Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920s - Vol. 17

Various
Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920s - Vol. 17
Blues Images

This is the latest Blues Calendar put together by collector John Tefteller. Like past editions, this Calendar for 2020 brings together for each month twelve stellar images taken from rare photographs and record company ads. For each month, the accompanying CD includes a recording by the artist depicted by the picture or ad. There is also brief biographical information for that artist. The CD also includes recordings from other artists that are from rare 78s or test recordings that never been issued before.

Until recently, this series of recordings had a focus on pre-World War II recordings. This year includes a good number of post-World War II rarifies. The cover photo for this year's Calendar is a previously unseen photo of B.B. King at the microphone of WDIA. The accompanying CD opens with one of the King's early recordings, "Got the Blues." There are also publicity photos of Queen Victoria Spivey and Jim Jackson from the set of King Vidor's "Hallelujah." Spivey is represented by a superb "Blood Thirsty Blues" with Lonnie Johnson on guitar, while Jackson's two-part 78, "I'm Going To Move to Kansas City," is included.

Others included on the CD are The Mississippi Sheiks, Bo Carter, Texas Alexander, Charlie Spand, Leola Wilson with Blind Blake on guitar, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Bessie Jackson, and Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe. The music includes many superb blues, including the Sheiks blues waltz "Baby Keeps Stealin' Love On Me," Carter's "Howling Tom Cat Blues," pianist Spand's "Ain't Gonna Stand For It," and Jefferson's "Bad Luck Blues." Also heard is Lonnie Johnson's "She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight" (with spectacular guitar) and the issued recording of "Shave 'Em Dry" by Lucille Bogan (released under the name Bessie Jackson).

Included on CD are additional selections including three previously unissued demonstration records by Juke Boy Bonner under the name Juke Boy Barner, including two versions of a solid slow blues, "Life is a Cheater," and the lively "I Go Hip To It." Then there is early Virginia songster Willie Moore's "Tillie Lee," along with the other sides of 78s by Leola Wilson with Blind Blake and the Mississippi Sheiks. Then there are both sides of 78s by Blues Boy Bill and Joe Stone. I was not familiar with Blues Boy Bill, but his songs "Come On Baby," and "Little Boy Blue," are well-performed covers of recordings Robert Lockwood had recorded on Bluebird. "Come On Baby" is a rebranded rendition of "Take a Little Walk With Me." Joe Stone is a name for Jaydee Short, and the release of the recently discovered 78 by him is an event. The music by this St. Louis bluesman is top-notch. "It's Hard Time" is a driving performance based on a guitar riff familiar to some from Henry Spaulding's "Cairo Blues." The other side of the 78, "Back Door Blues" is an equally compelling down-home blues performance.

The sound on most of these songs is flawless as Tefteller employed the system employed in the "American Epic" television series to extract every nuanced audio from the original recordings. There are a couple of songs such as Moore's "Tillie Lee," where there is some background hiss. This is because of the condition of source 78s, but this is a minor hindrance, and Moore's actual performance is easy to appreciate. The Calendar includes information on previous Calendars, CDs from those Calendars, posters, T-shirts, and other items for sale. I do wish that information was included on the performers of the artists who are not included in the Calendar. This is a minor complaint about what is another stellar Calendar and CD. This will be a wonderful gift for the blues lover on your gift list as well as a gift to yourself.

This is available from various mail-order sources as well as direct from BluesImages.com.

I purchased my copy.

Juke Boy Bonner Lived The Life Of A Ghetto Poet

Weldon ‘Juke Boy’ Bonner was a Houston, Texas down home bluesman who passed away in 1978 at the age of 46. Often performing as a one-man band, he lived a hard life that served as a basis for much of his blues. Listening to the Arhoolie disc Ghetto Poet, one is treated by a performer influenced by Lightnin’ Hopkins as well as such blues artists as Jimmy Reed. While not nearly as gifted a guitarist or charismatic a singer as the legendary Hopkins, Bonner was able to invest his performances with a strong rhythm and simply played, but effective guitar and harmonica lines. His strength was his songs, especially his lyrics dealing with the realities of ghetto life.

Originally Bonner covered the latest juke box hits at clubs leading to his nickname. In the early 1950s, he went to California where he made his first recordings. Later he recorded for small labels in Texas and Louisiana. For a time, his poems appeared in the Houston African-American weekly, Forward Times. In 1967, Bonner was discovered by the late Mike Leadbitter who recorded his first album for the British Flyright label. Soon thereafter, Chris Strachwitz recorded the first of two albums that would be issued on vinyl on Arhoolie. The best tracks from these appeared on an earlier Arhoolie CD, Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal. These recordings led Juke Boy to tour Europe as part of the 1969 American Folk Blues Festival Tour along with John jackson, Clifton Chenier, Magic Sam, Alex Moore, and Earl Hooker. Other tours followed, but Bonner’s authentic blues was less in demand inHouston and he was only able to get a few concert performances and occasional tours. In the liner notes to Ghetto Poet, Chris Strachwitz recalls that the last time he saw Juke Boy, he was working at a dreadful minimum age job unloading chickens at a processing plant.

Bonner’s lyrics were realistic and down-to-earth. He sang about growing up and being the head of his choir and buying his first guitar in Childhood Dreams, as well as knocking so the roaches would let him in his apartment where the rain was coming in as it was leaking outside in the shelter that he worried about being kicked out of because he was having trouble meeting the rent in Rainin’ In my Room. Playing a steady walking bass line, he rocks out a couple of nice instrumentals, Zodico Jump, and Houston Beat. Let Me Be Run It Down To You has him explaining the facts of his relationship to his women. In contrast, he philosophizes about ending all the hate between people on Settin’ the Record Straight. One would be hard-pressed to find a poor performance here. If the blues ain’t nothing but the truth Juke Boy Bonner was one of its ablest poets and his music is well worth exploring.

This was a value priced CD and you may wish to order directly from Arhoolie where this costs only $10.00. the direct link on Arhoolie’s website is http://www.arhoolie.com/blues/juke-boy-bonner-ghetto-poet.html?sl=EN.

This review is slightly revised from my review that appeared in the November 2004 DC Blues Calendar. I likely received this from Arhoolie Records. Here is a clip of him performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975.

Juke Boy Bonner's One-Man Band Blues

Back three decades ago, Samuel Charters produced a series of blues lps for the Swedish Sonet label, The Legacy of the Blues, along with some other blues recordings. Charters is known as both a blues author (The Country Blues, The Poetry of the Blues, Bluesmen) as well as a producer of blues recordings, including the classic Chicago, The Blues Today! and albums by Junior Wells and Buddy Guy to name a few of the artists he recorded. Universal Music, through its Verve imprint has just issued seven of the seven Sonet lps for reissue in a series, The Sonet Blues Story. Six of these are from The Legacy of the Blues series. This is the fifth in a series of posts of my reviews from this series that originally appeared in the June 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 283).


It should be noted that on these Sonet reissues, the playing time is somewhat short. Still there is some good to exceptional music to be heard on these. This CD may be out-of-print but is available from various sellers and is available as mp3 files. I received my review copy from the publication.


Weldon “Juke Boy” Bonner was a Houston based one-and band who was a notable blues poet as well as a performer but who never was able to get out of his hard life. His recordings for Arhoolie demonstrate his approach a one-man band with his effective harp and guitar playing as well as his songs which often dealt with topical themes.


Recorded by Arhoolie’s Chris Strachwitz, the performances on Bonner’s Blues Story volume are fine ones opening with I’m a Bluesman, singing about his hard life (“My father passed when I was two.”) with an easy groove followed by Problems All Around (I can’t get ahead from being held down) taken at a slow tempo. Besides his strong lyrics, Bonner provides strong boogie-laced guitar playing and tough rack harp playing that made him a fascinating purveyor of the one-man blues band idiom. Like his other releases, this is a gem that one should be delighted is widely available now.