In the fall of 2005 one of the most mysterious, elusive and sought after 78's seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The record, Son House's "Clarksdale Moan" b/w "Mississippi County Farm Blues", was recorded by Paramount in 1930 in what has been called the greatest early blues session ever recorded. In addition to Son House, Charley Patton, Willie Brown and Louise Johnson all laid down landmark recordings on that fateful date. It's hard to fathom how records like this surface after so long but in recent years there has been some amazing discoveries of long lost records by King Solomon Hill, Tommy Johnson and Blind Joe Reynolds. Collector John Tefteller has been personally responsible for some of these discoveries while similar discoveries by others, have found there way into Tefteller's collection (including the aforementioned Son House). In addition Tefteller also uncovered a huge cache of Paramount promotional material a few years back. Paramount marketed their "race records", as they were called, to African-Americans, most notably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, the African-American newspaper, and sent promotional material to record stores and distributors. Tefteller bought a huge cache of this artwork from a pair of journalists who rescued them from the rubbish heap some twenty years previously. The depression essentially killed off Paramount's advertising budget so many of these images were never sent out and hence have not been seen by anyone since they were first produced. Tefteller has been making these gorgeous ads available in his "Classic Blues Artwork Calendar" since 2004 and like previous calendars, the 2008 version is another stunner.
Many of us have seen reproductions of those early Chicago Defender ads, tantalizing as they are, the reproductions left much to be desired. Where the earlier reproductions were taken from adverts in The Chicago Defender newspaper, these are copied from distribution posters. They are large reproductions and they have been beautifully reproduced with stunning clarity. Each month features a large sized ad with this year's calendar featuring provocative, lurid and wonderfully politically incorrect artwork promoting the following records: Texas Alexander ("Range In My Kitchen Blues") [a snapshot of this is shown on the back - the full length page is not included which seems to be a printing error?], Blind lemon Jefferson ("One Dime Blues"), Rube Lacy ("Mississippi Jail House Groan"), Blind Joe Reynolds ("Nehi Mama"), Ma Rainey ("Deep Moaning Blues"), Crying Sam Collins ("Jail House Blues"), Banjo Joe ("Madison Street Rag"), Blind Blake ("Seaboard Stomp"), Mississippi Sheiks ("Shake That Thing"), Blind Blake ("Low Down Jail House"), Ida Cox ("Cold And Blues") and Elzadie Robinson ("The Santa Claus Crave"). What's interesting is that many of the illustrations include an actual photo of the artist. In addition we get some smaller ads included on each calendar page that, despite the small size, are just as crisp and readable as the larger images. The usual anniversary dates for Christmas, Easter are listed plus anniversaries for blues singers like Son House and other luminaries such as Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass. Brief artist biographies are included and there is an informative introduction from Tefteller.
The calendar also includes a sixteen track CD, the first twelve songs matching the artwork on each page of the calendar. True to form there is a major discovery on the CD; included is apparently the only known copy of Blind Willie McTell & Mary Willis’ “Talkin To You Wimmen’ About The Blues” b/w “Merciful Blues” (see last post). Which begs the question, "Why are pre-war blues records so rare?" Well, as Tefteller write in his introduction: "With initial pressings of 500 or less, how many could possibly survive all the different ways a fragile 78 rpm record could be destroyed? It can be cracked; broken; ground to a powder with a steel needle and a five pound tone arm; damaged in a flood, fire, hurricane or tornado; or just thrown away because the original owner died or moved or left it behind! And, don't think for a minute that the record companies that put them out had any foresight to save them. There are no masters for most old Blues records. Those were destroyed or thrown out years ago. It is a miracle that ANY of them survive today!"
All in all a beautiful, unique and thoughtfully produced collectable that will bring pleasure to blues collectors year round. Tefteller noted a couple of years back that he was "knee-deep in production of what will be the ultimate book of original Blues advertising material" which hopefully is still in the works. Until then, Tefteller has amassed a huge storehouse of these images (over 4,000) which will ensure years and years of wonderful calendars.
Whistlin' Alex Moore certainly knew intimately about this area as he related to Oliver: "Oh they were tough joints…I'd play them all, from North Dallas to the East Side…Froggy Bottom…Central Tracks…well they had just about everything up and down there from beer joints to saloons." Moore was a resident of Dallas all his eighty years and had spent most of his working life as a cart driver, and later, hotel porter. Moore had a long career, punctuated by large recording gaps, cutting ten sides in 1929, sessions in 1947, 1951, sessions for Arhoolie and cut an album for Rounder the year before he died in 1988. Oliver describes Moore as a "folk blues poet par excellence" and "one of the most poetic blues singers on record, Alex Moore had developed as a remarkable pianist in the purest boogie and blues tradition with an eccentric inventive flair both in his vocals and his playing." Moore's poetic flair is on display on "Heart Wrecked Blues" and particularly his 
Moore was perhaps the last of the early Texas piano although a couple of others survived long enough to make some latter day recording. Edwin 'Buster' Pickens and Robert Shaw ran around with the pianists who worked the Santa Fe railroad townships. Both Robert Shaw and Buster Pickens didn't record under their own name until the 1960's. Pickens did some session work, most notably behind Lightnin' Hopkins and cut one full-length record in the 1960’s for the Heritage label. Oliver describes him in the 60’s, as “virtually the last of the barrelhouse and saw-mill pianists, for his contemporaries are nearly all dead …Pickens, born in 1915, was younger then many of them though he shared the work, and small, compact and tough, he is still playing. His world has been one of railroad routes and this is reflected in many of his blues." A prime example is his 
Piano blues seems to have gotten overshadowed by the emphasis on the guitar. Today the piano blues tradition is in steep decline. This week's show harks back to the glory days of barrelhouse piano, in particular a remarkable group of piano men who where based in Texas during the 1920's and 30's. As Paul Oliver observed: “Texas was as rich in piano blues as Mississippi was in guitar blues …A cursory glance through the discographies will emphasize the fact that a remarkable number of blues pianists came from Texas."
After discussing the early Texas piano players and the Santa Fe group we turn to Dallas which was the home of a number of distinctive piano players and singers they accompanied. Among them were Texas Bill Day, Neal Roberts, Willie Tyson, Whistlin' Alex Moore and singer Billiken Johnson. Oliver notes that "as far as is known, they were more or less contemporaries, being born at the turn of the century (Alex Moore, specifically, in 1899)." He goes on to describe Dallas during this period: "Then there were 9000 blacks in Dallas, a quarter of the population. By 1930 they totalled just short of 50,000 and made up a significant part of the whole population. The hub of the black community was an area known as Central Tracks, where honky-tonks 'saloons, beer-parlours and brothels were wedged between warehouses, furniture stores and places of entertainment like Ella B. Moore's Park Theatre, or Hattie Burleson's dance hall. Urban expansion in Dallas was largely due to its importance as a railhead, and many railroads whose names are familiar to blues collectors had termini there. Among them were the "Katy", the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line; the Fort Worth and Denver; the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe; the Rock Island; and the Texas a Pacific, along whose line Central Tracks was situated."
