Big Road Blues Show 4/7/24: I’m Goin’ Back To the Border, Where I’m Better Known – Origins of Classic Blues Songs Pt. 5

ARTISTSONGALBUM
Tommy Johnson Big Road Blues Canned Heat Blues: Masters Of The Delta Blues
Mississippi Sheiks Stop And Listen Blues The Essential
Mattie Delaney Down The Big Road Blues I Can't Be Satisfied Vol. 1
Willie Lofton Dark Road Blues Blues Images Vol. 12
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup Dirt Road Blues A Music Man Like Nobody Ever Saw
Big Maceo Merriweather Big Road Blues The Victor/Bluebird Recordings 1945-1947
John Dudley Big Road Blues Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings: 1947–1959
Shirley Griffith Big Road Blues Saturday Blues
Jimmy Brewer Big Road Blues Blues Roots: The Mississippi Blues Vol. 1
Mager Johnson Big Road Blues Goin' Up The Country
Houston Stackhouse Big Road Blues Masters Of Delta Blues Vol. 4
Blind Bobby Baker aka Bobby Leecan Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out Suitcase Breakdown
Bessie Smith Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out The Complete Recordings
Pinetop Smith Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out Boogie Woogie & Barrelhouse Piano Vol. 1
Josh White Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out Josh White Josh White Vol. 6 1944-1945
Scrapper Blackwell Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out The Frog Blues Annual No. 5
Charlie SegarKey To The Highway Blues From The Vocalion Vaults
Jazz Gillum Key To The Highway When The Sun Goes Down
Big Bill BroonzyKey To The Highway When The Sun Goes Down
John Lee Hooker Key To The HighwayDocumenting The Sensation Recordings 1948-52
Little Walter Key To The HighwayThe Chess Years 1952-63
Blind Connie Williams Key To The HighwayPhiladelphia Street Singer
Blind Lemon Jefferson Corinna BluesBest Of
Ma Rainey See See Rider Blues Mother of the Blues
LeadbellyC.C. Rider American Epic: Lead Belly
Jelly Roll Morton C.C. Rider Library Of Congress Recordings
Bea Booze See See Rider Blues Sammy Price And The Blues Singers Vol. 2
Lonnie Johnson See See RiderAmerican Folk Blues Festival 1963
Otis Spann See See RiderOtis Spann's Chicago Blues
Babe Stovall & Herb Quinn See See Rider South Mississippi Blues
Papa Charlie Jackson All I Want Is a Spoonful Why Do You Moan When You Can Shake That Thing
Luke Jordan Cocaine Blues Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
Charley Patton A Spoonful Blues The Best Of
Charley Jordan Just A Spoonful The Essential
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards Just a Spoonful Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues
Howlin' Wolf SpoonfulThe Complete Recordings 1951-1969
Lottie Murrell SpoonfulLiving Country Blues USA Vol. 10
Mississippi John Hurt Coffee BluesMemorial Anthology
Archie Edwards Lovin SpoonfulLiving Country Blues USA Vol. 6

Show Notes: 

Key To The HighwayBack in 2014 we did two shows tracing the origins and evolution of several classic blues songs and revisited the theme with two more shows in 2020. Today’s program is a belated sequel to those shows. Today we trace the history of “Big Road Blues”, “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out”, “Spoonful”, “Key To the Highway” and “See See Rider.”

Big Road Blues” was one of the most influential recordings of early Mississippi blues, a song many bluesmen learned either from the record or from seeing Crystal Springs blues legend Tommy Johnson in person. He recorded the song at his first session on February 3, 1928 in Memphis with Charlie McCoy on second guitar. “I ain’t goin’ down that big road by myself” became a classic blues line, sometimes changed to ‘dark road’ or even ‘road of love’ by other singers. Mississippi Sheiks used the guitar part for their great “Stop and Listen” when they recorded it on Feb. 17, 1930 and a few days later Mattie Delaney recorded her version, “Down the Big Road Blues.” Next was Willie Lotfon who titled it “Dark Road Blues”, in 1945 it was covered by Arthur Crudup (“Dirt Road Blues”) and Big Maceo. In the 60s it was covered by Shirley Griffith and K.C. Douglas, who learned directly from Johnson, as well as versions by Jimmy Brewer, Houston Stackhouse among others.

After some recording in 1964, Robert Nighthawk would only record once more for a session in August of 1967 and another session the middle of the following month.  The music harks back to Nighthawk and Stackhouse’s early delta days and the music is beautifully played. Tommy Johnson’s influence looms large with five of his songs being covered. In a way Nighthawk’s life had come circle: He was once again playing with Stackhouse who taught how to play guitar (Johnson’s “Big Road Blues”, “Cool Water Blues” and Big Fat Mama were the first songs he taught Nighthawk) Stackhouse in turn learned directly from Tommy Johnson and here were the two old friends performing the songs of Johnson together one final time.

Dark Road Blues / Dirt Road Blues

“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” was written by pianist Jimmie Cox in 1923. The lyrics in the popular 1929 recording by Bessie Smith are told from the point of view of somebody who was once wealthy during the Prohibition era and reflect on the fleeting nature of material wealth and the friendships that come and go with it. Although “Nobody Knows You When You Are Down and Out” was copyrighted in 1923, the first known publication did not appear until a recording of 1927. Blues and jazz musician Bobby Leecan, who recorded with various ensembles such as the South Street Trio, Dixie Jazzers Washboard Band, and Fats Waller’s Six Hot Babies, recorded “Nobody Needs You When You’re Down and Out” under the name “Blind Bobby Baker and his guitar”, with his vocal and guitar. His version, recorded in New York around June 1927, is credited on the record label to Bobby Leecan and has completely different lyrics from the popular 1929 version. The second known recording of the song was on January 11, 1929, by an obscure vocal quartet, the Aunt Jemima Novelty Four and four  days later, influential boogie-woogie pianist Pinetop Smith recorded “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” in Chicago, crediting himself as the author.

The song was so identified with Bessie Smith that no one recorded the song again until a generation later. Josh White covered it in 1945, Leadbelly recorded it at his last sessions, Billie & De De Pierce cut a version in 1961, Grey Ghost recorded it in 1965 along with many others. In 1949, Bessie’s travelling companion, Ruby Smith recorded a version of the song. There is also a private recording made by Scrapper Blackwell from the same year that has surfaced and he recorded a version for Bluesville. A version by Nina Simone reached number 23 in the Billboard R&B chart as well as number 93 in the Hot 100 pop chart in 1960.

Chicago Defender Dec 5, 1925
Chicago Defender, Dec. 5, 1925

Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded “Key to the Highway” in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings in 1940 and 1941, using an arrangement that has become the standard. Broonzy explained the song’s development: “Some of the verses he [Charlie Segar] was singing it in the South the same time as I sung it in the South. And practically all of blues is just a little change from the way that they was sung when I was a kid … You take one song and make fifty out of it … just change it a little bit.” Segar’s lyrics are nearly the same as those recorded by Broonzy and Gillum. Segar’s original “Key to the Highway” was performed as a mid-tempo twelve-bar blues. When Jazz Gillum recorded it later that year with Broonzy on guitar, he used an eight-bar blues arrangement. In two different interviews, Gillum gave conflicting stories about who wrote the song: in one, he claimed sole authorship, in another he identified Broonzy as the author. According to Broonzy, he used an original melody which was based on childhood songs. Shortly after Broonzy’s death in 1958, Little Walter recorded “Key to the Highway” as an apparent tribute to him. The song was a hit, spending fourteen weeks in the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number six in 1958.

Chicago Defender, Jan. 11, 1930

“See See Rider”, also known as “C.C. Rider”, “See See Rider Blues” or “Easy Rider” was first recorded by Ma Rainey on October 16, 1924, for Paramount Records in New York. Lead Belly and Blind Lemon Jefferson performed the song in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area between 1912 and 1917. The song is possibly connected to the Shelton Brooks composition “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone” (1913) that was inspired by the mysterious 1907 disappearance of the 28-year-old jockey Jimmy Lee, “The Black Demon”, a well-known black rider who won every race on the card at Churchill Downs. Gates Thomas collected a version of “C.C. Rider” in the 1920s in south Texas. In 1926 Blind Lemon recorded “Corinna Blues” with the opening line: “See see rider, you see what you done done/Made me love you, now your train has come.”

In 1943, a version by Wee Bea Booze reached number one on Billboard magazine’s Harlem Hit Parade.  Later rock-oriented versions were recorded by Chuck Willis (as “C.C. Rider”, a number one R&B hit and a number 12 pop hit in 1957) and LaVern Baker (number nine R&B and number 34 pop in 1963).

“Spoonful” is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin’ Wolf. Etta James and Harvey Fuqua had a pop and R&B record chart hit with their duet cover of “Spoonful” in 1961, and it was popularized in the late 1960s by the British rock group Cream.A version  with a different chord progression was recorded in 1966 by Mississippi John Hurt as “Coffee Blues.” Others who recorded versions include Jimmy Witherspoon and Koko Taylor. “Spoonful” can be seen as a metaphor for sex or drugs but Howlin’ Wolf’s version seems to say it could be anything that elicits strong cravings or addiction:


It could be a spoonful of diamond

It could be a spoonful of gold
Just a little spoon of your precious love
Satisfy my soul

Men lies about little
Some of ’em cries about little
Some of ’em dies about littles
Everything fight about a spoonful
That spoon, that spoon, that sp-

Dixon’s “Spoonful” is loosely based on “A Spoonful Blues”, a song recorded in 1929 by Charley Patton. Earlier related songs include “All I Want Is a Spoonful” by Papa Charlie Jackson (1925) and “Cocaine Blues” by Luke Jordan (1927).

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Big Road Blues Show 3/31/24: She’s a River Hip Mama, And They All Wanna Be Baptized – Mix Show

ARTISTSONGALBUM
Mississippi John Hurt Avalon BluesAvalon Blues: The Complete 1928 OKeh Recordings
Mississippi John Hurt Louis CollinsAmerican Epic: The Best Of Blues
James Davis Blue MondayAngels In Houston
Charles Brown You Better Change Your Way of Lovin'The Classic Earliest Recordings
Roy Hawkins Why Do These Things Happen To MeSure Fire Hits On Central Avenue
Howlin’ Wolf My Troubles and MeThe Sun Blues Box 1950-1958
Barbecue Bob Beggin' For LoveRoots N' Blues: Messed Up In Love... And Other Tales Of Woe
Charlie Lincoln Depot BluesKings Of The Twelve String
Willie Baker Weak-Minded BluesCharley Lincoln And Willie Baker 1927-1930
Roger (Burn Down) Garnett Lighthouse Blues The Frog Blues & Jazz Annual No. 1
Cal Green Green's BluesJumpin' Houston Guitarists
Cal Green Huffing And PuffingJumpin' Houston Guitarists
Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim StewballWillie Dixon & Memphis Slim 1962
Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee Key to the HighwayBlues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
Son House Levee Camp MoanStuds Terkel Chicago 1965
Clifford Gibson & J.D. Short She’s Got the Jordan River in Her Hips Clifford Gibson 1929-1931
Lil Johnson River Hip Papa Lil Johnson Vol. 2 1936-1937
Washboard Sam River Hip Mama Washboard Sam Vol. 6 1941-1942
Junior Wells So TiredSittin In With Harlem Jade & Jax Vol. 5
L.C. Robinson Clean Your HouseOakland Blues
Esther Phillips Misery Live In Los Angeles 1970
Roosevelt Sykes Basin Street Blues The Honeydripper's Duke's Mixture
Lovey Williams Coal Black MareThe Blues Are Alive And Well
Lovey Williams I’m Standing in the Safety ZoneVoices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by Bill Ferris
Schoolboy Cleve My Baby Done GoneThe Ace Blues Masters Vol. 3
Little George Smith Blues In The DarkSpeak Easy: The RPM Records Story Vol. 2
Frankie Lee Sims Hey Little Girl4th And Beale And Further South
Clifford Gibson Hard-Headed Blues Clifford Gibson 1929-1931
Watson's Pullman Porters Barbecue BluesUptown Blues
Casey Bill Weldon Go Ahead BuddyThe Essential
Jimmy "T-99" Nelson Second Hand Fool Cry Hard Luck
Johnny Copeland Gonna Make My Home Where I Hang My HatThe Crazy Cajun Recordings
J.B. Lenoir The MountainJ.B. Lenoir 1951-54
Johnny "Guitar" Watson ThinkingJohnny "Guitar" Watson 1952-55
Larry Johnson Four Women BluesFast & Funky
Frank Hovington Lonesome Road BluesLonesome Road Blues
Eugene Rhodes Who Went Out The BackTalkin' About My Time

Show Notes

River Hip MamaA varied mix show today as we spotlight sets by Mississippi John Hurt, Cal Green, Lovey Williams. Also on deck we hear some outstanding guitarists from Georgia, a set devoted to recordings from Studs Terkel’s radio show, spin some fine downhome blues from the 60s & 70, some great blues from the pre-war era, some superb 50s sides, we track some interesting lyrics across several songs and much more.

We open the show with two numbers from Mississippi John Hurt‘s great 1928 session. I heard the sad new a recently that the museum honoring Mississippi John Hurt has burned to the ground. The museum, a 200-year-old shack with a tin roof, was once Hurt’s home. He was born in the late 1800s, and he lived most of his life in Avalon, an all-Black town in the eastern Mississippi Delta. According to the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation, run by his granddaughter Mary Frances Hurt, the building was a “humble three-room shack befitting of a gentle farm hand with an amazing affinity for the guitar.” Hurt immortalized his hometown in his 1928 song “Avalon Blues:” Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind/Pretty mama’s in Avalon, want me there all the time.” Several years back I drove by the museum but sadly  it was closed.

We spin several fine Georgia guitarists today. In his teens, Charlie Lincoln was taught to play the guitar by Savannah Weaver, the mother of Curley Weaver. He moved to Atlanta and worked outside the field of music, occasionally performing with his brother, Barbecue Bob. Between 1927 and 1930 he waxed 14 sides, two unissued. After his brother’s early death in 1931, Charley continued to perform into the 1950s. From 1955 to 1963 he was imprisoned for murder in Cairo, Georgia. He died there of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 28, 1963. Willie Baker may have been part of this group. The manner of Baker’s open-tuned guitar work, often using a slide, and style of singing, allied him with the Hicks brothers, although it is pure speculation whether they were acquainted with each other. Baker recorded around a dozen sides, some unissued, in January and March 1929 in Richmond, Indiana for Gennett Records.

She Got Jordan River In Her Hips In Willie Baker’s “Weak-Minded Blues” he sings a line that show up in a number of other blues songs: “My gal got a mouth like a lighthouse on the sea/Every time she smiles, she throws that light on me.” After the Baker song we spin Roger (Burn Down) Garnet’s “Lighthouse Blues” where he sings: “My faro got teeth like a lighthouse on the sea/Every time she smiles, the light all over me.” In another set we play one of my favorite Washboard Sam songs, “River Hip Mama”, where he sings: “Every time that woman smiles/She shows the diamonds in her teeth.” “River Hip Mama” was recorded in 1942 and may have been based on Lil Johnson’s “River Hip Papa” from 1937: “He’s a river hip papa/And they all wanna be baptized.” That line, found in both songs, may have come from an earlier song, “She’s Got the Jordan River in Her Hips”, with J.D.D. Short on vocals and Clifford Gibson guitar: “You got Jordan River in your hips ‘n’ your Daddy’s screaming to be baptized.”

Cal Green was born in Dayton Texas in 1937 and was inspired by Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. He backed Connie McBooker for the Modern label, but his big break came when Hank Ballard and the Midnighters came to town in 1954. Their guitarist Arthur Porter had just been drafted, so 17-year-old Cal stepped in. He played on all Hank’s big hits after ‘Roll With Me, Henry’ and his catchy solo lines on hits like ‘Tore Up Over You’ and ‘Open Up the Back Door’ led Duke/Federal to release Cal’s double-sided instrumental ‘Big Push’/’Green’s Blues’ and a couple of vocal tracks in 1958. After the Midnighters he decided to move to LA and got into the West Coast jazz scene. He appeared on keyboard player Charles Kynard’s acclaimed Professor Soul album of 1963 and went on to play with Jack McDuff and Lou Rawls while making a good living as a session man around the LA studios. He recorded a couple of albums under his own name.

Avalon BluesWilliam Ferris recorded Lovey Williams in Morning Star, Mississippi in 1966-1967. “Morning Star is the community where Lovie Williams lived. It is really just a crossroads with a country store there. …Somehow I found out about his having played the blues. I was a student at Davidson College, and I found his home. He did not own a guitar, so I found a guitar and took it there, and he began to play. It was just absolutely overwhelming to hear his voice, so powerful and so beautiful. It was like he was singing his heart out. Everytime I would go home for vacations, I would go over there with a tape recorder and make the recordings. Later, when I was in graduate school, I got a Super Eight camera and filmed him performing. Then, tragically he died. He had an accident on a tractor that turned over and killed him.” Recordings of him appear on the long-out-of-print albums The Blues Are Alive And Well, Blues From The Delta and Bothered All The Time. Additional tracks were on the box set Voices Of Mississippi which Dust-To-Digital issued in 2018.

We spin a trio of recordings from Studs Terkel‘s radio program, which he began In 1953 on WFMT, Chicago and ran until 1998. Studs was a champion of the underdog, the “non-celebrated” and had plenty to say on racial issues.  don’t claim to be an expert on Studs and in fact feel a bit guilty that I didn’t read more by him. What I did know about Studs was his connection with the blues; in particular the two wonderful albums of interviews and music that were issued on the Folkways label: Big Bill Broonzy: His Story (1956) and Blues With Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee (1958). The Son House track I don’t believe was officially released. Studs passed in 2008.

The Blues Are Alive And Well
Click Cover to Read Notes

We close the show with some great downhome blues by Larry Johnson, Frank Hovington and Eugene Rhodes. Frank Hovington was first recorded by Bruce Bastin and Dick Spottswood in 1975 and issued on the Flyright album, Lonesome Road Blues and later issued on Rounder. In 2000 the album was issued on CD as Gone With the Wind with several additional tracks. My friend Axel recorded him in 1980 for the Living Country Blues USA series of albums.

Bruce Jackson recorded Eugene Rhodes who was doing a ten- to 25-year stretch at the Indiana State Prison, which was where the album Talkin’ About My Time was recorded, 15 songs and a little talking that was eventually released on the Folk-Legacy label in 1963. In the ’20s and ’30s, Rhodes had traveled through the south as a one-man band, including a harmonica rack with a special mount on the side for a horn, a foot pedal powered drum, and of course, a guitar. He reportedly played in the Dallas area, where he claims to have met Blind Lemon Jefferson. He also crossed paths with Blind Boy Fuller in the Carolinas and Buddy Moss in Georgia.

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Big Road Blues Show 3/24/24: Blues Is a Feeling – Multi-Instrumentalists

ARTISTSONGALBUM
Bertha Henderson w/ Blind Blake Let Your Love Come Down Paramount Jazz
Ed Bell w/ Clifford Gibson Tooten Out Ed Bell 1927-1930
Peetie Wheatstraw Police Station Blues The Essential
Leadbelly Eagle Rock Rag (Hot Piano Rag) Leadbelly Vol. 4 1944
Lonnie Johnson She Don't Know Who She Wants Down On The Levee: The Piano Blues of St. Louis Vol. 2
Lonnie Johnson Blues Is Only A Ghost Lonnie Johnson Vol. 6 1930-1931
Scrapper Blackwell Morning Mail Blues Scrapper Blackwell Vol. 2 1934-1958
Scrapper Blackwell Blues That Make Me Scrapper Blackwell Vol. 2 1934-1958
Tampa Red Stormy Sea Blues The Bluebird Recordings: 1936-1938
Mildred White w/ Pete Franklin Kind Hearted Woman Down Home Blues: Chicago
Pete Franklin w/ Tampa RedDown Behind the Rise Down Behind the Rise
Skip James 22-20 Blues Blues Images Vol. 1
Skip James If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down The Road Juke Joint Saturday Night
Walter Roland & Sonny Scott Guitar Stomp Walter Roland Vol. 1 1933
Walter Roland & Sonny Scott Railroad Stomp Walter Roland Vol. 1 1933
Pine Bluff Pete Uncle Sam Blues Bloodstains on the Wall
Forrest City Joe Red Cross Store Downhome Blues 1959
Lightnin' Hopkins You're Own Fault BabyLong Way From Texas
Henry Townsend Cairo's My Baby's Home Tired Of Bein’ Mistreated
Henry Townsend Bad Luck Dice Mule
Roosevelt Sykes A Woman is in Demand The Honeydripper's Duke's Mixture
Richard Hacksaw Harney Can Can The Memphis Blues Again Vol. 2
Sleepy John Estes/Yank Rachell/Hammie Nixon Government MoneyNewport Blues
Willie Guy Rainey Willie's Jump Nothing But The Blues
Scrapper Blackwell & Brooks Berry Blues Is a Feeling My Heart Struck Sorrow
Scrapper Blackwell Little Girl Blues Mr. Scrapper's Blues
Pete Franklin My Old Lonesome Blues Guitar Pete´s Blues
Pete Franklin Lowdown Dirty Ways Indianapolis Jump
Pete Franklin The Fives Indianapolis Jump
Bukka White Drunk Man Blues Mississippi Blues
Bukka White Sugar Hill Sky Songs
James “Guitar Slim” Stephens War Service Blues Greensboro Rounder
James “Guitar Slim” Stephens Lula's Back In Town Living Country Blues USA - Introduction

Show Notes:

Pete Franklin & Scrapper Blackwell
Pete Franklin & Scrapper Blackwell in Indianapolis, 1960,
photo by Duncan Schiedt

Today’s show spotlights several artists who were proficient both on guitar and piano and recorded on both instruments. A number of today’s artists are linked, including Scrapper Blackwell, Pete Franklin and Tampa Red. The team of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell were highly influential, influencing both pianists and guitarists alike. Pete Franklin, whose mother was good friend with Leroy Carr (he roomed at their house shortly before he passed in 1935) was influenced on guitar by the work of Scrapper, whilst on the piano his style was similar to Carr. Both Scrapper and Franklin were captured playing piano on a number of fine recordings. Tampa Red proved himself a capable pianist, first recording on piano in the mid-30s and backed Franklin on piano on some 1949 recordings. Skip James, Bukka White, Lonnie Johnson, Hacksaw Harney and Henry Townsend were known for their guitar playing but all recorded captivating sides on piano. Other artists heard today include Clifford Gibson, Blind Blake, Leadbelly, Lightnin’ Hopkins, James “Guitar Slim” Stephens among others. We also hear from pianists Walter Roland and Peetie Wheatstraw, the only pianists today featured on guitar and harmonica blower Forrest City Joe who also played piano.

Brooks Berry & Scrapper Blackwell c.1960
photo by Art Rosenbaum

From the 20s-40s we spin a grab bag of artists who recorded on multiple instruments. Guitarists Blind Blake and Clifford Gibson backed other artists on piano, recording under their own names strictly as guitarists. Peetie Wheatstraw was a proficient guitarist as heard on “Police Station Blues” which forms the basis for Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues.” Leadbelly recorded a few piano solos including “Eagle Rock Rag”, “The Eagle Rocks”, and “Big Fat Woman” which are all essentially the same piece, featuring some singing and a lot of scat. Lonnie Johnson played piano, guitar, violin and today we hear him playing piano on two numbers from 1930 and 1931. Then there’s Skip James who recorded quite a bit on both instruments. James grew up at the Woodbine Plantation in Bentonia, Mississippi and as a youth learned to play both guitar and piano. In his teens James began working on construction and logging projects across the mid-South, and sharpened his piano skills playing at work camp barrelhouses. James traveled to Grafton, Wisconsin, for his historic 1931 session for Paramount Records, which included thirteen songs on guitar and five on piano. He was sent to Paramount by talent scout H.C. Speir who was impressed by James’ audition.

Recording agent Ralph Lembo of Itta Bena arranged for Bukka White to record his first blues and gospel songs in 1930 in Memphis. Victor only saw fit to release four of the 14 songs Bukka White recorded that day. In 1937 White recorded a minor hit, “Shake ‘Em On Down,” in Chicago, but that year he was also sentenced for a shooting incident to Parchman Penitentiary, where John Lomax of the Library of Congress recorded him. After his release White recorded twelve of his best-known songs at a Chicago session in 1940. Among the songs he recorded on that occasion were “Parchman Farm Blues”, “Good Gin Blues,” “Bukka’s Jitterbug Swing,” “Aberdeen, Mississippi Blues,” and “Fixin’ to Die Blues,” all classic numbers. Two California-based blues enthusiasts, John Fahey and Ed Denson tracked Bukka down and he resumed his recording career for labels like Takoma and Arhoolie. He recorded his first piano pieces for those labels.

Scrapper Blackwell was a self-taught guitarist, building his first guitar out of a cigar box, wood and wire and also learned to play the piano. Blackwell and Carr teamed up in 1928 and t a remarkably consistent body of work of hundreds of sides notable for the impeccable guitar/piano interplay, Carr’s profoundly expressive, melancholy vocals and some terrific songs. Blackwell actually made his solo recording debut three day prior to his debut with Carr, on June 16, 1928, cutting “Kokomo Blues b/w Penal Farm Blues.” Blackwell’s last recording session with Carr was in February 1935, for Bluebird Records. The session ended bitterly, as both musicians left the studio mid-session and on bad terms, stemming from payment disputes. Two months later Blackwell received a phone call informing him of Carr’s death due to heavy drinking and nephritis. Blackwell soon recorded a tribute to his musical partner “My Old Pal Blues” and then shortly retired from the music industry. Blackwell returned to music in the late 1950’s and in 1962 cut the magnificent Mr. Scrapper’s Blues and teamed with Brooks Berry, resulting in the marvelous My Heart Struck Sorrow. Scrapper plays piano on both records.

My Heart Struck Sorrow was the lone album by singer Brooks Berry. As producer Art Rosenbaum wrote: “Brooks met Scrapper shortly after she moved to Indianapolis and thus began a long though at times stormy friendship that was to end suddenly some fifteen months after the last of the present recordings were made. On October 6, 1962. Scrapper was shot to death in a back alley near his home. Brooks has been, during the four years I have known her, reluctant to sing blues without her friend’s sensitive guitar or piano playing behind her; and she will sing less and less now that he is gone.” Some additional sides by Berry and Blackwell appear on the collection Scrapper Blackwell with Brooks Berry 1959 – 1960 on Document which were recorded live at 144 Gallery in Indianapolis in 1959.

If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down The RoadEdward Lamonte Franklin was born in Indianapolis on January 16, 1927. Despite being billed as Guitar Pete Franklin, he was equally adept on the piano. His guitar work was influenced by the work of Scrapper Blackwell, whilst on the piano his style was similar to his mother’s one time lodger, Leroy Carr. Pete was only eight but remembered the hours Carr spent at the piano in their living room. He started playing guitar at eleven by watching and listening to the guitarists who would stop by the house, not only Scrapper Blackwell but also Jesse Ellery who played on Champion Jack Dupree’s first sessions and the last by Bill Gaither. After getting discharged from the army, Franklin headed to Chicago where his first recording took place in 1947, when he accompanied St. Louis Jimmy Oden on guitar for the latter’s single, “Coming Up Fast”. Franklin’s own work started in 1949 with his single release, “Casey Brown Blues b/w Down Behind The Rise.” Two other sides from that session, “Mr. Charley” and “Naptown Blues” were not issued at the time. Franklin also made recordings backing Jazz Gillum, John Brim and Sunnyland Slim. In 1963, Bluesville Records released The Blues of Pete Franklin: Guitar Pete’s Blues, which was recorded on July 12, 1961, in Indianapolis. A few other sides appeared on the Flyright album Indianapolis Jump. Franklin died in Indiana, in July 1975 from heart disease, aged 47. Regarding his style John Brim offered the following: “Yeah, he’d play his style-and Jesse Ellery’s. Play his style and ideas that he put a little more in it than Scrapper did.”

Tampa Red accompanies Franklin on piano as he sings and plays guitar on three tracks from 1949. At the same session Tampa also played piano behind Mildred White with Franklin again on guitar. Tampa’s piano playing encompasses the sound of another major figure of the Chicago blues scene, Big Maceo Merriweather. Tampa first recorded on piano back in 1936 on “Stormy Sea Blues” which we feature today.

Eagle Rock RagPianist Walter Roland recorded over ninety issued sides for ARC as a soloist and accompanist. Roland partnered Lucille Bogan when they recorded for the ARC labels between 1933 and 1935. In 1933, he was recorded at New York City for the American Record Company, and he had apparently traveled to the session with Lucille Bogan and guitarist Sonny Scott. With Scott, he switched to guitar and the duo knocked out two remarkable guitar pieces.

Henry Townsend recorded in every decade from the 1920s through the 2000s. By the late 1920s he had begun touring and recording with the pianist Walter Davis and plays on numerous records by him through the early 50s. During this time period, he also learned to play the piano. He backed other artists in the 30s including the Sparks Brothers, Big Joe Williams, and Roosevelt Sykes. His recording was sparse in the 40s and 50s. Articulate and self-aware, with an excellent memory, Townsend gave many invaluable interviews to blues enthusiasts and scholars. Paul Oliver recorded him in 1960 and quoted him extensively in his 1967 work Conversations with the Blues. In the 60s he recorded for Bluesville and Adelphi and continued to record for labels like Nighthawk, where he cut Mule in 1980, one of his finest, as well as Arcola, APO, Wolf and others. He also appeared in films such as Blues Like Showers of Rain and The Devil’s Music. In 1999 his autobiography, A Blues Life was published. Townsend died on September 24, 2006, at the age of 96.

Other artists featured today include Pine Bluff Pete, Forrest City, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Roosevelt Sykes, Richard Hacksaw Harney, James “Guitar Slim” Stephens. Art Rupe remembered “Pine Bluff Pete” as a “very black man” who had been running errands during the session. Rupe said “when it was felt the other singers couldn’t perform effectively any more because of alcohol, fatigue, or both, Pine Bluff Pete asked to record. He looked like he could use the recording fee, and everybody was feeling good, so we recorded him. We never actually intended to release the records, so we paid him outright, not even getting his full name.” The name “Pine Bluff Pete” was given to him by Barry Hansen who discovered the tape in the Specialty vaults.

Forrest City Joe
Forrest City Joe, Hughes, AR, 1959
Photo by Alan Lomax

In his The Land Where the Blues Began, Alan Lomax told about meeting Forrest City Joe one September afternoon in Hughes, a small town in Arkansas cotton country, about eighty miles south of Memphis: “Joe was sitting on the front gallery of a tavern, identified in the shaky lettering of a sign, ‘The Old Whiskey Store.’ He was playing the guitar for a group of loungers. …I listened a while, bought him a drink, and we agreed to round up musicians for a recording session that evening. …By nine o’clock that evening Pugh had rounded up his band, Boy Blue and His Two (when backing him they became Forrest City Joe’s Three Aces), and Lomax had set up his recording machine on the bar at Charley Houlin’s juke joint.” Sadly, Joe was killed in a car crash not long after.

While living within the Delta, Richard Hacksaw 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 blues singer, Pearl Dickson. Pet and Can’s musical career came to an abrupt halt shortly afterwards when Maylon was stabbed to death in a juke joint. Following his brother’s murder, Harney claimed he attempted to learn to play both parts. Primarily though his income came from his daytime work as a piano tuner and repairman, based in and around Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded an album for Adelphi and began playing again at workshops and music festivals such as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

James “Guitar Slim” Stephens began playing pump organ when he was only five years old, singing spirituals he learned from his parents and reels he heard from his older brother pick on the banjo. Within a few years, Slim was playing piano. When he was thirteen, Green began picking guitar, playing songs he heard at local “fling-dings,” house parties, and churches. A few years later he joined the John Henry Davis Medicine Show, playing music to draw crowds to hear the show master’s pitch; this took him throughout the southeastern Piedmont. In 1953 he arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he lived for the remainder of his life playing both guitar and piano–singing the blues at house parties and spirituals at church. Green as first recorded in the early 70’s by Kip Lornell who recorded him on several occasions in 1974 and 1975. His first LP, Greensboro Rounder, was issued in 1979 by the British Flyright label and are comprised of these recordings. Green also appears several anthologies and his final recordings were made in 1980 by Siegfried Christmann and Axel Küstner for the Living Country Blues USA series of albums.

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Big Road Blues Show 3/17/24: Open Up Them Pearly Gates – Even More Honkin’ Sax Vol. 3

ARTISTSONGALBUM
Johnny Sparrow Sparrow in the BarrelJohnny Sparrow 1949-55
Ike Lloyd With Plas Johnson Worrying BluesThe Big Horn: Honkin' & Screamin' Saxophone
Jimmy Preston Hucklebuck DaddyJimmy Preston 1948 -1950
Sam "The Man" Taylor Midnight RamblerHonkers & Screamers
Lee Allen Creole AlleyCosimo Matassa Story
Felix Gross w/ Buddy Floyd Walkin' The FloorHam Hocks And Cornbread
Charlie Singleton Blow Mr. SingletonCharlie Singleton 1949-1953
Billie McAllister I Go For ThatA Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Eddie Chamblee Long Gone, Part 2The Big Horn: Honkin' & Screamin' Saxophone
Jimmy Crawford With Frank Motley Heavy Weight BabyHam Hocks And Cornbread
Freddie Mitchell Fish Market BoogieFreddie Mitchell 1949-1950
Wild Bill Moore Hey Spoo-Dee-O-DeeRhythm 'n' Blues Shouters
Al Wichard Cake JumpsMore Mellow Cats and Kittens
Joe Houston All Night LongBlows Crazy!
King Carl (Davis) w/ Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis Sure Like To RunHam Hocks And Cornbread
TJ. Fowler Red Hot BluesHam Hocks And Cornbread
Johnny Sparrow Word From Deacon BirdJohnny Sparrow 1949-55
Danny Overbea w/ Eddie Chamblee Every Shut EyeEddie Chamblee 1947-1952
Floyd Taylor Bar B QHonkers and Bar Walkers
Todd Rhodes Orchestra Rocket 69Todd Rhodes 1950-1951
Jimmy Preston Credit BluesJimmy Preston 1948-1950
Wild Bill Moore Blues at DawnHonkers and Bar Walkers
Joe Morris Wig Head Mama BluesJoe Morris 1946-1949
Little Willie Jackson Jackson's BoogieJazz Me Blues
Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson Somebody Done Stole My Cherry RedHonk For Texas
Julian Dash Open Up Them Pearly GatesThe Big Horn: Honkin' & Screamin' Saxophone
Bumps Myers Sextet Memphis HopScreaming Saxophones Have A Ball
Sax Mallard with Roosevelt Sykes Fine and BrownRaining In My Heart
Willis Jackson Later 'GatorWillis Jackson 1951-1959
Eddie Chamblee Jump for JoyEddie Chamblee 1947-1952
Big Bob Dougherty Big Bob's Boogie Ham Hocks And Cornbread
Willie Johnson & His Piano That Boy's BoogieHowling On Dowling
Manhattan Paul and The Three RiffsHard Ridin' MamaRare R&B Honkers! Vol. 1
Morris Lane Down The LaneHam Hocks And Cornbread
Sil Austin & Orchestra Submarine MamaTitanic And 23 Unsinkable Sax Blasters
David Van Dyke Dyke Takes A HikeHam Hocks And Cornbread
Freddy Kohlman Orchestra Thomas Jefferson BluesTitanic And 23 Unsinkable Sax Blasters
Little 'Walkin' Willie Blow Little WillieR&B In DC 1940-1960: Rhythm & Blues, Doo Wop, Rockin' Rhythm And More

Show Notes:

Open Up Them Pearly GatesI’ll be the first to admit that occasionally there are long gaps between planned follow-up shows. A case in point is today’s show, a belated sequel to a series of shows we aired way back in 2016. Back then we kicked off our sax series with Maxwell Davis, followed by an L.A. sax show and two devoted to New York sax men. Our final installment is a grab bag of fine sax men from different parts of the country that didn’t get featured on those programs. The 40’s brought more musical styles like jump blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll to the forefront and the saxophone played a major roll in the new sound. Illinois Jacquet was a very good swing jazz player and like many others he was drawn to the new sounds. He was only 19 years old when he worked with Lionel Hampton’s band and recorded his famous solo on “Flying Home” that jump started the era of the honkin’ saxophone. One person he inspired was Big Jay McNeely who took the honkin’ over the edge and made a show of it… laying on his back, strolling into the crowds and walking on top of bars. As McNeely said of “Flying Home:” “Every time we picked up our horns we were just elaborating on that, trying to make it bigger, wilder, give it more swing, more kick. If you want to know where rhythm and blues began, that’s it brother.” This new sound of the 40’s rhythm and blues produced many honkin’ saxophone stars and a slew of fine lesser knowns. Most of today’s sax men fall in the latter category, including fine blowers like Johnny Sparrow, Charlie Singleton, Eddie Chamblee, Julian Dash among numerous others featured today. Some led their own bands, many found their bread and butter as well-regarded session artists such heard today like Sam “The Man” Taylor, Plas Johnson, Sax Mallard, Sil Austin among others.

Not much is known about Johnny Sparrow’s background, apart from the fact that he may have come from the South/Southwest, perhaps Texas, and that he first emerged in the reed section of Jay McShann’s Orchestra, succeeding Charlie Parker during early 1944. Sparrow  played with Louis Armstrong’s band in 1946 and 1947, and got to record with the group as well. From Armstrong’s band, Sparrow went to Lionel Hampton’s ensemble, where he was often featured in competition with fellow saxman Morris Lane. After two years with Hampton’s group, Sparrow left in 1949 to form his own band cutting sides for Melford, National, Gotham  through 1953, with some chart success.

Later 'gatorAfter leaving the army, Chamblee joined Miracle Records. He played on Sonny Thompson’s hit record “Long Gone” in 1948, and on its follow-up, “Late Freight”, credited to the Sonny Thompson Quintet featuring Eddie Chamblee. Both records reached no. 1 on the national Billboard R&B chart. Two follow-up records, “Blue Dreams” and “Back Street”, also made the R&B chart in 1949. From 1947, he led his own band in Chicago clubs, as well as continuing to record with Thompson and on other sessions in Chicago, including The Four Blazes’ no. 1 R&B hit “Mary Jo” in 1952. In 1955 he joined Lionel Hampton’s band for two years, touring in Europe, before returning to lead his own group in Chicago. He accompanied both Amos Milburn and Lowell Fulson on some of their recordings, and then worked as accompanist to Dinah Washington on many of her successful recordings in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The two married briefly. He also recorded for the Mercury and EmArcy labels, and with his own group in the early 1960s for the Roulette and Prestige labels.

Upon relocating to New Orleans, Lee Allen fell into the city’s thriving music scene, performing or recording with dozens of musicians. In 1947, he joined the Paul Gayten Band and later, the Dave Bartholomew Band. Notable are his recordings with the singers Fats Domino and Lloyd Price. Allen also was the sax soloist on most of Little Richard’s hits from 1955 and 1956. Earl King, whom Allen backed, recalled that Allen was “part of the wallpaper” at Cosimo Matassa’s studio, and that Allen was on all the records by Huey “Piano” Smith. Allen and drummer Earl Palmer also backed Professor Longhair on many recordings. His own instrumental, “Walkin’ with Mr. Lee”, released by Ember Records, was a minor hit in 1958, partly because it was frequently played on the television program American Bandstand.

Charlie Singleton was born in Kansas City in 1930 where he grew up studying music under Leo Davis who had also been Charlie Parker’s instructor. Singleton began on alto sax when he first arrived in New York City as a teenager in the late 1940’s, already leading his own band. He was signed in mid-1949 by Apollo Records the bounced through small labels and a major one, Decca and finally found a permanent home with Atlas Records. For Atlas he switched to tenor sax, backing

The Rockin' And Walkin' Rhythm Of Eddie ChambleeIf you pour through the session details of the hundreds of New York City R&B sessions that took place in the mid-40’s through the 50’s you’ll run across several sax men time and again, including Hal Singer, Freddie Mitchell, Sam “The Man” Taylor, Big Al Sears  and Budd Johnson.  Taylor began to get work as a session musician in 1952 and did work for Atlantic, Savoy, and Apollo Records. In November of that year he was signed by former MGM record man Joe Davis who has a stable of labels including Beacon, Joe Davis, and Jay-Dee. Taylor became the saxophonist of choice for many R&B dates through the ’50s, recording with Ray Charles, Buddy Johnson, Louis Jordan, and Big Joe Turner, among others.

Two Detroit bandleaders featured today are T.J.. Fowler and Todd Rhodes. Fowler and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, when he was six years old, where he learned to play piano. He worked early in the 1940s in the bands of saxophonist Guy Walters and trumpeter Clarence Dorsey and, in 1947, put together his own ensemble, playing behind Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams on recordings for Savoy Records. In 1948, he began recording as a leader, first with local labels Paradise and Sensation, then with Savoy himself and then States Records. He accompanied T-Bone Walker in the mid-1950s. The group was active in Michigan through the end of the 1950s.

Todd Rhodes left McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in 1934 and lived and played in Detroit from then on. He formed his own small group in 1943, expanding it into the Todd Rhodes Orchestra by 1946. The orchestra made its first recordings for Sensation Records in 1947. Turning more towards rhythm and blues music, the band became known as Todd Rhodes & His Toddlers. His instrumental “Blues for the Red Boy” reached number 4 on the R&B chart late in 1948, and the following year “Pot Likker”, made number 3 on the R&B chart. After signing with King Records in 1951, he also worked with Hank Ballard, Dave Bartholomew, and Wynonie Harris.

Alto sax man Jimmy Preston formed his own group in 1945. His first R&B top ten hit was with “Hucklebuck Daddy” in 1949, recorded for Gotham Records. His main claim to fame was to record, as Jimmy Preston and His Prestonians, the original version of “Rock the Joint” for Gotham in 1949. The sax breaks on “Rock the Joint” were the work of tenor player Danny Turner. “Rock the Joint” was re-recorded by Jimmy Cavallo in 1951, and Bill Haley and the Saddlemen in 1952. Preston gave up playing music in 1952.

Hey Spo-Dee-O-DeeBy the early 1940s, Wild Bill Moore abandoned his boxing career in favor of music, and was inspired by musicians Chu Berry and Illinois Jacquet to switch to tenor saxophone. In 1944, he made his recording debut, accompanying Christine Chatman, the wife of Memphis Slim, for Decca Records. Between 1945 and 1947, Moore was performing and recording in Los Angeles with Slim Gaillard, Jack McVea, Big Joe Turner, Dexter Gordon, and played on Helen Humes’ hit recording, “Be-Baba-Leba”. In 1947 he moved back to Detroit and began recording with his own band. In December of that year, he recorded “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll” for the Savoy label which was a modest hit.  It was one of the first records played by Alan Freed on his “Moondog” radio shows in 1951.

Sax man Sil Austin won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1945, playing “Danny Boy”. His performance brought him a recording contract with Mercury Records, and he moved to New York, where he studied for a time at the Juilliard School of Music. Austin played with Roy Eldridge briefly in 1949, and with Cootie Williams in 1951-52 and Tiny Bradshaw in 1952-54, before setting up his own successful touring group. He recorded over 30 albums for Mercury and had a number of Top 40 hits. Austin described the sound of his 1950s singles to author Wayne Jancik. “Exciting horn, honking horn, gutbucket horn is what kids wanted to hear, so I made sure I played more of that. They called it rock ‘n’ roll. And the records sold.”

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