Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show is a mix show, which includes a sort of sequel to last week’s program. Last week we featured classic albums with Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee which featured music and spoken commentary. For the first hour we play more interesting tracks from Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Among those are Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953 a remarkable 2-CD set of Broonzy recordings that just surfaced a couple of years ago, selections from Blues In The Mississippi Night which feature music and candid commentary with Big Bill, Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson I plus live recordings of Sonny & Brownie playing with Lightnin’ Hopkins. The second hour of the show is a our standard mix show that we do on a regular basis.

There’s no shortage of live and studio recordings from Big Bill Broonzy’s European appearances during the 1950’s. The Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953 set is a dazzling addition to Broonzy’s discography, on technical as well as musical grounds. It not only captures him on two excellent nights of performance, but also, thanks to the technical expertise of Louis Van Gasteren, the sound engineer (and later a movie producer) who made the tapes, in amazing fidelity, equal to the best work of any record label. Broonzy toured Europe in 19521, 1955 and 1957. Broonzy had led the way to Europe for a generation of elder statesmen of the blues, and his performances were so well received that they paved the way for American bluesmen to follow his path across the Atlantic, to bigger, more enthusiastic audiences and better paying gigs than they’d ever known in their native United States. In what had to be his first taste of respect as a musician from a white audience, by most accounts Broonzy seemed to revel in the reception that he got, and the relatively free and open societies (compared with what existed in the United States at the time) that he encountered in Europe. He never lived long enough to play in any of the big folk festivals of the early 1960’s, so what we have to go on comes from these European performances. This concert was recorded across two nights and includes over 110 minutes of music and stories.

We also hear Broonzy in a very different setting six years earlier. Blues In The Mississippi Night is the story of the blues from the mouths of three legendary bluesmen – Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, and Sonny Boy Williamson I. Alan Lomax had visited the three bluesmen in Chicago and asked them to come perform in New York at Town Hall as part of his Midnight Special concert series. The day following that concert, March 2, 1947, he took them to Decca Studios, asked them to play a few songs and to discuss the blues. Lomax encouraged them to speak frankly about the racial climate. The result was so candid that Big Bill, Sonny Boy, and Memphis were given assumed names in the original liner notes to protect themselves and their families. The album was so controversial that its release was delayed 13 years, finally released by United Artists in 1959.

During the summer of 1960 Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee Big Joe Williams and Lightnin’ Hopkins all happened to be in L.A. World Pacific Records took advantage of this rare convergence and recorded them together, both in the studio and in performance at the Ash Grove. An album was duly issued; other tracks, reportedly from the same sessions, appeared on other labels. This material has been issued confusingly on several albums with different names. The best reissue of this material is the album Lightnin’ Hopkins & The Blues Summit that has been reissued on the Fuel 2000 label and we feature three tracks from that album.

In the second hour we play a wide mix of blues spanning 1928 to 1976.  We spin some fine Chicago blues from Little Johnny Jones, Muddy Waters and Joe Carter. Jones was a terrific piano player who worked extensively with Tampa Red, Elmore James and just about everyone else on the Chicago scene including Muddy Waters. Unfortunately he recorded little under his own name, never making it past his 40th birthday. Luckily Jones was caught on tape in 1963 working with Billy Boy Arnold in a Chicago folk club called the Fickle Pickle run by Michael Bloomfield. Norman Dayron recorded Johnny on portable equipment which has been released on the Alligator record titled Johnny Jones with Billy Boy Arnold. A couple of additional tracks from this recording appear on Chicago Blues – Live At The Fickle Pickle, a long out of print LP on the Flyright label. From that records we hear “Johnny’s Boogie.” Our Muddy Waters selection, “Little Brown Bird”, is one of four songs (“Black Angel” was not issued) from two 1962 sessions that features the great Earl Hooker.  Apparently the tracks were laid down and Waters vocal was dubbed later. We also play Hooker’s “Guitar Rag.”

We also spotlight some fine country blues including Texas artists Henry Thomas and the two from the obscure Gene Campbell. Not much is known about Texas songster Henry Thomas. Evidence suggests he was a musical hobo who rode the rails across Texas. Most agree he was the oldest African-American folk artist to produce a significant body of recordings having been born in 1874 .His music gives us a window into what the black music sounded like before it was actually labeled blues. The 23 songs he cut for Vocalion between 1927 and 1929 include a spiritual, ballads, reels, dance songs, and eight selections titled blues. He played on guitar and also played the quills or panpipes, a common but seldom-recorded African-American instrument. Campbell was an obscure artist, probably from Texas, who cut 24 sides for Brunswick at sessions in 1929, 1930 and 1931. Nothing else is know about him.

Other country blues on tap include fine field recordings of Willie Brown and  Cat Iron. Willie Brown was recorded by John and Alan Lomax at Sadie Beck’s Plantation in Arkansas. Lomax wrote the following in his book The Land Where The Blues Began: “Well, I ain’t got no voice, but I’ll give you the words of an old Memphis song.” William Brown began to sing in his sweet true country voice, poking in delicate passages at every pause, like the guitar was a second voice commenting with feeling on the ironic words of the blues….This was the real blues…. The blues in print give you the skeleton only. If you’ve never heard the blues, get yourself a record and listen and then come back and join us…. William Brown’s song can last until the morning….” In 1958, folklorist Frederic Ramsey, Jr. recorded someone named Cat-Iron in Buckner’s Alley in Natchez, Mississippi. Ramsey wrote a detailed poetic description of his discovery of Cat-Iron for The Saturday Review which offered no background on the artist. Cat-Iron’s sole testament is the album Cat-Iron Sings Blues and Hymns for the Folkways label.

Show Notes:

By now you’ve probably heard about the passing of oral historian, radio host and writer Studs Terkel just over a month ago. It’s a shame he didn’t hang on long enough to see Barack Obama win the presidency. Studs was a champion of the underdog, the “non-celebrated” and had plenty to say on racial issues. I don’t claim to be an expert on Studs and in fact feel a bit guilty that I didn’t read more by him. What I did know about Studs was his connection with the blues; in particular the two wonderful albums of interviews and music that were issued on the Folkways label: Big Bill Broonzy: His Story (1956) and Blues With Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee (1958). These were from Studs’ radio program, which he began In 1953 on WFMT, Chicago and ran until 1998. There was also another album with Pete Seeger, which I don’t own, called Studs Terkel’s Weekly Almanac: Radio Programme, No. 4: Folk Music and Blues. Oh, and like myself, Studs was born in the Bronx which is always a plus in my book. I won’t rehash Studs’ background as the internet is loaded with obituaries but I thought I would share the above-mentioned Folkways albums in their entirety.

Broonzy spent a good part of the early ’40s barnstorming the South with Lil Green’s road show or back in Chicago with Memphis Slim.He continued alternating stints in Chicago and New York with coast-to-coast road work until 1951. In 1951, Broonzy took his first tour of Europe, where he was met with enthusiasm and appreciation. 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. Back in the States he recorded for Chess, Columbia and Folkways, working with a spectrum of artists from Blind John Davis to Pete Seeger. In 1955, Big Bill Blues, his life as told to Danish writer Yannick Bruynoghe, was published. In 1957, after one more British tour, the pace began to catch up with Broonzy. He spent the last year of his life in and out of hospitals and succumbed to cancer in 1958.

Show Notes:

Unlike blues artists like Big Bill or Memphis Minnie who recorded extensively over three or four decades, Blind Boy Fuller recorded his substantial body of work over a short, six-year span. Nevertheless, he was one of the most recorded artists of his time and by far the most popular and influential Piedmont blues player of all time. Fuller could play in multiple styles: slide, ragtime, pop, and blues were all enhanced by his National steel guitar. Fuller worked with some fine sidemen, including Gary Davis, Floyd Council, Sonny Jones, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and washboard player Bull City Red. Initially discovered and promoted by Carolina entrepreneur H. B. Long, Fuller recorded for ARC and Decca. He also served as a conduit to recording sessions, steering fellow blues musicians to the studio.

What follows is a sketch of Fuller and some background on today’s featured artists. For an in-depth look at Fuller and the Piedmont blues I recommend Bruce Bastin’s exhaustive study Red River Blues. Bastin was assisted greatly by the efforts of Pete Lowry who was featured on the program recently.

Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina to Calvin Allen and Mary Jane Walker. As a boy he learned to play the guitar and also learned from older singers the field hollers, country rags, and traditional songs and blues popular in poor, rural areas. He married Cora Allen young and worked as a laborer, but began to lose his eyesight in his mid-teens. By 1928 he was completely blind, and turned to whatever employment he could find as a singer and entertainer, often playing in the streets. By studying the records of blues players like Blind Blake and the “live” playing of Gary Davis, he became a formidable guitarist, and played on street corners and at house parties in Winston-Salem, Danville, and then Durham, North Carolina. In Durham, playing around the tobacco warehouses, he developed a local following which included guitarists Floyd Council and Richard Trice, as well as harmonica player Sonny Terry and washboard player/guitarist George Washington.  In 1935, Burlington record store manager and talent scout James Baxter Long secured him a recording session with the American Recording Company (ARC). Allen, Davis and Washington recorded several tracks in New York City, including the traditional “Rag, Mama, Rag”. To promote the material, Long decided to rename Allen as “Blind Boy Fuller”, and also named Washington “Bull City Red.” Over the next five years Fuller made over 120 sides. In April 1936, Fuller recorded ten solo performances, and also recorded with guitarist Floyd Council. The following year, having auditioning for J. Mayo Williams, he recorded for the Decca label, but then reverted to ARC. Later in 1937, he made his first recordings with Sonny Terry. In 1938 Fuller was imprisoned for shooting a pistol at his wife, wounding her in the leg, causing him to miss out on John Hammond’s “Spirituals to Swing” concert in NYC that year. While Fuller was eventually released, it was Sonny Terry who went in his stead, the beginning of a long “folk music” career.Fuller was criticized by some as a derivative musician, but his ability to fuse together elements of other traditional and contemporary songs and reformulate them into his own performances, attracted a broad audience. He was an expressive vocalist and a masterful guitar player; best remembered for his up-tempo ragtime hits including “Step It Up and Go.” At the same time he was capable of deeper material. Fuller died in 1941 at the age of 33, of blood poisoning that resulted in kidney failure, popularly ascribed to his heavy drinking.

Floyd Council was born on the 2nd of September 1911 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and began his career playing in the streets of Chapel Hill in the mid-‘20s with musical brothers Leo and Thomas Strowd. Floyd occasionally worked with Blind Boy Fuller in the ‘30s, which may have led to his first recording sessions. In late January 1937 ACR Records scout John Baxter Long heard him, playing alone on a street in Chapel Hill. It was Long who had first brought Fuller to NYC to record in July 1935. Long invited Floyd to join Fuller on his third trip to New York. Floyd agreed, and a week later the three traveled to the city. During his second visit to New York in December, Floyd was used as a second guitar only. His solo tracks were later issued under the name ‘Blind Boy Fuller’s buddy’. In all he cut six sides under his own name and seven backing Fuller. Floyd performed around Chapel Hill through the ‘40s and ‘50s, both with Thomas Strowd and on his own. In the late ‘60s, a stroke partially paralyzed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills. Floyd moved to Sanford, North Carolina, where he died in June 1976. His final recordings, made in August 1970, did not, apparently, merit release.

Rev. gary Davis

Willie Trice and his brother Richard became close friends with Blind Boy Fuller and Fuller took them up to New York where they cut six sides together (two unissued) for Decca in 1937. Richard Trice recorded after the war for Savoy in 1946 as Little Boy Fuller as well as a couple of sides in 1948 and 1952/53. Richard Trice was later recorded by Pete Lowry but those recordings remain unreleased. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that Willie Trice recorded again. Blue And Rag’d , his sole album, was released on Lowry’s Trix label in 1973.

Gary Davis was a major influence on Blind Boy Fuller. In the late 1920’s he was one of the most renowned practitioners of the East Coast school of ragtime guitar. He backed Fuller on second guitar at a 1935 session. Davis moved to Durham in the mid-’20s, by which time he was a full-time street musician. Davis went into the recording studio for the first time in the 1930’s with the backing of a local businessman. Davis cut a mixture of blues and spirituals for the American Record Company label, but there was never an agreement about payment for the recordings, and following these sessions, it was 19 years before he entered the studio again.

Sonny Terry was born Saunders Terrell on October 24, 1911, in Greensboro, NC. He began traveling to nearby Raleigh and Durham, performing on street corners for tips. In 1934, he befriended the popular guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Fuller convinced Terry to move to Durham, where the two immediately gained a strong local following. By 1937, they were offered an opportunity to go to New York and record for the Vocalion label. Between 1937 and 1940 he backed Fuller on over two-dozen sides. A year later, Terry would be back in New York taking part in John Hammond’s legendary Spirituals to Swing concert. Upon returning to Durham, Terry continued playing regularly with Fuller and also met his future partner, guitarist Brownie McGhee, who would accompany Terry off and on for the next two decades. McGhee was initially sent to look after Terry by Blind Boy’s manager, J.B. Long. Long figured McGhee might get a chance to play some of the same shows as Terry. A friendship developed between the two men and following Fuller’s death in 1941, Terry and McGhee moved to New York.

Sonny Terry

In the late 1940 McGhee came into contact with washboard player Bull City Red who in turn introduced McGhee to talent scout J.B. Long. Long got him a recording contract with OKeh/Columbia in 1940; his debut session in Chicago produced a dozen tracks over two days. Long’s principal blues artist, Blind Boy Fuller, died in 1941, precipitating Okeh to issue some of McGhee’s early efforts under the alias of Blind Boy Fuller No. 2. McGhee cut a moving tribute song, “Death of Blind Boy Fuller,” shortly after the passing. McGhee’s third marathon session for OKeh in 1941 paired him for the first time with Sonny Terry. McGhee claimed to have never recorded with Fuller but in later years when someone played him “Precious Lord” he recalled that it was him singing with Fuller on guitar.

Bull City Red, whose real name was George Washington, is best known as a sometimes sideman on washboard to the likes of Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry, and Blind Gary Davis. Red led an otherwise blind group that included Fuller, Sonny Terry and, for a time, Blind Gary Davis as well, and with help from their manager, department store owner J.B. Long, landed a contract with Vocalion. At one point in their history, Red, Fuller, Terry, and guitarist Sonny Jones performed together as “Brother George and His Sanctified Singers,” and made several recordings of gospel-themed material. Red was later responsible for hooking Terry up with Brownie McGhee, whom he met while on a trip to Burlington. McGhee was partnered with a blues harpist and one-man band named Jordan Webb at the time, and Red introduced the two to Fuller and Terry as well as their manager. Red cut more than a dozen sides showing off his skills as a singer and guitarist as well as on the washboard, between 1935 and 1939.

By now you’ve probably heard about the passing of oral historian, radio host and writer Studs Terkel. It’s a shame he didn’t hang on long enough to see Barack Obama win the presidency. Studs was a champion of the underdog, the “non-celebrated” and had plenty to say on racial issues. I don’t claim to be an expert on Studs and in fact feel a bit guilty that I didn’t read more by him. As I write this I glance over to my book shelf to see Studs’ Hard Times looking back at me guiltily and unread. What I did know about Studs was his connection with the blues; in particular the two wonderful albums of interviews and music that were issued on the Folkways label: Big Bill Broonzy: His Story (1956) and Blues With Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee (1958). These were from Studs’ radio program which he began In 1953 on WFMT, Chicago and ran until 1998. There was also another album with Pete Seeger, which I don’t own, called Studs Terkel’s Weekly Almanac: Radio Programme, No. 4: Folk Music and Blues. Oh, and like myself, Studs was born in the Bronx which is always a plus in my book.

I won’t rehash Studs’ background as the internet is loaded with obituaries but I thought I would share the above mentioned Folkways albums. I should mention that these albums can be purchased at the Smithsonian Global Sound website. The tracks from Blues With Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee come from my own LP  that I digitized while the tracks from Big Bill Broonzy: His Story I downloaded from the Smithsonian website because my LP is too battered.

Key To The Highway (MP3)

What Are The Blues (MP3)

Blood River Blues (Brownie’s Blues) (MP3)

Crow Jane Blues (MP3)

Willie May (MP3)

Daisy (MP3)

Louise / Shuffle Rag (medley) (MP3)

The Blues (MP3)

Talk on the Blues (MP3)

Talk on the Spirituals (MP3)

Oh, What a Beautiful City (MP3)

I’m Going To Tell God How You Treat Me (MP3)

Hush, Somebody Is Calling Me (MP3)

When the Saints Go Marching In (MP3)

Early Days: Plough Hand Blues / C.C. Rider (MP3)

Blues: Bill Bailey (MP3)

Willie Mae Blues (MP3)

Experiences: This Train / Mule Ridin’ / Talking Blues (MP3)

Travelling: Keys to the Highway / Black, Brown and White (MP3)

Joe Turner Blues No. 1 (MP3)

Show Notes:

Although the harmonica was present in many pre-war recordings, it became a dominant force in the 1950’s, when it was amplified by the likes of Big Walter Horton, Little Walter and Snooky Pryor. As such many players and fans seem to think that blues harmonica began with Little Walter and are unaware of the rich early tradition of harmonica recordings. In the early days harmonica soloists were common who played now forgotten pieces like train imitations and set pieces like Lost John, Fox Chase, Mama Blues and other call-and-response pieces that featured the harmonica over the voice, if the voice was used at all. We hear many of these players on today’s program including DeFord Bailey, George “Bullet” Williams, William McCoy, Alfred Lewis and Sonny Terry. We also feature early harmonica/vocalists like Daddy Stovepipe, Jaybird Coleman and Jazz Gillum. In addition we hear some great accompanists like Rhythm Willie, Robert Cooksey and Blues Birdhead. There were also play tracks by several notable harmonica players who worked in jug bands like Noah Lewis, Jed Davenport and Eddie Mapp. It was John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson who defined the language of modern blues harmonica playing so it’s fitting we end with a few of his numbers. Below is some brief background on some of today’s performers.

Bobby Leecan (who sang, and played guitar and kazoo) performed in a duo with harmonica player Robert Cooksey. Leecan and Cooksey teamed up for the first time in 1926 to cut sides for Victor, their recording output inhabiting a borderland between blues, vaudeville, and jazz. They are believed to have been based out of Philadelphia. Cooksey first entered the studio in the spring of 1924, when he backed up blues singer Viola McCoy on sessions for Vocalion. That puts him within months of the very first recording of harmonica ever made, the Clara Smith recording “My Doggone Lazy Man,” which featured harmonica player Herbert Leonard. The following year, he backed up Sara Martin on Okeh label. It was two years later when he finally teamed up with Leecan.

Johnny Watson, alias Daddy Stovepipe, was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1867 and died in Chicago, in 1963. A veteran of the turn of the century medicine shows, he was in his late fifties when he became one of the first blues harp players to appear on record in 1924. He later recorded with his wife, Mississippi Sarah, in the 1930’s and spent his last years as a regular performer on Chicago’s famous Maxwell Street, where he made his last recordings.

DeFord Bailey

DeFord Bailey cut several records in 1927-1928, all of them harmonica solos. Emblematic of the ambiguity of Bailey’s position as a black recording artist is the fact his arguably greatest recording, “John Henry”, was released separately in both RCA’s ‘race’ and ‘hillbilly’ series. Bailey was a pioneer member of the WSM Grand Ole Opry, and one of its most popular performers, appearing on the program from 1927 to 1941. During this period he toured with many major country stars, including Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, and Roy Acuff. Bailey was fired by WSM in 1941 because of a licensing conflict with BMI-ASCAP which prevented him from playing his best known tunes on the radio. This effectively ended his performance career, and he spent the rest of his life shining shoes, cutting hair, and renting out rooms in his home to make a living. Though he continued to play the harp, he almost never performed publicly. One of his rare appearances occurred in 1974, when he agreed to make one more appearance on the Opry. This became the occasion for the Opry’s first annual Old Timers’ Show.

Singer and harpist Noah Lewis was a key figure on the Memphis jug band circuit of the 1920’s. Upon moving to Memphis, he teamed with Gus Cannon, becoming an essential component of Cannon’s Jug Stompers. On a series of sides cut in the first week of October 1929, Lewis made his debut as a name artist, cutting three great harmonica solos as well as “Going to Germany,” which spotlighted his fine vocal style. He also cut a few sides under his own name between 1929-30. As the Depression wore on Lewis slipped into obscurity, living a life of extreme poverty; his death on February 7, 1961 was a result of gangrene brought on by frostbite.

As a child, Jaybird Coleman, taught himself how to play harmonica and would perform at parties, both for his family and friends. Coleman served in the Army during World War I and after his discharge moved to the Birmingham, AL area. While he lived in Birmingham, he would perform on street corners and occasionally play with the Birmingham Jug Band. Jaybird made his first recordings in 1927 for Gennett. For the next few years, he simply played on street corners. Coleman cut his final sessions in 1930 on the OKeh label. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, Coleman played on street corners throughout Alabama. By the end of the 1940’s he had disappeared from the blues scene. In 1950 Coleman died of cancer.

Realizing his eyesight would keep him from pursuing a profession in farming, Sonny Terry decided instead to be a blues singer. He began traveling to nearby Raleigh and Durham, performing on street corners for tips. In 1934, he befriended the popular guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Fuller convinced Terry to move to Durham, where the two immediately gained a strong local following. By 1937, they were offered an opportunity to go to New York and record for the Vocalion label. A year later, Terry would be back in New York taking part in John Hammond’s legendary Spirituals to Swing concert. Upon returning to Durham, Terry continued playing regularly with Fuller and also met his future partner, guitarist Brownie McGhee, who would accompany Terry off and on for the next two decades.

Sonny Boy Williamson I

John Lee Williamson is regarded as “the first truly virtuosic blues harmonica player”, “who brought the harmonica to prominence as a major blues instrument.” Generally regarded as the original “Sonny Boy”, John Lee Williamson was born in Jackson, Tennessee on March 30, 1914. He hoboed with Yank Rachell and John Estes through Tennessee and Arkansas in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. He worked with Sunnyland Slim in Memphis in the early 1930’s. John Lee Williamson moved to Chicago in 1934 where he worked Maxwell Street and as a sideman with numerous blues groups at the local clubs. His first recording, made in May of 1937 at the Leland Hotel in Aurora, Illinois for the Bluebird label, is also the first recording of “Good Morning Little School Girl”, which has become a much recorded blues classic tune. Bluebird recorded him until 1945 when Victor recorded him into 1947. Williamson worked frequently with Muddy Waters from 1943 and toured with Lazy Bill Lucas through the 1940’s. He recorded with Big Joe Williams for the Columbia label in Chicago in 1947. In 1948 upon leaving the Plantation Club in Chicago after playing a gig, he was mugged and beaten. He died of a fractured skull and other injuries on June 1, 1948 and is buried in Jackson, Tennessee.

Jazz Gillum is usually treated with indifference among blues critics, looked upon as a rather generic performer who typified the mainstream Chicago blues style of the 1930’s and 40’s. While there’s some truth to this, Gillum’s recordings were consistently entertaining throughout his sixteen year recording career punctuated with a fair number of exceptional sides. Gillum was by no means a harmonica virtuoso – he had a kind of wheezy high-pitched sound – he was certainly no Sonny Boy Williamson I and certainly no “Harmonica King” as he boasts in “Gillum’s Windy Blues.” Yet he was a very expressive, easygoing singer who penned a number of evocative songs backed by some of the era’s best blues musicians. Gillum recorded 100 sides between 1934-49 as a leader in addition to session work with Big Bill Broonzy, Curtis Jones and the State Street Boys.

Throughout the show we also play a number of little recorded, shadowy figures such as George “Bullet” Williams, William McCoy, Alfred Lewis, Blues Birdhead, Ollis Martin and Eddie Mapp. George “Bullet” Williams was originally from Alabama. He cut one session for paramount in 1928. Ollis Martin cut one side in 1927 for Gennet. He was active around the Birmingham area in the latter part of that decade, also showing up on two gospel sides the same year by Jaybird Coleman. Blues Birdhead’s real was James Simons who cut one 78 for Okeh in 1929. Alfred Lewis cut one issued 78 in 1930 for Okeh.