album Cap'n You're So Mean, issued by Rounder in the 80's. According to Gellert's notes some of these recordings were recorded in Greenville, South Carolina in 1924. It seems likely that these recordings are actually from the 30's although according to eyewitnesses Gellert was indeed recording in South Carolina in 1924. Other recordings hail from Atlanta, Georgia and date from 1928 through 1932. As one reviewer noted: "The most interesting thing about these two albums was the outspokenness of the songs against authority. Gellert was accepted as an insider in the African American communities in which he worked and was able to record protest songs that eluded other collectors of the time." The Document label has also issued some of this material on the CD Field Recordings Vol. 9: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky 1924 – 1939. Many of Gellert's recordings have yet to be issued.

We play a couple of more modern protest songs with Johnny Shines' "Blood Ran Like Wine" and J.B. Lenoir's "Everybody Is Crying About Vietnam" both about the Vietnam war. These songs come from companion CD's to \a fascinating series of books written by Guido Van Rijn; Roosevelt's Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR,  The Truman and Eisenhower Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs, 1945-1960, Kennedy’s Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on JFK , President Johnson's Blues: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on LBJ, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Vietnam 1963-1968 and the just published The Nixon and Ford Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on Vietnam, Watergate, Civil Rights and Inflation 1969-1976.

We spotlight a batch of fine field recordings from the 60's, 70's and 80's. The 70's is generally considered a down period for the blues which may be true commercially but there was terrific field recordings being made by folks like Pete Lowry, Kip Lornell and George Mitchell among others, and in 1980 an ambitious field trip conducted by a pair of German blues fans. One of the artists they recorded was Guitar Slim who hailed from Greensboro, North Carolina. He recorded Greensboro Rounder for Flyright in the 1970's . He was accomplished on six and twelve string and a fine piano player to boot. He made final batch of sides in 1980 as part of the Living Country Blues USA series, recordings made by two young German blues enthusiasts, Axel Küstner and Siegfried Christmann who came to America with the idea to document the remaining country blues tradition. Additional recordings by Slim have been issued on a CD called Walkin' Boogie which also features sides by Memphis Piano Red.

Pete Lowry called Guitar Shorty (John Henry Fortescue) "One of the most spontaneous musicians around; right up there with Lightnin' Hopkins, maybe more so." He cut a pair of unissued sides for Savoy in 1952, the album long out-of-print Carolina Slide Guitar (Flyright, 1971) which is where our selection comes from and a final album for Lowry's Trix label, Alone In His Field, before passing in 1975.

From the 1960's we play Lovey Williams' "Going Away Blues" from the album Bothered All The Time (Southern Culture, 1983) which collects field recordings made in Mississippi in 1968 by William Ferris. Ferris did some good field work in Mississippi in he 1960's preserved on some fine  long out-out of-print records like Mississippi Folk Voices (Southern Culture, 1983), James 'Son' Thomas: Highway 61 Blues (Southern Culture, 1983) and James 'Son' Thomas, Lee Kizart & Lovey Williams: The Blues Are Alive

Read Liner Notes: Pt. 1 – Pt. 2 – Pt. 3

And Well (XTRA, 1970). Some of his field recordings were issued on a companion CD to his most recent book Give My Poor Heart Ease – Voices Of The Mississippi Blues.   In addition Ferris has written several books including the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture nominated for the Pulitzer prize and and Blues from the Delta.

As listeners know I always like to dredge up rare and hard to find records for the show. In that vein we spotlight some tough R&B tracks from the Krazy Kat album Forth Worth Shuffle – Texas RNB 1958-1964, a pair from the Arhoolie record Blues N' Trouble Vol. 2 including "Turn Loose My Tongue" a tremendous piano workout from Texas piano man Robert Shaw and James Brewer's rendition of "Big Road Blues" from Chicago Blues: Live At The Fickle Pickle a collection of live tracks cut at the famous club in 1963.

Show Notes:

From the booklet to The Mercury Blues 'N' Rhythm Story 1945-1955: "No other record label to come our of Chicago has ever had as many hit records, or become such a major power in the recording industry, as Mercury Records. Mercury covered a broad musical base, encompassing blues, pop, jazz, country, polka and gospel (and, in the years to follow, rhythm & blues, rock 'n' roll, doo-wop, soul, funk, and other genres). Housed in small offices in the famed Jeweller's Building on 35 East Wacker Drive, it was the first record label based in Chicago. (The famed Chess label was formed in late 1947 as Aristocrat Records. Vee-Jay, Chicago's other bygone independent, started in 1953.) Mercury ranks among the all-time top four in the number of hist to reach Billboard magazine's R&B charts, far ahead of its Windy City peers.

…"It's just The Blues," by Willie Dixon's Four Jumps Of Jive, was the company's debut release. Forming the Mercury Radio and Television Corporation were Berle Adams, Chicago agent-manager for the General Amusement Corp., and Irving Green of Olsen and Tilger Manufacturing Co., Inc. …'The big thing about Mercury was: we were an economy company,' Adams recently recalled with great enthusiasm. 'We had no money. The other companies were well financed. we couldn't compete with the big boys, so we chose R&B and country & western. You didn't need arrangers, copyists, big orchestras. It was easier to finance that kind of operation. I had come out of the cocktail lounge business in Chicago, I used the talent that I had worked with previously.'

The October 13, 1945 issue of Billboard reported: 'Chicago's potential as a recording center got a big shot in the arm with the announcement this week by Irving Green, local plastics expert, that he is a heading a new firm, Mercury Records, which will eventually reach 250,000 disks per month… Thus far the new label has inked only Negro artists, with its catalog including sides by June Richmond, ex-andy Kirk rythm singer; Bill Samuels and His Cats 'n' Jammers, and the Four Jumps of Jive, both cocktail units; Sippie Wallace and Karl Jones, blues shouters; Al Ammons, boogie pianist and half the team of Ammons and Johnson, and Bob Shaffner And His Harlem Hot Shots."

In early 1946 Mercury inaugurated their race series and would soon produce an impressive body of blues and R&B recordings which would make them rivals to Atlantic during the late 40's and 50's. As writer Jim O'Neal points out "today's listenership might be easily mislead because of the preponderance of Delta-based Chicago blues recordings from this period selected for reissue by collector's labels, but in truth a large portion of the blues records coming out of Chicago in the Forties and Fifties were decidedly more urbane, owing more to jazz and jump than to jukes and John the Conqueror roots. …In this field the most prolific of all the Chicago labels was Mercury,which released some 300 records in its 'Race' series from 1946 to 1952, in addition to several released in 1945-46 before the catalog was subdivided into different series." This style is reflected in part one of our look at the label as we focus on the years 1945 to 1949, spotlighting several tracks by the label's big R&B stars Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Dinah Washington, plus big names like T-Bone Walker, Albert Ammons, Big Bill Broonzy, Sippie Wallace, Professor Longhair and Jay McShann and his great singers Walter Brown and Jimmy Witherspoon. We'll also hear great lesser knowns like Myra Taylor, Little Joe Gaines, Smiley Turner and Vivianne Greene among among others. Below is some background on today's artists.

Dinah Washington was far and away the label's star attraction as Jim O'Neal explains: "On one hand, Mercury's policy descriptions certainly left the doors open for Chess and other labels to corner what might be called the "hard blues" market; on the other, Mercury eclipsed them all by virtue of one artist with a smooth, sophisticated approach- Dinah Washington. Washington had more Billboard chart hits (45, from 1948 to 1961) than the combined total Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Elmore James, and Sonny Boy Williamson had during their entire careers."

Alongside Washington, Eddie Vinson was one of the most prolifically recorded artists for Mercury in it fledgling years, waxing around three dozen sides for the label through 1954. Vinson first picked up a horn while attending high school in Houston during the late '30s. Vinson picked up a few vocal tricks while on tour with bluesman Big Bill Broonzy and joined the Cootie Williams Orchestra from 1942 to 1945. His vocals on trumpeter Williams' renditions of "Cherry Red" and "Somebody's Got to Go" were big hits. Vinson struck out on his own in 1945, forming his own large band, signing with Mercury, and enjoying a double-sided smash in 1947 with his romping R&B chart-topper "Old Maid Boogie" and the song that would prove his signature number, "Kidney Stew Blues."

One of the very first acts signed to the newly founded Mercury label in 1945 was a quartet calling itself the Cats 'N Jammer Three. Their pianist and lead vocalist was Mississippi native and Chicago-based entertainer Bill Samuels. The first of two versions of "I Cover the Waterfront" was terrifically successful for the Jammers and for Mercury. The Cats 'N Jammer Three seem to have disbanded during the 1948 recording ban. Samuels waxed only a couple of sides in 1949, then moved to Minneapolis where he managed to form a trio, eventually recording an LP and one last single. He passed away in March of 1964 at the age of 53

Sippie Wallace, who recorded prolifically in the 20’s but hadn’t recorded since 1929, came out of retirement briefly to cut four sides for Mercury in 1945. During the early 1920's she toured the TOBA vaudeville circuit where she was billed as "The Texas Nightingale". In 1923 she followed her brothers to Chicago and began performing in the cafes and cabarets around town. In 1923 she recorded her first records for Okeh and went on to record over forty songs for them between 1923 and 1929. As Jim O'Neal notes "…the Mercury venture also marked one of the few times that any of the great classic women blues singers of the Twenties were given a chance to record during the Forties (or Fifties)."

In 1929 T-Bone Walker recorded two singles for Columbia Records, "Trinity River Blues" and "Witchita Falls Blues," as Oak Cliff T-Bone (Walker lived in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff). He continued playing with a 16-piece band formed during his school days with Lawson Brooks until 1934, when he quit and moved to Los Angeles. Walker made his living on the West Coast playing with various small combos in the thriving jazz clubs of Los Angeles. In 1939 he joined Les Hite’s Cotton Club Orchestra as a singer, guitarist, and composer. "I was out there four or five years on my own before they all started playing amplified," Walker stated. "I recorded my T-Bone Blues’ with Les Hite in 1939, but I’d been playing amplified guitar a long time before that." Throughout the 40's he recorded prolifically for mainly for Black & White and Capitol but cut a couple of fine sides for Mercury in 1945, two of which we spotlight today.

Jay McShann was a mostly self-taught as a pianist, worked with Don Byas  as early as 1931 and played throughout the Midwest before settling in Kansas City in 1936. McShann formed his own sextet the following year and by 1939 had his own big band. In 1940 the full orchestra recorded for Decca on two occasions during 1941-1942 but they were typecast as a blues band and did not get to record many of their more challenging charts. In addition to Charlie Parker, the main stars were trumpeter Bernard Anderson, the rhythm section, and singer Walter Brown. McShann and his band arrived in New York in February 1942 and made a strong impression, but World War II made it difficult for any new orchestras to catch on. There was a final session in December 1943 without Parker, but McShann was soon drafted and the band broke up. After being discharged later in 1944, McShann briefly re-formed his group but soon moved to Los Angeles, where he led combos for the next few years; his main attraction was the young singer Jimmy Witherspoon. McShann and Witherspoon cut three sessions for Mercury in 1946 and 1947. McShann also employed a couple of other fine singers that recorded for Mercury, including Walter Brown and Crown Prince Waterford.

A popular entertainer who recorded frequently for Capitol during 1944-1950, Julia Lee's double-entendre songs and rocking piano made her a major attraction in Kansas City. In 1944, she started recording for Capitol. After 1952, Julia Lee only recorded four further songs, but she was active up until her death in 1958. Her lone session for Mercury was a four-song session in 1945.

As a child, Helen Humes played piano and organ in church, and made her first recordings (ten blues songs in 1927 with guitarist Sylvester Weaver) when she was only 13 and 14. In the 1930's, she worked with Stuff Smith and Al Sears, recording with Harry James in 1937-1938. In 1938, Humes joined Count Basie's Orchestra for three years. Humes moved to Los Angeles. She began to record as a leader in the early to mid 40's and waxed three sessions for Mercury in 1947 and 1948.

Although a Chicago label, Mercury left the market for "hard" blues mainly for labels like Aristocrat (soon to be Chess), and a bit later for a slew of small independents like Hy-Tone, J.O.B., Parkway, Tempo-Tone, Chance, United among several others. During our time span the label did cut some of these artists including veteran Big Bill Broonzy and Sunnyland Slim. As Big Bill Broonzy & His Fat Four, Broonzy cut nine sides for Mercury at two in 1949, two sessions in 1951 backed by a fine band that included Memphis Slim and a final session for the label backed just by bassist Ernest “Big” Crawford. Broonzy sides, backed by sax, piano and drums, have a decidedly more sophisticated, up-to-date air as heard on "I Love My Whiskey", and "Water Coast Blues." More sides by Broonzy will be featured in part two. Sunnyland Slim cut two sides for Mercury in 1949 and a four-song session for the label in 1951 all backed by Robert Lockwood. Sunnyland too employed a fine sax play, Alex Atkins, and is in prime orm on "Everytime I Get To Drinkin' ", a song he would cut many times, and "Mud Kickin' Woman."

Vivian Greene was based was a vocalist/pianist based out of California some tw0-dozen sides between 1947 and 1955 for several different label. She cut four sides for Mercury in 1948. There was something of a trend circa the mid to late 40's of piano pounding boogie woogie blues ladies, most based around the Los Angles area. In addition to Green there was Nellie Lutcher, Camille Howard, Betty Hall Jones,  Hadda Brooks, Effie Smith among others.