| ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
|---|---|---|
| Slim Willis | From Now On | C.J. 635 |
| A.C. Reed | My Baby's Been Cheating | Cool 5001 |
| Fenton Robinson | Find A Way | PM Records 1006 |
| Billy Boy Arnold | I Ain't Got No Money | Cool 103 |
| Jimmy Thomas | Everyday | SO. 0025 |
| Jimmy Thomas | Crazy Pocket Change | SO. 0026 |
| Charles Conley | Prison Bound | Blues Connoisseur Records 1006 |
| Robert Lowery | Mean Ole Twister | Blues Connoisseur Records 1009 |
| Big Mama Thornton | There Ain't Nothing You Can Do Pt. 1 & 2 | MM 144 |
| Big Charles Smith | Poor Me | Lilly 511 |
| Earl Gilliam | Going Back Home | Ivory 138 |
| Gus Jenkins | I Tried | Combo 45-88 |
| Jesse Thomas | When I Squeeze Your Hand | RTA Victory 313 |
| The Three Tuffs | What A Dream | Gold Dust GD315 |
| The Three Tuffs | A Man's a Fool | Gold Dust GD315 |
| Danny Overbea | Roaming Man | Checker 796 |
| Freddy Youngblood | If the Blues Was Whiskey | Soul Sound 749 |
| Little Hite & Soul Rockers | Fine | Ja-Wes 3007 |
| Blues Slim | Mama Your Child Is Crying | Five-Four 5435 |
| Blues Slim | Drivin' Me Baby | Five-Four 5435 |
| Jolly George | Pity and a Shame | Gemini 1002 |
| Johnny Success | The Way You Treat Me Now | Magnificent MAG 108 |
| Tiny Powell | Take Me With You | Wax 14 |
| Eddie Campbell | All Nite Pt. 1 | Hawaii 101 |
| Little Mary Lane | You Don't Want My Loving No More | Friendly Five 743 |
| Little Mary Lane | I Always Want You Near | Friendly Five 743 |
| Henry Johnson | Until I Found The Lord | Flyright 45.002 |
| Lottie Merle | Catfish | Flyright 45.001 |
| Doug Johnson | One More Chance | Checker 1014 |
| Doug Johnson | No One Will Ever Know | Checker 1014 |
| James Anderson | I'm Working, Digging Deeper Every Day | Electro 45-262 |
Show Notes:
For a two-part program I combed through my collection of blues 45’s and gathered together over sixty fine tracks that, as far as I could tell, have not be reissued on LP or CD. This was no easy task as their are countless blues reissues, many quite obscure, and I spent plenty of time tracking information online as well as pouring through my discographies and my record collection. If you do know of any of these that have been reissued please let me know. The recordings span from 1954 through 1983. The records come from my 45’s as well as several dubbed by fellow collectors and friends. Many of these records were released for commercial purposes, some were more as a labor of love and some issued by the artists themselves to seek recognition. We hear some well known names today including fine singles by A.C. Reed, Johnny Littlejohn, K.C. Douglas, Big Mama Thornton, Fenton Robinson, Jesse Thomas, Billy Boy Arnold and Byther Smith and a host of lesser lights such as Little Larry, Freddy Youngblood, Jimmy Thomas, Mary Lane, Little Willie Pollard, Charles Conley, Georgia Hinton among many others. We spin a fair bit of contemporary blues, including several Chicago artists, as well as some terrific down-home blues from the likes of Archie Edwards, Monroe “Guy” Jackson, Lattie Murrell, Willie Trice and several 45’s from the Blues Connoisseur label who issued over a dozen very good 45’s, most in a down-home vein.
Several artists have multiple tracks including Byther Smith, Johnny Littlejohn, Jimmy Thomas, Maxwell Jimmy Davis, Blues Slim, Big Mama Thornton, Mary Lane, Little Willie Pollard and Mojo Buford. Byther Smith came to Chicago during the mid-’50s after spending time toiling on an Arizona cattle ranch. He picked up guitar tips from J.B. Lenoir (his first cousin), Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Hubert Sumlin, then began playing in the clubs during the early ’60s. Theresa’s Lounge was his main haunt for five years as he backed Junior Wells; he also played with the likes of Big Mama Thornton, George “Harmonica” Smith, and Otis Rush. Smith cut some well regarded singles for C.J. (the two-part “Give Me My White Robe”) and BeBe (“Money Tree”b/w “So Unhappy”) that spread his name among aficionados, as did a 1983 album for Grits, Tell Me How You Like It. Wider acclaim came with two albums in the 80’s for Delmark and JSP, and in the 90’s for Bullseye and Delmark again. His last recording was in 2008.
Johnny Littlejohn played regularly in Chicago clubs but did not make any studio recordings until 1966 when he began cutting 45’s for several labels such as Margaret, Terrell and T-D-S among others. In 1969 he recorded an album for Arhoolie Records and four songs for Chess Records. He cut full-length albums in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s as well as few more 45’s including the excellent “Chips Flying Everywhere b/w Johnny’s Blues” for Full Scope in 1982.
Jimmy Thomas formed a band whilst still in his early teens and performing current popular vocal group and blues material, they played many of the local clubs in and around Osceola, Arkansas. . Upon the recommendation of Albert King Jimmy joined the extremely popular St. Louis based Kings Of Rhythm in early 1958. Closely followed by Tommy Hodge, the pair were a replacement for the recently departed Clayton Love. Jimmy was to remain with Ike for eight years. From a popular local band through the early Ike & Tina days on the chitlin’ circuit, until they became one of the top R&B acts in the country. He cut several 45’s in the 60’s for Sotoplay, B and F, Sue, Mirwood and others.Thomas moved to London in 1969 cutting a handful of singles and an album.
In his teens, Charles Thompson, who became known as Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, learned to play the guitar from John Lee Hooker, and the two of them played concerts together in Detroit in the 1940s, following Davis’s relocation there in 1946. He moved to Chicago in 1953 and started performing regularly on Maxwell Street. In 1952, he recorded two songs, “Cold Hands” and “4th and Broad”, under his real name, for Sun Records. They were offered to Chess Records and Bullet Records but were not released. In 1964 he cut sides for Testament that appeared on the album Modern Chicago Blues. In 1966, Davis recorded a self-titled album for Elektra Records. In 1967/68 he cut a 45 as The Three Tuffs on Gold Dust of which we play both sides. Davis owned a small restaurant on Maxwell Street, the Knotty Pine Grill, and performed outside the premises in the summer. He continued to play alfresco on Chicago’s West Side for decades
Big Mama Thornton recorded prolifically, primarily for Peacock and Duke through the 50’s and early 60’s. In the mid and later 60’s she cut 45’s for Kent, Sotoplay, Galaxy, Movin and Carolyn before hooking up and cutting albums for Mercury and Vanguard. We spin both sides of her two-part 1967 Movin 45, “There Ain’t Nothing You Can Do.”
Mary Lane was born November 23, 1935 in Clarendon, Arkansas. After honing her skills in local juke joints in the company of Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Little Junior Parker and James Cotton, Lane relocated to Chicago in 1957; backed by Morris Pejoe, she soon cut her debut single “You Don’t Want My Lovin’ No More” for the Friendly Five label. She did not record again for several decades, remaining virtually unknown outside of the Chicago Blues faithful. At age 82, a full-length record was released.
Not much is known about Little Willie Pollard. A Los Angeles-based blues player, he recorded two sides for ARC in 1967. He followed up with two more 45’s on W.B.P. the next year. What appears to be his final recordings was one more record in 1970 released on Carolyn.
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 in 1962 he moved to Minneapolis to front his own combo, and cut a couple of solid but extremely obscure LP’s for Vernon and Folk-Art. 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. Bufford waxed a number of singles for Folk-Art, Adell, Bangar, Soma, Twin Town and Garrett in the 60’s and 70’s, with some that remain only available on 45. Buford cut several notable albums including 1979’s Mojo Buford’s Chicago Blues Summit, one of his best outings.
We spin some fine down-home blues today cut on small specialty labels or the artist’s own labels by artists as Archie Edwards, Flora Molton, Monroe “Guy” Jackson, Juke Boy Bonner, Henry Johnson, Lattie Murell, Roosevelt Holts, Willie Trice and Harmonica Sammy Davis. Archie Edwards and Flora Molton came out of the D.C. area and both made their first records in the 70’s. Edwards first record was the 45 “The Road Is Rough And Rocky” b/w “Circle Line Boat” on SRI (Sounds Reasonable Inc.) in 1975. Molton cut two 45’s on her Molton label in the 70’s. In 1987 she released an full-length album on her Lively Stone label. Both artists were recorded extensively in 1980 by Axel Küstner and Ziggy Christmann for the Living Country Blues USA album series.
Monroe “Guy” Jackson was a blues musician who lived in the Holly Springs area of north Mississippi. He apparently made a trip to NYC to play at Lincoln Center in 1985. In a preview for the New York Times, Robert Palmer noted that Jackson was 77 years old at the time and “grew up in the northern Mississippi hill country, which nurtured a blues culture much different from that of the better-known Mississippi Delta. Living on small farms, the hill country blacks developed a lilting, strangely archaic sounding brand of music, and Mr. Jackson is a worthy representative of it.” That’s also the year when he cut this highly enjoyable record for the local Rustron label (who also released the James Son Thomas Gateway to the Delta LP) that appears to be his only release.
Juke Boy Bonner‘s “Yakin’ in My Plans” b/w “Running Shoes” was released on Blues Unlimited 1001. Blues Unlimited was a label funded by the magazine of the same name. Mike Leadbitter, founder of Blues Unlimited, made his first trip to the United States in May 1967 and stayed nearly three months in Houston and Louisiana, a trip that he chronicled in his BU article “I Know Houston Can’t Be Heaven.” A genuine friendship developed between Bonner and Leadbitter, and Blues Unlimited readers financed a Juke Boy 45. Juke Boy followed up that gesture with a letter to Leadbitter in Blues Unlimited 51 stating, “I’ve sold about 100 records since they’ve been out (2 weeks). It is five o’clock in the morning and I’m writing songs (and drinkin’ beer). Put portions of this letter in the B.U.—ha ha! OK?”
Willie Trice, Sammy Davis and Henry Johnson all recorded for Trix. The label was run by Pete Lowry through the 1970’s. The first issues on the label were a series of 45’s in the early 70’s by Eddie Kirkland, Baby Tate, Tarheel Slim, Roy Dunn, Sammy Davis and Willy Trice. There was a 45 by Henry Johnson, “Until I Found The Lord” b/w “Crow Jane”, issued on Flyright in 1975. Johnson recorded a superb record for Trix titled The Union County Flash! two years prior. The Flyright label’s first releases were several 45’s in 1975 and 1977 including one by Lattie Murrell which is also featured today.
We feature a couple of sets from the Blues Connoisseur label run by Donald Lindenau between 1972 and 1975. The label issued over a dozen singles by artists such as Richard Riggins (Harmonica Slim), Boogie Jake, Charles Conley, K. C. Douglas, Little Willie Littlefield, Robert Lowery, Sonny Rhodes, and Schoolboy. The majority of these sides have not been issued on album or CD and would make a terrific anthology if someone ever collected them together.
We hear some great 45’s from several fine Chicago artists today including A.C, Reed, Andrew Odom, Bonnie Lee, Lefty Dizz, Little Johnny Christian, Lucille Spann, Willie Buck, Lacey Gibson, Danny Overbea, Freddie Youngblood, Magic Slim, Mighty Joe Young and Eddie C. Campbell. We open the show with Odum’s “Fattening Frogs” (the flip was “Turn On Your Love Light”), his first record, cut for Nation in 1966. During this period he appeared on several sessions with Earl Hooker cut for Arhoolie and Bluesway. His album debut, Farther On Down The Road was recorded in 1969 for Bluesway.
We spin two by A.C. Reed: “The Things I Want You To Do” was cut for the T-D-S label in 1969 while “My Baby’s Been Cheating” was cut for Cool in 1966 . He the former song for his 1987 Alligator album I’m In The Wrong Business. He worked extensively as a sideman for Mel London’s blues record labels Chief/Profile/Age in the 1960s. He had a regionally popular single in 1961, “This Little Voice” (Age 29101), and cut several more singles over the course of the decade.
C.J. Records was owned by Carl Jones and was essentially a boutique operation run from his home. He was a musician (banjo and trumpet) in the 1930s, and in 1945 he recorded two sides for Mercury. In 1956 Jones founded the C.J. label, eventually followed by subsidiary imprints Colt and Firma. Although he recorded some country and some gospel, the bulk of his output was in the blues field, having recorded Earl Hooker, Mack Simmons, Hound Dog Taylor, Homesick James, Betty Everett, and Detroit Junior. Jones’s record company had no distribution during its last two decades of existence. His nine-to-five job was in the liquor distribution business and Sundays he worked as a bartender at the famed South Side blues bar, Theresa’s. We hear two records from C.J. today recorded in the early 70’s by Byther Smith and Lefty Dizz.
Little Johnny Christian cut several 45’s in the 70’s and 80’s for labels like Cher-Kee and Leric and two full-length albums for Big Boy in 1989 and 1992. Christian worked and recorded with the Highway QC’s from 1957-61. In the 60s he worked as a bass player with Otis Rush, Elmore James and others, before joining Jimmy Dawkins as bass player and singer. He formed his own band in the 70s. He passed in 1993.
Lucille met Otis Spann in the 1960’s. and the two began a musical collaboration and would later marry. Lucille and Otis performed regularly at college gigs and would record together until Otis passed in 1970. Lucille continued to work in music, making a few recordings before passing in 1994. Her 1960’s recordings are all in the company of her husband and she’s featured on recordings Otis did for Bluesway, Vanguard and Spivey. A couple of her best sides, “Chains of Love” and “Love With A Feelin’”were cut for World Pacific in 1968. There is also the album Last Call, recorded live in 1970, three weeks before Otis Spann passed, featuring Lucille taking all the vocals. In the 1970’s Lucille sang “Dedicated to Otis” at the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival which is on the 2-LP companion album, cut her only album, Cry Before I Go for Bluesway in 1973 and waxed the 45’s “Country Girl Returns Part 1 & 2” and “Woman’s Lib” for Torrid.
Lacy Gibson relocated from North Carolina to Chicago in 1949. Gibson’s earliest work was as a session musician, playing mainly rhythm guitar. In 1963 alone, he recorded backing for Willie Mabon, Billy “The Kid” Emerson and Buddy Guy. Gibson’s own recording debut was also in 1963, with Chess Records, which recorded his song “My Love Is Real”, with Buddy Guy on guitar which unreleased at the time. Gibson recorded his debut album, Wishing Ring, in 1971. In 1977, Ralph Bass produced another album for Gibson, but it was not released until 1996, when it was issued by Delmark Records. He played on Son Seals’s 1978 album Live and Burning and Alligator Records included four tracks by Gibson on its 1980 compilation album Living Chicago Blues Vol. 3. Gibson’s album Switchy Titchy was released in 1982 by Black Magic Records. His appearances after the release were constrained by health problems, but he performed around Chicago, on his own or backing Billy Boy Arnold and Big Time Sarah. Gibson played at the Chicago Blues Festival in 2004.
Danny Overbea made his first recording in 1950 as guest vocalist on saxophonist Eddie Chamblee’s “Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep”. He signed as a solo artist to Premium Records, and released his first single in early 1951.He became a popular club performer, noted for his guitar skills while performing splits, playing behind his back, and with his teeth. He signed to Chess in 1952 where he had some chart success with release on the Checker subsidiary and later Argo.
Freddy Youngblood was a producer, singer and label owner from Chicago who was active during the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Magic Slim‘s early 45’s have largely been neglected. He cut a couple of sides behind harmonica player Les Hite in 1969 and cut a 45 under his own name for the Ja-Wes label. Might Joe Young waxed a whole batch of 45’s staring in 1959 for labels like Webcor, USA, Celtex and Palos among others. We spin one he cut for Speed in 1963 that seems to have eluded reissue.
