My nice new Blues Calendar

[johncorrigan]

Where would Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac with Jeremy Spencer have been without that riff, or for that matter Yardbirds witn Jeff Beck.

https://youtu.be/UeYCXcJJU4M

https://youtu.be/LPpSh1CkLLI

Thanks, cloughie. I hadn't heard that Yardbirds track before - excellent. Of course, George gave Elmore a wee mention in this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIFHRaZERHg

The first time I ever heard Taj Mahal was on the 'Rock Machine Turns You On', a great, and cheap, CBS sampler in the late 60s (I seem to remember it costing 15/-), which had 'Statesboro Blues' on it...still sounds amazing. It really got me out looking for more blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va7elbEorxA

[johncorrigan]

As well as informing me that it's Groundhog Day, the ole blues calendar tells me that on 2nd February, 1901, Walter Vinson was born in Bolton, Mississippi; and on that same date in 1983 Sam Chatman exited this world in Hollandale, Mississippi. Both these great blues players were fixtures in the highly influential Mississippi Sheiks, and may well both be playing on 'Still I'm Travelling on'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CjvfjpKAh0

By the way, Tuba Skinny do a fine version of this one.

[johncorrigan]

In Durham, North Carolina, on 13th February, 1941 Fulton Allen, aka Blind Boy Fuller, died of kidney failure after a period of declining health. He was in his mid-30s. He was one of the great Piedmont Blues players and you get a sense of that on 'Rag, Mama, Rag' recorded in 1935 with washboard accompaniment by George Washington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIdGoyzoxQ

Fuller's song 'Truckin' My Blues Away' inspired R Crumb's 'Keep on Truckin'' cartoon, and 'Get Your YasYas Out' was adapted by the Stones for one of their album titles.

[johncorrigan]

James Arnold was born 15th February, 1901 in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia. He got the name 'Kokomo' after his cover of Scrapper Blackwell's 'Kokomo Blues' was a big success - Kokomo was a popular brand of coffee. He originally moved north to Buffalo, but then headed for Chicago for a job in the bootlegging business. After prohibition he took his music more seriously and had a string of success playing his left hand guitar style. Here is Kokomo Arnold in 1936, with Peatie Wheatstraw on piano, on 'Shake That Thing'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7shYRI8OJ3g

[johncorrigan]

Bit late in the day, but didn't want to miss Francis 'Scrapper' Blackwell's birthday, born in Indianapolis, Indiana on 21st February, 1904. I'm assuming this is Leroy Carr on piano but not certain - 'Be-Da-Da-Bum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PW-DLoCMxg

[johncorrigan]

The old calendar on the kitchen wall tells me that Ida Prather was born 25th Februray, 1896 in Toccoa, Georgia. She ran away from home in her teens and performed in minstrel and tent shows as both comedienne and singer. Sometime around then she married Alder Cox and eventually headlined on the vaudeville circuit. I suppose Ida Cox is the third of the great female blues singers of the twenties with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. She played with Jelly Roll and King Oliver and started her recording career in 1923 becoming very successful and criss-crossing the country with her shows.

Ida Cox continued to record into the 1950s, but here she is in 1924 singing 'Wild Women Don't Have The Blues'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FVFjbRfSuY

[johncorrigan]

On 5th March, 1888 in Eatonton, Georgia, Peg Leg Howell was born Joshua Barnes Howell. He lost his leg after a gunshot wound in a tussle with a gun-toting in-law. Peg Leg spent some time in jail for bootlegging () it was there that he was discovered, and he made his first record for Columbia, 'New Prison Blues' where he was probably the first country blues artist to record for the label. He continued to play the street corners in Georgia into the 1930s. Here he is on 'Chittlin' Supper' with Jim Hill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TXG9vBxelE

[Globaltruth]

On 5th March, 1888 in Eatonton, Georgia, Peg Leg Howell was born Joshua Barnes Howell. He lost his leg after a gunshot wound in a tussle with a gun-toting in-law. Peg Leg spent some time in jail for bootlegging () it was there that he was discovered, and he made his first record for Columbia, 'New Prison Blues' where he was probably the first country blues artist to record for the label. He continued to play the street corners in Georgia into the 1930s. Here he is on 'Chittlin' Supper' with Jim Hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TXG9vBxelE

Here he is with 'Walking Blues'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6g7AgdInV8

Sole music.

[johncorrigan]

Here he is with 'Walking Blues'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6g7AgdInV8

Sole music.

The mighty Walter E 'Furry' Lewis also found himself with a prosthetic limb after an accident in 1917 when, trying to hop a moving train, he slipped and fell underneath. Born March 6th, 1893 in Greenwood, Mississippi, Furry's family decamped to Memphis, Tennessee around the turn of the century. Casey started to develop a strong local following and developed his easy going country blues style with that distinctive bottleneck style providing accompaniment to his fine voice. He recorded over thirty sides in the late 20s, but the Depression saw him give up music and take a job with Memphis City.

Famously, the two part "Kassie Jones" he recorded in 1928 was included on Folkways Records' Anthology of American Folk Music put together by Harry Smith, but when he was located by Sam Charteris in 1959, he no longer owned a guitar; nor had he played one in over twenty years. Charteris said on the liner notes of the record they made for Folkways 'Lewis sounds undiminished, and reveals the brilliance that defined his early career. A great blues singer brings to his music an emotion and imagination that doesn't depend on technical display. As singers mature their music often achieves a new expressiveness. Rather than trying to remember a carefully worked out arrangement, he simply uses whatever verses and musical styles suit the mood he is building.'

Lewis made a second career touring in the 60s and 70s with the likes of Leon Russell and he he was granted Honorary Colonel of the State of Tennessee.

Charteris said about Lewis, 'To hear fully the subtlety in Furry's singing is to gain an insight not only into the singer, but into the creative process of the blues itself.'

Hard to chose a track to play, there's so much great music - here he is on stage with Leon Russell and friends in 1971, aged 78.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJEjpG4ggcg

[johncorrigan]

Lightnin' Slim was born Otis Verries Hicks on 13th March, 1913 in St Louis, Missouri. He found fame playing his swampy blues on the Louisiana circuit in the fifties, usually playing with a harmonica player, like here in 1957 with 'Mean Ole Lonesome Train'...might be Lazy Lester playing the moothie, or perhaps Slim's Brother-in-law, Slim Harpo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO0TBiMrCns

Crackin' tune.

[johncorrigan]

Lightnin' Slim was born Otis Verries Hicks on 13th March, 1913 in St Louis, Missouri. He found fame playing his swampy blues on the Louisiana circuit in the fifties, usually playing with a harmonica player, like here in 1957 with 'Mean Ole Lonesome Train'...might be Lazy Lester playing the moothie, or perhaps Slim's Brother-in-law, Slim Harpo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO0TBiMrCns

Crackin' tune.

Lightnin' strikes twice in a week, as the old calendar tells me that today marks the birthday of Sam Lightnin' Hopkins, born 15th March, 1912 in Centreville, Texas, one of the great country blues guitarists. After the early death of his musician father, Sam made a cigar box guitar which his brother taught him to play. In the 20s he played with Blind Lemon Jefferson and then started busking the street corners, juke joints and parties around the South, with his cousin Texas Alexander. However, it wasn't till after the war that he made his first record, with Wilson 'Thunder' Smith and the pair were billed as Thunder and Lightnin', unsurprisingly, I suppose.
Hopkins disappeared from the scene in '54 when electric blues came more to the fore and his acoustic style seemed more old-fashioned. However, he was rediscovered in the early sixties and he made a record with Sam Charters with whom he made a record for Folkways. His popularity soared and he started to play the large events for example Newport Festival and Carnegie Hall.

Here he is playing the amazing 'Mojo Hand' - I never tire of seeing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkYFfVJuGvo

[johncorrigan]

Calendar time again. Eddie James 'Son' House was born 21st March 1902 in Riverton, Mississippi. House is one of the creators of that serious Delta Blues Sound with his emotionally intense voice and his distinctive and forthright bottleneck guitar style. He learned from Charlie Patton, Willie Brown was a contemporary; and Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters learned from him. He had been a baptist preacher, but also served time in Parchman farm.
He was rediscovered in 1964 following a hunt through the south by enthusiasts - he was living in Rochester, New York, and in later times recorded with Canned Heat and was a huge influence on Jack White. So much to chose - what about 'Levee Camp Blues'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE_s7oSfXf4

[johncorrigan]

As chance would have it, I'm reading a book about Blind Willie McTell, and 25th March, 1906 marks the birthday of his Georgia compatriot and friend, Curley James Weaver in Covington, Georgia. Curley played in a loose collection of musicians in the 1930s called the Georgia Cotton Pickers that included Blind Willie, Barbecue Bob, Peg Leg Howell and Buddy Moss. Here's Curley on vocals, with Willie, in the 1950s together playing 'I Keep on Drinking'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkUvww1JxR0

[johncorrigan]

4th April, 1913 and Muddy Waters was born in Jugs Corner, Mississippi. Here's one of those first recordings that he made for the Library of Congress in 1941 when he was still a discontented tractor driver on Stovall's Plantation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHzfcNT8UzY

Here's Muddy being interviewed by Alan Lomax during some of those early recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuPRpCrrRKY

[Globaltruth]

Muddy doesn't chat much but listening to him is still fascinating. YT automatically switched me to this interview with AL himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdj0pmQMTQI

Much older and wiser....

"the west was full of poets and radicals"