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Big Road Blues Show 1/28/18: Tappin’ That Thing – Yank Rachell & Pals

January 28, 2018June 5, 2021 Jeff 1 Comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Sleepy John Estes	The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair	I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941
Yank Rachell	Talks About zhis First Recording
Sleepy John Estes	Milk Cow Blues	I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941
Elijah Jones	Stuff stomp	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Sleepy John Estes	Whatcha Doin?	I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941
Yank Rachell	On the death of John Lee Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson	Sunny Land	The Bluebird Recordings
Yank Rachell	Lake Michigan Blues	Lake Michigan Blues
Yank Rachell	When You Feel Down And Out	Louie Bluie
Elijah Jones	Katy Fly	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	I'm Wild And Crazy As Can Be	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	Texas Tommy	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	Hobo Blues	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	38 Pistol Blues	Louie Bluie
Yank Rachell	Army Man Blues	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	Biscuit Baking Woman	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Joe Williams	Haven't Seen No Whiskey	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	It Seems Like A Dream	Yank Rachell Vol. 2 1934-1941
Sonny Boy Williamson	You Give an Account	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 1
Yank Rachell	Insurance Man Blues	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol.1
Yank Rachell	Up North Blues (There's A Reason)	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 2
Yank Rachell	Yellow Yam Blues	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 2
Henry Townsend	Things Have Changed	Mule
Yank Rachel & Shirley Griffith	Peach Orchard Mama	Art of Field Recording Vol. 1
Sleepy John Estes & Yank Rachell	I'm A Tearing Little Daddy	The Blues Revival Vol. 1 1963-1969
Yank Rachell	Loudella Blues	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 2
Yank Rachell	Katy Lee Blues	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 2
Yank Rachell	Tappin' That Thing	The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 2
Sleepy John Estes/Yank Rachell/Hammie Nixon	Wadie Green	Newport Blues
Yank Rachell	Des Moines, Iowa	The Blue Goose Album
Yank Rachell	Every Night And Day, I Hear My Baby Call My Name	I Blueskvarter Vol. 1
Yank Rachell	Interview	I Blueskvarter Vol. 1
Yank Rachell	Going To Pack Up My Things And Go	I Blueskvarter Vol. 1
Yank Rachell –	Diving Duck Blues	Louie Bluie
Yank Rachell	Smokey Joe	Mandolin Blues

Show Notes:

As Paul Oliver Wrote: “They say that ‘you know a man by the company he keeps.’ If that is so then Yank Rachel (or Rachell) comes off pretty well. He is a musician who has played with some of the most outstanding blues singers and musicians of the ‘thirties, and won the respect of all who have known him. Somehow he has been poorly served by the blues historians, overshadowed perhaps by such figures as Sleepy John Estes or Sonny Boy Williamson who depended so much on the kind of support that he provided. He was one of the rather select group of blues musicians who played mandolin, which should have been enough to single him out from the crowd, but blues enthusiasms being both fickle and conservative the obsession with the guitar has been to his disadvantage. He played guitar too, of course, but his preferred instrument was always the mandolin and its ringing sounds imparts a special quality to the recordings on which he appeared.”

Rachell was born in rural Tennessee, outside of Brownsville, on March 16, 1910, where he grew up working with his family in managing their farm. It was in Brownsville, Tennessee, that Rachell met Hambone Willie Newbern (who penned Rollin’ and Tumblin’ in 1929). Newbern took him under his wing, mentoring him in the music and in the business. The Brownsville scene was teeming with great musicians, and in time, Rachell met Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, and the trio worked the area as a jug band.

Later, Rachell migrated to Memphis to work in the Beale Street scene, where he joined company with Estes and Jab Jones as the Three J’s Jug Band where they recorded for Victor in 1929 and 1930. After the Three J’s broke up, Rachell decided to try his hand at farming and also worked for the L&N Railroad. During a stopover in New York Rachell teamed up with guitarist Dan Smith and laid down 25 titles for ARC in just three-day Shortly before the ARC date, Rachell had discovered a kid harmonica player that he believed had real talent, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. They worked together at the Blue Flame Club in Jackson, Tennessee starting in 1933. In 1934 Williamson went north to Chicago. With the success of Williamson’s first Bluebird dates of 1937, Rachell decided to join Sonny Boy in Chicago for sessions in March and June of 1938. Yank Rachell also contributed four sides of his own to each session, and then 16 more in 1941 with Sonny Boy backing him up. After Sonny Boy Williamson’s murder in 1948, Rachell drifted away from music and relied solely on straight jobs to make his living, settling permanently in Indianapolis in 1958. His wife passed away in 1961, and afterward he began to resume performing. In 1962, Rachell was re-united with Nixon and Estes, and the three of them began playing college and coffeehouse circuit, recording for Delmark as Yank Rachell’s Tennessee Jug Busters. They played Newport in 1964 and toured Europe as part of the 1966 American Folk Blues Festival. Estes died in 1977, and from that time Rachell worked mainly as a solo act. In the 80’s he worked a bit with Howard Armstong, appearing in the film Louie Bluie. He kept recording right until his last years.

James Rachell (he pronounced it Ray-shell) was born east of Brownsville, TN on March 16, 1910, the middle child of Lula Taylor and George Rachell. He had brothers, Leslie and A.B., either side of him but both died young, A.B. from an infected Ieg wound and Leslie poisoned by fumes he inhaled while spraying a peach orchard. His grandmother, Rose Taylor, called him ‘Yank’ but he never knew why. He worked in the fields for ten years from the age of seven and that was one year before his first encounter with music. One morning he came upon a neighbor, Augie Rawls, sitting on his porch playing a ‘tater-bug mandolin. The story got mythologized over the years but basically for the lack five dollars,Yank exchanged his piglet for the mandolin, narrowly avoiding a whopping with a willow branch.

Rachell was the primary exponent of blues mandolin, although he also played guitar, violin, harp and sang expertly well. Born on a farm outside Brownsville, Tennessee, Yank Rachell picked up the mandolin at the age of eight, mainly teaching himself; an early encounter with “Hambone” Willie Newbern early on helped him as well. Rachell and his brothers also learned guitar from an uncle, Dan Taylor,and their cousin Henry Taylor but mandolin remained Yank’s obsession. One day, Willie Newbern, equally adept on both instruments, came by and Yank got some basic tuition in the mandolin’s function. “I don’t know where he was from,” he told Richard Congress, “but he’d come through Brownsville and hang around. I didn’t have no way of tuning the mandolin aright till Willie Newbern come through there and he showed me how to tune it. I learn a lot of tune(s) from him (including Texas Tommy).” Music became an earner for him; he started playing for country suppers and for the white folks. Rachell began to work dances with singer and guitarist Sleepy John Estes in the early ’20s. In early 1929, he co-formed the Three J’s Jug Band with Estes and pianist Jab Jones. The Three J’s Jug Band were an instant hit and managed to work the dances during the lucrative jug-band craze in Memphis and traveled often to Paducah, Kentucky. The group recorded 14 sides credited jointly to Estes and Rachell for Victor for 1929 and 1930.

From left to right: Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, Yank Rachell, Banjo Ikey Robinson,
Ted Bogan and Tom Armstrong.

After the record business was flattened by the depression, the Three J’s broke up. Estes and harmonica player Hammie Nixon went on to Chicago to seek their fortune in the nightclubs, but Yank Rachell decided to try his hand at farming and also worked for the L&N Railroad. Ironically, it was Rachell who was next to record — during a stopover in New York Rachell teamed up with guitarist Dan Smith and laid down 25 titles for ARC in 1934 in just three days, though only six of them were issued.

Shortly before the ARC date, Yank Rachell had discovered a kid harmonica player that he believed had real talent, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. They worked together at the Blue Flame Club in Jackson, Tennessee starting in 1933. In 1934 Williamson went north to Chicago. With the success of Williamson’s first Bluebird dates of 1937, Rachell decided to join Sonny Boy in Chicago for sessions in March and June of 1938. Yank Rachell also contributed four sides of his own to each session, and then 16 more in 1941 with Sonny Boy backing him up. Some of the 1941 tracks are among his best: “It Seem Like a Dream,” “Biscuit Baking Woman,” and “Lake Michigan Blues” were all successes for both Rachell and Bluebird.

in 1938, while working in St. Louis with Peetie Wheatstraw, Yank Rachell had married and started to raise a family. During the peak of his musical career, Rachell kept his day job and did not lead “the life,” at least not the same one that claimed his friend Sonny Boy Williamson on June 1, 1948. After Williamson’s murder, Rachell drifted away from music and relied solely on straight jobs to make his living, settling permanently in Indianapolis in 1958. The first musicians Yank Rachell met in Indianapolis were guitarists Shirley Griffith, J.T. Adams and Pete Franklin, all of whom he outlasted. After making Mando/in Blues for Bob Koester’s Delmark in 1964, he was taken up by young Chicago musicians like Mike Bloomfield and Charlie Musselwhite. He also traveled to California with Sleepy John, where Taj Mahal Iooked after them. Mahal would Iater record She Caught The Katie, for which Rachell received writer’s royalties. “The first cheque l got was $10,000 and 1 got that for three months. And then 1 started getting $5,000 every three months,$3,000. So 1 decided to buy me another house. The cheque came at the right time.”

Read Liner Notes

After his wife passed away in 1961, and afterward he began to resume performing. In 1962, Rachell was re-united with Nixon and Estes, and the three of them began tearing up the college and coffeehouse circuit, recording for Delmark as Yank Rachell’s Tennessee Jug Busters. Estes died in 1977, and from that time Rachell worked mainly as a solo act. In his later years,Yank became a hero at The Slippery Noodle, an Indianapolis club, and gathered a number of young musicians around him. “Look like everybody like to play with me, so I try to help ’em the best l can. All them different ones, I set down with ’em and try to teach ’em what l know. And they want me to go with ’em to play places. They enjoy me going with ’em.” But his kidney trouble and the need for regular dialyses is curbed his traveling. He also met John Sebastian, who recorded him,took him top play at the 1996 W.C.Handy Awards in Memphis and paid for his room at the Peabody Hotel. Nonetheless, he was working on a new album when he died at age 87.

Big Road Blues Show 4/30/17: Ninth Street Jive – Nashville Blues Pt. 2

April 30, 2017April 30, 2017 Jeff Leave a comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Rochelle Harris	Steel Laying Holler	Black Appalachia
Allen Prothro	Jumpin' Judy	Field Recordings Vol. 2 1926-1943
John (Black Sampson) Gibson	Track Lining Song	Black Appalachia
Cecil Gant	Train Time Blues	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Cecil Gant	Ninth Street Jive	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
St. Louis Jimmy	I Ain't Done Nothing Wrong	Chicago Is Just That Way
Max 'Blues' Bailey	Brownskin Woman Blues	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
B.B. King	Miss Martha King	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Jimmy Sweeney	Boogie Woogie Jockey	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Robert Garrett	I Don't Wanna Be Sober	Raid On Cedar Street Vol. 1
Ford Nelson	Still Feelin' Sad	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Charlie Dowell Orchestra & Willie Lee Patton	Allotment Blues (Dear John)	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Jack Cooley	Dyna-Flow	The Excello Story Vol. 1: 1952-1955
Christine Kittrell	L&N Special	The Matriarch of Columbus Blues (951-1965
Shy Guy Douglas	Wasted Time	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Shy Guy Douglas	I'm Your Country Man	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Lewis Campbell	The Natural Facts	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Arthur Gunter	Blues After Hours	The Best Of Arthur Gunter
'Good Rocking' Beasley	Happy Go Lucky	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Crown Prince Waterford	Driftwood Blues	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Good Rockin' Sam	Don't Let Daddy Slow Walk You Down	Jook Joint Blues
Jerry McCain	That's What They Want	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Jerry McCain	Courtin' In A Cadillac	The Excello Story Vol. 2: 1955-1957
Louis Brooks	Bus Station Blues	The Excello Story Vol. 1: 1952-1955
Earl Ganes w/ Louis Brooks & His Hi Toppers	I Don't Need You Now	Nashville R&B Vol 1 1951-1956
Blues Rockers	Calling All Cows	The Excello Story Vol. 1: 1952-1955
Little Al	Little Lean Woman	The Excello Story Vol. 2: 1955-1957
Don Q Band with Clenest Gant	Jump-Jump Hi Ho	Nashville R&B Vol 1 1951-1956
Lillian Offitt	Miss You So	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Johnny Jones & the Imperial 7	Realy Part 1	Night Train to Nashville
Bessie Smith	Nashville Woman's Blues	Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers
Robert Wilkins	Nashville Stonewall Blues	Masters of the Memphis Blues
Washboard Sam	Nashville, Tennessee	Washboard Sam Vol. 1 1935-1936
Carl Campbell	Goin' Down To Nashville	Down In The Groovy: Texas R&B

Show Notes:

For most people Nashville means Country Music and the Grand Ole Opry. It’s also the city where a sizable blues and R&B recording industry flourished throughout the late 1940’s and 1950’s. Labels large and small documented the city’s black musical scene during those years. In the 1960’s Nashville was also an early promoter of soul music. In the pre-war years there wasn’t much that got on record; a field recording unit led by Ralph Peer came to Nashville in October 1928 but only one black artist, harmonica player DeFord Bailey, was recorded. John Lomax made some recordings at the State Penitentiary in Nashville in 1933. Alan Lomax and John Work did some recording for the Library of Congress in 1941, recording the Nashville Washboard Band. Field recording in the post-war era was limited with Blind James Campbell the sole representative on today’s program but there was also blind street singer Cortelia Clark who was recorded in on the streets of Nashville in 1965. It wasn’t until after the war that commercial recording began in earnest. The first and most successful of these independents was Bullet Records, created by musician Wally Fowler, music publisher C.V. Hitchcock and deejay/artist manager Jim Bulliet. Releases began in the Spring of 1946 with three series, 600 was for hillbilly records, 100 for gospel and a sepia series beginning at 250 – ‘blues recorded in the South as only the South can’. The 250 series was launched with Cecil Gant’s “Nashville Jumps’.” Other labels included World, Nashboro, the Bullelt subsidiaries, Delta and J-B. Tennessee Records (along with the Republic label) was owned by Alan and Reynolds Bubis with songwriter and producer Ted Jarrett head of A&R. The labels were out of business by the mid-1950s when the three men went into partnership to start the Calvert-Champion-Cherokee group of labels. In 1946 Ernie Young set up Ernie’s Record Mart and in 1952 got in the record business with Excello. Eventually Excello would be renowned for the Swamp Blues of Lightnin’ Slim, Lazy Lester, Lonesome Sundown and Slim Harpo, territory already mined on previous shows. The Dot label formed in 1950 as an outgrowth of Randy’s Record shop run by Randy Wood. As the decade ended, a host of small labels flourished in Nashville, including Cherokee, Spar, Poncello and Champion.

Last week we played a few pre-war recordings by Deford Bailey and the Nashville Washboard band. This time out we open with songs captured by John Lomax during his first field recording trip in 1933. The sides by Rochelle Harris, Allen Prothro and John (Black Sampson) Gibson were recorded at the State Penitentiary in Nashville. We also spin sides by several artists who had Nashville themed songs such as Bessie Smith (“Nashville Woman’s Blues”), Robert Wilkins (“Nashville Stonewall Blues”) and Washboard Sam (“Nashville, Tennessee”).

Last week we mainly discussed the Nashville labels featured over the course of this two-part feature, and this time out we spotlight some of the featured artists. Today’s show title and last week’s, comes from romping tunes by pianist Cecil Gant who cut a stack of great records for Bullet in the late 1940’s. In 1944, after performing at a War Bond rally in Los Angeles, California, Gant recorded “I Wonder” for the Bronze record label. When it started to become locally popular, he re-recorded it for the Gilt-Edge label. The Gilt-Edge release reached number one on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade and number 20 on the national pop charts and its B-side, the instrumental “Cecil Boogie”, reached number 5 on the R&B chart. He also released material through King Records (1947), and recorded for Bullet Records in Nashville until 1949.

Other artists we feature on both programs include Max ‘Blues’ Bailey, Shy Guy Douglas and Christine Kittrell. Max Bailey was a native of Huntington, WV. He became the lead singer for Buddy Tate’s Orchestra in 1949 and it’s not known if it’s Tate’s group backing him up on his first sides for Bullet in 1949. Bailey recorded in late 1949 and 1950 for Domino in New York City and also recorded for Federal & Coral in 1950 and ’51. Bailey returned to Nashville and made his last four sides in 1953 for Excello as Little Maxie Bailey.

The late Nashville based blues singer and harmonica player Thomas “Shy Guy” Douglas had a rather long and continuous career in the local blues scene, making records for MGM, Excello, Bullet, Delta , Calvert, Sur-Speed and others between 1949-69. Red Wortham discovered him in 1947 and recorded him first circa 1949-1950, his first 78 “Raid On Cedar Street b/w I Should Have Known” on MGM.

Christine Kittrell’s first record, “Old Man You’re Slipping” (Tennessee 117), was backed by tenor saxophonist Louis Brooks and his band, with whom she had made her professional debut six years earlier in 1945. Fats Domino sidemen Buddy Hagans and Wendell Duconge played on her first and biggest hit, ‘Sittin’ Here Drinking’ (Tennessee 128), which brought her a six-week engagement at the Pelican Club in New Orleans. Kittrell had toured with the Joe Turner band in 1951 but she preferred to work around Nashville, at clubs such as the New Era and the Elks. Several releases on the Republic label at this time led to only regional success. In August 1954, Billboard announced her departure from the R&B field to sing with the Simmons Akers spiritual singers. In the early 60s she recorded for Vee Jay and then she semi-retired to her Ohio home, playing the occasional local blues festivals and small clubs in the 90s.

We spin several numbers from Excello which was a subsidiary label of Nashboro. The label began recording regional artists like Kid King and ‘Little Maxie’ Bailey. An important factor in the Excello Records story is the radio station that helped spread R & B through the Eastern half of the country – WLAC. The fifty thousand watt clear channel beacon of the rhythm & blues express electrified many a listener far from the city of Nashville. Another major component of Excello’s success can be attributed to 1956 when record producer J. D. Miller began working with the label and developed the sound known as “swamp blues”, exemplified by Excello stars like Lightnin’ Slim, Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo, Lonesome Sundown and Silas Hogan. Excello artists featured today include Jerry McCain, Louis Brooks, Earl Gaines and Arthur Gunter among others.

Jery McCain’s recording debut came via Trumpet Records the same year under the name “Boogie McCain.” Between 1955 and 1957 he recorded for Excello. cCain also released singles and albums for Columbia, under their Okeh Records label (1962), and for the Shreveport-based Jewel (1965–68) label.

Louis Brooks was born in Nashville and formed a small band in the 1940’s and played in local clubs in the Nashville area. As Louis Brooks and the Downbeats, the group first recorded for Tennessee Records in the early 1950s, supporting vocalists including Christine Kittrell and Helen Foster as well as recording under their own name. Renamed as Louis Brooks and his Hi-Toppers, the group began recording for the Excello label in 1954. The following year they had their biggest hit, “It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)”, featuring Earl Gaines. The record entered the R&B chart in July 1955 and reached no.2. Brooks and his band continued to perform regularly in the Nashville area in the 1950s; their vocalists included Larry Birdsong and Helen Hebb, the sister of Bobby Hebb. Brooks also played as a session musician in Nashville.

In the early 1950s, Arthur Gunter played in various blues groups around Nashville, Tennessee, and began recording for Excello Records in 1954. In November 1954, Gunter recorded “Baby Let’s Play House” for Excello which not only became a local hit, but peaked at number 12 in theR&B chart. It became better nationally known later that year when Elvis Presley recorded a version for Sun Records. Gunter continued to record for Excello until 1961. His regular band broke up in 1966 and he moved to Pontiac, Michigan, performing only occasionally thereafter. He retired after winning the Michigan State Lottery in 1973.

Big Road Blues Show 4/23/17: Nashville Jumps – Nashville Blues Pt. 1

April 23, 2017April 23, 2017 Jeff Leave a comment

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Deford Bailey	John Henry	Harp Blowers 1925-1936
Nashville Washboard Band	I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You	Too Late Too Late Vol. 10 1926-1951
Blind James Campbell	Pick And Shovel Blues	Blind James Campbell And His Nashville Street Band
John R	John R's Theme Song	Ernie's Record Mart
Cecil Gant	Nashville Jumps	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Richard Armstrong	Gene Nobles' Boogie	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Shy Guy Douglas	Raid On Cedar Street	Raid On Cedar Street Vol. 1
Wynonie Harris	Lighting Struck the Poor House	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Rudy Green	Florida Blues	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
The Blue Jacks	Late Hours Blues	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Doc Wiley	Play Your Hand	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Max 'Blues' Bailey	Drive Soldiers Drive	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Little Eddie	My Baby Left Me	Ham Hocks & Cornbread
Mr Swing (Rufus Thomas)	Beer Bottle Boogie	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Walter Davis	Move Back To The Woods	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Big Joe Williams	She's a Married Woman	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Sherman Johnson	Nashville After Midnight	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Jack Cooley	Hear My Story	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Tommy Brooks	Steam Pressing Woman	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Christine Kittrell	Sittin' Here, Drinking	Night Train to Nashville
Robert Tucker	Changeable Woman	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Bernie Hardison	Love Me Baby	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Tucker Coles	Don't Get Excited	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Helen Foster	Somebody Somewhere	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
JD Horton	Why Don't You Let Me Be	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Guitar Slim	Certainly All	Guitar Slim 1951-54
Charles Ruckles	Pitch A Boogie Woogie	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Julius King	One O'Clock Boogie	Rural Blues Vol. 1 1934 - 1956
Lewis Campbell	Don't Want Nobody Hangin' Around	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
The Leap Frogs	Things Gonna Change	Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville
Dixie Doodlers	Best of Friends	The Excello Story Vol. 1
Walter 'Tang' Smith	High Tone Mama	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Kid King's Combo	Skip's Boogie	A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps
Blue Flamers	Driving Down the Highway	The Excello Story Vol. 1
Little Al	No Jive	No Jive: Authentic Southern Country Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show moves along roughly chronologically, starting with Deford Bailey. In 1918 Bailey moved to Nashville and performed locally as an amateur. His first radio appearance was on June 19, 1926, on Nashville’s WSM. Several records by Bailey were issued in 1927 and 1928, all of them harmonica solos. In 1927 he recorded for Brunswick Records in New York City, and in 1928 he recorded eight sides for Victor in Nashville, three of which were issued on Victor, Bluebird and RCA. Bailey was a pioneer member of the WSM Grand Ole Opry and one of its most popular performers, appearing on the program from 1927 to 1941.

Billboard Ad, 1949

The Nashville Washboard Band were a group of street musicians discovered playing near to the Grand Ole Opry building. They were recorded by Alan Lomax and John Work in 1942. Twenty years after a group calling themselves Blind James Campbell And His Nashville Street Band were recorded by Chris Strachwitz for Arhoolie Records. The group members knew the earlier group, linking the two in a long, if largely undocumented, tradition of black street bands.

The Bullet Recording and Transcription company was formed in late 1945 by former Grand Ole Opry booking agent Jim Bulleit, in partnership with musician Wally Fowler and businessman C. V. Hitchcock. Their intention was to release recordings in every form of popular music (pop, hillbilly, R&B , gospel, sacred and even Mexican music). For the most part, Wally Fowler was in charge of the Hillbilly and Sacred recordings, and black music (R&B and Gospel) was overseen by Bulleit. The label had a huge pop hit with Frances Craig in 1947 but were unable to repeat that success so the company began to concentrate on Hillbilly and R&B recordings. 1949 they released B. B. King’s first commercial single, “Miss Martha King” and put out a string of fine records by Cecil Gant, Shy Guy Douglas, Wynonie Harris, Max Bailey, Rufus Thomas, Christine Kitrell and others. Subsidiaries of the label included Delta and J-B. By 1952 the label was out of business.

Tennessee Records (along with the Republic label) was owned by Alan and Reynolds Bubis. Legendary songwriter and producer Ted Jarrett was head of A&R. The labels were out of business by the mid-1950s when the three men went into partnership to start the Calvert-Champion-Cherokee group of labels. The Champion label was started in the mid-1950’s and released records by Christine Kittrell, Gene Allison, The Fairfield Four, Earl Gaines, Larry Birdsong, Shy Guy Douglas, Jimmy Beck and Charles Walker, amongst others. Champion was out of business by 1960, and other Jarrett labels such as Valdot, Poncello, Spar and Ref-O-Ree followed.

Dot Records was founded by Randy Wood and active between 1950 and 1979.The label was originally based in in Gallatin, Tennessee a small town near Nashville. He started a 78 rpm mail-order business in 1948 by placing a short advertisement with “Hoss” Allen and Gene Nobles on WLAC in. The store had become “Randy’s Record Shop.” He and Gene Nobles started a business relationship which resulted in Wood’s own label, Randy’s and the Record Shop Special label. Basically, these were just an extension of the record store. Then came Dot. Early R&B artists on Dot included The Griffin Brothers with singer Tommy Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Joe Liggins, the Four Dots, the Big Three Trio, Brownie McGhee, Shorty Long, and the Counts. In addition to R&B and gospel, early singles included country artists.

Nashboro was founded in Nashville by Ernie Lafayette Young who was the owner of a record store, Ernie’s Record Mart, and sponsor of a weekly hit parade show on radio station WLAC. In 1951, Young founded Nashboro to issue gospel records, and the following year also created Excello Records to release secular music, especially R&B and blues acts. Some blues acts appeared on Nashboro including Sherman Johnson and Jack Cooley.

Excello was a subsidiary label of Nashboro record and began recording regional artists like Kid King and ‘Little Maxie’ Bailey. An important factor in the Excello Records story is the radio station that helped spread R & B through the Eastern half of the country – WLAC. The fifty thousand watt clear channel beacon of the rhythm & blues express electrified many a listener far from the city of Nashville. Another major component of Excello’s success can be attributed to 1956 when record producer J. D. Miller began working with the label and developed the sound known as “swamp blues”, exemplified by Excello stars like Lightnin’ Slim, Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo, Lonesome Sundown and Silas Hogan.

James Campbell and His Nashville Street Band

We hear from, or about, a couple of the personalities on WLAC. John R. (born John Richbourg) was arguably the most popular and charismatic of the four announcers at Nashville’s WLAC who showcased popular black music in nightly programs from the late 1940’s to the early 1970’s. The other three were Gene Nobles, Herman Grizzard, and Bill “Hoss” Allen. Today we spin John R’s swinging theme song.

Gene Nobles was a former carnival barker, bingo dealer, and announcer on several small Southern radio stations. He became the first white disc jockey on radio to play popular black music regularly. He started this practice before early rock-and-roll jockeys such as Alan Freed and before his fellow WLAC announcers. Nobles was celebrated by Richard Armstrong’s “Gene Nobles’ Boogie” cut in 1949 and Jimmy Sweeney’s “Boogie Woogie Jockey” in 1950 with some commentary from Nobles himself.

Today’s show title comes from a romping tune by pianist Cecil Gant who cut a stack of great records for Bullet in the late 40’s. In 1944, after performing at a War Bond rally in Los Angeles, California, Gant recorded “I Wonder” for the Bronze record label. When it started to become locally popular, he re-recorded it for the Gilt-Edge label. The Gilt-Edge release reached number one on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade and number 20 on the national pop charts and its B-side, the instrumental “Cecil Boogie”, reached number 5 on the R&B chart. He also released material through King Records (1947), and recorded for Bullet Records in Nashville until 1949.

Big Road Blues Show 8/30/15: Standing At The Crossroads – Blues At Home Pt. 2

August 30, 2015March 16, 2016 Jeff 2 Comments

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Charlie Sangster	Two White Horses	Blues At Home Vol. 9
Charlie Sangster	One Cold Night	Blues At Home Vol. 9
James “Son” Thomas & Eddie Cusic	Standing At The Crossroads	Blues At Home Vol. 10
James “Son” Thomas & Joe Cooper	Three Days I Cried	Blues At Home Vol. 10
James “Son” Thomas	Four Women Blues	Blues At Home Vol. 10
Sleepy John Estes	Yellow Yam Blues (Take 4)	Blues At Home Vol. 11
Sleepy John Estes & Hammie Nixon	Sugar Mama	Blues At Home Vol. 11
Sleepy John Estes	She Keeps Me Worried And Bothered	Blues At Home Vol. 11
Mott Willis	Baby Please Don't Go	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Lum Guffin	Train I Ride 18 Coaches Long	Blues At Home Vol. 13
William 'Do Boy' Diamond	Mississippi Flat	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Walter Cooper & Hammie Nixon	Baby Please Don't Go, No. 3	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Roosevelt Holts	Big Road Blues	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Asie Payton	Blind Man	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Jacob Stuckey	It Must Have Been The Devil (Take 2)	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Memphis Willie Borum	61 Highway Blues	Blues At Home Vol. 13
Mattie May Thomas	Dangerous Blues	American Primitive Vol. II
John Dudley	Cool Drink of Water Blues	Parchman Farm: Photographs & Field Recordings 1947–1959
Son Thomas	Catfish Blues	Living Country Blues: An Anthology
Frank Hovington	Lonesome Road Blues	Gone With The Wind
Joe Savage	Joe’s Prison Camp Holler	Living Country Blues Vol. 7
Chester Davis, Compton Jones & Furry Lewis	Glory Glory Hallelujah	Sorrow Come Pass Me Around
John Lee Ziegler	If I Lose, Let Me Lose	The George Mitchell Collection
Jimmy Lee Williams	Have You Ever Seen Peaches	Hoot Your Belly
Roosevelt Charles	Wasn't I Lucky	Blues, Prayer, Work & Trouble Songs
Jim Brewer	Big Road Blues	Blues Scene USA Vol. 4
J.B. Smith	Sure Make a Man Feel Bad	No More Good Time in the World for Me

Show Notes:

In the early 70’s through the early 80’s Gianni Marcucci made five trips to the United States from Italy to document blues with several albums worth of material issued in the the 1970’s. I’ve corresponded with Gianni regarding those albums and he wrote that these releases were “an abuse and an offense to my effort (10 years of field research, and 13 years of re-mastering and text editing), as well as an insult to the memory of the featured artists” and that his overall experience was a “nightmare.” Furthermore, he wrote, “my research has been misunderstood with the result that I received some insults and defamation, both in Europe and USA, on magazines and books.” The Blues At Home series is his “peaceful reply” to those critics. The recordings heard on this series were kept in Gianni’s private archive. “In order to preserve these materials I transferred to digital those I thought were best, and by 2013 [2015] the 16-volume Blues At Home CD collection was ready for release.” The material is currently available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music and CD Baby for digital download and streaming. There are plans to make these available as physical CD’s as well.

“In 1972, Gianni wrote, “I worked with Lucio Maniscalchi. In 1976 Vincenzo Castella, assisted me and took the photographs. Lucio Maniscalchi worked with me for 11 days (20-31 December 1972); Vincenzo Castella in July-August 1976. Both Maniscalchi and Castella were not interested in my research and documentary project. They left the project after the 2 field trips were done. They just randomly worked with me on those occasions. Their name was erroneously featured and emphasized on the” original LP’s, “especially the name of Vincenzo Castella. I was the only responsible of the recordings, archiving, and LP edition (including, of course, all the typos, mistakes, etc.). In 1972 and 1976 Hammie Nixon helped finding some of the performers in Tennessee. In 1976 Mary Helen Looper and Jane Abraham helped in the Delta. …On December 1972, with the help of the legendary harmonica player Hammie Nixon, using a professional portable equipment, I had the chance to start recording blues in Memphis. The documentary research continued in July 1976, ending in July 1982. A series of informal sessions was held during the course of my five trips through Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, featuring well known, but also little known, and unknown musicians.”

Today’s program is our second installment (see part 1) featuring the following artists: Charlie Sangster, James “Son” Thomas, Walter Cooper, Eddie Cusic, Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon, William ‘Do Boy’ Diamond, Mott Willis, Lum Guffin, Roosevelt Holts, Asie Payton, Memphis Willie Borum and Jacob Stuckey. We have some extra tome time at the end of our two-part feature so we round it out with a selection of filed recording favorites featured on previous shows.

The ninth volume of the Blues At Home collection introduces Charlie Sangster, a little known artist of Brownsville, Tennessee. Belonging to a musical family, he learned how to play mandolin and guitar at the age of 12. His father, Samuel Ellis Sangster, was a blues guitarist who used to play with Sleepy John Estes and Hambone Willie Newbern; his mother, Victoria, was a gospel singer. Charlie played at the fish market and in other social situations with a circle of local musicians, including Charlie Pickett, Brownsville Son Bonds, Hammie Nixon, Yank Rachel, Sleepy John Estes, and Walter Cooper. He also knew and performed with Hambone Willie Newbern during the last part of Newbern’s life. Sangster was recorded at eight sessions between 1976 and 1980.

The tenth volume of the Blues At Home collection features Leland, Mississippi, bluesman James “Son” Thomas along with his uncle Joe Cooper, both hailing from Yazoo County, Mississippi, and Leland blues artist Eddie Cusic who passed away a few weeks back. Thomas, Cooper, and Cusic were discovered in the late ‘60s by researcher Bill Ferris, and Thomas and his uncle’s music are featured in Ferris’s book Blues from The Delta. “Son” Thomas also appeared in several blues LP anthologiesduring the late ‘60s and in some documentary films. From the ‘80s until his death in 1995, Thomas was in the folk music circuit, recording numerous albums and performing all over the world. The material was recorded during several informal sessions held in 1976, 1978, and 1982 at the artists’ homes in Leland and Greenville, Mississippi.

The eleventh volume of the Blues At Home collection features Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon. Estes was born in 1899 in Ripley, Tennessee, but spent most of his life in Brownsville, Tennessee, which he considered his home. Between 1929 and 1939, he recorded over 30 sides for Vocalion, Decca, and Bluebird. Living in poverty for the whole of his life and being completely blind by the late ’40s, Estes was rediscovered in the early ’60s through the referral of Big Joe Williams. He hit the blues revival circuit, making numerous recordings and performing all over the world until his death in 1977. These sessions were recorded informally at Estes’ home in Brownsville in December 1972, both alone and with the accompaniment of his old-time partner Hammie Nixon.

The twelfth volume of the Blues At Home collection harmonica player Hammie Nixon, performing with Sleepy John Estes, and alone on guitar and harmonica. Nixon was born in Brownsville, Tennessee. At age 11, he was able to play harmonica with Sleepy John Estes at a picnic held in Brownsville. Hammie also played with local musicians, Hambone Willie Newbern, Samuel and Charlie Sangster, Yank Rachell, and Charlie Pickett, learning harmonica from Noah Lewis and Tommy Garry. He first recordwd with Estes in 1929 for Victor. In 1934 he recorded in Chicago for Decca and Champion with Brownsville Son Bonds. He recorded with John Estes again in 1935 and 1937. After Estes’ rediscovery in the early ‘60s, Hammie kept performing with him until John’s death in 1977. These recordings were recorded between 1972 and 1976 during informal sessions held at Hammie Nixon and Sleepy John Estes’ homes in Brownsville.

The thirteenth volume of the Blues At Home collection, features various blues artists recorded from 1976 to 1982 in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Mott Willis was born in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, has been associated with Tommy and Mager Johnson. Willis was recorded in Crystal Springs, where he was discovered in the summer of 1967 making recordings for Advent and Mimosa Records which have yet to be released. Lum Guffin was a multi-instrumentalist; he played guitar as well as fife and drum music at picnics in the east Shelby County area. Discovered by Swedish researcher Bengt Olsson in the late ’60s, Guffin had a Flyright Records LP devoted to him. William “Do-Boy” Diamond was born near Canton, Mississippi, in 1913. He was discovered in the ’60s by George Mitchell who recorded him. Roosevelt Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and developed his musical skill with Tommy Johnson. Discovered in the ’60s, he made several recordings released on LPs and on a 45. Asie Payton never moved out of the Holly Ridge, Mississippi, area where he worked as a farmer and tractor driver for most of his life. He record for Fat Possum late in life. Memphis Willie Borum was born in 1911 in Memphis and had a central role in the jug band scene, actually playing with all the major groups and blues artists active in the City. He was rediscovered by Sam Charters in 1961, recording two LP albums for Bluesville. Jacob Stuckey was born in Bentonia, Mississippi, in 1916 and learned directly from Skip James.

The final volumes of the Blues At Home series (13-16) feature interviews by several of the artists. These are not featured on today’s program.