In part one we followed Sylvester Weaver’s career up through his April 1927 sessions. Up to that point Weaver had only sang lead on two numbers but in upcoming sessions would sing on several numbers. Weaver sang in a careful, deliberate manner which revealed a fine baritone. What wasn’t evident was his lyric ability which displays a wicked wit and some very imaginative an unusual imagery. I’ll be reprinting many of these lyrics and want to thank John M. and the folks at Weenie Campbell who have done a remarkable job transcribing Weaver’s lyrics.
One of Weaver’s duties for Okeh was apparently as talent scout. On April 27th April, 1927 he received the following Western Union cable from Tom Rockwell, OKeh’s Director of Recording:
Report with Jug-band as soon as possible.
Wire me Chase Hotel when you leave and if quartet and girls is coming.
T.G. Rockwell
It’s clear from this that Weaver was in charge of bringing talent to the OKeh studio in St. Louis for the session on April 29th and 30th. The jug band mentioned in the cable is Whistler and His Jug Band which had recorded for Gennet in 1924. The others taking part in the session were Helen Humes and the Kentucky Jubilee Four. The Kentucky Jubilee Four cut four religious sides on April 29th and Helen Humes made her debut the next day. Although Lonnie Johnson played on Humes’ two issued sides, Weaver may have played on the session too since one of the unissued titles is “Stomping Weaver’s Blues.”
On August 30th Weaver accompanied Sara Martin for the last time in New York on a four song session and the following day cut six solo sides, two of which were unissued. Martin’s sides are particularly strong and Weaver’s playing is as tasteful and inventive as we’ve come to be expect. “Black Hearse Blues” is a commanding performance with dark, unique lyrics:
Old dead wagon, don’t you dare stop at my door (2X)
You took my first three daddies, but you can’t have number four
Smallpox got my first man, booze killed number two (2X)
I wore out the last one but with this one, I ain’t through
Roll on, old black hearse, don’t you dare to stop (2X)
My man ain’t fit to die, he’s a special liquor cop
Low-down bone orchard, call your corpse cart back (2X)
My daddy’s engine still running on my double track
Black hearse, there ain’t no use, you sure can’t have my man
Black hearse, ain’t no use, you sure can’t have my man
I’m just using him up on the old installment plan
“Useless Blues” is sung in a lighter manner but showcases Martin singing from the viewpoint of a saucy, independent woman as she explains to her man:
Oh, hey, what’s that I heard you say?
Hey, what’s that I heard you say?
You are going away and leave me today
If you go away, and leave me today (2x)
Says, you can’t come back, so you had better stay
Uh, here’s a little lesson I want you to learn (2X)
That if you play with fire you are sure to get burned
Now, you know you used to love me just like a sheik (2X)
But now all you can do is to pat my cheek
So if you want to come back, papa, you’ve got to get some monkey glands (2X)
‘Cause I don’t want no cripple man hanging on my hands
The following day Weaver cut four vocal numbers: the instrumentals “Soft Steel Piston” and “Off Center Blues” with the latter two numbers unissued and no copy of “Off Center Blues” found. “Soft Steel Piston” first surfaced in the 1970’s and like “Six String Banjo Piece”, no file information exists on this number. It was first issued on the album Folk Music In America Vol. 14 – Solo And Display Music part of a 15 LP Library of Congress series to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976. Both numbers were likely provided titles by Dick Spottswood who compiled and wrote the notes for the series. “Soft Steel Piston” is lovely, gentle mid-tempo number featuring Hawaiian style slide with Weaver accompanied by guitarist Walter Beasley. “Dad’s Blues” is a beautiful twelve-bar blues as is “What Makes A Man Blue” with a musically similar approach. “Can’t Be Trusted Blues” is languorously sung blues as Weaver delivers menacing lyrics quite at odds with his mellow vocals:
I don’t love nobody, that’s my policy (2X)
I’ll tell the world that nobody can get along with me
I can’t be trusted, can’t be satisfied (2X)
The men all know it and pin their women to their side
I will sure back-bite you, gnaw you to the bone (2X)
I don’t mean maybe, I can’t let women alone
Pull down your windows and lock up all your doors (2X)
Got ways like the devil, papa’s skating on all fours
“Penitentiary Bound Blues” is another mellow number given an exceptional lonesome sounding vocal performance as Weaver really inhabits the persona of a prisoner resigned to his fate:
Thought I was goin’ to the workhouse, my heart was filled with strife (2X)
But I’m goin’ to the penitentiary, judge sentenced me for life
There’ll be rock walls around me, burnin’ sand below
There’ll be rock walls around me, burnin’ land below
There forever, got no other place to go
Goodbye, here’s the jailer with the key (2X)
Farewell to freedom, tain’t no use to pity me
Gonna get my number, four-eleven forty-four (2X)
Soon be an inmate, steel upon my door
Killed my triflin’ woman, folks, I done commit a crime (2X)
Nothin’ will release me but old Father Time
Weaver was back in the studios for two sessions on November 26th and 27th. Walter Beasley appears alongside Weaver on all numbers and Helen Humes recorded eight numbers with the duo. In 1977 Jim O’Neal interviewed Humes (Living Blues No. 52, 1982) and she recalled Weaver and the circumstances behind these recordings:
LIVING BLUES: You made some records with Sylvester Weaver.
HELEN HUMES: Yes, he was the man, he had heard me play with a little band-we had a little Sunday school band and we would go out and play for little dances, you how, and play at the theater and what have you. And Mr. Weaver heard me and he brought Mr. Rockwell out to my house to hear me sing and play. I used to play the piano. So I played and sang for Mr. Rockwell, and he wanted me to come to St. Louis to make this tape. And so 1 went, he tool; my mother with me because I was a little young to travel by myself. So then after I made that, well, he wanted me to call my mother to ask her if I could join a show. And my mother told him no, I’d have to finish school first, and then after I finished school, than whatever I wanted to do, she would go along, you know, if it was something nice.
Was Sylvester Weaver involved with your work very much?
No, no, on that just that particular thing.
Did the producers or the A&R men give those songs to you, or did you have some songs already?
No, they gave ‘em to me. Yeah. There, boy, here I am, a little 14-year-old, singing Do What You Did Last Night, [Laughs] and If Papa Has Outside Lovin’, Mama Has Outside Lovin’ Too. You know I didn’t have that. [Laughs.] Yes
One year before her death Humes wrote writer Guido Van Rijn the following letter in response to an inquiry:
“We were playing a theater called The Palace, at 11th and Walnut and Mr. Weaver heard me, and came to me and introduced himself. I had heard of him, but had never met him before. He got my name, address and phone number, and the next time I saw him he was at my house Mr. Rockwell. He became very good friends with my mother and father, and when I made my second session in New York, my mother let me go with Mr. and Mrs. Weaver. He used to play the T.O.B.A. circuit and traveled the south. He was very well-known down there. …I’ve never heard no one say a bad thing about Mr. Weaver. All his Smoketown friends adored him. He was so nice + friendly and everybody in Ky. adored him.”
The Humes recordings are marked by some terrific backing from Weaver and Beasley who, free from vocal duties, lay down some exciting, dramatic accompaniment . While Humes sounds young, she possesses a strong, bright voice with clear diction and really sings these numbers with conviction. The lyrics to many are quite unusual and I assume it was probably Weaver who wrote the numbers. Take “Cross-Eyed Blues” for example:
Got one superstition, that’s the one I really prize (2X)
I don’t like nobody who’s got a pair of mean crossed eyes
Had a cross-eyed man, hateful as a man could be (2X)
Slept with his eyes open, always looking ‘cross at me
Gee, but he was ugly, eyed me every way I turn (2X)
I could feel him lookin’, Lordy, how his eyes did burn
Crossed eyes make me shiver, ’cause they’re evil, low and mean (2X)
Hateful as the Devil, queerest eyes I’ve ever seen
Folks who’s got them cross-eyes, says they see in vain
Folks who’s got them cross-eyes, things they see is always wrong
That’s why me and cross-eyes, never gonna get along
If I see a cross-eyed person I was about to meet (2X)
I’d just cross my fingers, then I’d walk across the street
“Alligator Blues” is a similarly strange and intriguing number with a cinematic quality:
Sleepin’ in the swamps last night, down in the Everglades (2X)
Woke and found the alligators ’bout to make a raid
Heard ‘em talkin’ softly, said, “We’re gonna have dark meat.” (2X)
Gee, their mouths did water, thought that they was gonna eat
My flesh commenced to crawlin’, my skin began to itch (2X)
It was time for travelin’, but the swamp was dark as sin
Soon the moon was shinin’ softly through the old cane brake (2X)
Got myself together for a dash I tried to make
The sweat it was a-popping, hair was standing on my head (2X)
I said, “Lord, have mercy, or that woman’s gonna be dead
“Alligator Blues” was advertised in the January 14th, 1928 Chicago Defender as the flipside to “Everybody Does It Now.” “Race Horse Blues” is a another humorous number featuring some exciting interplay between Weaver and Beasley and more marvelous wordplay; the third couplet’s a real gem:
Went down to the race track, with my money in my hand (2X)
Bet on Chocolate Puddin’, but he just an also-ran
On old Fleetfoot Suzy, I done and went and bet the most (2X)
She never did get started, the ponies left her at the post
Never seen a race horse like the one that broke my heart (2X)
Just a rippling has-been, he made my dough from me depart
Darn that lazy jockey, wouldn’t do what he was told (2X)
Now I’m in the barrel, sweet papa’s left in the cold
Bet on old Speeding Meter, sure thing and he couldn’t lose (2X)
Now I’m broke and busted and cryin’ with the race horse blues
Similar lyrical invention can be found in “Nappy Headed Blues” and the hilariously vivid “”Garlic Blues.” Weaver takes the vocals on six numbers including fine narrative blues like “Chitlin’ Rag Blues”, “Railroad Porter Blues”, the latter advertised in the Chicago Defender with its flipside “Polecat Blues”, and more striking lyricism in “Me And My Tapeworm” and “Devil Blues.” Dick Spottswood wrote the following regarding “Me And My Tapeworm:”
“This gourmand’s confession is one of several intriguing and previously undocumented recordings which have emerged from the CBS archives. No information in their extensive files revealed its existence; a sample pressing was made to determine what the music was. Though we are certain about the performers’ identities, the title of the song is taken from song’s words.”
The song first surfaced in the 1970’s along with “Soft Steel Piston” and “Six String Banjo Piece” and, like those numbers appears as part of a 15 LP Library of Congress series to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976 o the volume titled Folk Music In America Vol. 11 – Songs Of Humor And Hilarity. Why this number wasn’t released is anybody’s guess. The lyrics are truly remarkable and the numbers sports some marvelous bottleneck that really drive the song home:
Gee, I’m always hungry, can’t get enough to eat
Gee, I’m hungry, can’t get enough to eat
I’m just like a savage, I could eat a barrel of meat
Set down to the table, ate up everything I could found
Set down to the table, ate up everything I found
Would have ate the dishes if someone hadn’t been around
Pot of ham and cabbage, ain’t enough to fill mine (2X)
That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen fine
Saw my family doctor, said I had a big tapeworm
I saw my family doctor, said I had a big tapeworm
Said I had ate a cow, made me good and firm
Went to the country, broke into a chicken coop
I went to the country, broke into a chicken coop
Stole a dozen chickens, put ‘em in a pot of soup
I’m a greedy glutton, eat fifty times a day (2X)
When I’m around a pigpen, they hide the slop away
Guess me and my tapeworm must go further down the road (2X)
‘Cause we eat so much, won’t nobody give us no board
“Devil’s Blues” is another imaginative and humorous number:
Had a dream while sleeping, found myself way down below, my Lord,
I had a dream while sleeping, found myself way down below
Couldn’t get to Heaven, Hell’s the place I had to go
Devil had me cornered, stuck me with his old pitchfork (2X)
And he put me in an oven, thought he had me for roast pork
Hellhounds start to chasin’ me and I was a runnin’ fool
Hellhounds start to chase me and I was a runnin’ fool
My ankles caught on fire, couldn’t keep my puppies cool
Four thousand devils with big tails and sharp horns, my Lordy,
Saw a thousand devils with tails and sharp horns
Everyone wandered, tried to step on my corns
For miles around I heard men scream and yell, my Lord,
For miles around, heard men scream and yell
Couldn’t see a woman, I said, “Lord, ain’t this Hell?”
This number was surprisingly updated by Lazy Bill Lucas in 1954 for Chance as “I Had A Dream.” The two day session was of a remarkably productive, high caliber with Weaver and Beasley proving an unbeatable team. 
Nothing is known of Beasley and when asked Humes did not remember him. The duo cut loose on two instrumentals: the breakneck masterpiece “Bottleneck Blues” and a gorgeous, seductive reading of “St. Louis Blues.”
Weaver and Beasley were back in the studio for the final time on November 30th for a five song session. It was Beasley’s turn to shine, taking the vocal on four numbers: “Georgia Skin”, “Southern Man Blues”, “Toad Frog Blues” and “Sore Feet Blues.” “Georgia Skin” is named for the card game celebrated by Peg Leg Howell, Memphis Minnie and others. Beasley draws out his vocals slowly and surely, revealing a very expressive vocal style. The session features superb integration between bottleneck and the accompanying guitar, particularly on “Toad Frog Blues” and “Sore Feet Blues.” There seems to be a a bit of conjecture as to who’s playing the bottleneck and who’s providing accompaniment. Once again we are treated to some imaginative lyrics as in “Toad Frog Blues” which touches on the surreal:
Tadpole in the river, hatchin’ underneath of a log (2X)
He got too old to be a tadpole, he hatched into a natch’l frog
If a toad frog had wings, he would be flyin’ all around (2X)
He would not have his bottom bumpin’ thumpin’ on the ground
Ever time I see a toad frog, Lord, it makes me cry (2X)
Make me think about my baby, when he (sic) roll her goo-goo eyes
The humorous “Sore Feet Blues” is another gem sporting a very droll delivery from Beasley:
I got two feet, keeps me with the blues (2X)
Got nineteen corns, can’t wear nar’ pair shoes
A peg-legged man, he’s one lucky fool (2X)
Only got one feet to hurt, he kicks that like a mule
I can’t walk, feets hurts me when I stand
I can’t walk around, my feets hurts me when I stand
Got to take a lesson, learn to walk on my hands
‘Black Spider Blues” is a solo number taken at Weaver’s typically relaxed pace with some terrific superstitious imagery:
Saw a big black spider, creepin’ up my bedroom wall (2X)
Finds out he was only goin’ to get his ashes hauled
Say, if that black spider bit you, it would be “Too bad, Jim” (2X)
Give your heart to the devil and your hips would belong to him
I’m gonna get a black spider, put him in the bottom of your shoe (2X)
That’s the only way I can get rid of a jade like you
A rattlesnake is dangerous, a black spider is worser still (2X)
A razor gun, a pistol, will kill you like a black spider will
I been workin’ like a work ox, on Saturday night you got my pay (2X)
While you’re in the black bottom dance hall, black bottomin’ your
time away.
Black spider, black horses, black horses with the curtains down (2X)
Black gal, you and your black bottom be six feet in the ground
Sylvester Weaver’s career came to an abrupt end after these recordings. It’s unknown why he stopped recording as he appears to have still been quite popular. Of his post-recording career we know that Weaver went into the Chauffeur business. As the blues revival was picking up steam, Weaver died of carcinoma of the tongue on April 4th, 1960 at 2001 Old Shepardville Road in Louisville. It was only two years after his death hat blues researcher Paul Garon, at the prompting of Paul Oliver, spoke to Weaver’s widow Dorothy who said she had never heard her husband play. Garon would later open up a Chicago book store named Beasley Books (wonder where he got that name?!) which remains active to this day. Fortunately Weaver’s widow saved some of his old records and his scrapbook which has become a prime source of information about Weaver’s recording activities. In 1992 the Kentucky Blues Society raised enough funds to place a headstone on the grave of Sylvester Weaver, and this same organization presents its Sylvester Weaver Award annually to “those who have dedicated their lives to presenting, preserving, and perpetuating the blues.”
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Can’t Be Trusted Blues (MP3) 
Penitentiary Blues (MP3)
Soft Steel Piston (MP3)
Me And My Tapeworm (MP3)
Devil Blues (MP3)
Alligator Blues (MP3)
Race Horse Blues (MP3)
Bottleneck Blues (MP3)
St. Louis Blues (MP3)
Toad Frog Blues (MP3)
Sore Feet Blues (MP3)
It’s hard to think of the blues without a guitar but in the years when blues first emerged on record it was the blues queens who dominated the market. When the guitar did appear, after several years, it was treated as quite a novelty. The man who introduced the guitar on record was the remarkable guitarist Sylvester Weaver, a man of many talents who cut a significant body of work at the dawn of the blues recording era but remains little remembered today. Not only does he have the distinction of making the first solo recordings of blues guitar playing in 1923 but he was also the first to provide guitar accompaniment on record, backing the popular Sara Martin. Through the end of 1927, when Weaver decided to retire from music, he recorded a total of 26 sides under his own name, two dozen sides backing Sara Martin and eight sides accompanying a teenaged Helen Humes. Weaver was a consummate guitarist, displaying brilliance and invention on just about every session he was involved with, whether providing tasteful backing to female singers, playing deft slide or showing off his ragtime picking style. He also happened to be a fine banjo player, a mannered but superb blues singer and a lyricist of rare wit and invention.
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| Sylvester Weaver & Sara Martin |
Relatively little is known about Weaver although we are lucky that he left behind a rare paper trail with several of his records advertised, a number of mentions in the black press of the time and most importantly the discovery of his scrapbook in the 1970’s. Weaver was born on July 25, 1897 in Louisville, Kentucky, a resident of Smoketown, a neighborhood one mile southeast of downtown Louisville. In fact Weaver lived his entire life in the Louisville area. From his death certificate we know that his father was Walter Weaver, his mother was Mattie who’s maiden name was Emery and that he died of cancer on April 4, 1960 in Louisville. In Louisville blacks lived in separate colored districts: Uptown, Downtown and Smoketown. Most of the area’s blues artists came from Smoketown which acquired its name from the dirty smoke from the many small industrial plants burning soft coal for power and heat. The area had many saloons which featured blues singers playing guitar or piano in the back rooms. Smoketown has been a historically black neighborhood since the Civil War. With its shotgun houses and narrow streets, the neighborhood was a densely populated area with a population of over 15,000 by 1880. African American property ownership was rare, with most living in properties rented from whites. Weaver immortalized the area in the 1924 recording “Smoketown Strut.” Outside of this biographical sketch little else is known and he was little remembered by his peers. The only artist to have anything to say about Weaver was Lonnie Johnson. Paul Oliver reported that Johnson “was very impressed by Weaver’s guitar playing – in fact he very seldom spoke about anyone else’s work, but Weaver obviously (in person anyway) was someone he respected.” In all his years of intrepid blues research, Oliver writes, “Lonnie was the only blues singer I ever met who recalled Weaver.” It was Johnson who gave Oliver the tip that Weaver was from Louisville as Oliver recalled: “Lonnie told me that while he was working in St. Louis, playing both for Charlie Creath’s riverboat band and also at the Booker T. Washington Theatre in 1925, he met Sylvester Weaver who was traveling on tour with Sara Martin.”
Weaver likely got on record through Sara Martin, also a native of Louisville, who was born there in 1884. She probably heard Weaver playing in the area and decided to use him on her recordings. Weaver first recorded in New York in 1923, where on October 23 of that year he accompanied Martin on two numbers, “Longing For Daddy Blues” and “I’ve Got to Go And Leave My Daddy Behind,” for Okeh. Two 
weeks later, Weaver cut his first pair of solo recordings, “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag” for the same label. The Sara Martin selections represented the first time on records that a popular female singer had been backed up solely by guitar, and were an immediate success. Two more recordings with Martin were recorded at this session, “Roamin’ Blues” b/w “Good-Bye Blues.” Both “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag” are smooth, melodic slide numbers probably played with a knife. It was “Guitar Rag” (Weaver recorded it again in 1927) that would prove influential as Dick Spottswood noted: “In 1936 it was recorded by Bob Wills, featuring his popular guitarist Leon McAuliffle, and called ‘Steel Guitar Rag.’ Without citing Weaver as the source of the melody, McAuliffle’s version became a national hit and gave the amplified steel guitar a permanent place in country music.” The song later returned to the blues canon when it was recorded on three different occasions in 1953 and 1969 by Earl Hooker.
As for the Martin/Weaver sides, the record companies were quick to capitalize on the novelty as this January 5 Chicago Defender ad makes clear:
WHO’S HEARD the man with the talking guitar?
The first blue guitar record out is the “Roamin’ Blues” – a new Okeh. H-m-m-m! Sara Martin chirps, ‘em sweet, and Sylvester Weaver certainly plays ‘em strong on his big mean. blue guitar.
8104, don’t forget that number.
“Longing for Daddy Blues” was actually the first guitar record but that record was not advertised. Early in 1924 Ralph S. Peer of the General Phonograph Corp., Okeh’s parent company, wrote Sara Martin:
“ROAMIN’ BLUES with guitar accompaniment is the biggest seller you have had since SUGAR BLUES. it might be well for you to rearrange your act so that this is your feature number using guitar accompaniment. It seems to me that this would make a wonderful encore number to be used very near the end of your act.”
Another Okeh ad stated the following:
Sara Martin discovered the clever idea of making recordings with a guitar accompaniment, and the first records of this kind pit out have made remarkable impressions in all parts of the country. Sylvester Weaver plays his guitar in a highly original manner, which consists chiefly of sliding a knife up and down the strings while he picks with the other hand. His guitar solos, No. 8109, are having wide sales.
In 1924 Weaver, playing guitar and banjo, accompanied Martin on seven numbers at three sessions, two in Atlanta and one in New York. One of the best numbers was “Pleading Blues”, given a passionate reading from Martin. The number was advertised in the October 18, 1924 edition of the Chicago Defender (Weaver actually plays guitar not banjo on this number):
“PLEADING BLUES”
This blues spreadin’ mama will sure satisfy your blues cravin’ far, wide and handsome in “Pleading Blues”. It’s a mighty good tastin’ sample of the kind of blues Sara totes. And that ain’t all. ‘Cause Sylvester Weaver rattles off the banjo accompaniment right snappy!
Point your dogs toward the OKeh store quick, for here’s an OKeh Record that sure does leave you feelin’ grand!
The March 21, 1924 session produced two exceptionally strong blues: “Got To Leave My Home Blues” b/w “Poor Boy Blues” that prominently feature Weaver’s dramatic playing, laying down some fine treble runs on the latter number and an exceptionally long solo on the former. As for Sara Martin, Tony Russell made the following observation: “In her early recordings Martin, like many of her contemporaries, sings blues without quite qualifying as a blues singer: her exaggeratedly correct diction, with its rolled ‘r’s, does little to distinguish her from contemporary white vaudeville artists.” Her records took on a different tone once she began working with Weaver: “What is interesting about these records is not so much Weaver’s deliberate guitar (and banjo) playing as the power it has to draw Martin still further from her vaudeville background and towards the kind of singing recently introduced on records by Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.”
Weaver cut four solo instrumentals in 1924 at two sessions in New York: “Smoketown Strut”, “I’m Busy And You Can’t Come In”, Mixin’ ‘Em Up In C” and “Weaver’s Blues.” “Smoketown Strut” was the lone number cut at a May 28th session and showcased Weaver on a wonderful mid-tempo ragtime number. On June 10th Weaver cut three numbers including the driving “I’m Busy And You Can’t Come In” played in a similar style to “Smoketown Strut” and based on the well known tune “Keep-A-Knocking But You Can’t Come In.” “Mixing Them Up In C” and “Weaver’s Blues” are performed in a similar style but at a slower tempo. Weaver hardly played any fast pieces. This latter pairing was advertised in a 1925 Christmas ad in the Chicago Defender: Sylvester Weaver wants you to hear one of his best Okeh records. At the time of the first LP reissue of Weaver’s sides, Smoketown Strut (Agram, 1983), this record (OK 8207) was still missing. Weaver was also mentioned in a full-page OKeh records ad in the June 19th, 1924 Chicago Defender: World’s greatest Race Artists and they record exclusively for OKeh Race Records. Pictured are Sara Martin, Clarence Williams, Virginia Liston, Sippie Wallace, Ed Andrew and fifteen other artists including Sylvester Weaver “with the talkin’ guitar.” Speaking of Virginia Liston there is a possibility that Weaver plays on her “Jail House Blues” recorded on January 10, 1924.
Weaver would not record for almost a year when he returned for as six-song session in St. Louis on April 24, 1925 with Sara Martin, banjoist Charles Washington and violinist E.L. Coleman. Coleman, Washington and Weaver back Martin up on “Strange Lovin’ Blues” b/w “I Can Always Tell When A Man Is Treatin’ Me Cool.” Weaver backs Martin unaccompanied on the sides except for the instrumental “Steel String Blues” which was issued under the name Instrumental Trio. Like “Strange Lovin’ Blues”, Weaver plays slide, probably with a knife, on this draggy instrumental.
Weaver was absent from the studio in 1926 because of the death of Sara Martin’s brother. 1927, however, 
would prove to be Weaver’s busiest on record and also his last. The year began with four sessions in April in New York. For the April 6 session he formed a vocal trio with Sara Martin and her future second husband Hayes B. Withers. Four religious titles were recorded with two unissued. “I Am Happy In Jesus” b/w “Where Shall I Be?” features Weaver playing rather sedately on the latter number but more sprightly on the former with just a hint of ragtime flavor. These sides are also the first to present Weaver’s vocals on record, albeit as background with Withers’ in service to Martin’s lead. The following day Weaver accompanied Martin on two superb slow blues “Gonna Ramble Blues” b/w “Teasing Brown Blues.”
Weaver returned to the studio to record five solo songs on April 12th and 13th including his first vocals numbers: “True Love Blues” b/w “Poor Boy Blues.” Both numbers show Weaver’s guitar prowess, soloing at length and with plenty of imagination. Perhaps the length of his solos is due to his lack of confidence as a vocalist but these numbers prove Weaver a fine, if understated vocalist. Weaver delivers his lines in a careful, deliberate manner but possesses a rich, slightly quavering baritone that has an appealingly lonesome quality. The remaining sides feature a terrific update of “Guitar Rag” with a more melodic approach plus Damfino Stump” and “Six String Banjo Piece” which spotlight Weaver on the banjo-guitar. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that it was announced that a copy of “Damfino Stump” had finally surfaced and one who had heard it suggested a mishearing of Damn Fine Stomp! Cor van Sliedregt, who provides guitar analysis on the Agram LP had this to say: “Fifteen progressions, each of only eight ragtime bars with a richness of harmonic and rhythmic variations. …That Weaver knew his fingerboard inside out, this dynamic instrumental proves. …A ‘damn fine’ stomp indeed.” “Six String Banjo Piece” was a previously unknown and unissued number, which also surfaced in the 1970’s. No file information exists on this number and the number was first issued on the album Folk Music In America Vol. 14 – Solo And Display Music part of a 15 LP Library of Congress series to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1976. The title was apparently given by Dick Spottswood who compiled and wrote the notes for the series. This is one of the rare, relatively fast numbers and has the swing and drive of Weaver’s best instrumentals.
Guitar Blues (MP3)
Guitar Rag (MP3)
Pleading Blues (MP3)
Got To Leave My Home Blues (MP3)
Smoketown Strut (MP3)
Gonna Ramble Blues (MP3)
True Love Blues (MP3)
Poor Boy Blues (MP3)
Damfino Stump (MP3)
Guitar Rag (1927) (MP3)
| ARTIST |
SONG |
ALBUM |
| Sara Martin |
Teasing Brown Blues |
Sylvester Weaver Vol. 1 1923-27 |
| Sylvester Weaver |
Penitentiary Bound Blues |
Sylvester Weaver Vol. 2 1927 |
| Victoria Spivey |
Dirty T.B. Blues |
I Can't Be Satisfied Vol. 2 |
| The Sugarman |
Which Woman Do I Love |
Texas Down Home Blues 1948-1952 |
| John Lee Hooker |
Road Trouble |
Chicago Blues The Chance Era |
| Frankie Lee Sims |
Walking Blues |
Lucy Mae Blues |
| Kelly Pace & Convicts |
Rock Island Line |
Too Late Too Late 12 |
| Charlie Patton |
Spoonful |
Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues |
| Willie Ford & Lucious Curtis |
Payday |
Mississippi - The Blues Lineage |
| Ernest Rogers |
Baby Low Down... |
Boll Weavil Here - Field Recordings Vol. 16 |
| Ollie Shepard |
Drunk Again |
Ollie Shepard Vol. 1 1927-39 |
| Oliver Cobb |
The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas |
Male Blues Singers Twenties Vol. 1 |
| Big Joe Turner |
Johnson and Turner Blues |
Radio Broadcasts Film Soundtracks |
| Todd Rhodes |
Your Daddy's Doggin' Around |
1950-1951 |
| Guitar Slim |
Lovin' Blues |
Living Country Blues Vol. 10 |
| Charlie Sangster |
Moanin the Blues |
Living Country Blues Vol. 4 |
| Lottie Murrel |
I Got A Gal Cross The Bottom |
Living Country Blues Vol. 4 |
| Lonnie Pitchford |
Shake Your Moneymaker |
Living Country Blues Vol. 10 |
| Joe Evans & Arthur McClain |
John Henry |
The Two Poor Boys 1927-31 |
| Blind Willie McTell |
You Can’t Get Stuff... |
Blind Willie McTell & Curley Weaver 1949-50 |
| Joe Morris |
I Hope You’re Satisfied |
1950-1953 |
| Big Mama Thornton |
Don't Do Me This Way |
Don't Freeze On Me |
| Olive Brown |
Roll Like A Big Wheel |
Don't Freeze On Me |
| Big Mama Thornton |
Rockabye Blues |
1950-1953 |
| Junior Wells |
Blues for Mayor Daley |
Blues Southside Chicago |
| Lucille Spann |
Cry Before I Go |
Cry Before I Go |
| Jimmy Nolen |
Strawberry Jam |
Scratchin' |
| Willie Headen |
Sunset & Vine |
Blame It On The Blues |
| Jimmy McCracklin |
She’s Gone |
1951-1954 |
| Guitar Nubbit |
I’ve Got The Blues |
Bluestown Story Vol. 1 |
| Guitar Nubbit |
Laura |
Bluestown Story Vol. 1 |
| James Cooper |
She Put Me Out On The Road |
Living Country Blues Vol. 2 |
| Rabbit Muse |
Jailhouse Blues |
Western Piedmont Blues |
| James Son Thomas |
Cairo Blues |
Living Country Blues Vol. 5 |
Show Notes:
We cut a wide swath today, tackling blues spanning from 1925 through 1980. The half-dozen tracks from 1980 come from the series Living Country Blues USA. In 1980 two young German blues enthusiasts, Axel Kuestner and Siegfried A. Christmann, came to America with the idea to document the remaining country blues tradition. 
With their station wagon and portable recording equipment they hit the road spending 2-1/2 months documenting blues, gospel, field hollers and work songs throughout the South. Hundreds of hours of tape was used and the resulting project came out as 14 LP’s on the German L&R label. In 1999 Evidence Records reissued some of these sides domestically as a 3-CD set. These recordings represent one of the last large scale field recording trips to canvas the south.There’s was still plenty of music to be found although it’s interesting to note that two of the great field researchers, Peter B. Lowry and George Mitchell, had both called it it quits in 1980 and after Kuestner and Christmann recordings made in the field has almost become a thing of the past. For many of the artists these were their first recordings and many never recorded again. The set also contains the debut of such artists as Cephas and Wiggins (Lowry recorded them but never issued the sides )and Lonnie Pitchford who went on to greater fame. Some like Hammie Nixon and Sam Chatmon had been pre-war recording stars. Others had learned directly from the blues masters such as Cedell Davis who played with Robert Nighthawk and Arzo Youngblood and Boogie Bill Webb who learned from the legendary Tommy Johnson. The series has finally been issued on CD although the CD’s don’t seem to be available in the US. I was able to get copies of the few CD’s I needed to complete the series and will being doing a whole show devoted to these recordings on November 9th.
Speaking of field recordings we spin some tracks recorded by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Among those are Kelly Pace & Convicts of Cummins Farm, Gould, Arkansas singing a wonderful version of “Rock Island Line.” This was the same prison where Lomax recorded Leadbelly and supposedly Leadbelly picked up the song after hearing this group perform it. The song would become one of his most famous numbers although he didn’t record it until 1937. Willie Ford & Lucious Curtis deliver a terrific slide driven version of 
“Payday.” John and Ruby Lomax were in Natchez, MS when they made recordings by Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford in October 1940. The town was still in mourning for the victims of a terrible dance-hall fire that April in which over 200 hundred people had died, including most of the Walter Barnes Band. Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford cut fourteen sides that day. From the infamous Angola Penitentiary John Lomax recorded the accomplished Ernest Rogers on the tough “Oh Oh Low Down Dirty Dog” which unfortunately is his sole recording. Moving up to the 1970’s we play a wonderful track by the obscure Rabbit Muse. Muse played ukelele and kazoo and has two 1970’s LPs on the Outlet label which have yet to be released on CD. Our selection, “Jailhouse Blues”, comes from the excellent compilation Western Piedmont Blues. This collection comes from a series of albums issued by the Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College, Virginia. I believe there was something like eight volumes in this series (not all blues) which have been issued on CD through the Global Village label. The bulk of the recordings are from the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
We play a a couple of twin spins by guitarists Sylvester Weaver and Guitar Nubbit. Weaver cut over two dozen selections accompanying Sara Martin through 1927. Sara Martin began her career as a vaudeville singer around 1915 in Illinois. In 1922 she was signed to a recording contract with Okeh Records. Martin was said to have excelled as a live performer and was a star on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920’s. While primarily a popular singer Martin could get low down on the blues and was billed as the “famous moanin’ mama” as well as “the colored Sophie Tucker” reflecting her dual roles as a blues and vaudeville performer. She toured the country until the early 1930’s and recorded with Okeh until 1928. In the early 1930’s Marin retired from show business. She died in 1955. The solo “Penitentiary Bound Blues” features one of Weaver’s best vocals.
Regarding Guitar Nubbit, it was Peter Lowry who brought the obscure bluesman to the attention of collectors. I asked him about this and he offered the following recollection: “Ah, Guitar Nubbit! The year was 1964 and I was a graduate student at Rutgers in Biology. While driving around New Brunswick, NJ, I happened upon a combination shoe shine parlor/record store – it was downstairs half a flight from the front of the four-story house, on the road-side. You essentially went under the porch from the side! I found 45s of often interesting 
stuff, and not always stuff that I heard on WNJR out of Newark.. They had Nubbit’s single on the Bluestown label (“GA Chain Gang”)… I ended up buying all that they had after hearing the first copy I purchased. Then, I sent a copy to Mike Leadbitter, editor of Blues Unlimited, for whom I was just beginning to write. They were a mystery. Someone traced the label to Chicago (!), and others tried to track down the publishing company. No luck. I don’t remember who finally got onto Skippy White, a Boston DJ, and found out that it was his label (there were a couple more Nubbit discs [Alvin Hankerson], and a couple of singles by Hibbard “Alabama” Watson). They were quite anachronistic for the day! Right up there with Atlantic recording McTell in 1949 – hardly great commercial potential, no matter how good was the music!” I’ve attached below a couple of articles I found on Nubbit.
In addition to the aforementioned Sara Martin, today’s program also spotlights a several excellent blues ladies including Victoria Spivey, Mae Glover, Big Mama Thornton, Olive Brown, Laurie Tate and Lucille Spann. “Dirty T.B. Blues” backed by a crack band is Spivey’s follow-up to her popular “T-B Blues” from 1927 and she also cut “TB’s Got Me” in 1936. Mae Glover’s sassy, bouncy “I Ain’t Givin’ Nobody None” features the excellent guitar work and spoken accompaniment of John Byrd as Glover tells her man:
I’ll Wash you your clothes in the morning, cook jellyroll at night
When you come, home try to be so doggone nice
She cut two-dozen sides but only one short session with Byrd, a shame as those are her best sides. Moving on up we spin a pair by Big Mama Thornton; “Rockabye” finds Big Mama backed by Johnny Otis’ band with Johnny himself on vibes and some vicious fret work from Pete “Guitar” Lewis while 1967’s “Don’t Do Me This Way” finds her in more soulful vein. I know nothing about big voiced Olive Brown outside the fact that she cut a handful of sides in the the late 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. “Roll Like A Big Wheel” is a tough rocker sporting a ripping tenor player that comes from the fine LP Don’t Freeze On Me: Independent Womens Blues on the Rosetta Label. Lucille Spann was a fine gospel-inflected singer, although she occasionally indulges in histrionics, who spent most of her in the giant shadow cast by her husband Otis, “Cry Before I Go” is the title track off her very good, and only, album cut for Bluesway in the early 1970’s. Like most of the Bluesway catalog this one remains out of print.
Also worth mention are cuts by two obscure pre-war blues artists, Oliver Cobb and Ollie Shepard. Cobb was a St. Louis trumpet player and singer who patterned himself after Louis Armstrong. He cut one 78 in 1929 for Brunswick and one 78 in 1930 for Paramount. Henry Townsend remembered him many years later: “Oliver Cobb worked around St. Louis quite a bit-he was a pretty famous guy around here. …Oliver Cobb was more jazz than blues. He could play blues, but seemingly his desire was to be in the jazz field. But even at the time he got more call for blues styles. That’s why he got a chance to go up on the session, because he kinf iof put himself into the category of playing the blues, and that’s what was in demand. …He was a great imitation of Louis Armstrong…the closest I’ve heard…” According to Townsend, Cobb drowned shortly after his June 1930 recording session with Paramount. “The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas” is a wonderful risque blues firmly in the Armstrong mold. Despite recording close to four-dozen sides between 1937 and 1941, little is known about singer/pianist Ollie Shepard.Shepard rarely rose above the ordinary by “Drunk Again”, backed by his Kentucky Boys and Lonnoe Johnson, finds him in good voice on this number which is one of best efforts.
Guitar Nubbit – Boston’s Own (Word Doc)
Guitar Nubbit – Re-Living The legend (Word Doc)
Guitar Nubbit – From Blues Unlimited 17 (Word Doc)
| ARTIST |
SONG |
ALBUM |
| Casey Bill Weldon |
Lady Doctor Blues |
Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters |
| Casey Bill Weldon |
Go Ahead, Buddy |
Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters |
| Casey Bill Weldon |
Back Door Blues |
Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters |
| Kokomo Arnold |
Stop, Look And Listen |
Kokomo Arnold: The Essential |
| Kokomo Arnold |
Old Original Kokomo Blues |
Kokomo Arnold Vol. 1 1930-1935 |
| Kokomo Arnold |
Long and Tall |
Kokomo Arnold: The Essential |
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods |
Lone Wolf Blues |
Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938 |
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods |
Jam Session Blues |
Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938 |
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods |
Come On Over to My House |
Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938 |
| Black Ace |
Black Ace |
I'm The Boss Card In Your Hand |
| Black Ace |
Whiskey and Women |
I'm The Boss Card In Your Hand |
| Sylvester Weaver |
Guitar Rag |
Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, Steel, Vol. 1 |
| Sylvester Weaver |
Me And My Tapeworm |
Sylvester Weaver Vol. 2 1927 |
| Sylvester Weaver |
Toad Frog Blues |
Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, Steel, Vol. 2 |
| Bo Weavil Jackson |
You Can't Keep No Brown |
When The Levee Breaks |
| Bo Weavil Jackson |
Jefferson County Blues |
When The Levee Breaks |
| Bo Weavil Jackson |
Why Do You Moan? |
Backwoods Blues 1926-1935 |
| Casey Bill Weldon |
Somebody Changed the Lock |
Casey Bill Weldon: The Essential |
| Casey Bill Weldon |
Two-Timing Woman |
Casey Bill Weldon: The Essential |
| Casey Bill Weldon |
Guitar Swing |
Casey Bill Weldon: The Essential |
| Kokomo Arnold |
Milk Cow Blues |
Blues Images Presents...Vol. 5 |
| Kokomo Arnold |
Wild Water Blues |
Kokomo Arnold: The Essential |
| Kokomo Arnold |
Busy Bootin' |
Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters |
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods |
Fence Breakin' Blues |
Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938 |
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods |
Don't Sell It (Don't Give It Away) |
Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, Steel, Vol. 1 |
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods |
She's A Hum Dinger |
Voice Of The Blues |
| Sylvester Weaver |
St. Louis Blues |
Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, Steel, Vol. 1 |
| Sylvester Weaver |
Nappy Headed Blues |
Sylvester Weaver Vol. 2 1927 |
| Sylvester Weaver |
Bottleneck Blues |
Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, Steel, Vol. 1 |
| Bo Weavil Jackson |
Devil And My Brown Blues |
When The Levee Breaks |
| Bo Weavil Jackson |
Some Scream High Yellow |
The Paramount Masters |
| Bo Weavil Jackson |
Poor Boy |
Backwoods Blues 1926-1935 |
| Black Ace |
'Fore Day Creep |
I'm The Boss Card In Your Hand |
| Black Ace |
Drink On Little Girl |
I'm The Boss Card In Your Hand |
Show Notes:
Today’s show is a continuing series on forgotten blues heroes; those artists who perhaps don’t have enough sides for a full a feature and lesser-known figures that don’t fit into our other themed shows. Today we spotlight six great slide/bottleneck guitar players: Casey Bill Weldon, Kokomo Arnold, Oscar “Buddy” Woods, Black Ace, Bo Weavil Jackson and Sylvester Weaver. The Hawaiian guitar influence can be heard to good effect in the playing of Casey Bill Weldon, Oscar Woods and the Black Ace. It was a style performed flat across the player’s knees as he slides a steel bar along the strings, producing glissando or vibrato effects. Kip Lornell writes that “blues guitarists sometimes tune their instruments to an open chord (often a D Major), place their guitar in their lap and then use a bottleneck or slide to fret it. This style of playing was used as early as the late 19th and early 20th century, but became more popular during the craze for Hawaiian music that occurred during the teens.” The style was used extensively by hillbilly artists as well. Also notable in is a strong country/Western Swing influence in the playing of artists like Casey Bill, Oscar Woods and particularly Sylvester Weaver, showing that there was a good deal of cross pollination among white and black musicians.
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. His first recordings were with Peetie Wheatsraw which clearly inspired his vocal style. His guitar style owes a clear debt to the Hawaiian guitarists and was even billed as the Hawaiian Guitar Wizard but also got some inspiration from country and Western Swing. As Tony Russell wrote regarding the influential “Somebody Changed The Lock On My Door”, “the flurry in notes on bars 3 and 4 was the first indication of a blues slide guitarist who had listened to Hawaiian players and a session the following day by the Washboard Rhythm Kings elicited further passages of playing that was as close to Sol Hoopii as to Tampa Red.” As for the influence of country, Russell writes “‘Walkin’ In My Sleep’…is a country tune, and at this point the gap between the group and contemporary Western Swing bands narrows dramatically. Not for the last time: ‘I Believe You’re Cheatin’ On Me’ opens with a figure from ‘Steel Guitar Rag’ as recorded by Bob Willis.”
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. Some of Kokomo Arnold’s songs proved highly influential on other musicians. His first issued coupling on Decca 7026 paired “Old Original Kokomo Blues” with “Milk Cow Blues.” Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson must’ve known this record, as he re-invented both sides of it into songs for his own use — “Old Original Kokomo Blues” became “Sweet Home Chicago,” and “Milk Cow Blues” became “Milkcow’s Calf Blues.” Arnold also did session 
work backing Peetie Wheatstraw, Roosvelt Sykes, Alice Moore, Mary Johnson and others. Arnold quit the music business in disgust in 1938 but continued to play the clubs until the late 1940’s. By the time he was rediscovered in 1959 Marcel Chauvard and Jacques Demetre he had given up music altogether and didn’t even own a guitar. He showed no interest in returing to music whatsoever. Arnold died of a heart attack at the age of 67 on November 8, 1968.
Oscar “Buddy” Woods was a Louisiana street musician known as “The Lone Wolf” and a pioneer in the style of lap steel bottleneck blues slide guitar. It is said that Woods developed his bottleneck slide approach to playing blues guitar after seeing a touring Hawaiian troupe of musical entertainers in the early 1920s. Not long after arriving in Shreveport, Woods began a long association with guitarist Ed Schaffer, and together they performed as the Shreveport Home Wreckers. Woods and Schaffer made their first two recordings as the Shreveport Home Wreckers for Victor in Memphis on May 31, 1930. From this first session up until his last, a field recording for the Library of Congress made on October 8, 1940, Oscar “Buddy” Woods was involved in the making of no less than 35 sides. On May 27 and 28 1931, Ed Schaffer was in Charlotte, North Carolina recording six sides headed by white country artist (and future Governor of Louisiana) Jimmie Davis along with New Orleans-based jazz guitarist Ed “Snoozer” Quinn. Nearly a year later in Dallas, Texas (on February 8, 1932) Davis made four sides with the Shreveport Home Wreckers as accompanists, and then the Home Wreckers made another pair of sides on their own, issued this time on Victor as by “Eddie and Oscar”. Woods did not record again until made a trip to New Orleans to make some solo records for Decca on March 21, 1936. One of these recordings was of Woods’ signature tune, “Lone Wolf Blues”, and another his first recording of “Don’t Sell it- Don’t Give it Away”. These did so well in the race record market that Jimmie Davis took a renewed interest in the Shreveport Home Wreckers. By the time Woods returned to record making in a session set up by Davis in San Antonio on October 30-31, 1937, the Home Wreckers had expanded into a six or seven piece string band called The Wampus Cats. The Wampus Cats also included a female vocalist by the name of Kitty Gray, guitarist Joe Harris and mandolinist Kid West. The Wampus Cats made an additional session in Dallas on December 4, 1938, on which Kitty Gray does not appear, but unknown trumpet and saxophone players were added to the mix. Woods cut his last five selections for the Library of Congress in 1940 John Lomax wrote the following about the session: “Oscar (Buddy) Woods, Joe Harris and Kid West are all porfessional Negro guitarists and singers of Texas Avenue, Shreveport…The songs I have recorded are among those they use to cajole nickels and dimes from the pockets of listeners.” Woods died in 1956.
Babe Karo Lemon Turner AKA Black Ace grew up in a farm in Hughes Springs, Texas. He took up the guitar seriously when he moved to Shreveport in the mid-1930’s and met Oscar Woods from whom he learned the local slide guitar style, playing the guitar flat across the knees. Smokey Hogg’s brother, John Hogg, recalled that “back in Greenville, Texas, before he got into the recordin’ business, Smokey and a guy they called Black Ace…would play country dances. I’d carry Smokey on one side of town, he d play this dance over there and I’d take Black Ace on the other side of town to play. About the time the guys would be ready to wrap-up, I would run over and get Black Ace, double back and get Smokey. We would party together the rest of the night. I used to sing with Black Ace at them parties and dances. He played a guitar across his knees with a knife blade and he wanted me to sing.” By 1936 he moved to Fort Worth where he secured a gig broadcasting on local station KFJZ between 1936-1941. In 1941 he appeared in the film “The Blood of Jesus.” As his reputation grew he toured and cut six sides for Decca in 1937 (two sides recorded for ARC in 1936 were never released). War service disrupted his career and he worked a variety of jobs outside of music. Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records and Paul Oliver ventured to Fort Worth in 1960 and recorded an album by him that year. Those recordings were originally issued the following year on Black Ace’s only LP, subsequently issued on CD as I Am The Boss Card In Your Hand which included some of his 1937 sides. Turner passed in 1972 showing no interest to get back in the music business after his Arhoolie session.
Bo Weavil Jackson was a shadowy figure whose name may have been Sam Butler or James Butler or was it James Jackson?. He was a street singer from Birmingham, AL who was discovered by local talent scout Harry Charles. Jackson cut six sides for Paramount circa August 1926 and six sides for Vocalion in September 1926 where he recorded as Sam Butler. His material was a mix of blues and gospel and he was one of the first slide players to record.
|
| Sylvester Weaver & Sara Martin |
Sylvester Weaver was a versatile guitarist from Louisville who made the first solo recordings of blues guitar playing. Sylvester Weaver first recorded in New York in 1923, where on October 23 of that year he accompanied vaudeville blues singer Sara Martin on two numbers, “Longing for Daddy Blues” and “I’ve Got to Go and Leave My Daddy Behind,” for Okeh. Two weeks later, Weaver cut his first pair of solo recordings, “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag” for the same label. The Sara Martin selections represented the first time on records that a popular female singer had been backed up solely by guitar, and were an immediate success. Weaver would cut 25 more selections accompanying Martin in the years through 1927. He also backed singer Helen Humes on sides in 1927. Weaver’s were well-received and would prove massively influential in the country market. “Guitar Rag” was later re-invented by Bob Wills into “Steel Guitar Rag” and became a country standard. Through the end of 1927, when Weaver decided to retire from music altogether, he recorded a total of 26 solo sides, and on some of the later ones Weaver was joined by another guitarist, Walter Beasley. Weaver’s work lies stylistically between blues and country music, and he had considerable impact on both musical fronts. Weaver was almost totally forgotten by the time he died in 1960. An interesting footnote is the discovery of a scrapbook Weaver kept of his musical activities. Some of the contents were published in Living Blues Magazine in 1982.
