Big Road Blues Show 5/5/24: I’m Going To Live For Today – Mix Show

Show Notes: 

A fine batch of recordings today spanning the 20s through the 50s. On deck today are a couple of sets of jump blues, we hear from several early Memphis blues artists, two sides from the mysterious Ramblin’ Hi Harris and some tracks featuring Lonnie Johnson. In addition we here a set of related blues and gospel songs, a set of terrific pre-war guitarists, some blues songs sung in French, some fine New Orleans artists, songs about steamboats and much more.

I want to give a plug to Gérard Herzhaft, a first rate blues researcher who has run the terrific blog, Blue Eye, for several years. Gérard puts together thematic collections of blues for download which would make for a great CD’s. Gérard collects lots of hard-to-find tracks that I’ve often used on this show because they are not available elsewhere. Today we spin several tracks from New York City The Blues Yesterday Vol .9. From that collection we hear from Bob Marshall who’s featured track is the title for today’s show.  He recorded 12 fine sides in 1949-50, some as vocalist of the Cozy Cole Orchestra. We spin the fine “Hand in Hand Blues” from Dickie Thompson. Thompson is best known for “Thirteen Women” which was covered by Bill Haley. During the 1940’s to the 60’s, Thompson made himself a name in New York City as a trustworthy and talented sideman, playing jazz or R&B with the same efficiency behind Cozy Cole, Lawrence Brown, Sam Woodward, Wild Bill Davis, Clifford Scott, Harry Edison, Johnny Hodges, Dinah Washington and others. He was the lead guitarist for singer Jackie Wilson and the Jonah Jones Quintet. Thompson managed to make some R&B records as a leader with little success.

We spin a fair bit of early blues artists, several who made records in the post-war era. From Memphis we spin some track for a hard-t0-find collection titled Memphis Sessions 1956-1961. In 1961 Dave Mangurian and Donald Hill recorded Gus Cannon, Will Shade and Laura Dukes over two days in Memphis. The recordings have been issued as bootlegs on Will Shade & Gus Cannon 1961 (Document) and the above mention album on Wolf. Cannon’s band of the ’20’s and ’30’s, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, along with contemporaries, The Memphis Jug Band, recorded the finest jug music of the era.

We hear some top-flight guitarists from the pre-war era include outstanding sides by William Moore, Robert Wilkins, Kokomo Arnold and The Famous Hokum Boys on the dazzling guitar workout “Pig Meat Strut.” Moore was a A resident of Tappahannock, Virginia and recorded sixteen sides for Paramount in 1928. The name “The Hokum Boys” is a bit confusing as several groups of musicians worked under this name. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom recorded as Tampa Red’s Hokum Jug Band and The Hokum boys at sessions done in 1928. In 1929 a group calling themselves the Hokum Boys began recording for Paramount. Throughout the six sessions that year the group consisted of a varying mix of personal.  As Chris Smith notes: “By 1930 ‘The Hokum Boys’ was a well-established identity, cloaking a number of different musicians who produced a similar sounding music, reliant on agile guitar playing and ingenious double entendres. …ARC boldly entered the market with its dimestore labels, and promoted Georgia Tom, Big Bill Broonzy and Frank Brasswell as the ‘Famous Hokum Boys.’ According to Dorsey he and Big Bill never worked together outside the studio.” Brasswell was later replaced by Bill Williams. Also joining the group Hannah May who also recorded as Jane Lucas and Kansas City Kitty. The group recorded close to fifty sides by the end of 1930. A last session, in January 1931, consisted of Jane Lucas, Big Bill and Georgia Tom recording under the name Harum Scarums.

Like most Americans, I don’t speak a second language – I blame my schooling in the Bronx but that may be a cop out. Regardless, we spin two numbers sung in French by Cleoma Falcon and Lizzie Miles. Guitarist/Singer Cléoma Falcon who, along with her husband Joe Falcon, recorded one of the first known examples of Cajun music. In the mid-1920s, she was joined in performing by accordion player Joe Falcon and would later marry in 1931. In 1928, politician and music enthusiast George Burrs hoped to capitalize on the group’s popularity on the dance-hall circuit, and negotiated a deal with Columbia Records to record the trio which included vocalist Leon Meche.  In August 1929, they were invited to Columbia Records’ headquarters in New York City to record six sides. Their next recording session was on August 8, 1934, for Decca Records.

Lizzie Miles was born in New Orleans in 1895. She worked with Joe Oliver, Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson, and A.J. Piron from 1909-1911. She then toured the South, performing in theaters, circuses, and with minstrel shows.  She moved to New York and made her first recordings in 1922. Miles toured Europe in 1924 and 1925 and then returned to New York and worked in clubs from 1926 to 1931. She recorde around sixty sides between 1922 and 1930. Miles suffered a serious illness and retired from the music industry in the 1930s. Despite her illness, Miles appeared in two films in the early 1930s. She began working regularly again in 1935, performing with Paul Barbarin at the Strollers Club in New York.She sang with Fats Waller in 1938, made some recordings in 1939 and then worked in Chicago until she left music in 1942. In 1950, Miles lived in California where she sang with George Lewis in 1953 and 1954, performed and  in Las Vegas from 1955 to 1957 and sang with Joe Darensbourg in Chicago in 1958 and 1959. She returned to New Orleans, where she appeared with Freddie Kohlman and Paul Barbarin. She recorded with several Dixieland and traditional jazz bands, appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, and made regular radio broadcasts before retiring in 1959.

As usual we spin some related songs, this time dealing with the number ninety nine. In blues songs ninety nine is not a great number as it usually connotes a jail term as is the case in  Julius Daniels’ “Ninety-Nine Year Blues ” recorded in 1927. Blind Joe Reynolds cut “Ninety Nine Blues” in 1930 but with a a different meaning: “I got ninety-nine women, cravin’ nineteen more/And if I get them hundred, boys, I’m gonna let nineteen go.” The number is also associated with a classic gospel number. The first release of “Ninety-Nine and a Half Won’t Do” I found was by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Her Mother (Katie Bell Nubin) with the Sam Price Trio recorded in 1949. Tharpe recorded it again in 1956. Dorothy Love Coates & The Original Gospel Harmonettes recorded a version in 1956. It was since covered by many gospel artists. Dan Pickett’s “99 1/2 Won’t Do” cut in 1949 is related but seems to be an amalgam of different songs.

We hear from one of my favorites, Lonnie Johnson on the amazing instrumental, “Away Down in the Alley Blues” and back Texas Alexander on “Yellow Girl Blues.” Alexander was popular and prolific, cutting sixty-four issued sides between 1927 and 1934, first for Okeh and then for Vocalion. The record companies must have had some faith in Alexander as his recorded were advertised nine times in the Chicago Defender between 1928 and 1930. He had he good fortune to work with superb accompanists such as guitarists Little Hat Jones, Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, Carl Davis, Willie Reed to the string band blues of the Mississippi Sheiks and the jazz bands of King Oliver.

We hear a set of songs about famous river boats. Charlie Patton’s 2-part number, “Jim Lee Blues”, celebrates a Mississippi river boat that plied between Vicksburg and Memphis. Kate Adams was the name given to a series of four side-wheel steamers made famous by their operation on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The steamer’s name was mentioned by Long “Cleve” Reed & Little Harvey Hull (The Down Home Boys) in their song, “Don’t You Leave Me Here”: “Kate Adams got ways, just like a man/Well, she steals a woman, sweet lovin’ babe, everywhere she lands.” Casey Bill Weldon, Jazz Gillum, Mooch Richardson, Robert Wilkins all had songs that referenced the  Kate Adams.

I’ll wrap up with some mysteries from J.D. Miller’s studio in Crowley, Louisiana. We heard quite a bit of great music on last week’s show from Miller’s studio. Today we spin two tracks from Ramblin’ Hi Harris who was given that name at a later date because Miller couldn’t remember the singer’s real name. We also spin “I Hope You Come Back Home” from Miller’s studio which may be be Buddy Guy’s first recording made in 1957. Guy cut two other sides the same year in Baton Rouge.