Tag: Hammie Nixon

Show Notes:

Willie Morris, Richard ‘Hacksaw’ Harney, Sam Chatmon, Eugene Powell, Washington, D.C., 1972 Photo from Living Blues 43 (Copyright by Diana Davies, courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

Working with the archivists of the Smithsonian’s Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives, I’m happy to present two programs of previously unissued blues recordings from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. I’m extremely happy to share these shows with you as none of this material has previously been available and the music is absolutely wonderful. The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The impulse for it came from Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley and it was implemented by Ralph Rinzler, field research director for the Newport Folk Festival and a documentarian who sought out authentic, grassroots American musicians.

Blues has been an important component since the very beginning and over the years there have been major artists such as Johnny Shines, Walter Horton, Skip James, Sleepy John Estes among others. We also hear remarkable performances by less celebrated artists such as Houston Stackhouse, the Foddrell brothers, Big Chief Ellis, Eugene Powell, Hacksaw Harney and many others. None of the material featured on these shows has been issued on CD but some other performances have been issued as Jeff Place wrote in the notes to the 2010 release Classic Appalachian Blues From Smithsonian Folkways: “On this release as on other recent ones, we have also begun to delve into some fine recordings from another source, the 43 years of recordings from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival…” It should be noted that the recordings featured on these shows are just a small taste of what is a considerable amount of material in the archives.

Rinzler used his network of colleagues to develop the Smithsonian Festival. With Henry Glassie and Morris, he drew upon elements of the Newport Festival most suitable for the Smithsonian—traditional performers, crafts demonstrations, discussion sessions, and workshops. The Festival enjoyed increasing success, leading to the summer-long Festival for the Bicentennial in 1976. Rinzler became the director of a new Office of Folklife Programs and continued to direct the Festival. As Pete Seeger said, “Ralph was a beautiful example of a basically scholarly person doing an extraordinary job. His miracle was how to get the authenticity in a larger space and still keep it authentic.” Over the years there have been a number of important folklorists and music promoters involved in the festival such as Worth Long, Dick Spotswood, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Bruce Jackson, Kenneth S. Goldstein, George Mitchell among others.

Worth Long was the first folklorist to work with several Mississippi musicians, including Leon Pinson, Boyd Rivers, Walter Brown, vocalist Joe Savage, and guitarist Belton Sutherland. On a scouting expedition in 1976, Long visited Madison County, Mississippi and started working with multi-instrumentalist Clyde Maxwell. Long’s intervention led to Maxwell’s subsequent performances in Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Mississippi, where he performed alongside James “Son” Thomas for the blues lectures of native Mississippi folklorist William R. Ferris, who had left Jackson State University to teach at Yale in 1972 and helped to organize the Festival of American Folklife in 1974. That same year, the Smithsonian called on black activists, scholars, and musicians such as Bernice Johnson Reagon and Worth Long to establish the African Diaspora Advisory Group, to develop programs on African-derived cultures, increase the involvement of African Americans in designing exhibitions at the Smithsonian, and end problematic representations of black culture.

In addition to the music, we chat with Senior Archivist Jeff Place who has been at the Smithsonian since 1988. He oversees the cataloging of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections and has been involved in the compilation of over sixty CDs of American music for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Place has won six GRAMMY Awards and twelve Indie Awards for his work. He has attended every Folklife Festival since 1971. I want to thank Jeff and fellow archivist Cecilia Peterson for making the process very easy. I also want to thank my new Canadian friend Ethan Iova, a young student of the music who inspired to get the ball rolling and also shared some fantastic material he had already acquired from the Smithsonian which is featured on these shows.

Leon Pinson, Cleveland, MS, 1967. Photo by George Mitchell.

To me, some of the most interesting material featured are several superb artists who were under recorded during their lifetimes. Those who fall into that category include Richard “Hacksaw” Harney, Lonnie Pitchford and wonderful gospel singers Leon Pinson and Joe Townsend. By the age of 12 Harney was playing on street corners in Greenville. While living within the Delta, Harney formed a guitar playing duo with another of his brothers, Maylon. They became known by their family nicknames of Can and Pet. In December 1927, they recorded for Columbia Records, backing vocalist and button accordion player Walter Rhodes, as well as the obscure blues singer, Pearl Dickson. The label billed the former ensemble as Walter Rhodes with “Pet and “Can.” The Harney’s recorded four tracks backing each performer, although only two sides each were released by the label early the following year. However, Pet and Can’s musical career came to an abrupt halt shortly afterwards, when Maylon was stabbed to death in a juke joint. He predominately played on street corners and in juke joints, but also had a spell on the King Biscuit Time radio show. Primarily though his income came from his daytime work as a piano tuner and repairman, based in and around Memphis, Tennessee. This is how, according to Pinetop Perkins, Harney acquired his nickname of “Hacksaw”. Wherever he travelled, Harney always carried a small suitcase filled with the tools of his trade, which included a hacksaw. Harney also played piano. In 1969 he was filmed and made a couple of demo field recordings for Adelphi Records and, by 1971, Harney began playing again at workshops and music festivals. In February 1972, Harney recorded ten tracks at the Adelphi Studios in Silver Spring, Maryland. They were released on the album, Sweet Man.

Lonnie Pitchford was from Lexington, Mississippi in 1955 and notable in that he was one of only a handful of young African American musicians from Mississippi who had learned and was continuing the Delta blues and country blues traditions of the older generations. In addition to the acoustic and electric guitar, Pitchford was also skilled at the one-string guitar and diddley bow, a one-string instrument. He was a protégé of Robert Lockwood Jr., from whom he learned the style of Robert Johnson. For a while, Pitchford performed accompanied by Johnny Shines and Lockwood. His first recording appeared in 1980 on the Living Country Blues USA series: Living Country Blues USA: The Introduction and Living Country Blues USA Vol. 7: Afro American Blues Roots. His own debut album, All Round Man was released on Rooster in 1994. Pitchford performed at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, and at the 1984 Downhome Blues Festival in Atlanta. In November 1998, Pitchford died at his home in Lexington, from AIDS.

Reverend Leon Pinson grew up in North Mississippi, then lived in the Delta for over three decades. Beginning in 1929, Pinson traveled the northern Mississippi region alongside his musical partner, the harmonica player Elder Roma Wilson. The pair built a strong following on the church circuit. In the 1940s, Roma Wilson left Mississippi for Detroit, where he would make his first recordings. Meanwhile, Pinson settled in Cleveland, where he played outside of Charlie White barber shop. Later he opened his own shoe shine stand, picking up the guitar when business was slow. Pinson and Wilson were reunited in the 1970s, when Wilson returned to Mississippi. The pair gained widespread acclaim from appearing at several prominent festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival; the Chicago Blues Festival; the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife; and the National Black Arts Festival. In 1991, the Southern Arts Federation took them to venues throughout the South as part of the Deep South Musical Roots tour. He was recorded by Georg Mitchell in Cleveland, Mississippi Sept. 18, 1967, cut some sides in 1991 on Global Village and pressed a couple of 45’s himself to sell at gigs. A chapter is devoted to him in Alan Young’s book Woke Up This Morning and a photo of Pinson appears in The Face of Black Music: Photographs by Valerie Wilmer.

Sam Chatmon from The Land Where the Blues Began, 1979

Regarding Joe Townsend, here’s what Begnt Olsson wrote in the liner notes to Southern Comfort Country: “Last summer a record by Joe Townsend, on the Memphis based Designer label, could often be heard on WDIA on Sunday’s gospel programmes. The feel of the music was the same as that of Son House, whom Townsend recalls having seen a picnic at a picnic in his youth. I was stunned to learn that the guitar player, a mean Delta stylist, and the singer were two different persons. Those cats really had it together. So me and Bill Barth, went down to Independence and finally found Townsend, his physical appearance matching his massive voice, living in a house on top of a hill. He works as a mechanic in the day-time and preaches on week-ends, just like his father once did, setting the wooden churches on fire with his excitement and singing. Old spirituals, that you just don’t hear anymore, although the song on this anthology should be familiar to most of you. At the time of the recording Johnnie Mays, guitar player on the Designer 45, was away on a gig with some gospel group, as the guitar is played by Bill Barth, white soul-brother. It was the first time ever they played together. They’re pretty tight, don’t you think?!” Townsend and Mays performed at the 1974 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and we play some of those tracks on these shows. Townsend has also been cited as a local influence by hill country bluesman R.L. Boyce who still performs today.

Other artists featured on these shows may be a bit better known, or who have at least been spotlighted on this show, include Johnny Shines, Houston Stackhouse, Walter Horton, John Jackson, Son Thomas, Sam Chatmon, Frank Hovington, Eugene Powell and Bill Williams, Big Chief Ellis, Flora Molton, John Cephas & Phil Wiggins, Skip James, Hound Dog Taylor. Shines was born in Frayser, TN, and grew up in Memphis from the age of six. Part of a musical family, he learned guitar from his mother, and as a youth he played for tips on the streets of Memphis. Shines had first met Robert Johnson in Memphis in 1934, and he began accompanying Johnson on his wanderings around 1935 on the Southern juke-joint circuit, playing wherever they could find gigs. He settled in Chicago in 1941. He started making the rounds of the local blues club scene, and in 1946 he made his first-ever recordings; four tracks for Columbia that the label declined to release. In 1950, he resurfaced on Chess, cutting sides that were rarely also not issued. From 1952-1953, he laid down sides for the JOB label. They went underappreciated commercially, however, and Shines returned to his supporting roles. In 1958, fed up with the musicians’ union over a financial dispute, Shines quit the music business, pawned all of his equipment, and made his living solely with the construction job he’d kept all the while. Eventually, he was talked into recording for Vanguard’s now-classic Chicago/The Blues/Today! series; his appearance on the third volume in 1966 rejuvenated his career. Shines went on record prolifically for Testament, Biograph, Advent, Hightone and Rounder.

Flora Molton, Washington D.C., 1978. Photo by Axel Küstner.

Houston Stackhouse relocated with his family to Crystal Springs, Mississippi as a teenager. By the late 1930s, Stackhouse had played guitar around the Deltaand worked with members of the Mississippi Sheiks, Robert Johnson, Charlie McCoy and Walter Vinson. Robert Nighthawk learned guitar from Stackhouse who he met in Mississippi in the late 20’s or 30?. Nighthawk credits Stackhouse with teaching him guitar. Stackhouse himself learned from Tommy Johnson and his brothers Mager and Clarence. In 1967, George Mitchell recorded Stackhouse, Curtis and Nighthawk as the Blues Rhythm Boys in Dundee, Mississippi. Nighthawk died shortly after the recording was made. Another field researcher, David Evans, recorded Stackhouse in Crystal Springs. By 1970, following the deaths of Curtis and Mason, Stackhouse had moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he resided with his old friend Wilkins and his wife, Carrie. Stackhouse toured with Wilkins and with the Memphis Blues Caravan and performed at various music festivals. In February 1972, Stackhouse recorded the album Cryin’ Won’t Help You for Adelphi. Stackhouse played the festival in 1970 through 1974 and in 1976.

Sam Chatmon was the brother Bo Chatmon (a.k.a. Bo Carter) who made numerous popular records in the ’30s. Before World War II. the Chatmon brothers and their associate Walter Vincent founded the string band called The Mississippi Sheiks. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Chatmon recorded for a variety of labels, as well as playing clubs and blues and folk festivals across America. In 1972 he cut the album The New Mississippi Sheiks, reuniting with Walter Vinson, cut the excellent The Mississippi Sheik for Blue Goose in the early 70’s as well as albums for Rounder and Flying Fish among others. Chatmon passed in 1983. We hear Chatmon solo and working with Walter Vinson and Hacksaw Harney on several selections. Chatmon performed at the festival in 1972, 1974 and 1976.

Frank Hovington, Eugene Powell and Bill Williams aren’t exactly household names but they cut a small but impressive body of work. Hovington was an exceptional guitarist in the Piedmont tradition who was reluctant to record but made some superb recordings in 1975 released (issued on the LP Lonesome Road Blues first on Flyright and then on Rounder with additional tracks on the CD Gone With The Wind) and 1980 for the Living Country Blues series.

Eugene Powell was born in 1908 in Utica, Mississippi, he took up the guitar at the age of seven and soon developed a formidable technique that won him the respect of contemporaries such as Charley Patton, Bo Carter, and Sam Chatmon. In 1936 he recorded six sides which were released on the Bluebird label under the name of Sonny Boy Nelson, including the original version of “Pony Blues.” In the 1970’s he was recorded by Gianni Marcucci and Alan Lomax.

Bill Williams was a 72-year-old bluesman from Greenup, Kentucky, when he made his debut for Blue Goose in the early 1970’s. Stephen Calt wrote that “The previously unrecorded Williams ranks among the most polished and proficient living traditional bluesmen, and has a large repertoire embracing ragtime, hillbilly, and even pop material. He is also the only known living associate of Blind Blake, his own favorite guitarist. …While living in Bristol, Tennessee in the early 1920’s Bill met the peerless Blind Blake who was then living with an elderly woman (perhaps a relative) in a desolate nearby country area. For four months Bill worked as Blake’s regular second guitarist…” Williams cut just two LP’s, both for Blue Goose: Low And Lonesome and The Late Bill Williams ‘Blues, Rags and Ballads plus had one song on the anthology These Blues Is Meant To Be Barrelhoused. A brief series of concert engagements (notably at the Smithsonian Institution and the Mariposa Folk Festival) followed before a heart ailment brought about his musical retirement. In October of 1973, nearly three years to the day of his recording debut, he passed away in his sleep.