Showing posts with label Archie Edwards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archie Edwards. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Archie Edwards & Dr. Ross - Piedmont Blues Meets Mississippi Delta Blues

Size: 109,7 MB
Time: 46:38
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2019
Styles: Acoustic Blues
Art: Front

01. Little Girl (Archie Edwards) (2:16)
02. Biscuit Baking Woman (Dr. Ross) (2:46)
03. Pittsburgh Blues (Archie Edwards) (3:13)
04. She’s Gone And Left Me (Archie Edwards) (2:48)
05. Got Something To Tell You (Dr. Ross) (3:01)
06. Chicago Breakdown (Dr. Ross) (4:07)
07. Meet Me In The Bottom (Archie Edwards) (2:42)
08. The Road Is Rough And Rocky (Archie Edwards) (3:03)
09. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (Dr. Ross) (3:38)
10. Bear Cat Mama (Archie Edwards) (4:14)
11. Baby Please Don’t Go (Dr. Ross) (3:18)
12. Baby Please Give Me A Break (Archie Edwards) (2:53)
13. My Little Woman (Dr. Ross) (5:39)
14. Goin’ Up The Country (Archie Edwards) (2:52)

Doctor Ross:
Doctor Ross (real name Charles Isaiah Ross) was born in Tunica, MS on Oct. 1925 and died on May 1993 in Flint, Michigan. He was a one-man Band, played guitar, harp and drums.
He learned harp at the age of nine and was performing with Willie Love and on radio stations in Arkansas and Mississippi in the 30´s. In the US Army, he made a paramedical training – therefore he got the name “Doctor”. Later he appeared at King Biscuit Time Show with his Jump and Live Band and also played as a one-man band act in the 50´s and 60´s.
He started recording music 1952 and recorded for the Chess Label, one year later for the legendary Label Sun Records in Memphis. For this Label, he recorded “Country Clown” and “Boogie Disease”, then he moved to Flint, Michigan to work in an auto factory. He was a left-handed guitar player and played in open G-tuning.
Later he recorded for different local Labels before he recorded in the middle of the 60´s for the Testament-Label. After that, he was a welcome guest on different Folk and Blues festivals in the US and Europe (especially at the American Folk Blues Festival 1965 and the Montreux Jazz Festival). He recorded a lot more CD´s. Some of the best are on Munich Records, Atlantic and his last CD on JSP.
The roots of his raw, Mississippi Delta Blues Style, was influenced by John Lee Hooker and John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson – but he created his own sound with boogie rhythms and supple harp riffs.
The recording on this CD were made during a tour with Archie Edwards in Greece. On this Live-CD, he recorded great traditional Blues titles like “Biscuit Bakin’ Mama” or “Good morning little Schoolgirl”, but also some songs of his own, like his hit “Chicago Breakdown”.

Archie Edwards:
Archie L. Edwards was born September 4th 1918 and died June 18th 1998. He was a Piedmont Blues Guitar Player, who played several decades and worked with great blues musicians like Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James or John Jackson.
One of his great songs are “The road is rough and rocky” and “I called my baby long Distance”. In the late 50´s he owned a barbershop, where he helped blues musicians to start their career. His style is the old Piedmont style or East Virginia Blues. He was born on a farm near Union Hall, Virginia. He had to share his first guitar with his brothers. He was inspired by Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
He worked at a sawmill, but he still played music around the camp, where he worked at daytime, but on evening he played at house parties in the 30´s. Then he went to New Jersey, where he worked by chauffeuring and cooking.
During World War II, Edwards served in the military police. In the postwar years, he worked in his own barbershop in Washington D.C. in 1959. But he also played together with Mississippi John Hurt, but also they both had a relationship with Skip James.
He worked with Hurt until his death in 1966 for which he wrote the song “The road is rough and rocky”. After Hurts dead, Archie played at music festivals and in local Clubs. He joined also John Jackson, John Cephs and Phil Wiggins.
He formed the group “The travelling Blues Workshop” together with Flora Molton and Mother Scott. 1982 he joined the American Folk Blues Festival for a tour in Europe and recorded for the L+R Label. When he came back, he toured with Flora Molton and Eleonor Ellis in the US.
Archie died 1998 in Seat Pleasant, Maryland in the age of 79. After his death the CD “Toronto Sessions” was released, which was recorded in 1986 in Canada.
He toured with Doc Ross Greece, where this CD was recorded.

Piedmont Blues Meets Mississippi Delta Blues

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Various - The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (2-Disc Set)

The material was collected from the blues expert Siegfried A. Christmann and Axel Küstner in the fall of 1980 on an extensive trip through the United States - in the form of so-called field-recordings - recordings that reflect the artist in his natural environment and not in the studio. They put 10,000 miles (16.000km) with the car back, consumed 180,000 feet (54km) analog magnetic tape and took hundreds of photos to the various aspects of Country Blues, as well as work songs, Fife & Drum Band music, so-called Field Hollers and original gospel music to be documented. There were 35 artists included, some of which are thus the first time ever appeared on record.

Album: The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:50
Size: 93.5 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 1981/2008
Art: Front

[ 5:27] 1. Guitar Frank - Lonesome Road Blues
[ 4:27] 2. Memphis Piano Red - The Train Is Comin'
[ 3:11] 3. Flora Molton - What's The Matter Now
[ 4:10] 4. Lottie Murrell - Trouble Late Last Night
[ 2:58] 5. Sam Chatmon - Sittin' On Top Of The World
[ 2:06] 6. James 'Son' Thomas - Rock Me, Mama
[ 1:51] 7. Hammie Nixon - Corinna, Corinna
[10:46] 8. Cora Fluker - Talkin' 'bout Jesus
[ 2:50] 9. Walter Brown - So Hard To See
[ 2:59] 10. Archie Edwards - Bear Cat Mama Blues

The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (Disc 1) mc
The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (Disc 1) zippy

Album: The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:52
Size: 91.3 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 1981/2008
Art: Front

[4:45] 1. Bowling Green John Cephas - Reno Factory
[4:01] 2. Lonnie Pitchford - My Babe
[2:47] 3. Sam Stretch Shields - Bluebird Blues
[3:46] 4. Flora Molton - The Titanic
[1:23] 5. Joe Savage - Mean Ol' Frisco
[3:02] 6. Arzo Youngblood - I Can't Be Successful
[2:38] 7. Cedell Big G Davis - I Don't Know Why
[3:20] 8. Othar Turner - Tango Twist
[3:17] 9. Guitar Slim - Come On In My Kitchen
[4:57] 10. Guitar Slim - Lula's Back In Town
[3:17] 11. Boyd Rivers - You Got To Move
[2:33] 12. Boogie Bill Webb - Big Road Blues

The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (Disc 2) mc
The Introduction To Living Country Blues USA (Disc 2) zippy

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Archie Edwards - Blues 'n Bones

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 48:57
Size: 112.1 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 1989
Art: Front

[4:16] 1. John Henry
[4:31] 2. Meet Me In The Bottom
[3:33] 3. I Called My Baby Long Distance
[3:30] 4. That Won't Do
[5:24] 5. My Old School Mates
[2:02] 6. Hen's Cackle
[3:49] 7. Saturday Night Hop
[3:33] 8. Baby, Please Gimme A Break
[3:45] 9. T For Texas
[4:09] 10. Sitting On Top Of The World
[3:14] 11. Payday
[3:37] 12. Take Me Back Baby
[3:28] 13. Little Girl

With all the emphasis on contemporary electric blues these days, it’s nice to find an acoustic blues disc that’s not some reissue from the pre-World War II era. Actually, Virginia-based Archie Edwards isn’t a pure bluesman. It would be better to call him a songster, one whose repertoire is built on the blues, but also includes ballads, reels, and traditional African-American folk narratives, precisely the mix you’ll find on Blues 'n Bones. Backed on some tracks by the Nighthawks’ harmonica player Mark Wenner and Richard “Mr. Bones” Thomas, who plays, well, bones (bones have been a percussive staple in the African-American music community since the 17th century), Edwards sends forth a rich selection of finger-picked riffs on his guitar that are steeped in the Piedmont guitar tradition. And with a voice that is mature without sounding ancient, 76-year-old Edwards provides a fresh alternative to the more common strains of rocking electric blues.

Edwards opens with John Henry, perhaps the most familiar of all black folk songs, and follows it up with other widely known numbers like Payday and Sitting on Top of the World. But it’s his originals, namely the ripe instrumental Saturday Night Hop, which provides the best indication of Edwards’ penchant for the Piedmont picking style, and Baby, Please Gimme A Break, with its rather complex, jazzy chord structure, that score the highest marks.

Edwards isn’t an innovator; much of what he plays on guitar has its origins elsewhere, particularly in the performance style of Mississippi John Hurt, his mentor. But acoustic country bluesmen of Edwards’ ilk aren’t exactly flooding contemporary blues - which makes this work, his first since the early '80s, such a pleasurable find. ~Robert Santelli

Blues 'n Bones mc
Blues 'n Bones zippy