Harold Holiday, known as Black Boy Shine, was one of the acknowledged leaders among the Santa Fe group of pianists. He recorded more prolifically then the rest; cutting 18 issued sides in 1936 and 1937 as well as leaving a batch of unissued sides in the can. As Oliver relates: “He played in a mellow style, with a subtler release than the sharp snap favoured by several of the piano men, and he sang in a slightly world-weary voice of the days when the “Chophouse” operated on West Dallas Street. It was a haven for pianists down on their luck, where the proprietor would prepare soup and sandwiches for them, and cook any rabbits they’d managed to club on the waste lots that still dotted the black wards of the city.” He describes this vividly in one of his best numbers, “Dog House Blues”: “Well I’m going to the Dog House/Down On West Dallas Street/When I get broke and hungry/I know I can get a feed.” “When times were better”, Oliver wrote, “and the barrelhouses were open again, Shine was to be found at Sugarland, near the sugar refineries and the State Farm Unit, or way out at Richmond. The latter is a run-down, predominately black township still, an unlovely place of old buildings fronting on the railroad tracks close to the Brazos River. Behind the tracks the roads fall back steeply for a couple of blocks to the old haunt of hustlers and whores, Mud Alley. There on Mud Alley was the Brown House, Shine’s base when he wasn’t travelling…” Both places feature in Shine’s songs; In “Sugarland Blues” he sings “I dump sugar all day/Clean until broad daylight/I done everything for that woman/Still she don’t treat me right” and in “Brown House Blues” he sings “Woke up this morning with the muddy alley blues/ I lost all my money and my alley shoes/I was playing boogie-woogie and having my fun” and then goes on describe a raid in detail, obviously a common occurrence in these kind of joints. In general his lyrics vividly reflect the harsher side of black life such as songs like “Hobo Blues” and “Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues.”

Both Pinetop Burks and Leon Calhoun known as Son Becky, at least on record, were more boisterous players then Shine. Both shared a single session in October 1937, each cutting six sides apiece. Oliver notes that “Black Boy Shine closely resembled Conish “Pinetop” Burks both in appearance and in piano style, at least in the recollections of their contemporaries. On record “Connie” Burks used more boogie bass figures than Shine and employed more varied approaches to his blues, a matter of some surprise to those who knew them, who considered Shine the better pianist. Burks was born and raised close by Richmond and heard all the good piano men as they passed through” Becky “…had been raised by a relative near Wharton and was known by her surname, as “Son” Becky. Becky played for country suppers and followed the barrelhouse circuit east to the Piney Woods. Here traditions met, with the Louisiana and E Texas pianists running into their Houston and Santa Fe contemporary Dave Alexander, who was known as Black Ivory King, was one of eastern group who worked the ‘Flying Crow’ line between his home to of Shreveport and Port Arthur on the Gulf Coast, where Ivory Joe Hunter knew him.” Burks lays down strong, propulsive boogie piano, displaying his skill on several fine extended solos and has a deep, expressive voice. His boogie piano is heard to good effect on “Fannie Mae Blues” a song addressed too his wife and the rollicking “Shake the Shack” which owes a strong debt to “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie.” His “Mountain Jack Blues” features a thumping bass, ragtime flavour and is a variation of the Texas staple “”The Cows” while his “Jack of All Trades” was a re-working of Bernice Edwards’ blues of the same name. Becky was accompanied by a guitarist and a washboard player on some of his tracks, and the trio make an enjoyable ruckus on the driving “Midnight Trouble Blues” and “Mistreated Washboard Blues.” The more contemplative “Cryin’ Shame Blues” is a fine mid-tempo number featuring some strong rolling piano. King cut four sides in 1937 and had a simpler, less aggressive style than Burks and Becky. He was a fine rough voiced singer, using his limited range to fine effect particularly on the sublime “The Flying Crow” where he enhances the song with moans and piano flourishes that emulate the sound of the train. Trains also figure in “Match Box Blues” and “Gingham Dress (Alexander Blues)” while “Working For The PWA” is a fine topical number.

The Santa Fe group acquired their name not only because they rode the Santa Fe from job to job, but also because, according to the Houston Pianist Robert Shaw, “anyone enquiring the name of a selection was invariably told, “that’s the ‘Santa Fe’.” The style was rooted in the wide-open towns of Richmond, Houston and Galveston. As Oliver notes, “here were to be heard the hard-hitting boogie and blues pianists like Conish Burks and Son Becky, Rob Cooper and Black Boy Shine, Andy Boy, Robert ‘Fud’ Shaw and Edwin ‘Buster’ Pickens, and the singers Joe Pullum and Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington. …There is a broad stylistic and thematic similarity in the music of the pianists who followed the Santa Fe through the barrelhouses of Ford Bend, Houston and Galveston counties, and down in the Brazos Bottoms. …Immediately recognisable with its rolling basses, its often ragtimey blues accompaniments, its anticipatory beat—this is the Santa Fe group.” This group travelled the branches of the Santa Fe line to the lumber camps, oil fields and towns. In the cities “they were to be heard in the red light district of Galveston’s Post Office Street or Church Street, on Houston’s West Dallas Street or in Richmond’s Mud Alley.”

Among the best of the Santa Fe group were Rob Cooper of Houston, and Andy Boy of Galveston. Both men show the influence of Hersal Thomas and both men’s style share strong ragtime elements. Stylistically, Oliver notes, “Andy Boy (Boy was his surname) and Rob Cooper were a few years older than Hersal Thomas” and “careful listening to the playing of Andy Boy reveals hints of the connection between them; in spite of the themes that he sang and played with their somewhat more modern sound, Galveston born Andy Boy was a pianist whose formative years were spent in the company of Hersal and his fellow pianists.”
Andy Boy cut only eight sides under his own name as well as backing both Joe Pullum and Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington. Andy Boy had a rough, expressive voice offset with his sprightly blues piano laced with ragtime flourishes. Andy Boy’s songs are filled with vivid imagery, humour, clever wordplay and a times a deep pathos. One of his most memorable numbers was the rollicking “House Raid Blues” (MP3) (a close cousin to Little Hat Jones’ “Kentucky Blues”) as Andy Boy wittily describes a police break-in at Charlie Shiro’s Galveston club: “Then out the widow I did hop/Followed closely by a cop/Then around the corner I did run/I heard the shot from some law’s gun/Said it ain’t no use in shooting ‘cause I ain’t gonna be here long/…Then I was long gone, from Kentucky, long gone/Got away lucky and left so keen/I left like a submarine.” The vigorously sung “Church Street Blues” (MP3) was perhaps his finest number where he evocatively sang: “Going down to the Gulf/Watch the waves come in . . .” and “I was born and raised in that good old seaport town/Where we all had fun and stomped The Grinder down.” In the sombre “Evil Blues” he sang: “I got the evil blues, prejudicy on my mind” and was in quite a different frame of mind on the bouncy “Jive Blues” where he sings “Now the good book says thou shall not break the ten commandment law/I’m gonna break the ten commandments on you’re jaw.”

Both Andy Boy and Rob Cooper play on the records of Joe Pullum, one of the era’s most distinctive and imaginative vocalists. As Tony Russell describes, “Pullum’s voice was pitched very high and clear, yet it always sounded relaxed, and his timing was impeccable. The effect-plaintive, appealing, penetrating-was like that of a muted trumpet solo, piercing it’s way through the blues, occasionally soaring in sudden leaps. …The piano-playing behind Pullum is always satisfying stuff, whether the work of Andy Boy (who was on the third and longest session) or that of Robert Cooper (on the other three).” Cooper’s lively, ragtimey piano can be heard to good effect on the Texas staple “Cows, See That Train Comin'” (MP3) and the mostly instrumental “Blues With Class” while Andy Boy’s accompaniment displays more invention then own his own records. Cooper’s solo output under his own includes only two numbers; two marvellous versions of “West Dallas Drag”, a stomping, good time ragtime number that makes one wish he had recorded more solo sides. Any Boy also backed the tough voiced Walter ‘Cowboy’ Washington on all four of his numbers, providing wonderful backing to evocative tales like “Ice Pick Mama” (MP3) and “West Dallas Woman” (a reference to the main stem of Houston’s Fourth Ward).

Sources:

-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.

-Oliver, Paul. The Story of the Blues. 4th edition. Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1997.

-Silvester, Peter J.. A Left Hand Like Boogie: A History of Boogie-Woogie Piano. DA Capo, Ne York, 1988.

-Oliver, Paul and Smith, Francis. Notes accompanying The Piano Blues Vol. 8: Texas Seaport 1934-1937, 1978, Magpie.

-Oliver, Paul and Smith, Francis. Notes accompanying The Piano Blues Vol. 11: Texas Santa Fe 1934-1937, 1979, Magpie.

-Russell, Tony. Talking Blues 2 – Joe Pullum, Jazz Monthly, No 191 (1971), p. 23-24.