Category: Texas Blues

Show Notes: 

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All images from the collection of Michael Hortig

I’ve had a long love of piano blues from the 1920’s and 30’s, with a particular affection for the Texas piano blues from this period. I first encountered some of these fine players on the Magpie albums, The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937 and The Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937. Back when I started this show in 2007 one of the first programs I did was one devoted to the early Texas piano tradition. My interest was reignited several years ago when I was doing research and writing the notes for a reissue of pianist Buster Pickens’ long out-of-print album for the Document label (Edwin “Buster” Pickens: The 1959 to 1961). Around this time I also revisited the tradition with a more in-depth two-part radio feature and a couple of related podcasts done for Document. For the Document collection I was greatly assisted by Austrian piano expert Michael Hortig. This time out Michael and myself team up for a series of shows. Outside of the presentation, Michael did most of the heavy lifting, putting together the notes, set lists and supplied me with documentation which you can find in the slideshow above. Michael also provided a wonderful interview with Buster Pickens. The Joe Pullum interview excerpts come courtesy of the Arhoolie Foundation/Chris Strachwitz Collection which was nice enough to grant me permission for use.

In a review of a record by Texas pianist Robert Shaw that appeared in her Blues Is My Business column in Record Research, Victoria Spivey reminisced about the early days of Texas blues. “At first it made me very sad and blue as it brought back my carefree days in Texas in the early 20’s when we were all playing the whiskey joints, gay houses and picnics. We all loved each other then. Had no animosity in our hearts. These were the days of lazy, offbeat blues piano and singing. I was a member of a clique that played West Texas from Galveston to Houston to Richmond to Sugarland. There were Anthony (sic) Boy, Joe Pullum, Houston, Bernice Edwards, Pearl Dickson and myself. …”

Texas had a rich piano tradition as Michael Hortig chronicled  in his excellent two-part article Stomp the Grinder Down in Blues & Rhythm magazine which is the source of the rest of today’s show notes. “…The most powerful group of pianists working all around Texas but playing in a similar, technically outstanding style was the so-called ‘Santa Fe Group’. Pianists of that loose group came from Galveston, Houston, Richmond, Sugarland, and even up from the Piney Woods. When this group started to develop their style is not known, but Robert Shaw, who survived into the 1960s, was still able to play that complicated and complex style and dated it around 1920. He describes it: ‘It’s very peculiar and takes a lot of practice’. …They had a lot of peculiar tunes like ‘The Cows’, ‘Jim Nappy’, ‘Hattie Green’, ‘Black Girl’, ‘Put Me In The Alley’, but the most famous piece was a dance number, called The Ma Grinder’: ‘Whenever a new man would come looking for work, the bar keeper would tell him, let me hear you knock out the ‘Ma Grinder’. Once the most powerful and complex group in blues history, they dropped out of business when tastes of blues turn into a more modern sound at the end of the 30s. Also the invention of the juke box pushed the piano out of the barrelhouses, juke joints or bars killing the income of the blues pianists. But the most prominent members of the so called Santa Fee got the chance to record, and we hear their wonderful music on today’s show.

The first of that group to be recorded was Bernice Edwards. Born around 1908 in Houston, she was associated with the famous Thomas Family, but when they left Texas, she stayed on in Houston.  She started playing piano together with Hociel Thomas, the daughter of famous George Thomas. She had a beautiful deep, lowdown voice and her piano playing was right in the ‘Santa Fe’ tradition. She worked as a prostitute ,playing piano during her “breaks”. In February 1928, together with Blind Lemon Jefferson, she went up to Chicago to cut six titles for Paramount. In November the same year, now in the company of Ramblin’ Thomas, she cut six more titles for Paramount. Her last recordings were made on 20th April, 1935 for Vocalion, together with Howling Smith (J.T. ‘Funny Paper’ Smith) and Black Boy Shine. With the latter she made two piano/vocal duets and two piano duets with ‘Hot Mattress Stomp’, being an exuberant version of the ‘Grinder’. Disillusioned due to most recordings of that session were destroyed by a silly sound engineer, she turned to church, dying on 26.2.1969 in Houston. She was discovered by Mac McCormack, who too recorded her, but these recordings still remain unissued.

Next one  to record  is the obscure pianist, who accompanied the also obscure singer Clara Burston on two sides on 21st September 1929. Although we don’t know anything about both artists, the pianist can be clearly identified as a member of the Santa Fee group.

Black Boy Shine, whose real name was Harold Holiday, was born on 12th September, 1908. It’s said that his mother was a prostitute and that he was born in a sporting house. His nickname is declared by himself in his ‘Black Shine Blues’: ‘tell me why, they all like to call me Shine, because I drive six mules, Lord, and I takes my time.’ Other reports say, he , in his youth worked as a shoe shine boy. Six feet tall, weighing 150 pounds and having slick hair, he’s reported to have been a gambler and a womaniser. He had a mellow mid-tempered style and with a slightly world­ weary voice, he must have impressed the Vocalion people as they took him back into the studio on 20th November, 1936 after his first session in 1935 had been unissued. Maybe they saw a replacement for Leroy Carr as Carr had died in 1935. He was remembered to be the best player of the group, which isn’t really audible on his recorded output. The only clue to that can be found in the recently issued test recordings, on those he played in a more aggressive style and always played a solo chorus, which can’t be found on his other issued records. He travelled a lot which is evident in his songs like ‘Sugarland Blues’ (reported to have been his base), ‘Mud Alley Blues’ (Richmond), ‘Dog House Blues’ (West Dallas), ‘Dallas Woman Blues’ or ‘West Columbia Woman’. …After his last session in Dallas on 14th June, 1937, he dropped out of sight, only seen by Buster Picken in 1948, health wrecked by TB. Harold Holiday died on 28th March, 1952 due to TB in Sugar Land, and was buried in Stafford, Texas.

Next to record was Conish ‘Pinetop’ Burks. Born on 7th August, 1907, it was said that he was raised near Richmond. He was remembered by Shaw: ‘Connie Burks, a dark fellow, about my size, maybe a little thicker than me. When I met him, he couldn’t play, so I showed him some. Three years later, when I was in Richmond again, he played better than me’. His recorded output of six titles, made for Vocalion on 25th October, 1937 in San Antonio, show him as a pianist with an incredible technique and melodic feeling. His ‘Mountain Jack’ is his version of the ‘Grinder’, his ‘Fannie Mae’ is the classic ‘Hattie Green’, and with ‘Jack Of All Trades Blues’, he recorded another Texas-classic. ‘Shake The Shack’ is a version of ‘Pinetops Boogie Woogie’, which is played both with boogie and Texas bass figures. He also dropped out of sight in the late 1930s, in 1941 he “won” the draft lottery, went to war and returned badly wounded. He died on 11th January, 1947 in Corpus Christi.

Joe Pullum from a 1937 Bluebird Catalog

Sharing the same session date was Leon Calhoun, who recorded under the name Son Becky. Born Leon Hathaway Calhoun on 13th October, 1910 in Wharton, Texas, it’s said, that he was raised near Wharton by a relative with the name Becky, which led to his nickname, Son Becky. Medium in stature, stockily built, he is remembered playing along the Piney Woods border with Louisiana. An unknown guitarist and a washboard player accompanied him on his six titles, and this trio brought in the flavor of the music performed in the barrelhouses. Although not remembered by Robert Shaw, Becky made with his ‘Mistreated Washboard Blues’ his own version of the Santa Fe classic, the ‘Ma Grinder’. He led a vast live, broke many hearts and turned to church shortly after the recordings. Pickens remembered him dying in the early 1940s, which is proved by his death certificate. Son Becky died on 9th December, 1942 in Houston, due to ‘acute dilatation of stomach’.

On 3rd April, 1934, the singer Joe Pullum from Houston recorded ‘Black Gal, What Makes Your Head So Hard’, which became a nationwide blues hit, recorded by others like Leroy Carr, Mary Johnson, and Jimmy Gordon. This number was a trademark of the ‘Santa Fe Group’, and the reason that these musicians have never been lost in the obscurity of blues history. On this and two other record sessions, pianist Rob Cooper accompanied Pullum. He was born in Dallas on 23th march 1913 .His style had many links to stride/ragtime piano; his use of ‘tens’ in the left hand shows him as a very accomplished piano player. Shaw: “Robert Cooper was a youngster, the man who made ‘Black Girl’ with Pullum. We called him ‘Perdue’ (‘Parduke’). He stayed in the Third Ward, Pullum in the Fourth Ward. He used to play with a band for a while, but when they split, he went up north to Chicago, and I’ve never seen him again”. He recorded two versions of ‘West Dallas Drag’ under his own name, being his version of the ‘Ma Grinder’. He did two more solo pieces, with Joe Pullum speech only: ‘McKinney Street Stomp’ and ‘Blues With Class’. His last recording date with Pullum, who normally was accompanied by a pianist named Preston Chase, was on 25th February, 1936, and together with Chester Boone on trumpet and Melvin Martin on guitar and Cooper on piano , they recorded another Texas classic ‘Hattie Green’.” Pullum headed to California probably in the 40’s where he cut a record for Swingtime in 1948. He supposedly cut a demo for Specialty in 1953.  But his beautiful voice became weak and hoarse, due his vast life. He had earned big amounts of money from his recordings, but spent all on booze, gambling and women and lived a poor live as a cloth presser in L.A. In 1961 he was interviewed by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records and we hear some excerpts of that during today’s program. He died in 1964. Cooper was described as a jealous and violent man, he lost one eye in a fight, killed a man and spent some time in prison. Although Pickens remembered him still living in Dallas, he remained in obscurity and died there on 28th January 1967, still listed as musician.

“Long time it was thought that the name of pianist Andy Boy was his real name. But Michael Hortig found out that his name was Anthony Boyd, born 1oth. November 1904 in Galveston. He had some entries in newspaper clippings from the 2os, before he was accused in having attempted to kill his wife. An interesting one  read, that during a police raid at a bar, owned by a Mr. Charles Shiro, several men were arrested due to illegal gambling. And Boyd described that same raid in his “House raid blues”, recorded a few months later.  Shaw remembers him as: “He was a little fellow, just a little older than me. He was the top kicker of Galveston”. Only a few clues in his recordings seem to have biographical character: ‘I have been born on Church Street’. Of all in the group, he was really the top player. Ragtime, blues and jazz elements in the left hand were combined with runs or incredible chord clusters in the right hand. …He also accompanied Joe Pullum on eleven titles on 13th August, 1935, although it is not remembered that he ever played with Pullum. He also accompanied a tough voiced singer from the waterfront, Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington on four sides, recorded on 24th February, 1937. He left shortly afterwards for Oklahoma, rumors had him in Kansas City in the mid 1950s, and Pickens told Oliver in 1960, that he still lives in New York but no trace of him could be found. In his ‘Church Street Blues’, he only wanted to go: ‘to that good old seaport town, where we all had fun and stomped the grinder down’!

Robert ‘Fud’ Shaw was born on 9th August, 1908 in Stafford, Texas. In his youth he worked on his father’s cattle farm, where he learned butchering and barbequing, something that became important in later life. In his mid teens, he started playing around with the ‘Santa Fe Group’, most influenced by Black Boy Shine: “We were very close, ’bout the same age. He was a hard drinker and gambler. Slept all day, played, drank and gambled all night”. He followed their routes all over Texas from Sugarland to Richmond, from Galveston to Houston’s fourth Ward. In 1932 he had a playing job in the ‘Black Orange Cafe’ in Kansas City and one year later a radio programme over KFXR in Oklahoma City. But after ten years of piano playing for a living, and a brush with the law, Shaw decided to settle back in Austin. There he started with a small ice house, later he opened a small grocery store, with a piano in the backroom to entertain the customers. He started a barbecue trade, which made him famous all over Austin. In the 1950s he opened a big supermarket, but there was no more place for a piano, and it moved into his house, from now on Shaw only played for pleasure. In 1962, he was named ‘Texas outstanding negro businessman’. Texas Blues researcher Mack McCormick discovered him and recorded him on 8th March, 1963 and the record was released first on the Almanac, later on the Arhoolie Label. …From 1976 he became a favorite act at the annual Kerrville Folk Festival and he too toured to Europe. He occasionally appeared on radio KUT-FM (1976 and 1984) and in later years teamed up with his prodigy, pianist Lavada Durst (aka Dr. Hep Cat). Robert Shaw died in Austin on 18th May, 1985.

Born Edwin Godwin Pickens on 6th March, 1916 in Hamstead, Texas, he was a kid, travelling along with the cream of Texas pianists like Black Boy Shine, Son Becky or Pinetop Burks. In his autobiographical ‘Santa Fe Train’ he describes riding the blinds, meeting other pianists, persuading the brakeman to let him ride the train and taking over the job of a worn-out pianist named Foster in a lumber camp. He went on to record as accompanist to Bill Hayes, Goree Carter and Perry Cain at the beginning of the 1950s. He became famous when he played piano on Texas Alexander’s last session on 16th April, 1950, accompanying the old singer with guitarist Leon Benton on his last two chaotic sides as ‘Benton’s Busy Bees’.”

Pickens lone album, for Heritage (HLP 1008), the self-titled Buster Pickens, was recorded over several sessions in 1960 and 1961 and released in 1962, subsequently reissued in 1977 on the Flyright label as Back Door Blues and was reissued on CD by Document as Edwin “Buster” Pickens: The 1959 to 1961 Sessions. It was Oliver who wrote the liner notes and interviewed Pickens, some of which has been transcribed by Oliver in his groundbreaking Conversation With The Blues. Two other songs by Pickens, were recorded in 1959 and come from the album The Unexpurgated Folk Songs of Men collected by Mack McCormick. “To Have The Blues Within”, a snippet of his interview with Oliver, appeared on the companion LP/CD to Paul Oliver’s Conversation With The Blues. On the album Treasury of Field Recordings Vol. 1 (77 Records, 1960), also compiled by Mack McCormick, the track listing lists “Blues in the Bottom” by Edwin Pickens but this song does not appear on the album. The interview segments heard on today’s show come from that interview from the early 196os.  As Michael notes, his end was a tragic one: “Edwin ‘Buster’ Pickens who tried all of his life to avoid playing in overheated barrelhouses and wore a thick coat to protect against the chilly air when jumping trains, was murdered by a cousin in a quarrel over some coins in a pool game in an unnamed brothel in Houston on 24th November, 1964, never getting his chance to become better known to a wider blues audience.”