Sun 29 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/29/12: Hidden Charms – Willie Dixon's Blues

Posted by Jeff under Chicago Blues, Playlists
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ARTISTSONGALBUM
The Five Breezes My Buddy BluesWhen The Sun Goes Down
The Four Jumps Of JiveIt's Just The Blues The Mercury Blues 'n' Rhythm Story
Rosetta HowardToo Many Drivers Rosetta Howard 1939-1947
Willie DixonWalking The BluesThe Chess Box Set
Memphis Slim & Willie DixonStewballSongs of Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon
Memphis Slim & Willie DixonCrazy For My BabyAmerican Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965
Lowell FulsonTollin' BellsThe Chess Box Set
Muddy WatersClose To YouThe Chess Box Set
Howlin' Wolf Evil (Is Going On)The Chess Box Set
Howlin' Wolf Hidden CharmsThe Chess Box Set
Jimmy Witherspoon When The Lights Go OutThe Chess Box Set
Koko Taylor What Came First the Egg or the Hen
What It Takes: The Chess Years
Sonny Boy WilliamsonBring It On HomeThe Chess Box Set
Little Walter Dead PresidentsThe Chess Box Set
Muddy WatersWee, Wee BabyBlues From Big Bill's Copacabana
The Big Three TrioIf the Sea Was WhiskeyThe Big Three Trio
The Big Three TrioI Ain't Gonna Be Your Monkey ManThe Big Three Trio
The Big Three Trio88 BoogieThe Big Three Trio
Buster BentonSpider In My Stew Mr. Dixon's Workshop
George "Wild Child" Butler Axe And The WindMr. Dixon's Workshop
Jessie FortuneToo Many CooksMr. Dixon's Workshop
Buddy GuySit And Cry (The Blues)Mr. Dixon's Workshop
Lee JacksonFishin' In My Pond Mr. Dixon's Workshop
Magic SamEasy Baby Mr. Dixon's Workshop
Otis RushMy Love Will Never DieMr. Dixon's Workshop
Willie DixonSeventh SonI Am The Blues
Willie DixonI Don't Trust Nobody Catalyst
Larry Johnson Put It All In ThereThe All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon
Willie DixonWang Dang DoodleLive At Richard's, Atlanta, GA, 1973

Show Notes:

For four decades, Willie Dixon loomed at the forefront of Chicago blues, working as a bassist, arranger, band leader, producer, talent scout, agent, A&R man, and music publisher. His most enduring contributions, though, were the songs he wrote; songs like Little Red Rooster", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Evil", "Spoonful", "Back Door Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "I Ain't Superstitious", "My Babe", "Wang Dang Doodle", "Bring It On Home", "I'm Ready" and many others. On today's program we bounce around through Dixon's long career. From his formative years we spin sides from his early combos The Five Breezes, The Four Jumps of Jive and The Big Three Trio. We spotlight his tenure at Chess records playing many of his compositions as recorded by others, some of his own sides for the label and his contributions to Cobra Records where Otis Rush and Magic Sam got their start. The emphasis being on some of his lesser know compositions. We also spin sides from Dixon's albums from the 60's and 70's plus a batch of fine live recordings.

Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 1, 1915 to Anderson Bell and Daisy (McKenzie) Dixon. As a youth, Dixon heard a variety of blues, Dixieland, and ragtime musicians performing on the streets, at picnics and other community functions, and in the clubs near his home, where he would listen to them from the sidewalk. His mother, Daisy, was a great poet who often rhymed the things she said, which was a habit that Dixon soon adopted. The family of seven children lived behind the small restaurant that Daisy ran, which was next door to Curley’s Barrelhouse.  Listening from the street, Dixon, then about eight years old, heard bluesmen Little Brother Montgomery and Charley Patton perform there, along with a variety of ragtime and Dixieland piano players.  He became an admirer of the band that featured pianist Little Brother Montgomery, and would follow him around Vicksburg as he played on the back of a pickup truck.

The Five Breezes

Dixon was only twelve when he first landed in jail and was sent to a county farm for stealing some fixtures from an old torn-down house. He recalled in I Am the Blues: “That’s when I really learned about the blues. I had heard ‘em with the music and took ‘em to be an enjoyable thing but after I heard these guys down there moaning and groaning these really down-to-earth blues, I began to inquire about ‘em…. I really began to find out what the blues meant to black people, how it gave them consolation to be able to think these things over and sing them to themselves or let other people know what they had in mind and how they resented various things in life.”

In 1936, Dixon left Mississippi and headed to Chicago.  He had worked several odd jobs to try and make ends meet.  He soon took up boxing, as he was a man of considerable stature, at 6 and a half feet and weighing over 250 pounds.  In 1937, he was so successful as a boxer, and won the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship (Novice Division).  Dixon turned professional as a boxer and worked briefly as Joe Louis’ sparring partner. After four fights, Dixon left boxing after getting into a fight with his manager over being cheated out of money.

Throughout the late 1930's, Dixon was singing in Chicago with various gospel groups, some of which performed on the radio. Dixon had received good training in vocal harmony from Theo Phelps back in Vicksburg, where he sang bass with the Union Jubilee Singers. Around the same time, Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston gave Dixon his first musical instrument–a makeshift bass made out of an oil can and one string. Dixon, Caston, and some other musicians formed a group called the Five Breezes. The Five Breezes had four records released on Bluebird, recorded on November 15th, 1940 and released in January 1941.

Big Three Trio

Dixon next recording opportunity was with The Four Jumps of Jive, a quartet formed by Dixon in late 1945, with Gene Gilmore, Bernardo Dennis, and Ellis Hunter. They recorded four sides for Mercury Records in 1945. Gilmore and Hunter left the group in 1946 and Leonard Caston came into the lineup, which was christened the Big Three Trio. The group was modeled after other popular black vocal groups of the time, such as the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots. Dixon by this time was singing and playing a regular upright bass. While Chicago blues musicians like Muddy Waters and Little Walter were playing to all-black audiences in small clubs, the Big Three Trio played large show clubs with capacities of three to five thousand. Sharing vocal (they specialized in three-part harmonies), the trio signed with the Bullet label in 1946 for a one session jumping to Columbia Records in 1947. They had one national hit, "You Sure Look Good to Me," in 1948, and a slew of other releases that stretched into 1952. After several years of successful touring and recording, the Big Three Trio disbanded. Many of Dixon’s compositions were never recorded by the trio, but these songs turned up later in the repertoire of the blues artists Dixon worked with in the 1950s.

Leonard and Phil Chess began recording the blues in the late 1940's, and by 1950 the Chess brothers were releasing blues records on the label bearing their name. Many of the blues songs recorded at Chess were written, arranged, and produced by Willie Dixon. Dixon was first used on recording sessions by the Chess brothers in the late 1940s, as his schedule allowed. After the Big Three Trio disbanded, Dixon became a full-time employee of Chess. He performed a variety of duties, including producing, arranging, leading the studio band, and playing bass. Dixon’s first big break as a songwriter came when Muddy Waters recorded his “Hoochie Coochie Man” in 1954. When “Hoochie Coochie Man” became Waters’ biggest hit, reaching number three on the rhythm and blues charts, Dixon became the label’s top songwriter. In 1955 Dixon charted his first Number One hit when Little Walter recorded “My Babe.”

In 1957 Dixon joined the small independent Cobra Records, where he recorded such bluesmen as Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam, creating what became known as the “West Side Sound.” His “I Can’t Quit You Baby” was a Top Ten rhythm and blues hit for Otis Rush, but Cobra Records soon faced financial difficulties. By 1959 Dixon was back at Chess as a full-time employee.

In 1959 Dixon teamed up with an old friend, pianist Memphis Slim, to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. They continued to play together at coffee houses and folk clubs throughout the country and eventually became key players in a folk and blues revival. Thy recorded several albums together including Willie's Blues, Blues Every Which Way, Songs of Memphis Slim and "Wee Willie Dixon", Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon At The Village Gate and In Paris.

Dixon began internationalizing the blues when he went to England with Memphis Slim in 1960. Dixon performed as part of the first American Folk Blues Festival that toured Europe in 1962. Organized by German blues fans Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau, the festival also included Memphis Slim, T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and other blues musicians. The festival ran from 1962 through 1971 and helped the blues reach an audience of young Europeans. American blues musicians soon found they could make more money playing in Europe than in Chicago. They played in concert halls and were reportedly treated like royalty. Dixon played on the tour for three years, then became the Chicago contact for Lippmann and Rau in booking blues musicians for the tour. Several of Dixon's performances with Memphis Slim, and backing others have been issued on record.

Toward the end of the 1960s soul music eclipsed the blues in black record sales. Chess Records’ last major hit was Koko Taylor’s 1966 recording of Willie Dixon’s “Wang Dang Doodle.” Many prominent bluesmen had died, including Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, and J.B. Lenoir. Chess Records was sold in 1969, and Dixon recorded his last session for the label in 1970.

During the 60's and 70's Dixon was involved with labels such as USA, Chief, Supreme and Jewel. Notable records for these labels included "I'm The Fixer" for Willie Mabon, "Too Many Cooks" for Jesse Fortune and "Two-Headed Woman" for Junior Wells. Another artist Dixon was involved in with was Buster Benton. By 1959 Benton  was leading his own band in Chicago. During the 1960s, local record labels, such as Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight Records released several Benton singles, before in 1971 he joined Willie Dixon. Benton became a fixture in Dixon's Blues All-Stars for some time. Dixon was credited as the songwriter of Benton's best known song, "Spider in My Stew" which we feature today. Released on the Shreveport-based Jewel Records label, it gave Benton a modicum of fame.

Dixon revived his career as a performer by forming the Chicago Blues All-Stars in 1969 (Johnny Shines, Sunnyland Slim, “Shakey” Horton, Clifton James, and Dixon on bass and vocals). The group recorded the album Loaded With Blues, which despite the top notch lineup, was rather lackluster. Throughout the 1970s and 80's Dixon continued to write new songs, record other artists, and released several  albums including I Am The Blues, Willie Dixon's Peace, Catalyst, What Happened To My Blues, Hidden Charms and others. Dixon's albums under his own are rather uneven despite boasting top drawer bands. Among the best is  1973's Catalyst which I don't believe has been issued on CD and boats a lineup of Louis Satterfield, Morris Jennings, "Mighty" Joe Young, Phil Upchurch, Carey Bell, Buster Benton and Lafayette Leake. There are a few good unofficial live recordings from this period; the best being one from Richard's in Atlanta from 1973 and one from 1974 which is a radio broadcast of a club date at Chicago's Quiet Knight. Also from this period is The All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon issued on Victoria Spivey's Spivey label in 1973 and boasting excellent performances (Dixon plays bass) by Carey Bell, Buster Benton and Larry Johnson. Dixon also appeared on a few other Spivey albums.

In the 1980's, Dixon relocated to Los Angeles to escape the cold Chicago winters in an effort to better his health.  He had also established the Blues Heaven Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing scholarship awards and musical instruments to poorly funded schools. Dixon’s final two albums were well received, with the 1988 album Hidden Charms winning a Grammy Award for best traditional blues recording.  In 1989 he recorded the soundtrack for the film Ginger Ale Afternoon, which also was nominated for a Grammy. Dixon died in 1992 at the age of 76. More information on Dixon can be found in the following books: I Am the Blues: The Willie Dixon Story written by Dixon and Don Snowden and Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues written by Mitsutoshi Inaba which was issued in 2011.

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Sun 22 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/22/12: Mix Show

Posted by Jeff under Playlists
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ARTISTSONGALBUM
Dave AlexanderLove Is Just For Fools Oakland Blues
Dave AlexanderCold Feelin' The Dirt On The Ground
Dave AlexanderThe RattlerThe Rattler
Joe DeanMexico Bound Blues Down In Black Bottom
Charlie Spand Rock And RyeRoots N' Blues: Booze & The Blues
Walter ColemanCarry Your Good Stuff Home Rare Country Blues Vol. 3
Pete Johnson & Joe TurnerLovin' Mama BluesBoogie Woogie And Blues Piano
Ramp Davis Rampart Street Blues California Jump Blues
Lucky Enois QuartetKC Limited Pt. 2California Jump Blues
Etta James Something's Got A Hold On MeEtta Rocks The House
Etta James You Know What I MeanThe Complete Modern and Kent Recordings
Sleepy John Estes & Hammie NixonYour Best Friend's Gone Lost Blues Tapes: More American Folk Blues Festival 1963-65
Memphis SlimBlues EverywhereLost Blues Tapes: More American Folk Blues Festival 1963-65
Johnny OtisNew Orleans ShuffleMidnight At The Barrelhouse
Johnny OtisI Believe I'll Go Back HomeCold Shot /Snatch And The Poontangs
Eli FramerFramer's Blues Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Clifford GibsonIce And Snow BluesClifford Gibson 1929-1931
Louis LaskyTeasin' Brown BluesNever Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Eddie BoydLife Gets To Be A BurdenChess Piano Greats
Eddie BoydGot Lonesome HereChess Piano Greats
Eddie "Cleanhead" VinsonCleanhead's BluesThe Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey
Pee Wee Crayton The Things I Used To DoThe Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey
Rosa HendersonLow Down Daddy Blues Rosa Henderson Vol. 3 1924-1926
Josh WhiteHow Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone?Freedom: The Golden Gate Quartet & Josh White At The Library Of Congress
Blind Willie McTellSouthern Can Is MineThe Classic Early recordings 1927-1940
Johnny OtisJohnny Otis Radio Show Signature Tune Rock Me Baby: The Mercury And Peacock Sides
Johnny OtisAll Night LongMidnight At The Barrelhouse
Etta JamesSoul of a ManNever Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice

Show Notes:

It's already starting out to be a bad year for the blues with the recent deaths of Dave Alexander, Johnny Otis and Etta James. We pay tribute to all three on today's show as well as featuring twin spins of  Eddie Boyd, a pair of cuts from the American Folk Blues Festival and some fine pre-war blues numbers.

Read Liner Notes

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1938, Dave Alexander (he later changed his name to Omar Shariff) grew up in Marshall, Texas and moved to Oakland, California, in 1957. There played with Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins. Later in 1968, he recorded his first songs for the World Pacific label release called Oakland Blues, a compilation album of artists from that city. This is a great collection that has never been issued on CD featuring fine cuts from Lafayette Thomas, L.C. Robinson as well as Alexander. We open the show from that album with "Love Is Just For Fools" featuring backing from Albert Collins and George "Harmonica" Smith.

Alexander performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1970, and played at the San Francisco Blues Festival, many times from 1973 onward. He recorded a pair of albums, The Rattler (1972) and The Dirt on the Ground (1973), for the Arhoolie label. In the 90's he recorded a trio of albums for the small blues label Have Mercy. In the 2000's Alexander lived and performed mostly in the Sacramento area. He died on January 8, 2012.

Etta James died Jan. 20th in Riverside, Calif. She was 73. Etta James began her professional recording career in 1954, auditioning at the age of 14 for bandleader Johnny Otis before recording her first singles for Modern Records in Los Angeles with her vocal group, The Peaches. Her first single, "The Wallflower" (aka "Roll With Me Henry"), an answer song to Hank Ballard's 1954 #1 R&B hit "Work With Me Annie," hit #1 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1955, and "Good Rockin' Daddy" reached #6 on the chart the same year. When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, the name was changed to “The Wallflower.” In 1960 she was signed by Chess Records and quickly had a string of hits, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “Trust in Me” and “At Last,” which established her as Chess’s first major female star. She remained with Chess well into the 1970s, reappearing on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with “Tell Mama.” In the late ’70s and early ’80s she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.

We stick mainly to the early years spinning a fine early Modern number "You Know What I Mean" and her bruising "Something's Got A Hold On Me" from Etta Rocks The House which has to rank as one of the greatest live blues record. The set was cut at Nashville's New Era club in 1962 in front of a raucous crowd. We close the show with the impassioned "Soul Of A Man", a previously unissued cut that can be found on a 3-CD Chess box set.

The following comes from Midnight at the Barrelhouse a biography of Johnny Otis written by George George Lipsitz who I interviewed back in 2010: "From the moment Johnny Otis first arrived in Los Angeles in 1943, everyday seemed to offer a marvelous new experience. He led the house band at the club Alabam and later opened his own nightclub, the Barrelhouse, in Watts. As a recording artist, he succeeded in placing fifteen songs on the best-seller charts from 1950 to 1952. Otis had one of the biggest pop music hist of all time with "Willie and the Hand Jive" in 1958. He composed top-selling songs that became successes for other artists as well including "Every Beat of My Heart" for Gladys Knight and then Pips, "So Fine" for the Fiestas, "Roll With Me Henry", which became the "Wallflower" for Etta James, and "Dance With Me Henry" for Georgia Gibbs." As a promoter, producer, and talent scout for Savoy, King , Duke. and other independent record labels, Otis discovered and launched the careers of Etta James, Hank Ballard, Esther Phillips, Jackie Wilson, Big Mama Thornton, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Linda Hopkins, and Little Willie John, among others. He produced big hits for Little Esther, Etta James, and Johnny Ace, as well as less commercially successful but even more artistically triumphant recordings by Charles Williams, Barbara Morrrison, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris.

As a musician, Otis played the drums on Big Mama Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog", on Illinois Jacquet's "Flying Home", and Lester Young's "Jammin' With Lester." Otis provided the hauntingly beautiful vibraphone accompaniment to Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love", played vibes on his own recording of "Stardust", featuring Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, and he played piano and tambourine on Frank Zappa's Hot Rats album. When the occasion demanded it, Otis could also play harpsichord, celesta, and timpani. As an artist, promoter, disc jockey, and television host, he brought Black music to new audiences, in the process inspiring some of his listeners to become performers themselves.

 Johnny Otis with his son Shuggie

…For all his immersion in African American life and culture, Johnny Otis was not actually Black. He was a white man born as John Alexander Veliotes into an immigrant Greek family. He had grown up among Blacks and had lived much of his life as if he were Black. …At an early age Johnny felt captivated by Black culture, by the spiritual, moral, and intellectual richness he encountered in the sanctified churches that he attended with his Black playmates, by the music of gospel choirs, jazz bands, blues singers, by the way Black people dressed, danced, and talked."

We spin a couple of early numbers plus  sides  from the albums Cold Shot! and The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey. Though Johnny's 1969 album Cold Shot! wasn't much different from the straightforward R&B he'd been doing for years, it did have some updated rock, soul, and funk influences, due in large part to the presence of his teenage guitarist son, Shuggie Otis. Otis cut another album that year credited to Snatch and the Poontangs. Both albums were combined onto one CD on an Ace reissue in 2002, with the addition of two previously tracks. Live At Monterey was an R&B oldies show in 1970 that featured artists Johnny  had worked with back in the early days and they were still in fine form. The disc stars Otis, Esther Phillips, Eddie Vinson, Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roy Milton, Roy Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, and Johnny’s guitar wielding son, Shuggie.

Among the tributes we find some time to play some terrific pre-war blues from Charlie Spand, Joe Dean, Clifford Gibson and R0sa Henderson among others.

Charlie Spand was one of several heavy-hitting blues, boogie-woogie and barrelhouse pianists who performed on Brady and Hastings Streets in Detroit, MI during the '20s. In 1929 Spand moved to Chicago where he began hanging out and gigging with guitarist Blind Blake. Between June 1929 and September 1931 Spand recorded 24 sides for the Paramount label. The only other Charlie Spand recordings known to exist are eight sides cut for the Okeh label in June of 1940. Our cut, "Rock And Rye", come from the latter session and features some nice interplay between Spand and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy.

Joe Dean recorded one great 78 in 1930: “I'm So Glad I'm Twenty-One Years Old Today b/w Mexico Bound Blues.” Dean was  born in St. Louis on April 25, 1908.  He remained musically active on a part-time basis into the 1960's. He eventually became the Rev. Joe Dean and died on June 24 1981. He was interviewed by Mike Rowe for Blues Unlimited magazine in 1977.

Rosa Henderson started out in carnival and tent shows around 1913 and moved to New York in 1923 where she made her recording debut. She recorded a hundred odd sides throughout the 1920’s and made her final record in 1931. She was a fine singer who often suffered from some rather lackluster accompanists. 1925's "Low Down Daddy" was a good one with some tough words about her man:

I had a dream one night, my daddy laid down and died (2x)
The devil wouldn't own him, cause he couldn't burn his hide

Clifford Gibson left behind a small batch of superb, highly creative recordings that deserve wider attention. Gibson cut ten sides (four have either never been found or were never issued) in June 1929, four sides in November 1929, eight sides in December 1929 and two sides in 1931. In addition he did some session work and lasted long enough to wax a few scattered post-war sides in the 1950's and 60's.

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Sun 15 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/15/12: Fence Breakin' Blues – Great Country Blues Guitar Duets

Posted by Jeff under Playlists
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ARTISTSONGALBUM
Willie Walker & Sam BrooksSouth Carolina RagRagtime Blues Guitar
Blind Boy Fuller & Gary DavisRag Mama RagBlind Boy Fuller: Remastered 1935-1938
Pink Anderson & Simmie DooleyEvery Day In The Week BluesTimes Ain't Like They Used to Be Vol. 4
Charley Patton & Willie BrownMoon Goin' Down Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues
William Harris & Joe RobinsonI'm Leavin' TownThe Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
Willie Ford & Lucious CurtisTimes Is Getting HardMississippi: Saints & Sinners
Buddy Moss & Fred McMullenJealous Hearted ManThe Slide Guitar Vol. 2
Blind Willie McTell & Curley WeaverBell Street Blues The Classic Years 1927-1940
Jim & Bob (The Genial Hawaiians)St. Louis BluesCountry Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Shreveport Home WreckersFence Breakin' Blues Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Tommy Johnson & Charlie McCoyBye, Bye BluesLegends of Country Blues
Ishman Bracey & Charlie McCoyLeft Alone BluesLegends of Country Blues
Johnny Temple & Charlie McCoyLead Pencil BluesLegends of Country Blues
Hattie Hart w/ Willie Borum & Allen ShawColdest Stuff In TownMemphis Blues 1927-1938
Geechie Wiley & Elvie ThomasPick Poor Robin CleanI Can't Be Satisfied Vol. 1
Sylvester Weaver & Walter BeasleyBottleneck BluesThe Slide Guitar Vol. 1
Kansas Joe & Memphis MinnieMy Wash Woman's GoneCountry Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Garfield Akers & Joe CallicottCottonfield Blues Pt. 1Mississippi Masters
Ruth Willis w/ Fred McMullen & Curley Weaver Man of My Own Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics
Curley Weaver & Fred McMullenWild Cat KittenAtlanta Blues
Famous Hokum BoysPig Meat StrutThe Complete Chess Recordings
Casey Bill WeldonYou Shouldn't Do ThatBottleneck Guitar Trendsetters
The Beale Street SheiksBeale Town Bound Masters of Memphis Blues
The Beale Street SheiksYou ShallMasters of Memphis Blues
Hi Henry Brown & Charlie JordanPreacher BluesCharley Jordan Vol.2 1931-1934
Big Joe Williams & Henry TownsendSomebody's Been Borrowin' That Stuff Big Joe Williams Vol. 1 1935 - 194
Two Charlies Don't Put Your Dirty Hands On MeCharley Jordan Vol.3 1935-1937
Long ''Cleve'' Reed & Little Harvey HullOriginal Stack O' Lee Blues Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Tarter & GayBrownie BluesSouthwest Virginia Blues
Sleepy John Estes & Son BondsLittle Laura BluesI Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More
Georgia Cotton PickersShe's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy DayGood Time Blues: Harmonicas, Kazoos, Washboards & Cow-Bells
Georgia BrownsDecatur Street 81The Slide Guitar Vol. 2
Lonnie Johnson & Eddie LangBlue Room Blues Lonnie Johnson Vol. 5 1929-1930

Show Notes:

On today's show we feature some of the greatest country blues guitar pairings of the pre-war era. The styles of playing fall roughly into a few distinct patterns. One is where one partner is doing intricate treble string runs and the other ornate bass notes and patterns. The arrangements weave back and forth with one guitar then the other taking the lead.

Then there's the "Boom-Chang" type, like the Beale Street Sheiks (Frank Stokes and Dan Sane), Frank Brasswell and Big Bill Broonzy (Famous Hokum Boys) and Memphis Minnie and Little Son Joe.  In these the lead guitar plays a normal sort of tune while the other adds supporting bass notes and runs and strummed chords. In this type the lead guitar part can be played as a arrangement by its self, which is not the case with the case mentioned above where neither part played alone would.

Another is the sort of arrangement found in Johnnie Temple and Charlie McCoy's "Lead Pencil Blues." Here the singer (Temple) plays a boogie pattern like Robert Johnson on the bass string with interspersed treble runs. The McCoy part consists of treble notes and runs. Here, unlike the Boom-Chang type, it's the bass part that can be played separately not the treble part.

Delta guitar duets like Charlie Patton and Willie Brown and Ishman Bracey and Tommy Johnson (both accompanied by Charlie McCoy) are sort of like two guitarists playing the same song together. Different parts, but either could probably make an adequate accompaniment by its self. Another is the "Together" style, like Joe Callicott and Garfield Akers. Often in their duets, like the great "Cottonfields Blues", it doesn't sound like two guitars, only one.

Geographically we move around a bit; Areas where the guitar duet style seemed prevalent was Memphis (by way of Mississippi) in the recordings of Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe, Frank Stokes & Dan Sane and Garfield Akers & Joe Callicott, in Atlanta in the recordings of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver, Buddy Moss and Fred McMullen and South Carolina in the records of Blind Boy Fuller, Gary Davis and Simmie Dooley with Pink Anderson.

As a youth Frank Stokes learned to play guitar before moving to Hernando, Mississippi, home to guitarists Jim Jackson, Dan Sane and Robert Wilkins. In Hernando, Stokes worked as a blacksmith, traveling to Memphis on the weekends to play guitar. Stokes joined forces with fellow Mississippian Garfield Akers as a blackface songster, comedian, and buck dancer in the Doc Watts Medicine Show, a tent show that toured the South during World War I. During the 1920s he teamed with guitarist Dan Sane, joining Jack Kelly's Jug Busters to play white country clubs, parties and dances, and playing Beale Street together as the Beale Street Sheiks. All told, Stokes was to cut 38 sides for Paramount and Victor Records.

Memphis Minnie's duets with Kansas Joe drew inspiration from the guitar teamwork of Frank Stokes and Dan Sane as well as from her own early partnership with Willie Brown. Her marriage and recording debut came in 1929, to and with Kansas Joe McCoy, when a Columbia Records talent scout heard them playing in a Beale Street barbershop.Between 1929 and 1934 Minnie and Joe cut around one hundred sides together.

Garfield Akers was born in Brights, Mississippi in 1901 and was already performing locally when he moved to Hernando as a teenager. He stayed in that area most of his life and worked as a sharecropper, playing at weekends at house parties and dances, although he toured with Frank Stokes on the Doc Watts Medicine Show. Akers met up with Joe Callicott in the 1920's and they became lifelong friends and partners, the two of them taking turns to play lead and second guitar as they sang blues. Garfield made his first recording, "Cottonfield Blues Parts 1 & 2", in Memphis in 1929 with Callicott on second guitar. Akers and Callicott played together for more than 20 years finally going their own ways in the mid 1940's. Nothing is known about Akers after the pair split although it is believed that he died around the end of the 1950's or the beginning of the 1960's, possibly in Memphis. Callicott was rediscovered and made recordings in the late 60's.

Employing a second guitarist was particularly prevalent on the recordings of the Atlanta bluesmen who seemed to be a particularly tight knit group. Notable was among them was the underrated Curley Weaver. When he was nineteen years old Weaver partnered up with harmonica player Eddie Mapp and moved to Atlanta. There he teamed up with his old boyhood friends (Barbecue) Bob and Charley Hicks. The three guitarists, along with Mapp, played the streets around Atlanta. Barbecue Bob was the first to record and arranged for his brother and Curley Weaver to make their recording debuts. Weaver's successful debut led to more recordings, both solo and with Eddie Mapp and Barbecue Bob. It was also through the recording studio that Weaver met up with Buddy Moss, and the two went on to work together for the next ten years. It was during this period that Weaver met up with Blind Willie McTell. The two went on to play and record together for 20 years or more.

Bruce Bastin called Fred McMullen "a superb guitarist with a delicate touch." Virtually nothing is know of him. He made recordings under his own name in 1933 and backed artists Ruth Willis as heard on today's cut "Man Of My Own", Buddy Moss, heard on our track "Jealous Hearted Man", worked with Curley Weaver, heard on the rousing "Wild Cat Kitten", and was in a group called the Georgia Browns alongside Buddy Moss and Curley Weaver of which we spin "Decatur Street 81."Buddy Moss recalled him a little while Kate McTell who claimed McMullen introduced Blind Willie to Buddy Moss:"Buddy saw (McTell and Weaver) playing together …and he was playing with Fred McMullen, I believe. Buddy Moss was at the 81 Theater. The Willie asked him …would he like to record some records. …That's how he met him, through Fred McMullen."

"Blind" Willie Walker spent most of his life was spent in and around Greenville, South Carolina. on December 6, 1930 Walker had his only recording session. He cut four sides for Columbia in Atlanta with Sam Brooks on second guitar (two sides were never issued). He was described by blues musicians such as Reverend Gary Davis and Pink Anderson as an outstanding guitarist, Josh White called him the best guitarist he had ever heard, even better than Blind Blake.

Rev. Gary Davis only backed Blind Boy Fuller on two numbers for a 1935 session. Many of Fuller's records were played with his own guitar while others feature second guitar by Floyd “Dipper Boy” Council and Sonny Jones.

In 1916 in Spartanburg, SC Pink Anderson met Simeon "Blind Simmie" Dooley, from whom he learned to be a blues singer, this after experience in string bands. Anderson and Dooley would play to medicine shows in Greenville, Spartanburg, and other neighboring communities. They recorded four tracks for Columbia Records in Atlanta in April, 1928, both playing guitar and singing.

Moving to Chicago we spin tracks featuring Big Bill Broonzy and Casey Bill Weldon. The Famous Hokum Boys consisted of Georgia Tom, Frank Braswell, Big Bill Broonzy and singer Jane Lucas (Mozelle Alderson).The group specialized in raunchy blues numbers, recording some two-dozen sides in 1930 including some blistering twin guitar romps on numbers like our featured cut "Pig Meat Strut" as well as others like "Saturday Night", "Guitar Rag" and "Black Cat Rag."

Despite several busy years in the recording studio and a couple of medium-sized hits, very little is known about Casey Bill Weldon. 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. 1937's "You Shouldn't Do That" with an unknown guitarist finds Weldon playing in a super fast, swinging, up-to-date style.

Also featured today are a trio of recordings featuring second guitar by Charlie McCoy. McCoy ranked among the great blues accompanists of his era and his accomplished mandolin and guitar work can be heard on numerous recordings in a wide variety of settings from the late 1920's through the early 40's. Jackson, Mississippi in the 1920's was a city with a vibrant blues scene including artists such as Tommy Johnson, Walter Vincson, Ishman Bracey, Johnnie Temple, The Chatmon Brothers (Bo, Lonnie and Sam were the most prominent) Skip James and Rube Lacey. Lacey recalled McCoy being among the best of this talented group: "But I really believe Charlie got to be a better musician than I was. He was young, but he got to be about the best musician there was in our band, Charlie McCoy. He was wonderful. He could play anything pretty well you sing. …He was good as I ever want to see." Today we spotlight McCoy behind Tommy Johnson, Ishman Bracey and on Johnnie Temple's classic "Lead Pencil Blues."

Worth mentioning are a few all time favorites by Sylvester Weaver, Jim & Bob and Oscar Woods. On October 23, 1923, Weaver recorded in New York City with the blues singer Sara Martin "Longing for Daddy Blues b/w I've Got to Go and Leave My Daddy Behind" and two weeks later as a soloist "Guitar Blues" b/w Guitar Rag". Both recordings were released on Okeh Records. Th later recordings are the first known recorded songs using the slide guitar style. Weaver recorded until 1927, sometimes accompanied by Sara Martin, about 50 additional songs. On some recordings from 1927 he was accompanied by Walter Beasley and the singer Helen Humes. Beasly and Weaver made a fine team, heard in sublime from on thier masterpice, "Bottleneck Blues."

Jim Holstein and Bob Pauole were a musical duo known as Jim and Bob, the Genial Hawaiians. They performed on the radio in Chicago and made a handful of impressive recordings that were released in the 1930's. Their instrumental take on "St. Louis Blues" is a knockout.

Oscar "Buddy" Woods was a Louisiana street musician known as "The Lone Wolf" and a pioneer in the style of lap steel, bottleneck slide guitar. With partner Ed Schaffer they recorded four songs in 1930 and 1932 as the Shreveport Homewreckers and under that name also backed country singer Jimmie Davis. In addition, Woods cut around a dozen sides between 1936 and 1940. The duo's "Fence Breakin' Blues" is one of my all time favorite numbers.

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Sun 8 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/8/12: Stuff You Gotta Watch – Muddy Waters & His Band

Posted by Jeff under Chicago Blues, Playlists
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ARTISTSONGALBUM
Son SimmsRosalie The Complete Plantation Recordings
Sunnyland Slim & Muddy WatersFly Right, Little GirlSunnyland Slim 1947-1948
Muddy Waters & Sunnyland Slim Little Anna MaeThe Aristocrat Of The Blues
Little Johnny JonesShelby County BluesThe Aristocrat Of The Blues
Muddy WatersWhere's My Woman BeenThe Aristocrat Of The Blues
Jimmy RogersLudella Sunnyland Slim: The Classic Sides 1947-53
Othum Brown & Little Walter I Just Keep Loving Her Blues World Of Little Walter
Leroy Foster Muskadine Blues (Take A Walk With Me)Leroy Foster 1948-1952
Leroy Foster Rollin' And Tumblin' - Part 1Leroy Foster 1948-1952
Muddy Waters Stuff You Gotta WatchThe Complete Chess Recordings
Little Walter Can't Hold Out Much Longer The Complete Chess Masters 1950-1967
Muddy Waters They Call Me Muddy Waters The Complete Chess Recordings
Jimmy RogersAct Like You Love MeThe Complete Chess Recordings
Muddy WatersGone to Main Street The Complete Chess Recordings
Junior WellsTomorrow NightBlues Hit Big Town
Muddy WatersShe's All Right The Complete Chess Recordings
Walter HortonOff The WallBlues Harmonica Giant: Classic Sides 1951-1956
Jimmy RogersIf It Ain't Me (Who Are You Thinking Of) The Complete Chess Recordings
Pat HareI'm Gonna Murder My Baby Sun Records:The Blues Years 1950-1958
Muddy WatersGood NewsThe Complete Chess Recordings
Muddy Waters Don't Go No Further The Complete Chess Recordings
Otis Spann I'm Leaving You Chess Piano Greats
Otis SpannIt Must Have Been The Devil Complete Candid Otis Spann/Lightin' Hopkins Sessions
James CottomWest Helena Blues Chicago The Blues Today
Muddy Waters My Dog Can't BarkThe Complete Chess Recordings
Luther JohnsonLonesome Day BluesPiano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
George "Harmonica" SmithI.C. Train Blues The Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Otis Spann & Victoria SpiveyDiving MamaThe Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2
Otis Spann & The Muddy Waters BandShe's My BabyThe Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2
The Muddy Waters BandChicago SlideThe Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 1
Mojo BufordWatch Dog Chicago Blues Summit

Show Notes:

Muddy Waters was a larger then life figure who became a star in the late 1940's and remained a huge presence on the blues landscape until his death in 1983. When Muddy arrived in Chicago from the Delta in 1943 he was just another struggling musician trying to establish himself. Pete Welding described his early years: "After several years of playing to slowly increasing audiences, first at houseparties and later in small taverns dotted throughout Chicago's huge, sprawling South and West Side black-belt slums, he had begun to record. …After several exploratory recordings made in the company of pianist Sunnyland Slim and bassist Ernest "Big" Crawford which made absolutely no impression on the record-buying public, Waters suddenly scored with the single "I Can't Be Satisfied/I Feel Like Going Home." And it is with this record that the history of the modern Chicago blues properly begins. Over the next few years, Waters gathered around him a group of like-minded, country-reared musicians with whom he proceeded to make blues history." On today's feature we deflect the spotlight away from Muddy to shine on some of the remarkable bluesman who apprenticed in Muddy's band. Among those featured today include Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Otis Spann and others. Along the way we'll also contrast a few sides under Muddy's name that prominently feature his bandmates.

An early edition of the Muddy Waters Band, with Waters (left),
Otis Spann (piano) and Jimmy Rogers (far right)

Our opening track, "Rosalie", goes way back to 1942 when Muddy Waters was recorded for the Library of Congress alongside Son Simms. Delta bluesman Henry "Son" Sims is best known as the fiddler who played with Charley Patton and Muddy Waters. Born in Anguilla, Mississippi in 1890, Sims played the violin, mandolin, guitar and piano. Although he led a rural string band called the Mississippi Corn Shuckers for several years, the first recording that Sims did was with Patton, who asked him to come along to Wisconsin for a 1929 Paramount session. Sims also recorded under his own name on two separate occasions; during the Patton session when he cut four songs, and several years later with McKinley Morganfield AKA Muddy Waters backing him or his first session in 1941, again in 1942 and with Muddy backing him on a session listed by the Son Simms Four in 1942.

Muddy Waters with one of his Library
of Congress recordings

Muddy and Sunnyland Slim first recorded for Aristocrat together on four songs in1947, each taking the vocals on two numbers resulting in classic s"Gypsy Woman" and "little Anna Mae" sung by Muddy and "Johnson, Machine Gun" and "Fly Right, Little Girl" sung by Sunnyland. Both appeared again with each other on 1948 sessions. Both Sunnyland and Muddy together also backed St. Louis Jimmy and Jimmy Rogers during this period.

Muddy backed Little Johnny Jones on his first record "Big Town Playboy b/w Shelby County Blues" in 1949. During the same period Jones backed Muddy on a three song session including the track we feature, "Where's My Woman Been." Jones and Muddy can also be heard backing Jimmy Rogers on another featured cut, "Ludella", cut for Regal in 1949 and unissued at the time.

Little Walter made his debut for the tiny Ora-Nelle logo ("I Just Keep Loving Her") in the company of Jimmy Rogers and guitarist Othum Brown. Walter joined forces with Muddy Waters in 1948. He arrived in Chicago in 1946 and joined forces with Muddy Waters in 1948. Along with Rogers and Baby Face Leroy Foster, this talented group became informally known as the Headhunters. They would saunter into Southside clubs, mount the stage, and proceed to calmly "cut the heads" of whomever was booked there that evening. By 1950, Walter was firmly entrenched as Waters' studio harpist at Chess (long after Walter had split the Muddy Waters band, Leonard Chess insisted on his participation on Muddy's records). Walter cut his breakthrough 1952 R&B hit "Juke" at the tail-end of a Waters session. Suddenly, Walter was a star on his own. From 1952 to 1958, Walter notched 14 Top Ten R&B hits.

Leroy Foster was first cousin to Little Johnny Jones and Little Willie Foster and came up to Chicago in 1945 in the company of Jones and Little Walter. Muddy and Foster first teamed up together backing Homer Harris and James "Beale Street" Clark at 1946 sessions. Foster aslo plays on several of Muddy's sessions during 1948 and 1949. Muddy is also is heard on vocal on the classic two-part "Rollin' And Tumblin'" at a 1950 Foster session which also features Little Walter.

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers settled in Chicago during the early '40s and began playing professionally around 1946, gigging with Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim, and Broonzy. Rogers was playing harp with guitarist Blue Smitty when Muddy Waters joined them. When Smitty split, Little Walter joined the group and Rogers switched over to second guitar. He first played with Muddy Waters on an Aristocrat 78 in 1949 and remained his rhythm guitarist on record into 1955. Rogers began cutting his on records for Chess in 1950 and stayed withe label through 1959.

In 1950 Junior Wells passed an impromptu audition for guitarists Louis and David Myers at a house party on the South Side, and the Deuces were born. When drummer Fred Below came aboard, they changed their name to the Aces. Little Walter left Muddy Waters in 1952 (in the wake of his hit instrumental "Juke"), and Wells jumped ship to take his place. That didn't stop the Aces (who joined forces with Little Walter) from backing Wells on his initial sessions for States Records in 1955 with Muddy also moonlighting on guitar. On record Wells only backed Muddy on one 1952 session and a one off song in 1955 called "Mannish Boy."

Walter Horton played on a 1953 session backing Muddy, including the number we spin today,"She's All Right", and reunited with Muddy for the 1978 album I'm Ready. Horton recorded several sides for Sam Phillips in 1951, which were leased to Modern/RPM. The following year he recorded with longtime friend Johnny Shines, and was invited to settle permanently in Chicago by Eddie Taylor. In early 1953, not long after arriving, Horton got a chance to record and tour with Muddy Waters, since regular harpman Junior Wells had been drafted into military service. However, he was fired by year's end for breaking band commitments or due to excessive drinking or playing too many side gigs, depending on the account.

The first recorded glimpse of Pate Hare occurs when he showed up at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service sometime in 1953 to play on James Cotton's debut session for the Sun label. After working with Cotton and numerous others around the Memphis area, Hare moved North to Chicago and by the late '50's was a regular member of the Muddy Waters band, appearing on the legendary Live at Newport album and numerous sessions backing Muddy between 1956 and 1960. After moving to Minneapolis in the '60's to work with fellow Waters bandmate Mojo Bruford, Hare was convicted of murder after a domestic dispute, spending the rest of his life behind bars. In one of the great ironies of the blues, one of the unissued tracks Pat Hare left behind in the Sun vaults was entitled, "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby."

Otis Spann migrated to Chicago from Mississppi in 1946 or 1947. Spann gigged on his own and with guitarist Morris Pejoe before hooking up with Waters in 1952. His first Chess date behind Muddy began on the 1953 number "Blow Wind Blow." His own Chess output was limited to a 1954 single, "It Must Have Been the Devil," that featured B.B. King on guitar, and sessions in 1956 and 1963 that remained in the can for decades. Spann looked elsewhere and recorded prolifically for labels like Candid, Prestige, Storyvill, British Decca, Bluesway, Vanguard and others. He finally turned the piano chair in the Waters band over to Pinetop Perkins in 1969, but fate didn't grant Spann long to achieve solo stardom. He was stricken with cancer and died in April of 1970 at the age of forty.

James Cotton had some big shoes to fill when he stepped into Little Walter's slot as Muddy Waters' harp ace in 1954, but for the next dozen years, he filled the role in fine fashion. Cotton made his debut for the Sun label in 1953, "Straighten Up Baby" and "Cotton Crop Blues." When Waters rolled through Memphis minus his latest harpist (Junior Wells), Cotton hired on and went to Chicago. Unfortunately for Cotton, Chess Records insisted on using Little Walter on the great majority of Waters' waxings until 1958, when Cotton blew behind Waters on "She's Nineteen Years Old" and "Close to You." At Cotton's suggestion, Waters had added an Ann Cole tune called "Got My Mojo Working" to his repertoire.

Luther "Georgia Boy/Snake Boy" Johnson played for a while with Elmore James and was a regular fixture in the Muddy Waters band by the mid-'60s. Johnson cut two albums in the late 60's backed by Muddy Waters and members of Muddy's band. During this period he also backed Otis Spann and George Smith on sessions.

George Smith played in a number of bands including one with a young guitarist named Otis Rush, and later went on the road with the Muddy Waters Band after replacing Henry Strong. In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip) heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith. In 1966, while Muddy Waters was on the West Coast, he asked Smith to join him and they worked together for a while. Smith's first album on World Pacific, A Tribute to Little Walter, was released in 1968 backed by members of the Muddy Waters band and Muddy himself. Smith also spent some time on the road with Muddy in the early 70's, popping up on some live recordings from this period.

We devote a set today to some interesting records made by the late 60's Muddy Waters Band made for the Spivey label. The band cut two albums for Victoria Spivey's Spivey label: The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band (1966) and The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band Vol. 2 (1968). These records have been issued on CD on the Japanese P-Vine label with several extra tracks. Thalbums feature the following lineup:

Vol 1: Victoria Spivey, voc; Otis Spann, voc, p, org; George Smith, voc, hca; Luther Johnson, voc, g; Samuel Lawhorn, g; Francis Clay, dr

Vol 2: Otis Spann, Lucille Spann, Luther Johnson, Sammy Lawhorn, Little Sonny Wimberley, S.P. Leary, Paul Oscher, Pee Wee Madison, Willie Smith

Mojo Buford spent several stints in the employ of Muddy Waters and was his harpist of choice in the final edition of the Waters band. Buford played with Muddy Waters as early as 1959, but a 1962 uprooting to Minneapolis to front his own combo, and cut a couple of solid but extremely obscure LPs for Vernon and Folk-Art, removed him from the Windy City scene for a while. Buford returned to Waters' combo in 1967 for a year, put in a longer stint with him during the early '70s, and came back for the last time after Jerry Portnoy exited with the rest of his mates to form the Legendary Blues Band. Buford passed in October of 2011. Our selection by Buford, "Watch Dog", comes from the excellent 1979 album Chicago Blues Summit which features Muddy bandmates Pee Wee Madison, Sammy Lawhorn, and Sonny Rogers.

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Sun 1 Jan 2012

Big Road Blues Show 1/1/12: I Was Playing The Blues …Just Whippin' That Ivory, Boys, Like A Fool – Forgotten Piano Greats

Posted by Jeff under Piano Blues, Playlists
1 Comment

ARTISTSONGALBUM
Sparks BrothersLouisiana BoundThe Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Sparks Brothers East Chicago Blues Twenty First. St. Stomp: The Piano Blues Of St. Louis
Sparks Brothers4-11-44 Twenty First. St. Stomp: The Piano Blues Of St. Louis
Peetie WheatstrawThird Street's Going DownThe Essential
Peetie WheatstrawMeat Cutter Blues Peetie Wheatstraw Vol. 3
Peetie WheatstrawShack Bully StompThe Essential
Andy BoyEvil BluesThe Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Andy BoyToo Late BluesThe Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Andy Boy House Raid Blues The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Black Boy ShineSugarland BluesBlack Boy Shine & Black Ivory King 1936-1937
Black Boy ShineDog House BluesThe Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937
Black Boy ShineBack Home BluesBlack Boy Shine & Black Ivory King 1936-1937
Jesse JamesSouthern Casey JonesPiano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Jesse JamesSweet PatuniPiano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Sparks BrothersDown On The LeveeDown On The Levee: The Piano Blues of St. Louis Vol. 2
Sparks BrothersChicago’s Too Much For Me Down On The Levee: The Piano Blues of St. Louis Vol. 2
Sparks BrothersTell Her About MeThe Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Peetie WheatstrawGangster's Blues Peetie Wheatstraw Vol. 7 1940-1941
Peetie WheatstrawWorking On the ProjectThe Essential
Peetie WheatstrawPeetie Wheatstraw Stomp The Essential
Andy BoyChurch Street BluesThe Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937
Andy BoyJive Blues Joe Pullum Vol. 2 1935-1951
Black Boy Shine Married Man BluesBlack Boy Shine & Black Ivory King 1936-193
Black Boy Shine Dallas Woman BluesLeroy Carr & Black Boy Shine: Unissued Test Pressings & Alternate Takes 1934-37
Black Boy Shine Brown House BluesThe Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937
Jesse JamesHighway 61Piano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Jesse JamesLonesome Day BluesPiano Blues Vol. 1 192 -1936
Sparks BrothersI.C. Train Blues The Sparks Brothers 1932-1935
Sparks BrothersEveryday I Have The BluesThe Modern Recordings Vol. 2
Joe Pullum w/ Andy BoyDixie My HomeJoe Pullum Vol. 1 1934-1935
Walter ''Cowboy'' Washington w/ Andy BoyIce Pick MamaThe Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937

Show Notes:

On today's show we spotlight five superb blues pianists active in the 1930's and who remain largely forgotten today. Peetie Wheatstraw is by far the most well known artist featured today and one of the most popular and influential artists of the 1930's. Wheatstraw recorded in every year of the 1930's save 1933, cutting over one hundred and sixty sides. The Sparks brothers were based in St. Louis, Aaron on piano and Marion on vocals, and cut four sessions between 1932 and 1935. Andy Boy was a terrific pianist and expressive singer from Galveston, Texas who cut only eight sides under his own name as well as backing singers Joe Pullum and Walter 'Cowboy' Washington. Almost nothing is known of fellow Texas pianist Black Boy Shine, aka Harold Holiday, except that he was based in a section of Houston (which may have been his home) called West Dallas. In 1936 and 1937 he recorded for Vocalion in San Antonio and Dallas, and left behind 18 sides. Jesse James was a rough, two-fisted barrelhouse pianist probably based in Cincinnati. His legacy rest on four sides he cut in 1936.

Peetie Wheatstraw

Peetie Wheatstraw was born William Bunch and during his recording career was also know under the colorful sobriquets the Devil's Son-in-law and the High Sheriff from Hell. In fact he may have been one of the key links in the identification of the blues singer and the devil. He recorded over 160 songs, usually accompanied by his own piano and provided accompaniment on records to numerous others. Between 1930 and his death in 1941 he remained immensely popular for buyers of race records and was a fixture on the vibrant St. Louis blues scene of the 30's. St. Louis chronicler Henry Townsend emphasizes this point: "Around town he was pretty well busy; his name was ringing." Popularity is one thing but influence was another and his biographer Paul Garon makes no bones about Wheatstraw's enormous influence: "His style of blues singing was magnetically influential… It is no exaggeration to say that blues singing in the late 1930's bore the mark of Peetie Wheatstraw." Those cited as being influenced by Wheatstraw ("oooh, well, well" being his signature phrase) were a diverse lot including Robert Johnson, Champion Jack Dupree, Smokey Hogg and Big Joe Williams among others.

Wheatstraw died in 1941 when the car he was riding in slammed into a standing freight car. He was virtually ignored by blues researchers after his death (prior to Garon's book, The Devil's Son-In-Law: The Story Of Peetie Wheatstraw & His Songs, the only substantial writing on him was an article by Paul Oliver in Jazz Monthly from 1959) . Garon's insightful book makes an eloquent case for Wheatstraw' place in blues history. He was perhaps the most popular urban bluesman of his era and as Garon sums up "should be judged by the majesty of his own performances…"

Wheatstraw was a solid piano player who uses his playing to adorn his songs, usually not stretching out much outside of a few more boisterous pieces such as "Shack Bully Stomp" and "Peetie Wheatstraw Stomp", both featured today. On other numbers he gives plenty of room to his talented guitarists, most notably Kokomo Arnold and Lonnie Johnson. He was also an imaginative lyricist  as we hear on some fine topical numbers such as "Working On The Project" and "Third Street's Going Down" (the street, which was being torn down, ran through a tough section of East St. Louis called the "Valley" known for its gambling houses, saloons and brothels and was also where Wheatstraw lived):

We used to have luck in the Vally, but the girls had to move out of town (2x)
Some moved in the alley, oooh, well, well, because Third Street is going down

The city hired Mr. Keeler to put a highway through that part of town (2x)
And the law told the girls to move, oooh, well, well, 'cause we're tearing Third Street down

Aaron and Marion (he changed his name to Milton in 1929) were twins born to Ruth and Sullie Gant in Tupelo, Mississippi. Soon after the twins were born Ruth married Carl Sparks. According to Cleveland Sparks, uncle of Aaron and Marion: "Piano player Aaron he learned how to play piano before he could holler and shout…it was a coloured fellow teaching him. He had a joint y'know selling bootleg whiskey back in the corner. He just had a crowd there all the time and he just learned to play." Henry Townsend, who often accompanied Marion, had this to say: "He just kept getting better and better and got to playing for illegal joints y'know. …Pinetop was doing a lot of house-party playing and uh 'cause this was a trend then. We would go from house-party to house-party and make some money to pay the rent. …Now at that time Milton wasn't singing, Pinetop was the star when it come to singing. And so just out of nowhere Milton decided he was going to sing and he'd start. …Aaron got the name Pinetop because "He was very good at the number that Smith made [Pinetop Smith's "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie"]. Yeah he was very good with that number and as most guys do he just started to call himself Pinetop himself y'know. The nickname "Lindberg", Townsend suggests, was probably due to Milton's prowess in dancing the Lindberg or Lindy Hop.

The brothers cut four sessions, the first for Victor and the other three for Bluebird, between 1932 and 1935. Milton cut two songs for Decca in 1934 under the name Flyin' Lindberg. Aaron backed a number of St. Louis artists at their second session: Elisabeth Washington, Tecumseh McDowell, Dorotha Trowbridge, James "Stump" Johnson and Charlie McFadden. The brothers' led rough and tumble lives reflected in songs that dealt with gambling, jail, alcohol, woman, hoboing and railroads. In spite of their lyrics and rough background, the music the brothers made was surprisingly tender and wistful. They excelled at thoughtful, mid-tempo blues such as "East Chicago Blues", "Down On The Levee" and "4X11=44" a reference to number combination for playing policy.

Milton possessed a strong, nasal voice that is extremely appealing while Milton had a warm, sensitive vocal that occasionally dips into a mellow falsetto. Aaron was an exceptional and versatile piano player as Chris Smith appraises: "Aaron's playing features the steady chordal basses typical of St. Louis, and a very inventive right hand, endowed with melodic grace and propulsive energy. He was also a capable boogie player, with a singing line and a fondness for medium tempos." Aaron's fine abilities as an accompanist extend to his backing a trio of St. Louis ladies. Elisabeth Washington was an appealing, slightly nasal singer with a good sense of delivery; "Riot Call Blues" and "Whiskey Blues" (1933) are particularly tough blues with the latter opening with the line "Everyday I have the blues" a song that the brothers would debut two years later.

Andy Boy, from Galveston Texas, was part of a group of Texas pianists dubbed the Santa Fe group who acquired their name not only because they rode the Santa Fe from job to job, but also because, according to the Houston Pianist Robert Shaw, "anyone inquiring the name of a selection was invariably told, "that's the 'Santa Fe'." As blues scholar Paul Oliver wrote: "…There is a broad stylistic and thematic similarity in the music of the pianists who followed the Santa Fe through the barrelhouses of Ford Bend, Houston and Galveston counties, and down in the Brazos Bottoms. …Immediately recognizable with its rolling basses, its often ragtimey blues accompaniments, its anticipatory beat—this is the Santa Fe group." This group travelled the branches of the Santa Fe line to the lumber camps, oil fields and towns. In the cities "they were to be heard in the red light district of Galveston's Post Office Street or Church Street, on Houston's West Dallas Street or in Richmond's Mud Alley."

Among the best of the Santa Fe group were Rob Cooper of Houston, and Andy Boy of Galveston. Both men show the influence of Hersal Thomas and both men's style share strong ragtime elements. Stylistically, Oliver notes, "Andy Boy (Boy was his surname) and Rob Cooper were a few years older than Hersal Thomas" and "careful listening to the playing of Andy Boy reveals hints of the connection between them; in spite of the themes that he sang and played with their somewhat more modern sound, Galveston born Andy Boy was a pianist whose formative years were spent in the company of Hersal and his fellow pianists."

Andy Boy had a rough, expressive voice offset with his sprightly blues piano laced with ragtime flourishes. Andy Boy's songs are filled with vivid imagery, humor, clever wordplay and a times a deep pathos. Along with pianist Rob Cooper, Andy Boy plays prominently on the records of Joe Pullum, one of the era's most distinctive and imaginative vocalists. Andy Boy cut only eight sides under his own name as well as backing both Pullum and the obscure Walter 'Cowboy' Washington.

One of his most memorable numbers was the rollicking "House Raid Blues"  (a close cousin to Little Hat Jones' "Kentucky Blues") as Andy Boy wittily describes a police break-in at Charlie Shiro's Galveston club: "

Then out the widow I did hop
Followed closely by a cop
Then around the corner I did run
I heard the shot from some law's gun
Said it ain't no use in shooting, ‘cause I ain't gonna be here long

Then I was long gone, from Kentucky, long gone
Got away lucky and I left so keen
I left like a submarine, couldn't hardly be seen

The vigorously sung "Church Street Blues" was perhaps his finest number where he evocatively sang: "Going down to the Gulf/Watch the waves come in . . ." and "I was born and raised in that good old seaport town/Where we all had fun and stomped The Grinder down." In the sombre "Evil Blues" he sang: "I got the evil blues, prejudicy on my mind" and was in quite a different frame of mind on the bouncy "Jive Blues" where he sings "Now the good book says thou shall not break the ten commandment law/I'm gonna break the ten commandments on you're jaw."

Harold Holiday, known as Black Boy Shine, was one of the acknowledged leaders among the Santa Fe group of pianists. He recorded more prolifically then the rest; cutting 18 issued sides in 1936 and 1937 as well as leaving a batch of unissued sides in the can. As Paul Oliver noted: "He played in a mellow style, with a subtler release than the sharp snap favoured by several of the piano men, and he sang in a slightly world-weary voice of the days when the "Chophouse" operated on West Dallas Street. It was a haven for pianists down on their luck, where the proprietor would prepare soup and sandwiches for them, and cook any rabbits they'd managed to club on the waste lots that still dotted the black wards of the city." He describes this vividly in one of his best numbers, "Dog House Blues: "

Well I'm going to the Dog House, down On West Dallas Street (2x)
When I get broke and hungry, I know I can get a feed

"When times were better", Oliver wrote, "and the barrelhouses were open again, Shine was to be found at Sugarland, near the sugar refineries and the State Farm Unit, or way out at Richmond. The latter is a run-down, predominately black township still, an unlovely place of old buildings fronting on the railroad tracks close to the Brazos River. Behind the tracks the roads fall back steeply for a couple of blocks to the old haunt of hustlers and whores, Mud Alley. There on Mud Alley was the Brown House, Shine's base when he wasn't travelling…" Both places feature in Shine's songs; In "Sugarland Blues" he sings "I dump sugar all day/Clean until broad daylight/I done everything for that woman/Still she don't treat me right" and in "Brown House Blues" he sings "Woke up this morning with the muddy alley blues/ I lost all my money and my alley shoes/I was playing boogie-woogie and having my fun" and then goes on describe a raid in detail, obviously a common occurrence in these kind of joints. In general his lyrics vividly reflect the harsher side of black life such as songs like "Hobo Blues" and "Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues.”

It was once believed that Jesse James was a convict, brought to the studio under guard to make his four recordings in 1936. This "information" was originally given to Paul Oliver by Sammy Price in 1960 who was a member of Decca's A&R staff in the 30s. This romantic idea probably came from the lyrics of "Lonesome Day Blues:"

I'm going to the Big House and, I don't even care
Don't you hear me talking to 'em, scolding to my death
I'm going in the morning and I don't even care
I might get four, five years, Lord and I might get the chair

Some got six months, some got a solid year
You hear me talking to ya buddy what made you stop by here
Some of them got six months partner, and some got a solid year
But I believe my partner, Lord got lifetime here

James was probably Cincinnati-based, as he accompanied titles by Walter Coleman on the same date as his own session, June 3, 1936. James was a rough, two-fisted barrelhouse pianist, with a hoarse, declamatory vocal delivery, equally suited to the anguished "Lonesome Day Blues", a robust version of "Casey Jones" as "Southern Casey Jones", "Highway 61" and the ribald "Sweet Patuni", which was issued much later on a bootleg party single.

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