Classic Blues Artwork From the 1920s - Vol. 15

Various Artists
Classic Blues Artwork From the 1920s - Vol. 15
Blues Images

John Tefteller's annual Calendar with accompanying CD of remastered rare 78s is certainly one that blues fans will want. The Calendar has each month illustrated with reproductions of original advertisements from African-American newspapers of the time, or rare photos of the artists (in this case newly discovered images of Johnny Temple and Isaiah Nettles also known as The Mississippi Moaner).  There are songs by the performers that are the subject of the illustrations, along with brief comments on the performers and the recordings. There also is a selection of birth and death dates for selected blues artists as part of the Calendar.

In addition to these twelve selections that tie to the Calendar, there are twelve bonus selections that include  the other sides for some of the 78s along with other rarities. This is the third straight year that he has employed the technology that was employed on the recent American Epic PBS television series, and reissue recordings associated with that series, to remaster original 78s (generally the best existing copy which usually are from his own collection) to present the music with the best possible sound.

Their are some terrific music to be heard here starting with Memphis Minnie's debut as she sings "Frisco Town" that was originally issued as by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie. Several of my favorite recordings are here including Blind Lemon Jefferson's superb "Hot Dogs"; Blind Willie Johnson's magnificent song inspired by the sinking of Titanic, "God Moves on the Water" and Charlie Patton recordings "Screamin' and Hollerin' The Blues" (and the other side of this is a bonus track and equally good, "Mississippi Boweavil Blues." Blind Blake's "Hard Road Blues," may not be his best known song but a typically fine performance of this masterful guitarist and singer. Blake is also heard backing Bertha Henderson on "Lead Hearted Blues."

It is certainly nice to hear a much cleaner remastering of the rare Tommy Johnson coupling "Slidin' Delta" and "I Wonder To Myself," on which he plays kazoo. The Beale Street Sheiks (Frank Stokes and Dan Sane) are present in the solid "Wasn't That Doggin' Me," while "The Evil Devil Blues" by Johnny 'Geechie' Temple is a terrific cover of Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman." Then there is the Mississippi Moaner's superb "Its Cold in China," a recording Johnny Shines reworked as "So Cold in Vietnam," three decades later. Also related to the images on the Calendar are a novelty by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "Strewin' Your Mess," along with a gospel performance Rev. Steamboat Bill's Revival Singers, "Happy As The Day Is Long."

I have mentioned a few of the bonus tracks which include Blind Lemon's "Weary Dog Blues," the flip side to "Hot Dogs "; Johnny Temple's "Jacksonville Blues," (a superb selection that was the flip to "Evil Devil Woman Blues"); and Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie's "Goin' Back To Texas," which is an actual vocal duet and musically even better than "Frisco Town." Other selections include a superb pair from St. Louis artist, 'Hi' Henry Brown with the great Charlie Jordan also on guitar, ("Brown Skin Angel" and "Hospital Blues"), and a spectacular couple from Sam Butler under the name Bo Weavil Jackson ("The Devil and My Brown" and "You Can't Keep No Brown"). The Memphis Jug Band (coming off like a skiffle band) is heard backing pianist jab Jones on a pair of songs that were thought to have been lost as well as backing Charlie Nickerson on an excellent and ebullient "Going Back to Memphis."

Once again John Tefteller has produced a remarkable Blues Calendar and fabulous reissue CD. This year's Calendar also includes some observations from Bernard MacMahon, one of the creators of the PBS film documentary "American Epic." Among his observations are "These recordings represent some of the most powerful, sociologically important music of the early blues era.They are especially relevant in these parlous times when hard-won freedoms are sorely threatened." Also, these recordings have never sounded better on this latest Blues Calendar, which can be obtained from BluesImages.com and online retailers. It certainly makes for a wonderful gift for the blues lover on your holiday gift list.

I purchased this from Blues Iamges.

The Blues Time Machine Takes Us Back To December 1976

This is my blues column from the December 1976 Buffalo Jazz Report which had Dexter Gordon on the cover to promote his appearance at the Tralfamadore Cafe in November. As I noted the first 58 issues of Buffalo Jazz Report (now Jazz & Blues Report) have been digitized and can be downloaded from the University of Buffalo Library system. The website for these archived issues is: http://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/BuffJazz. 

Clifton Chenier is the undisputed master of zydeco music, a hybrid form which mixes the· cajun music of the French speaking population of Southwest Louisiana with blues. His latest album on Arhoolie, Bogalusa Boogie (1076), is his seventh for the label. It is as usual a thoroughly ingratiating set as Clifton's mastery of the accordion, his warm good-humored vocals (most of which are in cajun French) and a tight band, which features his brother Cleveland ori rubboard and 'the honking r'n'b tenor saxophone of John Hart, brew a musical gumbo that is one of his best sets. Highlights include Je Me Reveiller Ce Matin, a French version of B.B. King's Woke Up This Morning, with Clifton's accordian playing King's guitar part, One Step at a Time, where Clifton adds Jimmy Reedish harmonica and the stomping instrumental Ride 'Em Cowboy. Clifton is about to have a double album set released on Utopia and I can't wait for it. One warning about this music - exposure to Clifton's good time music can be addicting and his output for Arhoolie is uniformly high though this set is especially fine. 

Arhoolie is one of the finest labels of blues and folk music. J.C. Burris' One of These Mornings (1075) features the bluesy vocals and harmonica of Sonny Terry's nephew whose music is the dominant influence. This is a warm set which includes a couple of pieces where J.C. plays the bones. A highlight on this album, which was recorded live, is Inflation Blues. J.C. is unaccompanied.

Blues Classics is subsidiary of Arhoolie and has a catalog of excellent reissues. The latest release When Women Sang the Blues is a valuable reissue of women singing down-home, or rural, blues, as opposed to the vaudevile blues of Bessie Smith, Ida Cox and others. Excellent performances by Lillian Glenn: Chippie Hill (with excellent accompaniment from Georgia Tom Dorsey and Tampa Red), Memphis Minnie and Willie B. Huff are included. There are also two excellent collections of Memphis Minnie on the Blues Classics.

Nighthawk Records is a new label that apparently will  be specializing in reissues of rare postwar blues  records. Their initial release of four albums are of a uniformly high standard and produce many cases of the rural flavor city blues so popular among enthusiasts. As they all are fine releases, I will simply describe their contents and mention some of the performers heard. Windy City Blues: The Transistion (101) features one side of pre-World War 2 recordings including Pinetop Sparks' Everyday I Have The Blues (the first recording of the song) Washboard Sam, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Jr. Lockwood. The second side includes Lockwood, Tampa Red, and Tony Hollins in post-war recordings.

Chicago Slickers: 1948-1953 (102) features more classic Chicago postwar blues including Johnny Shines' classic Ramblin', and rare performances by Little Walter, Floyd Jones and Homesick James among others. These two Chicago antho-logies nicely complement Chicago Blues, The Early 50s (Blues Classics BC 8) and On the Road Again (Muskadine 100), two classic anthologies of Chicago Blues.

Lowdown Memphis Harmonica Jam (103) features Hot Shot Love's wild Harmonica Jam, six tunes by the great one-man band Joe Hill Louis, Walter Horton and Willie Nix (with a young James Cotton) that boogie up a storm. Detroit Ghetto Blues (104) includes Louisiana Red (as Playboy Fuller and Rocky Fuller). Baby Boy Warren (whose Hello Stranger is a remake of Sonny Boy Williamson 1's Mattie Mae and has Sonny Boy 2 on harmonica) Walter Mitchell, L. C. Green and other generally obscure names in a set of blues that reflects the influence of Sonny Boy 1 in the reworking of his songs, and in the various harmonica players who appear on these sides. Albums on the Blues Classics label incidentally complement these issues also.

Jackson Stomp: The Charlie McCoy Story

Nehi is a new English label devoted to reissues of pre-World War II country blues and takes it name from an American manufacturer of soda drinks that also served as part of the name for a pianist and clarinetist, The New Orleans Nehi Boys, that backed Ishmon Bracey and Tommy Johnson on some Paramount Recordings. Amongst the first releases on this label is a compilation, Jackson Stomp: The Charlie McCoy Story. Charlie McCoy was an important member of the Jackson, Mississippi blues scene who later moved to Chicago who was a versatile multi-instrumentalist playing mandolin as well as guitar, and is famous today as much as an accompanist as he is as a leader.

Jackson Stomp contains 26 recordings on which McCoy made a significant contribution. Opening with his beautiful slide playing and vocal on the opening Last Time Blues, selections include his marvelous mandolin behind Tommy Johnson on the beautiful Cool Drink of Water Blues (with its line “I asked her for water and she gave me gasoline”); Ishmon Bracey’s Leaving Town Blues; a duet with Bo Chatman (Bo Carter) on which McCoy takes the vocal for the definitive Corrine Corrina; and East Jackson Blues with Chatman on vocal and adding Walter Vinson. Vinson and McCoy as the Mississippi Mud Steppers did Jackson Stomp, a remarkable instrumental take on Cow Cow Blues while McCoy, accompanied by Bo Chatman did a vocal rendition as That Lonesome Train That Took My Baby Away. Both renditions featured McCoy’s mandolin.

McCoy made a number of recordings as The Mississippi Mudder with a variety of accompanists including pianist Chuck Segar as well as accompanied his brother Kansas Joe McCoy. Another important session he played on was Johnny Temple’s Lead Pencil Blues (It Just Won’t Write). McCoy introduced the guitar riff that Robert Johnson would employ on Sweet Home Chicago. After his brother Kansas Joe split from Memphis Minnie, Charlie and his brother joined with some jazz musicians in the Harlem Hamfats whose mix of blues and jazz was a very popular recording group and can be heard (Joe taking the vocal) on its most famous recording, Oh Red, which was covered by a number of other artists. A few other recordings by McCoy (Papa Charlie’s Boys) are mixed in with him backing slide guitar wizard Casey Bill Weldon; pianist Curtis Jones; Memphis Minnie’ pianist Monkey Coleman; and harmonica legend Sonny boy Williamson (on the superb Black Panther Blues).

Sound on the various selections on Jackson Stomp varies based on the source materials which may be prior reissues. Some selections are from clean copies while others may have a minor amount of frying bacon sounds in the background but this hopefully will be a minor distraction to the vocals and music which is reasonable well produced. In the handsome liner booklet, Robert Beecher provides a lengthy essay on McCoy and the recordings in chronological manner although the recordings are not presented in such fashion. There is also full discographical information on the recordings. One notable typo in the booklet involves the misspelling of Cook County Hospital, where that both brothers Charlie and Joe hospitalized at the end of the end of their lives.

Jackson Stomp is quite an enjoyable reissue that contains some superb early blues recordings and should lead to Charlie McCoy’s multi-faceted contributions to the blues being given wider recognition. Charlie McCoy (and brother Kansas Joe) belongs in the Blues Hall of Fame.

I purchased this. Here is Charlie McCoy's That Lonesome Train That Took My Baby Away.

 

Southern Casey Jones and other great Blues piano

Today I present five great examples of blues piano. Here is five classic recordings.

First up is Jesse James who recorded four sides in 1936. Not much is known about him, but Southern Casey Jones is a terrific piano stomp.  Great vocal too. It is available on a compilation of folk and blues train songs, Black Diamond Express to Hell

Here is Charlie Spand with Blind Blake celebrating Detroit's Hasting Street. Spand was on my list of 10 great blues pianists and I recommend the Yazoo reissue "Dreaming The Blues: The Best of Charlie Spand.

Hersal Thomas, brother of Sippie Wallace, was a blues piano pioneer. Here is his classic instrumental Suitcase Blues from 1925. This is a song that Sippie would perform later.

Despite having participated in the recording of about 200 songs in the 1930s, Black Bob is biographical enigma. While his identity may not be known, his piano playing remains memorable as this selection displays. Here he is heard with Memphis Minnie and Casey Bill Weldon on New Orleans Stop Time.

Finally, the wonderful Cripple Clarence Lofton. Here on Brown Skin Girls, Big Bill Broonzy is on guitar as Lofton lays down some tough boogie woogie, whistles and shouts the blues before instructing Broonzy to "Beat it out Bill."

There, five examples of great blues piano.

Erin Harpe's Blues Roots

The following review appeared in the June 2003 DC Blues Calendar, although I have made some stylistic changes. I have know Erin Harpe's father, Neil Harpe for about twenty-five years through his association with the DC Blues Society and his performances with Rick Franklin and Rick Usilton among others. His daughter Erin recorded the marvelous album discussed below and continues to perform, fronting Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers as well as continuing to perform with Lovewhip. Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers won the Boston Blues Society's challenge in 2010 and were semi-finalists at the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge. This CD is still available as a CD or as a download. Erin's website, http://www.erinharpe.com, states they are working on an album which I will be among many eagarly awaiting.

Maybe its in the genes, but Erin Harpe, daughter of longtime Washington DC area bluesman, Neil Harpe, has produced a wonderful album of acoustic blues, Blues Roots. The disc is on Juicy Juju Records, the label that Lovewhip, the Boston-based world pop band she also fronts, records for. 

Erin displays considerable command of a wide range of blues including songs associated with MemphisMinnie (Chauffeur Blues and In My Girlish Days), Tommy Johnson (Bye and Bye Blues and Big Road Blues), Bessie Smith (Alligator Blues), Willie Brown (Future Blues) and others. She plays a strong, percussive-tinged guitar that suits these songs perfectly but also able to nimbly fingerpick on a Blind Blake number, You Gonna Quit Me. She delivers her vocals with a strong, straightforward and natural delivery that is quite appealing that is reminiscent of longtime D.C. area blueswoman, Eleanor Ellis, who is credited with the closing Stop and Listen Blues. 

This is a fine debut album of traditional country blues that is available through cdbaby and can also be accessed through Lovewhip’s website,www.lovewhip.net.

Here is Erin performing Big Road Blues.

Maria Muldaur's Loving Memphis Minnie Tribute

Memphis Minnie was a pioneer in what we now call “country blues,” who recorded over 200 sides from the late twenties until the early fifties. One of the greatest blues performers of her time, her popularity was reflected by the fact she recorded as often as she was. A marvelous guitarist as she was a singer, she often recorded duets with then husband Kansas Joe McCoy in what some would call the “Memphis style.” After the break-up of their marriage, she started playing in small combos that would foreshadow the post-war Chicago blues ensemble style. In her career she made numerous classic recordings including Bumble Bee, Frisco Town, What Fault You Find Of Me?, What’s The Matter With the Mill, Tricks Ain’t Workin’ No More, Joe Louis Strut, Me and My Chauffeur, and Black Rat Swing. She recorded over 200 blues over her career. 

Maria Muldaur has long been a fan of Memphis Minnie and performing Minnie’s songs for decades. She has produced … First Came Memphis Minnie (Stony Plain), which is subtitled “a loving tribute.” Included are performances by Maria along with Rory Block, Ruthie Foster, Bonnie Raitt, Phoebe Snow and Koko Taylor with support from Del Rey, David Bromberg, Steve Freund, Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart, Steve James and Roy Rogers. 11 of the 13 performances are newly recorded. The performances of Phoebe Snow and Koko Taylor were previously issued.

There's plenty of music to enjoy here, much of it performed by Ms. Muldaur herself on a program that includes a few of Memphis Minnie’s most famous songs and a number of lesser known ones. If her voice is not quite a supple as in her own girlish days, Maria Muldaur is perhaps even more expressive a singer and this is evident on the opening Me and My Chauffeur Blues, with Roy Rogers providing nice easy swinging backing. Ain’t Nothin’ in Ramblin’, has a wonderful vocal from Bonnie Raitt with Steve Freund adding his guitar to hers. I’m Goin’ Back Home is one of two vocal duets by Maria with Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart (who provides guitar backing) that revive Minnie’s duets with Kansas Joe McCoy.

There is a bit larger group including Del Ray and Steve James backing Maria’s vocal on I’m Sailin’ with its wistful lyric. Rory Block’s sings When You Love Me backed by her guitars followed by Maria’s hopeful vocal on Long As I Can See You Smile, with Steve James adding mandolin in addition to Del Ray’s guitar, followed by Lookin’ the World Over, with just some lovely accompaniment from Del Ray. Phoebe Snow’s rendition of In My Girlish Days dates from a 1976 recording that included David Bromberg in the backing who adds mandolin along with guitar in the backing of Snow’s vocal. Ruthie Foster backed by a small group with Steve Freund’s guitar delivers a wonderful vocal on Keep Your Big Mouth Closed, which adapts the Sitting on Top of the World melody. Maria’s vocal on Tricks Ain’t Walkin’ is one of her finest here with Del Ray on guitars and Dave Earl adding mandolin here. 

The album closes with Koko Taylor’s rendition of Black Rat Swing that was licensed from Alligator from what I believe was her last album. Bob Margolin was among those on the session. It is an interesting choice insofar as it was written and sung by her husband, Ernest ‘Little Son Joe’ Lawler, under whose name it was originally released. In any event, it is a nice finale to this loving tribute to one of the greatest blues artists who ever lived.

I received a review copy from a publicist and it is scheduled for release on Tuesday October 9.

Serve Me Barbecue Any Old Time: Blues From The Pit 1927-1942

Barbecue Any Old Time: Blues From The Pit 1927-1942 (Old Hat Records) is a relatively recent compilation of vintage jazz and blues recordings that celebrate barbecue, the distinctly southern American form of cuisine, usually slow--cooked over a pit. While some northerners might use the term to refer to grilling or cooking outside, as Tom Hatchett observes, in his essay in the accompanying booklet, in the South barbecue was a noun that is that special food, brisket in Texas, pork most elsewhere, prepared in the home place’s special tradition.

Producer Marshall Wyatt compiled 24 recordings from the likes of Frankie ‘Half Pint’ Jaxon, Big Boy Teddy Edwards, Memphis Minnie, Barbecue Bob, Blind Boy Fuller, Tiny Parham and His Musicians, Richard M. Jones and His Jazz Wizards, Bessie Jackson, Georgia White, Brownie McGhee, the Mississippi Jook Band, and others. The mastering of the original 78s sounds pretty good. There may be some background hiss from the source recordings which is unavoidable but should not be more than a minor annoyance (if that) to long time collectors of vintage blues.

Wyatt has contributed song notes on all the recordings which range from Half-Pint Jaxon’s celebration of the joys of such cuisine Down at Jaspers Bar-B-Que; the raucous skiffle band feel of The Mississippi Jook Band’s Barbecue Bust; and the double entendre employed by pig meat craving blues singers such as Memphis Minnie with Little Son Joe (Pig Meat on the Line), Blind Boy Fuller with Bull City Red on washboard (I Crave My Pig Meat), Georgia White (Pigmeat Blues on which Richard M. Jones is on piano and Les Paul on guitar) and Bo Carter ((Pig Meat Is What I Crave).

Robert Hicks, known as Barbecue Bo, was a cook, waiter and entertainer at an Atlanta barbecue, and on his Barbecue Blues, displays his driving twelve-string guitar style on a blues that mixes together a bunch of traditional verses. Half-Pint Jaxon also is heard on a cover of Gimme a Pig’s Foot and a Bottle of Beer, with a terrific combo that includes Lil Hardin Armstrong, clarinetist Rubert Cole (who takes the solo)and trumpeter Henry ‘Red’ Allen. As Wyatt observes, it is the only pre-World War II cover of a recording from Bessie Smith’s final session. Band leader and pianist Tiny Parham and His Musicians are heard on a rollicking twenties Chicago jazz recording, Pigs’ Feet and Slaw, while The Four Southern Singers’ Ham Bone Am Sweet, modernizes a minstrel song with vocal harmonies and a washboard-jug band accompaniment.

Other musical delicacies (pun intended) on this include the Jolly Twins’ Come On Down, a spirited guitar duet betweenWalter Roland (normally a pianist) and Sonny Scott) as they celebrate goods with dancing and barbecue as well as Bogus Ben Covington’s I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop, a lampoon of a Scottish hymn with a banjo and harmonica accompaniment that is not far from the minstrel stages and tent shows. Lucille Bogan, under the recorded name of Bessie Jackson sang the hard hitting Barbecue Bess, where her forceful vocal is strongly supported by Walter Roland’s piano and Josh White’s guitar.

Savannah Churchill’s Fat Meat Is Good Meat, has a solid small group backing that anticipates the post-war jump blues vein with some excellent clarinet from Jimmy Lytell and trumpet by Russ Case. Richard M. Jones, composer of Trouble in Mind, is heard on Smoked Meat Blues, with Shirley Clay’s cornet and Artie Starks’ squeaky clarinet. Under the name of Hank Jones and His Ginger, Lonnie Johnson, his brother James “Steady Roll’ Johnson and an unidentified steel guitarist recorded the instrumental Barbecue Blues, displaying considerable sophistication in their use of musical textures (as noted by Wyatt in his notes). Also worth noting is the two-part Who Did You Give My Barbecue To? by Big Boy Teddy Edwards backed by Big Bill Broonzy and Papa Charlie Jackson.

This mix of lively downhome blues and rollicking early jazz and vocal harmony recordings is a definite musical feast well digesting like the delicious culinary tradition the songs salute. WIth the excellent annotation and engineering of the source material, this is an excellent collection.

This was a purchase.

Country Blues Classics by Ellis Elis and Cohen

Eleanor Ellis is a local DC treasure being perhaps the most gifted female purveyor of old time blues in the area. She has championed the likes of the late Flora Molton and Archie Edwards, helped found the DC Blues Society and similarly helped with the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation after Archie passed. She has recorded infrequently, often in a supporting role, so when long-unavailable recordings of her with Bill Ellis (no relation) and Andy Cohen became available, it was cause for celebration.


The CD is Preachin’ in the Wilderness, Country Blues Classics on Cohen’s Riverlark label was made possible after the widow of Larry McBride of Merimack (who issued these originally on cassette) provided the DAT source tapes. There are twenty two performances included with all three taking vocals. Cohen gets to display his mastery of Rev. Gary Davis’ fingerstyle guitar and other pre-war blues styles. Bill Ellis takes the lead on several as well as contributes originals. Eleanor handles Memphis Minnie’s In My Girlish Days, duets with Bill Ellis on Leroy Carr’s Midnight Hour Blues, and handles Sleepy John Estes’ Leaving Trunk.


Other performances on this derive from recordings by Casey Bill Weldon, Washington Phillips, Ragtime Texas Henry Thomas, Simmie Dooley & Pink Anderson, Larry Johnson, Brownie McGhee, Gus Cannon and the wonderful Hungry Blues, words by Langston Hughes and music from James P. Johnson and wonderfully sung by Eleanor with Bill on guitar and Andy on piano. The level of the musicianship is marvelous and perhaps the best known of these songs may be Spoonful, taken from Mance Lipscomb’s Arhoolie recording although it is familiar from renditions by John Hurt and Charlie Patton. Amazingly, or thankfully, there were no covers of Robert Johnson tunes although I suspect any could do one that would actually be worth hearing.


Cohen has other recordings on Riverlark while William Lee Ellis has a new release on Yellow Dog. Eleanor is still criminally underrepresented on disc, but alas we have this marvelous disc to savor.


Since writing this review, which appeared in the July-August 2006 DC Blues Calendar, then the Dc Blues Society’s newsletter. Eleanor finally has a terrific CD on Patuxent and Andy had a terrific CD in 2010 on Earwig. I have linked my reviews of those. I purchased this CD from cdbaby.com.

At last a recording from Eleanor Ellis

Born near New Orleans, Eleanor Ellis heard the blues blasting out of the radio, but it was when working at the Tulane University Jazz Archive that she began to take seriously playing music. She played a variety of music there including bluegrass, old-time and country. A few years later she settled in the Washington DC area where she continues to reside today and her focus was directed on the blues as she became acquainted with some of the area’s musical elders who became her role model and friends. She first chauffeured Flora Molton, the DC area street singer and later started playing with her. Then in 1987 she toured Europe with Flora and local Piedmont legend Archie Edwards. Later she got into video production and produced the marvelous video Blues Houseparty, filmed at John Jackson’s home and featuring Jackson, his wife Cora, Archie Edwards, John Cephas, Phil Wiggins, Flora Molton, Larry Wise, and John Dee Holeman. During this time she was amongst those who founded the DC Blues Society, and after Archie Edwards passed away, helped found the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Society.

Throughout this time she has performed, often with others such as when she accompanied Flora or participated in performances given by members of the Archie Edwards Barbershop folk. Recently a CD of her with William Lee Ellis and Andy Cohen was issued that is available on cdbaby.com. She recorded a CD that she only sold at performances and finally has a new CD by herself on Patuxent Records, Comin’ a Time that hopefully will let folk outside of DC know about this musical treasure. The 18 songs are pretty varied in their source and contain few songs that should be overly familiar. Thankfully there are no Robert Johnson covers although there are several renditions of Memphis Minnie songs along with a couple each from Skip James and John Estes and songs associated with Tommy Johnson, Henry Thomas, Bull City Red and Lottie Kimbrough. She is joined by a number of musical friends including guitarists Neil Harpe and Mike Baytop, pianist Judy Luis-Watson and harmonica players Jay Summerour, Phil Wiggins and Pearl Bailes.

The disc opens with a John Hurt song that was filtered through Hurt’s disciple, Archie Edwards, Take Me Back Baby, which Eleanor adds her own touch to the pensive lyric along with her gently rolling guitar. Sleepy John Estes' Diving Duck was recorded at Archie Edwards’ Barbershop with Mike Baytop on harp and the late Richard Thomas on bones with a driving accompaniment behind Eleanor’s emphatic vocal. Ellis makes no effort to emulate Skip James’ ethereal style for Cypress Grove or Special Rider, as she delivers these songs in a sober fashion. Judy Luis-Watson adds a touch of barrelhouse flavor for 61 Highway, a song that suggests the toughness of Memhis Minnie that is evident also on Ellis’ strong interpretations of Minnie’s In My Girlish Days, Me and My Chauffeur, and What’s The Matter With the Mill, where Neil Harpe joins her for a delightful vocal duet. Harpe also does a duet with her on The Panic Is On, with its still timely and critical observations on things going. Sun’s Gonna Shine One Day, one of Flora Molton’s truth songs is updated from its Vietnam war era origins to a timeless message of things getting better some day with Phil Wiggins adding his sympathetic harmonica accompaniment. Another favorite track is her rendition of Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues, one of the true blues hits of the late twenties and early thirties. Eleanor is a marvelous singer and guitarist who delivers the performances in a natural manner that contrsts with the sometimes studied approach of some celebrated acoustic blues performers. This release was many years in the making and well worth the wait, and can be obtained from Patuxent Records at www.pxrec.com.

Baytop & Franklin's Duo Blues

My years with Rick Franklin go back to when we both were on the Board of Directors of the DC Blues Society in the late eighties and also I enjoyed when he performed with Neil Harpe and sometimes Rick Usilton, or by himself. I remember a Black History Program at Northern Virginia Community College where he shared the stage with Archie Edwards & John Jackson. Mike Baytop, head of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, and him have a new recording Searching For Frank, on Patuxent out of Rockville MD. The Frank on this CD is Frank Stokes and imagine an entire acoustic blues CD reviving tunes that deserved to be revived, not simply over familiar mediocre Robert Johnson covers. I have not heard the disc but they performed all the songs from it at a CD party at Paxtuxent's studios today and it was delightful to hear the two guitarists evoking the marvelous sound of Stokes who certainly should be something most of you should be familiar with. Not that was all there was. Baytop played mandolin on a nice Stop and Listen Blues, while harp and bones for other tracks, and on an encore of Jambalaya, Eleanor Ellis joined in on washboard. It was a wonderful evening and if the CD is half as good as the party I will be in for a treat.

While there I discovered Paxtuxent has two new CDs as well. Eleanor Ellis' Comin' a Time (again with no Robert Johnson covers, but plenty of Memphis Minnie and John Estes and others). Eleanor is as good as any acoustic blues woman out there and would be better known if she wasn't such an angel. She has recorded with the late Flora Molton and toured with her and Archie Edwards, putting their interests before her own. She produced the wonder movie Blues HouseParty which recently was issued on DVD. She was also one of the founders of the DC Blues Society and the Archie Edwards Foundation. I have been waiting for years for her to finally have an entire album by herself.

Finally there is a new Warner Williams and Jay Summerour disc, Down'N'Dirty by a most wonderful singer-guitarist, perhaps the word songster best describes Warner. Another DC treasure, but one who will not fly. Anyway, the website is www.pxrec.com and I would eventually expect to see some of this on cdbaby.com

Chicago's Blues Queen Goes Old School

Its been several years since Koko Taylor has had a new album. This is remedied by the new Alligator release, The Old School. As the title suggests, the recording is directed to hard-hitting, old-school Chicago blues and includes five interpretations (most definitely not copies) of older songs along with some originals that Chicago’s Blues Queen handles in her own hold-nothing back style. One track is by The Blues Machine, and the other eleven tracks have a studio band led by Criss Johnson and drummer Willie ‘The Touch’ Sutton and guest appearances from Bob Margolin, Billy Branch an Kaz Kazanoff. Most of the new tunes are from Koko and Gonna Buy Me a Mule is a striking song as she tells her man she’s gonna take the place of him and the jaunty warning You Better Watch Your Step, with Billy Branch (excellent throughout) playing some Jimmy Reed inspired harp. Bob Margolin adds slide guitar to Memphis Minnie’s Black Rat, and Lefty Dizz’s Bad Avenue. The arrangements of both tunes are a bit cluttered and the performances come off as too hectic. Criss Johnson who did the arrangements on this album, would have done well to have listened to Koko’s first Alligator album, I Got What It Takes, and have allowed more spaces in the backing, and not have come across overbearing like so much recent Chicago styled blues of the past few decades. I have no fault with Koko’s performances as she sings really well here sounding so at home with the material. Its also nicely programmed with very nice covers of a couple songs associated with Muddy Waters, Don’t Go No Further, and Young Fashioned Ways. Just wish the attempt at being ‘old school’ by the band had a bit more of a lighter, swinging groove than they play with here. If I was giving this stars, 4 1/2 to Koko and 3 for the backing, or overall 4 stars.