Big Road Blues

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.

A varied mix show today spanning the mid-20's through the mid-70's. Quite a number of Texas bluesmen are featured today including two sets from the recent 4-CD JSP collection, Houston Might Be Heaven: Rockin' R&B In Texas 1947-1951, which gathers many lesser known artists mixed with better known artists like Peppermint Harris and Smokey Hogg. In addition there's three from an excellent long out-of-print Lightnin' Hopkins album and some early Texas piano players. Also on tap are a pair of cuts by the prolific Big Joe Williams, several fine piano men, some terrific harp blowers and some excellent down home blues from the pre-war and post-war eras.

Read Liner Notes (PDF)

JSP's Houston Might Be Heaven: Rockin' R&B In Texas 1947-1951 is a valuable collection pulling together numerous obscure Houston bluesmen who's output has been scattered on various anthologies; artists like Dr. Hepcat, Lonnie Lyons, I.H. Smalley, Willie Holiday, Conrad Johnson and Joe 'Papoose' Fritz among many others. After World War II several Houston independent labels were started. The earliest to record blues was Gold Star, founded by Bill Quinn in 1946 as a hillbilly label. In 1947 Quinn decided to enter the "race" market by recording Lightnin' Hopkins. By the early 1950's, competition among independent record labels in Houston was intense. Macy's, Freedom, and Peacock (as well as Bob Shad's New York-based Sittin-In-With label) were all involved in recording local and regional blues musicians such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Gatemouth Brown, Goree Carter, Lester Williams, Peppermint Harris and Big Walter Price. Of the Houston-based independent labels, Peacock emerged as the most prominent.

One of the artists I want to mention from the set is Dr. Hepcat, who's "Hattie Green" opens our show. Born in Austin, Texas, January 9, 1913, as Lavada Durst he learned to play the piano as a child and emulated the styles he heard growing up. "I was self-taught," he recalls "I used to slip across the street to the church house and one-finger that piano. I had heard Meade Lux Lewis and Pete  Johnson on record, and around Austin, I heard a lot of piano players, Baby Dotson, Black Tank, and Boots Walton." Durst worked  part time as a disc jockey from 1948 to 1963 on KVET radio in Austin. On the air, he used the call name “Dr. Hepcat.” He cut two sessions for Uptown in 1949 and another session for Peacock the same year. He made some final recordings in the 80's and passed in 1995.

Speaking of Houston, we spin a trio of sides by Lightnin' Hopkins which I don't think I've played before. The tracks come from the long out-of-print album The Rooster Crowed In England issued on the British 77 Records label in 1959. The bulk of these recordings were made in 1959 with a couple waxed in 1954. As Mack McCormick wrote in the notes: “This album was prepared with the frank intention of arousing interest among the public and agencies who govern the European concert halls. …Until only a few months before making these recordings, Sam Lightnin' Hopkins knew of England only vaguely as a place 'over across the water' …a place he'd heard of thru friends who visited there while in the army. He was startled and dubious when I told him that some of the greatest enthusiasm for the blues was centered in places 'over across that water.'” We open the set with, "Hello England" a brief spoken introduction where he addresses the British people: "I'm Sam Lightnin' Hopkins, blues singer from Texas, singing the blues for 77 Records in England and I'm hoping that each and every one will enjoy em' if they hear them because I'm long wanting to come over there which I probably will come over there someday…" We also play his "Blues For Queen Elizabeth" where he states his hope to play for her and her husband some day and we conclude the set with a 1954 cut "Goin' To Galveston" backed by some rollicking piano. Apparently this issued on a Document CD c. 1998 which was strictly limited edition of 100 copies, never sold, but given away at Document wrap party in Vienna. that release was titled Lightnin' Hopkins 1954 & 1959 with extra tracks from other places.

We go back to 1937 with tracks by Texas pianists Andy and Pinetop Burks. Andy Boy cut only eight sides under his own name in 1937 as well as backing both Joe Pullum and Walter 'Cowboy' Washington. Pinetop Burks cut six songs the same year. Both men were from the so-called “Santa Fe group” who were based in the southwestern part of the state where the cities of Galveston, Houston and Richmond lie. Here was where the music thrived and pianists could be found like Son Becky, Rob Cooper, Black Boy Shine, Big Boy Knox, Robert Shaw, Buster Pickens and the singers who worked with them.

We feature a pair of tracks from the Big Joe Williams album Back To The Roots (also issued as Watergate Blues). These recordings were recorded in 1973 in Berlin and 1978 in Crawford and Mashulaville, Mississippi by Siegfried A. Christmann and Axel Küstner. I was inspired to play these sides from a very nice letter I got from Axel Küstner which included some of his wonderful photos of bluesmen and the Williams CD. Küstner and his friend Siegfried A. Christmann were responsible for the remarkable Living Country Blues USA albums which were issued across 12 LP's (one double set) on the German L+R label between 1980 and 1981.In 1980 the duo came to America with the idea to document the remaining country blues tradition. With their station wagon and portable recording equipment they hit the dusty road spending a couple of months documenting blues, gospel, field hollers and work songs throughout the South. In addition Küstner is a fine photographer and has taken thousands of photos of bluesmen through the years.

Several fine harp men are spotlighted today including George Clarke, Walter Horton, Peg Leg Sam and George Papa Lightfoot. From the pre-war era we hear Clarke's "Prisoner Blues", one of three songs he cut for Blue Bird in 1936. I don't know anything about Clarke but he was an engaging singer and fine harmonica player who plays in an assured down home style that reminds me a bit of the great Noah Lewis. Walter Horton gets plenty of room to cut loose on Jimmy Rogers' "If It Ain't Me (Who Are You Thinking Of)" and who cut it as "That Ain't It" on the Alligator album Big Walter Horton With Carey Bell. Peg Leg Sam was a member of what may have been the last authentic traveling medicine show, a harmonica virtuoso, and an extraordinary entertainer. Born Arthur Jackson, he acquired his nickname after a hoboing accident in 1930. His medicine show career began in 1938, and his repertoire -finally recorded only in the early '70s. Lightfoot cut Sessions for Peacock in 1949 (unissued), Sultan in 1950, and Aladdin in 1952 and a 1954 date for Imperial."  Singles for Savoy in 1955 and Excello the next year (the latter billed him as "Ole Sonny Boy") closed out Lightfoot's '50s recording activities. Producer Steve LaVere tracked down Lightfoot in Natchez, cutting an album for Vault in 1969 called Natchez Trace and issued on Ace on CD in the 90's.

Not everyone can be the main attraction and there are many talented blues figures who shined in supporting roles. Willie Brown, Joe Willie Wilkins and Lafayette Thomas come immediately to mind. In the vein we spin tracks by Vol Stevens and Fiddlin' Joe Martin. Vol Stevens played guitar, bajo-mandolin, mandolin,violin, jug and sang and cut just one record under his own name in 1928 for victor, "Vol Stevens Blues b/w Baby Got The Rickets." He also backed the Memphis Jug Band on many sides between 1927 and 1928, plus backing Will Weldon, the Mississippi Sheiks, Charlie Burse and the Picaninny Jug Band. Fiddlin’ Joe Martin played mandolin on Son House's, Alan Lomax recording sessions in 1941, taking the lead vocal on a couple of numbers. He also worked with Charlie Patton, Memphis Minnie, Howlin' Wolf and back Woodrow Adams, playing drums on all his sessions. He passed in 1975.

We play some interesting and mysterious down home blues from the postwar and pre-war periods. There's "Rowdy Blues" by Kid Bailey who cut one record in Memphis in 1929, "Rowdy Blues b/w Mississippi Bottom Blues." Bailey was remembered by (among others) Ishmon Bracey and Walter Vinson. Many believe Baily is actually Willie Brown, partner of both Charlie Patton and Son House. Then there's Arkansas Johnny Todd. In around 1950 a group of artists sent in a batch of unlabeled acetates that were discovered at Modern in 1970. These recordings have remained a focal point for intense discussion ever since. When these sides were first issued on the Blues From The Deep South LP, so Arkansas Johnny Todd and Leroy Simpson were invented for two sides released. It turns out that Todd is actually Lane Hardin who cut the classic "Hard Time Blues b/w California Desert Blues" in 1935. He also backs Leroy Simpson who still remains a mystery.

As a precursor to next week's show on Indianapolis blues we spotlight Turner Parrish and Champion Jack Dupree. In the pre-war era Indianapolis was a fine blues piano town and both Parrish and Dupree where part of that scene. Little is known of Parrish who cut eight sides between 1929 and 1933 and also backed singer Teddy Moss. Sometime in the early 30's Champion Jack Dupree left New Orleans and eventually found his way to Indianapolis here he found work at the Cotton Club (named after the famous one in Harlem) who's resident bluesman was Leroy Carr. In early 1940, he was seen by Lester Melrose who signed him up to record for Okeh in Chicago. The result was two-dozen recordings for the label through 1941. His Indianapolis residency ended when he was drafted at the end of 1941 and after his discharge he settled in New York.

We conclude the show with Swamp Dogg's "Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe." Swamp Dogg's brand of bluesy soul and R&B usually falls outside of what I play but I couldn't resist playing this one as Swamp Dogg comes to town to perform next week. I happen to be a big fan and have never got the opportunity to see him so I'm looking forward to this one.

Show Notes:

Today's program is inspired by a new biography of Big Bill Broonzy called I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy by Bob Riesman. Today we spin a cross section of Broonzy sides from the 30's through the 50's and we'll also be chatting and spinning records with the author in the second hour of the show. Last year I spoke with Roger House who authored the Broonzy biography Blue Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy. In Blue Smoke, House put Broonzy's life in a broad context, not only telling Broonzy's life story but using it as a way to tell a much larger story; a history of black America in the first half of the 20th Century, from sharecropping to the Great Migration. In contrast this new biography is a much more detailed, fuller portrait of  Broonzy, stripping away the layers of mystery about Broonzy's life, vividly portraying his life as he moved from the South to Chicago, following his series of groundbreaking tours of Europe and fully succeeds in bringing Big Bill's remarkable life into sharp focus. The second half of today's program features songs selected by the author. During the first half I've selected a varied set of Broonzy tracks, with no duplication from the previous show, plus several numbers backing some of Chicago's top artist like Washboard Sam,  Lil Green and Sonny Boy Williamson I. The bulk of today's notes are taken from the book.

As Riesman writes of Broonzy: "…He had been one of the leaders of the Chicago blues world of the 1930s and ’40s, well before the rise of Chess Records and the figures who made that label deservedly famous. During his trailblazing European tours of the 1950s, he had been an early and powerful inspiration to British musicians such as Eric Clapton and Ray Davies. American artists from Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash identified Bill as an influence, and he had helped to launch folk music revivals in both the United States and Great Britain. As I began to look more closely at Bill’s life and work, it soon became clear that Bill’s legacy included at least two significant areas in addition to his recordings. He had demonstrated through his handwritten autobiography, Big Bill Blues, that his skill with words extended beyond songwriting. From his descriptions of his upbringing in the rural South to his observations on racial injustice, he expressed himself with clarity, insight, and wit. Bill had also served as a mentor to many younger blues musicians, to whom he offered guidance and encouragement. Muddy Waters, in particular, identified him as a role model, saying of Bill: 'Mostly I try to be like him.'"

…Broonzy arrived in Chicago in the early 1920's. Bill’s move to Chicago had thrust him squarely in the midst of one of the country’s most dynamic centers of African American music. Cabarets featuring jazz artists like Jelly Roll Morton had flourished on the South Side since before World War I. Through the 1920s, bands that featured some of the most prominent and creative of the transplanted New Orleans jazz players—Joe "King" Oliver, Sidney Bechet, the young Louis Armstrong—performed in venues such as the Royal Gardens Lincoln Gardens), the Plantation Café, and the Dreamland Café. Vaudeville performers such as Butterbeans and Susie appeared at the Grand Theater at Thirty-first and State, which also was the site of sold-out shows for singer Bessie Smith when her touring schedule brought her to Chicago." By the mid-20's the solo male blues artists rose to prominence with the enormous popularity of Blind Lemon Jefferson. "It was in the midst of this influx of male singer/players that Bill reentered the music business, and he chose his mentor well. 'I didn’t play any for a few years until I met Charlie Jackson in 1924.' …By late 1928 he had found a mentor, mastered a new instrument, located a musical partner, cut two records for a record company with national distribution, and acquired a memorable performing name."

"By the mid-1930s, the musical tastes of African American record buyers were changing. Instead of solo performers accompanying themselves on guitar, records increasingly featured ensembles, usually with a piano. …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."

We spin several tracks with Broonzy in a supporting role including two superb 1941 sides, "Life Is Just A Book" and "Flying Crow Blues." Broonzy rarely sounded better as a session guitarist then the sides he cut with Washboard Sam, particularly the early 40's sides where he was given plenty of room to lay down some supple, inventive amplified guitar.  Broonzy played on several sessions backing Sonny Boy Williamson I and today we spin "Mellow Chick Swing" from 1947 as Sonny Boy exhorts "take it away Big Bill" where he steps up and put down a fine amplified solo. We also hear Broonzy backing Lil Green on the 1940 gem "Just Rockin'." As Riesman writes: "Bill played an important role in Lil Green’s meteoric rise from obscurity to national headliner in the early 1940s, and he maintained a personal connection with her even after her star faded. …Bill played guitar on all of the sides Green recorded before the 1942 recording ban."

Riesman notes that Broonzy "was a prolific songwriter, which was a crucial element of the industrial-style production process. Bill’s various estimates of the number of songs that he wrote throughout his career ranged from 250 to 360. In addition to the ones Bill himself sang, other Melrose artists recorded songs that Bill had written. The list included the Yas Yas Girl, Lil Green, and Washboard Sam… …In addition, Melrose was constantly on the lookout for new talent, both to generate records and to increase the stream of royalties flowing into his publishing companies. He relied on a small number of musicians to serve as his eyes and ears in identifying prospective artists. Along with pianist Roosevelt Sykes, Bill was at the top of his list. …few other blues songwriters of his era produced as much material of as consistently high a level of quality as Bill did. If there had been the blues equivalent of a Tin Pan Alley in Chicago in the 1930s and '40s, Bill would have been recognized as one of its most prominent figures."

"In 1946 Bill performed for more white audiences than he ever had before. He still made records that were marketed primarily to African American buyers, and he continued to appear in Chicago clubs where it would have been unusual to see a white face. …After a sustained run of nearly twenty years as one of the most prolific artists in the blues recording world, he was creating a new professional identity. He was increasingly immersed in a world of folk songs that he played on an acoustic guitar, requiring him to assemble and master a very different repertoire than the one he had been performing and recording for decades." In 1951, Broonzy took his first tour of Europe, where he was met with enthusiasm and appreciation. "On his return to Chicago, Bill began a stretch in his career that would last for several years in which he straddled his two audiences, one black and one white. He cut records for predominately African American buyers as both a featured performer and a sideman, releasing sides under band names such as Big Bill and His Rhythm Band, and Big Bill Broonzy & His Fat Four. He continued to appear at the clubs where he was an established name, such as Ruby’s Tavern on the West Side and the Hollywood Rendezvous on the South Side. At the same time, he was becoming a familiar figure to the politically engaged folk-music fans who attended the People’s Songs hootenannies in Chicago."

His appearances in Europe introduced the blues to European audiences and were especially influential in London’s emerging skiffle and rock blues scene. Broonzy’s success also set the stage for later blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II and Muddy Waters to play European venues. Broonzy toured Europe again in 1955 and 1957. As Riesman observers: "Bill had crafted a persona for himself that would bring him international acclaim and steady work for the rest of his career. By highlighting the key elements of his rural origins, his firsthand knowledge of the musical sources of the blues, his membership in a finite and shrinking set of blues singers, and his desire to call attention to musicians whose work he could vouch for, Bill had secured a unique and powerful status."

-Listen to the Bob Riesman interview (MP3, 1 hour)

-View photos from the book

Show Notes:

As we take a pause between theme shows we turn to a wide ranging mix show, spanning the years 1925 through 1970. We spin several thematic sets including a twin spin of sides by Sonny Boy Williamson I, a batch of sides from the recent 2-CD collection collection Livin' That Wild Life – The Herald-Ember Blues & Gospel Masters Vol. 1 and a the usual mix of excellent pre-war blues.

We spotlight a pair of superb post-war sides by Sonny Boy that come from the 4-CD JSP set The Original Sonny Boy Williamson: The Later Years 1939-1947 which collects all the sides he waxed between 1944 through 1947. Talking about the 1946 session that produced one of our selections,  Neil Slaven writes: "Sonny Boy's next three sessions represented his golden age- when song after song underlined his new-found maturity. Sonny Boy's Cold Chills, Hoodoo Hoodoo, Shake The Boogie, Mellow Chick Swing, Polly Put Your Kettle On, Apple Tree Swing, all benefited from the work of Blind John Davis, Eddie Boyd, Willie Lacey, Big Bill Broonzy, Ransom Knowling, Willie Dixon and Charles Sanders. These were the songs that influenced a generation of singers and laid the groundwork for the ascendancy of Chicago blues over the next decade." From his very last session, in November 1947 we spin the romping "Better Cut That Out." There's little doubt Sonny Boy would have been a major force on the vibrant Chicago blues scene of the 50's and would have thrived during the blues revival of the 60's, undoubtedly playing Europe to adoring fans. Sadly it was not to be, Sonny Boy's blazing career came to a untimely end with his murder in June 1948.

We spotlight four tracks  from the fine recent 2-CD collection on Acrobat, Livin' That Wild Life – The Herald-Ember Blues & Gospel Masters Vol. 1. Herald was founded in 1951 by music veteran Fred Mendelsohn but was inactive until he took on partners Al Silverman and Jack Braverman. Herald issued some terrific blues including tracks by Little Walter, St. Louis Jimmy, Cousin Leroy and some of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ best sides. Among those tracks are cuts by St. Louis Jimmy which was originally recorded for De Luxe in 1949 and Eddie Boyd's "Lonesome For My Baby" which was first issued on Regal in 1950 before being picked up by Herald. We also feature two tracks by the mysterious Cousin Leroy. Nothing is known about him except that  he cut two sides for Groove in 1955 and several for Herald and Ember in 1957.  He was backed by great musicians including Larry dale, Sonny Terry and Champion Jack Dupree. Leroy's songs are mainly reworking of traditional material including the ominous "Crossroads"  which incorporated Muddy Waters' "Rolling Stone" with references to the the crossroads myth:

Well I walked down, by the crossroad
Just to learn how, to play my guitar
Well a man walked up, 'son let me tune it'
That was the devil (2x)

Today's program features a set of fine blues ladies including Ma Rainey, Mattie Delaney and Georgia Boyd. Rainey first appeared onstage in 1900, singing and dancing in minstrel and vaudeville stage revues. In 1902 she married the song and dance man William "Pa" Rainey and from then on became known as Ma Rainey. The couple formed a song and dance act that included Blues and popular songs and toured the country, but primarily the South. It was not until 1923 that Ma Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount. She was billed as the "Mother of the Blues", which wasn't far off the mark. She ended up recording 100 songs between 1923 and 1928 on Paramount Records. Nothing is known of Delaney and Boyd who each cut a lone 78.  In 1930 Delaney cut two magnificent numbers for Vocalion, "Down The Big Road Blues b/w Tallahatchie River Blues" featuring herself on guitar.  In 1933 Boyd cut "Never Mind Blues b/w I'm Sorry Blues" with J.D. Short laying down some tough guitar on the former.

In 1936, Eugene Powell, along with Mississippi Matilda, Willie Harris and some of the Chatmon family traveled to New Orleans to record for the Bluebird label.  Setting up at the St. Charles Hotel, Powell cut six sides during these sessions under the moniker Sonny Boy Nelson. Among these numbers were classics such as "Street Walkin' Woman" and our selection "Pony Blues". He also accompanied Matilda on four tracks and harmonica player Robert Hill on 10 more. It would be another 34 years before Eugene Powell would have the opportunity to record again.

Also from the pre-war era, we spin numbers by Robert Petway and his pal Tommy McClennan. Little biographical information is available on Robert Petway. He was the first to record “Catfish Blues” which became a blues standard and may have composed the song. Big Bill Broonzy reported to researcher Paul Oliver that Petway played with Tommy McClennan and that the two grew up together as kids. McClennan was born and raised on the J. F. Sligh farm about ten miles north of Yazoo City in 1908 and it seems likely from Broonzy's recollection that Petway was about the same age and raised on the same farm.

McClennan was an influence on David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who learned songs like “Catfish Blues” and "Bullfrog" from him. In another account Edwards states that he learnt “Catfish Blues” in person from Petway. McClennan was stylistically similar to Petway because the two played together often. McClennan and Petway would play at house parties, and in the juke joint at Three Forks crossroads, famous now as the place where Robert Johnson was poisoned. In 1939 McClennan moved to Chicago and had three successful recording sessions by the time Petway had his first. It seems likely that McClennan sent for Petway to come to Chicago and record. Petway recorded eight sides for Bluebird Records in 1941 and followed those up with eight more in 1942.

McClennan's brand of  rough-around-the-edges blues is not far removed from singer Walter "Cowboy" Washington who Paul Oliver called a "bar-fly on the waterfront who worked as a cowpuncher." Backed by the superb piano of Andy Boy the rough voiced singer tells a gritty tale in his "West Dallas Woman" about a woman (a reference to Houston's Fourth Ward)  who's "trying to make twenty-five cents just to get a half-a-pint of corn." Washington cut just four sides in San Antonio in 1937 including another gritty number, "Ice Pick Mama."

Also worth mentioning are tracks by Percy Mayfield, Hot Lips Page and Baby Face Leroy Foster. Mayfield’s main hit making period was from 1950-1952 when he scored seven top ten hits for the Specialty label including “Please Send Me Someone To Love”, the biggest hit ever for the label. Much less well known are the trio of superb records he cut for RCA in the 1970's, all unfortunately out of print: Percy Mayfield Sings Percy Mayfield (1970), Weakness Is A Thing Called Man (1970) and Blues…And Then Some (1971). 25 tracks from these albums are available on the CD Blues Laureate: RCA Years.

Between 1948 and 1952 Baby Face Leroy Foster waxed a handful absolutely terrific sides under his own name for a number fledgling Chicago labels aided by some of the windy city’s best blues musicians. In addition his vocals, drumming, and guitar playing can be found backing some of the greatest Chicago blues records of the era. His death in 1958, at the age of 38, robbed the blues world of a singular, memorable talent.

Known as a scorching  soloist and powerful vocalist, Oran “Hot Lips” Page was one of the Midwest's top trumpet players. He began his professional touring career when he joined “Ma” Rainey's band in the 1920s. Page traveled the Southwest with Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox and other touring acts. From 1928 to 1931 Page was a member of the Blue Devils; in 1932 he joined Bennie Moten’s orchestra, remaining until 1935. After Moten's death, he continued to work with Count Basie. He recorded as the Hot Lips Page Trio for Bluebird in 1940 before joining Artie Shaw where he worked from 1941-1942. Starting in 1944 he recorded for Commodore and Savoy, fronting his own. In May 1949, Page traveled for the first time to Europe, where he played at the Jazz Festival in Paris. He visited Europe again in 1951 and 1952, to make a tour of Scandinavia and France. From 1952 until his health began to deteriorate in 1953, he worked various jazz shows around the United States. "Thirsty Mama Blues" from 1940 sports some melancholy blowing, a fine world weary vocal from page reminiscent of Jimmy Rushing and some knockout guitar from Teddy Bunn. It's not surprising the song is featured on the CD The Very Best Of Teddy Bunn 1937-1940.

Show Notes:

In his memoir, Big Bill Blues, Broonzy called Sleepy John Estes' way of singing the blues "crying the blues." As Tony Russell noted: "The 25-year old man who sat down to record "The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair" for a traveling Victor unit in Memphis would prove to be one of the company's most striking finds in a city full of distinctive blues artists. High, blurred, plaintive, his voice sounded like that of a man on the verge of tears; sometimes it would even break, momentarily as if overwhelmed by emotion." While Estes would become for his finely wrought personal songs, these initial numbers were local standards or common themes like "Divin' Duck Blues" ("If the river was whiskey and I was a divin' duck"). His storytelling is evident on early numbers like "Street Car Blues" but it wasn't until signing with Decca in 1937 that he cut his most enduring compositions. Today's program spotlights  Estes recordings before his comeback, spotlighting the remarkable recordings he made between 1929 and 1941. In addition we feature some of the fine musicians from the Brownsville area who worked and recorded with Estes including Son Bonds, Yank Rachell, Hammie Nixon, Charlie Pickett, Noah Lewis and Lee Brown.

John Adam “Sleepy John” Estes, was born in Ripley, Tennessee, around 1900. Estes first learned to play guitar from his sharecropper father at age twelve. Soon thereafter, while working in the cotton fields with his family, he crafted his own cigar-box guitar and began to hone his skills at local house parties and fish fries. His nickname "Sleepy" stemmed from a chronic blood pressure disorder that gave him fits of narcolepsy. Around 1915, the Estes family moved to Brownsville, Tennessee, which served as Sleepy John’s base residence periodically for the rest of his life. Brownsville was also home to “Hambone” Willie Newbern, an important early influence, as well as Yank Rachell and Hammie Nixon–musicians with whom Estes partnered at local venues and on professional recordings. Other Brownsville musicians who Estes worked with were pianist Lee Brown and guitarists Son Bonds and Charlie Pickett, all who recorded in the 30’s and all who backed Estes on record. Estes teamed with Rachell to play house parties, picnics, and the streets in the Brownsville area from 1919 to 1927. He also partnered with local harmonica player Hammie Nixon, hoboing Arkansas and southern Missouri with him from 1924 to 1927. At this time jug band music was wildly popular, so Estes started the Three J's Jug Band with Rachell and jug player Jab Jones. The Three J's played Memphis, where they competed for exposure in a competitive scene dominated by the Memphis Jug Band.

When the Victor recording company sent a field recording unit to Memphis in September 1929, Estes recorded several sides backed by the Three J's, with Jones playing piano instead of the jug. Other acts to record for Victor on this trip included the Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, and Cannon's Jug Stompers. He was invited to record again for Victor in May 1930. This session yielded the uptempo "Milk Cow Blues," a tune Robert Johnson would later record as "Milkcow Calf Blues." In all the group cut fifteen sides, three were unissued, over the course of eight session in 1929 and 1930. Estes gave the following account of his recording debut: "Well, it was the guy who recorded the 'Kansas City Blues', Jim Jackson. We were coming down the street , me and Yank Rachell. He said 'Boys, that was a mighty good peice you sang on the street the other day.. You can really sings. I can tell you how to make some money.' Yank said, 'John we can go 'round ourselves. We don't need him to carry us.' I went around to the Ellis Auditorium and we talked to Mr. R.S. Peer of New York City. he told us., 'Boy', he was recording two or three other boys there, they'd hit two pieces in an hour. 'We got some more boys here but I want to see you before you go. I want you to come back late in the afternoon so I can hear what you can do.' We went back then and we recorded."

Estes and Nixon moved to Chicago in 1931 where they played parties and the streets. The Depression hit the recording industry hard, and the Estes/Nixon team did not record until a July 1935 date with the Champion label where the duo cut six sides at two sessions. Among the sides recorded were "Drop Down Mama" and "Some Day Baby Blues," tunes that became staples for a later generation of bluesmen. As Tony Russell remarks: "Nixon is the nightingale of blues harmonica and his parallel melodies echoing Estes singing on "Someday Baby Blues" and "Drop Down Mama", to mention just the most famous of their duets, are beautiful in their understated melancholy." They left Chicago in the late 1930's to travel the country playing lumber camps, parties, and street corners for four years. The Decca label brought Estes to New York City to record in 1937 and again in 1938 where he cut eighteen songs, laying down some of his most enduring songs. He was backed by Charlie Pickett on guitar and Hammie Nixon on harmonica. Among the songs were vivid depictions of the Depression in songs like "Down South Blues", riding the blinds in "Special Agent Blues (Railroad Police Blues)"  and "Hobo Jungle Blues." On the latter he sings:

Now, when I left Chicago, I left on that G & M (2X)
Then if I reach my home, I have to change over on that L& N
Now, came in on in that Mae West, and I put it down at Chicago Heights
Now, when I came in on that Mae West, I put it down at Chicago Heights
Now, you know, over in hobo jungle, and that's where I stayed the night
Now, if you hobo through Brownsville, you better not be peepin' out (2X)

Now, Mr. Whitten will git you, and Mr. Guy Hare will wear you out
Now, out East of Brownsville, about four miles from town (2X)
Now, if you ain't got your fare, that's where they will let you down

He sang many celebrated songs about hometown life in Brownsville including "Lawyer Clark" ("He said if I just stay out of the grave, he'd see that I wouldn't go to the pen"), he sings about Martha Hardin's house burning down in "Fire Department Blues", he describes race relations in the south in "Clean Up At Home" ("I played for the colored, I played for the white/All you got to do, act kinda nice, you got to") and the personal narrative "Floating Bridge" where describes a near brush with death after falling off a car ferry crossing a river:

Now I never will forget that floating bridge (3X)
Tell me five minutes time under water I was hidW
hen I was going down I throwed up my hands
Now, when I was going down, I throwed up my hands (2X)
Please, take me on dry land
Now they carried me in the house and they laid me 'cross the blank't (3X)

"Bout a gallon-and-half muddy water I had drankThey dried me off and they laid me in the bed
Now, they dried me off and they laid me in the bed (2X)
Couldn't hear nothin' but muddy water runnnin' through my head

Estes was paired with younger guitarist Robert Nighthawk, perhaps to modernize his sound, for his last six song Decca session in 1940 which lack the spark of his collaborations with Nixon. A year later he recorded for the Bluebird label backed by kazoos and a tub bass in a swinging session with the Delta Boys (Son Bonds and Raymond Thomas), who echoed Estes's jug band sensibilities. All three men variously take the lead on exuberant numbers like "Don't You Want To Know" , "You Shouldn't Do That" both sporting a vigorous kazoo solo from Bonds who takes the lead on "Black Gal Swing." On September 24, 1941 the trio made their final sides together, a three song session for Bluebird including the aforementioned "Lawyer Clark" and "Little Laura." Little Laura, according to Don Kent's notes to the Yazoo Sleepy John Estes CD, was a neighbor of Sleepy John's and the Jimmy referred to in the lyrics is Sleepy John's name for Yank Rachell. This song is essentially the one Sonny Boy Williamson I  recorded for Bluebird a couple of months earlier as "She Was A Dreamer."

Estes returned to sharecropping in Brownsville in 1941. In 1948, he and Nixon recorded again for the Ora Nelle label ("Harlem Bound" and "Stone Blind Blues") but the records went unreleased. Estes went completely blind in 1950 and elected to try his hand at recording again. In 1952 he cut four sides for the Sun label. Estes was rediscovered in 1962 during the blues revival. He cut several albums for Delmark and returned to touring with Hammie Nixon before health problems confined him to Brownsville. Sleepy John Estes died June 5, 1977.

After recording with Sleepy John Estes in  1929 and 1930 Yank Rachell decided to try his hand at farming and also worked for the L&N Railroad. During a stopover in New York Rachell teamed up with guitarist Dan Smith and laid down 25 titles for ARC in just three days, though only six of them were issued. Shortly before the ARC date, Rachell had discovered a kid harmonica player that he believed had real talent, John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. They worked together at the Blue Flame Club in Jackson, Tennessee starting in 1933. In 1934 Williamson went north to Chicago. With the success of Williamson's first Bluebird dates of 1937, Rachell decided to join Sonny Boy in Chicago for sessions in March and June of 1938. Yank Rachell also contributed four sides of his own to each session, and then 16 more in 1941 with Sonny Boy backing him up. After Sonny Boy Williamson's murder in 1948, Rachell drifted away from music and relied solely on straight jobs to make his living, settling permanently in Indianapolis in 1958. His wife passed away in 1961, and afterward he began to resume performing. In 1962, Rachell was re-united with Nixon and Estes, and the three of them began playing college and coffeehouse circuit, recording for Delmark as Yank Rachell's Tennessee Jug Busters. Estes died in 1977, and from that time Rachell worked mainly as a solo act. He recorded only sporadically in his last years and passed in 1997 at the age of 87.

Sleepy John Estes, American Folk Blues Festival, 1964

Noah Lewis was born in Henning, Tennessee, and raised in the vicinity of Ripley. He played in local string bands and brass bands, and began playing in the Ripley and Memphis areas with Gus Cannon. When jug bands became popular in the mid-1920s, he joined Cannon's Jug Stompers. He cut seven sides under his own name at sessions in 1929 and 1930. Recording as Noah Lewis' Jug Band, he was backed on two numbers by Sleepy John and Yank Rachell with just Estes backing him on two other numbers cut a couple of days apart. Lewis died in poverty of gangrene brought on by frostbite in Ripley, Tennessee, in 1961.

Harmonica player Hammie Nixon was born on January 22, 1908, in Brownsville, TN. He began his career as a professional harmonica player in the 1920s, but also played the kazoo, guitar, and jug. "I used to hear a lot about him, John Adam", Nixon recalled, "and I was just a kid, living out on my parent's home near Ripley.  …And he heard me playing and he asks me would I like to go and play my harp for him?So I told him yes, but I had o ask my mama first because I was just young, see. So he comes back to my mama's house with me, but she didn't want me to go you know. Anyhow he says like he would look after me and provide for me and so forth so she let me go. And we been together ever since." He performed with Sleepy John Estes for more than 50 years. He also recorded with Lee Green, Charlie Pickett, and Son Bonds. He played with many jug bands. After Estes died, Nixon played with the Beale Street Jug Band (also called the Memphis Beale Street Jug Band) from 1979 onward. Shortly before his death he cut his lone album, the marvelous  Tappin' That Thing for the High Water label. He died August 17, 1984.

Another associate of Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, Son Bonds played very much in the same rural Brownsville style that the Estes-Nixon team popularized in the '20s and '30s. The music to one of Bonds's songs, "Back and Side Blues" cut in 1934, became a standard blues melody when John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson from nearby Jackson, TN, used it in his classic "Good Morning, (Little) School Girl" he cut in 1937.Bonds cut a total of fifteen sides over five sessions in 1934, 1938 and 1941. Hammie Nixon backs Bonds on the two 1934 sessions while Estes backs Bonds on his last two sessions in 1938 and 1941.On his Decca and Champion sides Bonds was called Brownsville Son Bonds and Brother Son Bonds at his second Decca session which was religious. Nixon gave the following account of Bonds' death: "He got killed around the same time that Sonny Boy got killed. Sonny Boy got killed in Chicago, Son got killed in Dyersburg. A fellow shot him, he though he was shooting somebody else. Son was sitting on his porch. This guy wore them great thick glasses and he got into it with the guy who lived next door to Son. It was way about 12:00 at night and he though it was the boy who lived next door." Estes had a different version involving a woman and a plot to get Bonds' insurance money.

Little is known about Charlie Pickett, who was from Brownsville, TN. Sheldon Harris reported that he was Estes cousin. Hammie Nixon had him performing in a group with Estes, Nixon, and others on the streets of Chicago in the 1930's and 1940's. Nixon told Kip Lornell in 1975, "He started preaching in St. Louis, been living in St. Louis for a couple of years. I think he's preaching in Los Angeles now." Of the song "Let Me Squeeze Your Lemon",Nixon said, "I will never forget the first time he started playing that song, how he sung a something like, 'When I got home, another nigger kicking in my stall.' The bossman told him 'don't say that no more!'" He cut four sides for Decca in 1937 backed by Hammie Nixon and Lee Brown.  Pickett also played guitar behind Estes on 19 numbers at sessions in 1937 and 1938. He or Estes may have played guitar behind pianist Lee Green at a 1937 session.

Pianist Lee Brown was another member of the Tennessee musicians who who worked in Estes orbit. As Tony Russell sums up: "…Brown was subsequently more prolific than his modest talent merited." His lone hit was "Little Girl, Little Girl" from his second 1937 session, sessions at which he backed Estes and Charlie Pickett. Estes backs Brown on two songs from his first session. In all Brown was involved in six sessions that yielded twenty-nine sides with one unissued. He was backed by some top flight backing musicians including Charlie Shavers, Sammy Price, Buster Bailey, Henry Allen, Robert Lee McCoy and Lil Armstrong among others. Brown cut some post-war material including two songs in 1945 for the Chicago label and a session for King in 1946