Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969

Various Artists
Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969
Third Man Records

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the legendary Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, Third Man Records has issued a both LP and CD releases. They collect 24 songs by such blues legends as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, James Cotton, Son House, Magic Sam, T-Bone Walker, Junior Wells, Big Mama Thornton, Clifton Chenier, Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightnin' Hopkins, Pinetop Perkins, J. B. Hutto & His Hawks, Roosevelt Sykes, Luther Allison, Otis Rush, Big Joe Williams, Charlie Musselwhite and more. This release is the first-ever release of music recorded live at this landmark event, except the Magic Sam track that was issued on Delmark.

John Fishel recorded the Festival except for Son House's performance which Jeff Todd Titon did. In the accompanying book to the deluxe LP edition (I am not sure what is included with the CDs), it is stated "These recordings were stored in Jim Fishel's basement and have remained largely unheard for 50 years. In preparing this compilation, we treated the original tapes to an all-analog restoration process – including speed correction and equalization – prior to digitization. However, these are field recordings in the literal sense of the term: audience chatter is audible and there are some technical problems that proved difficult to fix. Every effort has been made to improve the sound without sacrificing the integrity of the performances." In other words, these may not be the highest fidelity, but as good as one is likely to be able to get. Listening through headphones may be the best way to enjoy this music.

The two Ann Arbor Blues Festivals (the second one held in 1970) were signature events. All the succeeding blues festivals pale in comparison to these line-ups full of artists who are in the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. There is a broad range of blues performances presented although there is a strong Chicago blues focus. The Chicago blues focus includes Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Magic Sam, Junior Wells, Pinetop Perkins, J. B. Hutto & His Hawks, Roosevelt Sykes, Luther Allison, Otis Rush, and Charlie Musselwhite. Freddie King is not included at the request of the estate. At the request of the family, the Otis Rush performance is from a preview of the 1970 Festival. There are down-home performances from Roosevelt Sykes, Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House, Arthur Crudup, Big Joe Williams, and Shirley Griffith. Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell performed, but the tape for it was lost. Clifton Chenier is accompanied solely by his accordion.

Despite any audio blemishes, the music here is often spectacular starting with Roosevelt Sykes opening with "Dirty Mother For You." He humorously wondered how he got by the censors when Decca issued the original 78. Sykes was in great form here. Arthur Crudup sounded fine singing "So Glad You're Mine," It was followed by the blistering slide guitar of J.B. Hutto on "Too Much Alcohol," and then Jimmy Dawkins' driving rendition "I Wonder Why." With Lefty Dizz on guitar, Junior Wells does a rousing "Help Me (A Tribute To Sonny Boy Williamson)." B.B. King (with Onzy Matthews on organ and Sonny Freeman on drums) is terrific on "I've Got A Mind To Give Up Living." B.B. King requested Mississippi Fred McDowell play "John Henry," resulting in a terrific performance in McDowell's rhythmically charged style.

Pinetop Perkins had recently joined Muddy Waters' band when he performed a rousing rendition of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie." Members of Muddy's band backed him. Luther Allison may have been the most significant discovery of Ann Arbor, and his medley of "Everybody Must Suffer/Stone Crazy," is outstanding. I had a chance to see Luther at an Ann Arbor Blues Festival benefit concert a few months later, and it was a revelation. On "Tu m' as promis l'amour (You Promised Me Love)," Clifton Chenier shows he does not need backing musician in delivering a superb blues in French. Howlin' Wolf's rendition of "Hard Luck Blues," is an extended performance with Hubert Sumlin playing brilliant guitar. Wolf's band included Lucky Lopez on guitar, Bobby Fields on sax, and Calvin' Fuzz' Jones on bass. Otis Rush tears through "So Many Roads, So Many Trains," with Ernest Gatewood on bass and Sam Lay on drums. These performances are on Vol. 1, which is also split into two LPs.

Muddy Waters was impressive with "Long Distance Call" with its fattening frogs for snakes ending. This was a typical set opener for him at the time and opens Vol. 2 (also on 2 LPs). His band included Paul Oscher on harmonica, Pinetop Perkins on piano, Sammy Lawhown and Pee Wee Madison on guitars, Sonny Wimberly on bass and Willie' Big Eyes' Smith on drums. Charlie Musselwhite follows with a terrific instrumental, "Movin' and Groovin'," which also includes some spectacular lap steel guitar from Freddie Roulette, and piano from Skip Rose on piano. His band also included Louis Myers on guitar, Dave Myers on bass and Fred Below on drums. It is followed by Magic Sam's "I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)." Shirley Griffith reworked the Billy Eckstine-Earl Hines classic "Jelly Jelly Blues" into a solo blues.

Mojo Elem may be best known as Luther Allison's bass player. Here he delivers a rollicking rendition of J.B. Lenoir's "Mojo Boogie," with Luther Allison playing some boogie chords while Elem sings in a high tenor. T-Bone Walker, with Luther Allison's band, follows with a terrific lengthy, "Call It Stormy Monday." Allison trades guitar licks with Walker plus sings a line or two as well. Walker also plays guitar on Big Mama Thornton's terrific "Ball and Chain." After Big Joe Williams' propulsive delta blues "Juanita," Sam Lay does a solid "Key To The Highway," with Luther Tucker on guitar and Jeff Carp on harmonica.

Lay's band also backs Lightnin' Hopkins who complains about folks at the Festival messing around with mojos before launching into a rollicking "Mojo Hand." While titled "Off the Wall," James Cotton's energizing instrumental is the same song he recorded as "The Creeper," It displays his fabulous harmonica and showmanship. Son House's "Death Letter" is the closing performance. I believe Freddie King may have closed the Festival, but one wonders how anyone (even King) could follow the baring of the soul in Son's riveting performance.

John Fishel recollects in the book, "Shortly after the Festival, I started college at the University of Miami. As luck would have it, James Cotton came to town a few months later for a performance, and I was assigned to interview him for the local underground newspaper. I asked him what he thought about what had happened in Ann Arbor: 'Oh man, I think that's the best festival I ever went to in my life! Everybody was just ready for it." After 50 years, I can still say that's the case for me. I hope you're ready for it too and that these performances prove as revelatory today, inspiring a new generation of blues listeners, musicians, scholars, and fans. That's the legacy of the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival." That legacy is handsomely documented here.

I mentioned there is an accompanying book and the packaging includes many photos, an appreciation of the Festival and the story of the Festival, performer biographies with suggested further listening, and information on the artists and their accompanying musicians. One would be hard-pressed to think of a more significant historical blues release than this one. Get a copy for yourself and then get another as a gift for the blues lover in your holiday gift list.

I received a download to review from a publicist. This historic package is being released today, the 50th Anniversary of the Ann Arbor Blues Festival. For more information visit https://thirdmanstore.com/records. Here is a promo video for this package.

 

Son House John the Revelator: Chicago to London Town

Son House
John the Revelator: Chicago to London Town
The Devil's Tunes

Eddie 'Son' House was one of the pillars of the Delta Blues in the thirties, rediscovered in Rochester, New York in 1963 and performed for a little over a decade before retiring. House was of the most compelling blues performers with his raspy, intense vocals and highly percussive, slide guitar. A British label has now compiled a double CD release of House performing and being interviewed. A good portion of this was previously unissued.

The first CD, "Chicago … The Sixties," is from a radio broadcast hosted by Studs Terkel mixed with performances of such House numbers as "Death Letter Blues," "Levee Camp Moan," "I Shall Not Moved," "Preachin' the Blues," Louise McGhee," "Empire Express" and "Grinnin' in Your Face," interspersed with lengthy interview segments with some themes that might be familiar to some from House's monologues in concerts.

The other CD, "London … The Seventies," is taken from performances at London's Club 100 that was issued on English Liberty and reissued an out-of-print EMI country blues reissue. I believe some of the performances may be previously unissued and on the first rendition of "Between Midnight and Day," Alan Wilson is heard on harmonica while Delta Dave backs House on "How To Treat a Man." Besides his monologues, other songs heard here include "Levee Camp Blues," "Death Letter Blues," "John the Revelator," and "Grinnin' in Your Face."

House may not have been as accomplished a musician as he was when he recorded for Paramount in the early 1930s and the Library of Congress in the early 1940s, but the sheer forcefulness of his performances in which nothing is held back is simply riveting. When House performed, it was like you were looking into his soul. That is how powerful and mesmerizing he was and why those who have other reissues of House from this time will still want this document of one of the true blues icons.
           
I purchased this recording. Here is Son House with Buddy Guy on second guitar.

Blues Time Machine Takes Us Back to November 1976

This is my blues column from the November 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.

Albert King is one of the best known contemporary guitarist-singers in the blues and his new Utopia album Albert (BULI- 1731) is an attempt to present a commercially successful album. Albert King's recordings have always manifested a funkiness and when he was with Stax he had Booker T., and the Stax crew providing sometimes sympathetic and sometimes ridiculous music (Albert King sings Elvis). Despite disco touches on some tracks, and a girl chorus on others this is pretty direct music, and blues with a funky touch. 
 
Albert sings and plays straight forwardly, but is burdened by overkill in the back up as he is drowned in a large band setting. The music isn't bad or slick, just too busy. Also a couple of Willie Dixon tunes I'm Ready and My Babe suffer from the arrangements and the fact that Albert can't convey the aggressiveness of Muddy Waters on I'm Ready, nor the Iittle boy charm of LittIe Walter on My Babe. Stoll its not a bad album as Albert does play with fire, but better material and a more laid back playing would lead to a more satisfying session of blues. But would a more satisfying set sell better? I don't know. 

The Finest of Folk Bluesmen is a mistitled anthology as only the John Lee Hooker tracks on this Bethlehem (BCP-6017) anthology are country blues, the rest being mostly urban and jazz oriented performances. Among those included are Eddie 'Cieanhead' Vinson, Jimmy Rushing, Lonnie Johnson and Memphis Slim and this is a very enJoyable set of mostly uptown music from the late 1940s and the early 1950s. 

Great Bluesmen/Newport (Vanguard VSD 17/78) is a collection of country blues recorded lve at various Newport Folk Festivals and is recommended especially for those who don't have many blues records as it provides idroduction to a number of fine artists including Robert Pete Williams, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, and Skip James. John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Hopkins are not heard at their best though Robert Pete WiIIiams' Levee Camp Blues, Skip James' Hard Time Killing Floor Blues and Son Souse's Son's Blues are especially compelling.

 

Son House Was Riveting Performing In Seattle

The word ‘great’ is overused, but few would disagree that it is properly applied to the Delta Blues of Eddie “Son” House. House was one of the most riveting blues performers that ever recorded and performed. Dick Waterman, who used to book and manage House after he was discovered in Rochester NY has stated “Son House was the core of greatness of blues artists. There were many who had great talent but Son House was the standard by which they would be measured.” Those words can be found in the booklet to a new release, Son House in Seattle 1968 (Arcola Records).


This is a double CD that is subtitled 2 cds - concert and interview. The first CD is Son in concert in March, 1968 when he appeared under the auspices of the Seattle Folklore Society while the second disc is taken from a radio interview that Bob West conducted with him interspersed with original recordings by Son along with associates like Louise Johnson, Charlie Patton, Willie Brown, Rube Lacy and Robert Johnson.


In the accompanying booklet Bob Groom observes, about the concert performance, that it was unusual in the amount of speaking and story telling the House engages in between the performances of Death Letter Blues, Government Fleet Blues, Empire State, I Want to Live So God Can Use Me, Preachin’ Blues, and Louise McGee. No blues performer was more compelling that Son and he was in top form this day. From his forceful guitar to his vocals that bore open his soul, there are some extraordinary performances including Death Letter and the a capella I Want to Live So God Can Use Me. The lengthy spoken interludes are invaluable in giving a fuller sense of him than the driving musical performances alone. This concert predates Son suffering frostbite in the Winter 1969 that affected his use of fingers in his fretting hand.


The second disc is valuable for his lengthy recollections of his blues contemporaries. Included is a wonderful booklet with Dick Waterman’s cogent recollections of Son and Bob Groom’s lengthy overview of Son’s life and music. While Father of Folk Blues on Columbia (now Sony) remains the essential 1960s Son House release, fans of the deepest Delta blues will obviously want this. Son’s musical fires were burning brightly in Seattle during this 1968 visit and we should be grateful that Arcola has issued this wonderful package. Arcola’s website is www.arcolarecords.com, and www.bluebeatmusic.com and other retailers should have this.

This was reviewed from a CD I purchased.

Son House's Life Subject of Excellent Preachin' The Blues

Preachin' The Blues: The Life & Times of Son House
by Daniel Beaumont
2011, Oxford University Press

In a year here we have been blessed by biographies about Big Bill Broonzy and Mississippi John Hurt, Daniel Beaumont has provided us a strong portrait of one of the archetypal blues performers, Eddie 'Son' House. I never had the chance to see Son House perform in person, but I recall being at NYC's Museum of Broadcasting to see some fifties television programs featuring jazz and the last one opened up with Son House describing the blues before launching into performance. This black and white video is among the most riveting musical performances I have ever seen.

Beaumont's narrative begins with the rediscovery of House in Rochester, New York in 1964 by Nick Perls, Dick Waterman and Phil Spiro, and his first performances including having Alan Wilson teaching House how to play House's music. From detailing how they located House and the fiasco of a schedule Newport Folk Festival appearance, Beaumont then takes us back to the young House and his early years including being brought up in the church and his early experiences in church becoming a pastor and then married a woman, Carrie Martin, although she died young.

House worked at a number of jobs, shining shoes, sharecropping and working on levee camps (an experience he would recall in song years later), and worked in a steel plant. The temptations of the flesh, women and liquor, left him ready for a change. And the change was becoming a blues musician as Beaumont details House's accounts of taking up guitar and being influenced by Rube Lacy in one account, and one James McCoy in another. It is McCoy who is stated to have taught him "My Black Mama" and "Preachin' the Blues," perhaps his two most important recordings. Beaumont then describes the rapidity into which House engaged in a musical career as well as an incident in which he killed a man and spent time at Parchman Farm.

After serving some time in Parchman, House was released and moved to Lula Mississippi where he came across Charlie Patton, where they struck up a friendship and also met Willie Brown. House then traveled with Patton to Grafton, Wisconsin along with Brown and woman barrelhouse piano player, Louise Johnson, who was Patton's gal at the time but on the drive to Grafton had a fight and then she took up with House. In Grafton, they made what are considered among the classic recordings of DElta Blues. Beaumont goes into detail to discuss House's recordings, copies of a couple only being discovered in recent years.
In the aftermath of the Grafton trip, the most lasting relationship House formed was with Willie Brown.

Beaumont details years he calls "Dry Spell Blues" when he married Evie as well as intermittently took up the pulpit. House's everyday activities, especially his blues playing, was not well received by the congregations. This led him to giving up the pulpit for good and he was to be found with Brown and others in juke joints. Other musicians he associated with included Henry 'Son' Sims and Fiddlin' Joe Martin. House and Brown, at this time, were seen by and influenced such future legends as Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.

In 1941 and 1942, House was recorded by Alan Lomax as part of his field recordings for the Library of Congress, initially in conjunction with John Work of Fisk University and made a body of recordings that included performances with small string bands (with Martin and others) and one solo performance, a rendition of Charlie Patton's "Shetland Pony Blues." These sides, issued decades later, displayed a maturation of House's music but also showed him to be as compelling as on his Paramount Recordings.

Not long after the Library of Congress recordings, House relocated to Rochester, NY, probably following a sweetheart as well as work in a defense plant and he even convinced Willie Brown to go there. Brown returned to Mississippi and House even went there briefly for a musical reunion, but Brown died not too long after that, which led House to give up music at the time. Evie at some point joined Son. As Beaumont notes, there is not much we know about these years. For much of this time, House had stopped performing and those who interviewed House after his rediscovery were more interested in the time he was performing music.

Beaumont uncovered an incident when House was involved with the law while in a Long island migrant farm camp. A younger farm worker came looking for money and figuring House might be an easy mark and House knifed him. House was cleared of manslaughter by a Grand Jury, finding he acted in self-defense. Otherwise until the early sixties, and his rediscovery, Son House lived in oblivion.

Beaumont then returns to House's part in the blues revival and reprints an article by a young reporter, Betsy Bues that ran in the Rochester Times-Union. House's career touring and recording is accounted for including his relationship with Dick Waterman. The various recordings House made including the classic Columbia album and a live English performance are considered as well as his years after retirement. Beaumont also discusses House's relationship to and mentoring of Joe Beard and John Mooney, and describes his last years when House's mental and physical abilities had diminished further.

One unusual aspect of the book was the use of footnotes as opposed to chapter notes and end notes, that made it easier to see the sources for the author's statements. This is a concise, yet through, account of one of those artists who left a lasting impression upon so many and whose influence is still felt. Beaumont's marvelous account, of Son House's life and music, does its subject justice which I was glad to have purchased.

John Mooney's Big Ol' Fiya

The following review appeared in the December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 289) and oddly my comment opening this review still holds true as its been Mooney’s last release and its been over four years since this was released. I picked it one of the outstanding releases of 2006 and is still available (although perhaps easier to download than find a physical copy).

Its been four years since John Mooney had a new album out Big Ol’ Fiya, and he has produced his latest on LML Records (Live Music Lives), which should satisfy fans of his unique musical gumbo of Son House-influenced delta blues with Crescent City grooves.


This album also includes the keyboards of Jon Cleary along with the bass of the late Jeff Sarli, percussionist Alfred ‘Uganda’ Roberts and drummer Raymond Webber although Bernard ‘Bunche’ Johnson is on two tracks and engineer Mark Bingham picks up the bass for one track. Opening with a hot groove on 2 Get 2 Heaven, the band kicks into high gear as Mooney sings “I didn’t come here, to preach & pray; I ain’t here to soothe you; ‘Cause you works all day; I ain’t here, tokiss & tell; I’m just tryin’ to getta out this hell.” as Mooney adds some driving, crying slide. The title track follows as thetempo slows a bit with Cleary on organ as Mooney adds some nice slide runs with a lyric about what was love at first sight and how she is on his mind all day long but she left him and broke his heart. Voice and slide are in harmony as Mooney starts Dig My Way 2 China, how his woman left him so low heis digging his way down to China.


Few attempt to rework Son House songs, but Mooney’s interpretations carry an authority that in part reflect what he learned directly from the archetypal blues legend. Here he provides us a strong small band rendition of House’s Louis McGhee, with Sarli, Roberts and Webber providing the strong complimentary backing for Mooney. A Mooney original, Do You Love Me, is another strong performance rooted in the delta blues of House and his friend Willie Brown.


The remainder is in a similar vein and is a most welcome addition to Mooney’s strong discography. For more information can check Mooney’s website, www.johnmooneylive.com which will link you to www.cdbaby.com which is where your reviewer obtained this strong release.

Barrelhouse Words Illuminates The Language of the Blues

Word has been circulated that blues scholar Stephen Calt recently passed away. Calt, a controversial figure in the blues world, first came to notice from liner notes he drafted for Yazoo Records starting in the sixties, and then articles in blues and other publications. He co-authored a biography of Charlie Patton and authored one of Skip James, which were important contributions, but also marked by jabs at other blues scholars and artists themselves. His works could be frustrating in the appreciation he would provide of the artist while going into character defects at length. Larry Hoffman, (himself a blues scholar as well as a contemporary classical composer who incorporates blues into his compositions), played an extended time with James, and said he found little of the Skip James he knew as a person in Calt’s biography. These reservations noted, these works still are significant contributions to the blues literature. Last year, Barrelhouse Words, was published, and as suggested below,  is a significant reference work for blues scholars.

Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary
Stephen Calt
University of Illinois Press
2009, 320 pages

Several years ago, Debra DeSalvo's "The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu," attempted to present a lexicon on blues terminology, that a flawed effort. It was described as an anecdotal dictionary of the blues, but it was far from authoritative or comprehensive. It focused on some 150 words and phrases emphasizing the African roots of the blues, but usually to the exclusion of other possible meanings. She focused on terms related to sex and hoodoo, but her book had very very little on traveling which is also a significant theme of the blues. She included interviews of significant blues artists, but such material rarely contributed to elucidating the meaning of the terms and phrases.

Stephen Calt has contributed a more scholarly effort with "Barrelhouse Words." In contrast to the 150 odd phrases of the earlier volume, Calt has over 1200 entries, although some words or phrases are represented by multiple entries. Calt as a blues writer and scholar often has been acerbic in his writing and occasionally some of his commentary here has tinges of that, but its more to be emphatic about points. He has a selected bibliography of dictionary sources which include various volumes dealing with colloquial terms, regional and ethnic language ranging from John Russell Bartlett’s “A Dictionary of Americanisms” that was published in 1877 and the first American Dictionary devoted to colloquial terms; Dan Burley’s Original Handbook of Harlem Jive, published in 1944 was an elaboration of an earlier pamphlet by Cab Calloway; Clarence Major’s “Dictionary of African-American Slang” and “Juba to Jive,” various volumes of the Harvard University Press’ “Dictionary of American Regional English;” “The Oxford English Dictionary,” and Mitford Mathews’ “A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles,” published in 1951 and of who Calt describes as the leading American language scholar of his era. DeSalvo’s book is dismissed in his bibliography as “An ill-informed work containing chronically faulty definitions and etymologies.

The entries are taken from Race Recordings (that is recordings produced for sale to Blacks) from between 1923 and 1949. In addition to his scholarly sources, he also employed information culled from interviews of blues artists between 1964 and 1971 including Ted Bogan, Sam Chatmon, Gary Davis, Son House, Skip James, Pete Franklin and Bessie Jones. Unlike DeSalvo’s book, there are no sidebars on these perfromers, but rather the interviews are cited as supporting the meaning of the phrase Calt provides.

Each entry is followed by a couplet from a recording after which the meaning is provided with sources as appropriate and occasional other couplets to further illustrate the meaning. It would be appropriate to present a few examples of Calt’s entries.

hoodoo (a.)
        I’m getting so I can’t rest
        You almost ruined me, with that lowdown hoodoo mess.
        —Freddie Nicholson, You’re Gonna Miss Me Blues 1930
        Conjuring; in this instance, by means of black (destructive) magic.

hoodoo (n.)
        Aw she went to the hoodoo, she went there all alone
        ‘Cause everytime I leave her I have to hurry home
        —Charlie Lincoln, “Mojoe Blues,” 1927
        Conjurer, sometimes referred to as a hoodoo doctor. Both terms date back to 1875. (DAH).

DAH is an abbreviation for Mathews, Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles.

cookie (n.)
        Papa wants a cookie, papa wants a cookie
        Papa wants a cookie right now now now now
        Papa wants a cookie, papa need a cookie
        Papa’s gonna get it somehow.
        —Leroy Carr, “Papa Wants a Cookie” 1930
        A black slang term for female genitals (DAS).

DAS is an abbreviation for Wentworth and Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang.

These are relatively short and simple samples, although some have more discussion such as dust one’s broom which is illustrated from a couplet from Kokomo Arnold’s 1934 recording “Sagefield Woman Blues.”

Calt notes the phrase means to leave hurriedly, and although Burley cites this as a Harlem jive phrase, Calt notes its earlier occurrence in Arnold’s song and Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom,” indicates a southern origin and was a blending of two conventional slang synonyms. “To Broom,” meant to run away while “to get up and dust” meant to depart hastily. I have not repeated the lengthier entry here, but rather give a sense of how he does contribute new understanding to terms that crop up in the blues.

Another phrase, “sleep in a hollow log, to drink muddy water and,” was familiar from the 1930s recording by Eddie Miller, “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water,” but Calt observes its use in Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Wartime Blues,” and Charlie Lincoln’s 1928 “Depot Blues,” whose verse anticipates Miller’s lyrics. The phrase means to live outdoor in the manner of a vagrant rather than be mistreated. There is a sense of authoritativeness to Calt’s work here that lends the reader with a certain confidence and the entries do provide a valuable reference to understanding these dated lyrics.

This is an important contribution to the blues literature and is invaluable addition to any library of blues books and a foundation upon which future blues dictionaries will build upon.


The review copy for this was provided by the publisher or its publicist.

Wanted - Authoritative Book on Delta Blues - Ted Gioia's Book Ain't It

Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music
Ted Gioia
W.W. Norton
2008

It's been some four decades since this writer developed his love and enthusiasm for the blues, particularly those blues artists rooted in the Mississippi Delta and surrounding area. As a freshman in college, I bought and read Samuel Charters The Bluesmen, as well as various books by Paul Oliver. I also purchased reissues of rare country blues on Yazoo, Origin Jazz and Blues Classics, as well as albums by Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson on Chess; B.B. King and John Lee Hooker on Bluesway; Elmore James on United and a variety of other acts. Charters' book brought alive the music and personalities of the artists he focused on, which included not simply the great artists from the Delta, but also such pioneering Texas blues artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Alexander. Written at the time that Son House, Skip James and Bukka White had been rediscovered and were performing, and with the contemporaneous interviews that he drew upon, he made these artists and their recordings larger than life.

The Bluesmen was a major factor that led me into my four decades old obsession with blues artists and their music. I start reading DownBeat for the incisive articles and reviews by Pete Welding and John Litweiler, the pioneering British publications Blues Unlimited and Blues World, (to which I made modest contributions), and then Living Blues when it began publishing. New information on the blues legends came out along with numerous reissues of rare recordings. Robert Palmer published his pioneering Deep Blues, while Living Blues and Blues Unlimited (and after Blues Unlimited folded, Juke Blues and Blues & Rhythm) published lengthy interviews with the likes of Johnny Shines, Robert Lockwood, Eddie Taylor, Snooky Pryor and others. In light of the surprise success of the Robert Johnson reissue box around 1990, much was written on Johnson and his music and influences, with Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues being important in both debunking myths about Johnson's life, as well as highlighting Johnson's place in the history of the blues. And, in addition to several books about Johnson, we have been fortunate to have had biographies about some of the major figures in blues from the Delta including Skip James, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Elmore James, Little Walter, Memphis Minnie, and Jimmy Reed. And if Mack McCormick never finished his planned Robert Johnson biography (or his equally important book on Texas Blues and Music), his work has been drawn on others including Peter Guralnick.

Ted Gioia's new book Delta Blues was a surprise when I heard of it. I was familiar with his History of Jazz and his book on West Coast Jazz, but a new book on the deep blues that came out of Mississippi was intriguing. This music, that moves so many of us, was rooted in a community living under the most oppressive conditions. In summarizing what we know about the music's early days and the lives of some of the pioneering artists, Gioia provides a useful service. Gioia integrates the writings of Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow in putting together portraits of Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson and Skip James, and adds some brief sketches of Big Joe Williams and Tommy McClennan as well as highlight the importance of H.C. Speir, who was the talent scout that led to most of the great Delta artists recording. But his focus, even on the early Delta blues, is on the guitarist-vocalists, and outside of brief mentions of Louise Johnson (who recorded at one of Charlie Patton's sessions) and Skip James, there is essentially no discussion of the blues piano tradition of the Delta region or its proponents.

Gioia perhaps places too much relevance in the fact that some early blues recordings were reworked by such rock acts as Cream, Rolling Stones, Canned Heat and Led Zeppelin. In discussing James' I'm So Glad, Gioia goes beyond simply noting Cream would rework the song, and incredulously includes Cream's jam-rock live recording as one of the 100 Essential Blues Recordings. Discussing Johnson, he traces his life and discusses his recordings while integrating the recollections of Johnny Shines, Robert Lockwood, Honeyboy Edwards and others who knew the pioneering blues artist. In addition to the music and biography, he also attempts to counterbalance the writings of Elijah Wald and Barry Lee Pearson who had debunked the Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil myth with a suggestion that Johnson may have presented himself as having done so to the public.

Gioia takes us forward with discussion of the Delta recordings for the Library of Congress that Alan Lomax made, focusing on the sessions with Son House and Honeyboy Edwards as well as Muddy Waters. The discussion of Muddy Waters leads off a detailed discussion of his music and career, along with similarly detailed examinations of John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King. There is a brief overview of Mississippi blues in Chicago and a chapter on the blues revival, detailing the rediscovery and postwar careers of some early blues pioneers. However, seminal Mississippi blues artists like Elmore James and Jimmy Reed are dealt with not as thoroughly, and such equally important Delta artists as Albert King and Sonny Boy Williamson are not dealt with in any substantial fashion.

There are also curious statements made, including one that Jimmy Reed failed to achieve fame or critical recognition in the blues world. The statement simply is foreign to my understanding as a blues fan. Also, in the limited discussion of Elmore James he doesn't discuss James' travels with Robert Johnson or Steve Franz's assertion that Dust My Broom was as much James' song as Johnson's. Enamored by Honeyboy Edwards, Gioia repeats Edwards' claim, without challenge, that Chess held his material back because they would not compete with Muddy Waters. Honeyboy's rendition of Drop Down Mama was first issued on a Chess album of that name nearly four decades ago along with rare and previously unissued recordings by Robert Nighthawk, Johnny Shines, Blue Smitty, Floyd Jones and Big Boy Spires. Listening to that one song in the context of the others on that album, it is likely that Honeyboy's Chess recordings lay unissued because they weren't very good.

You will not find the names of such post-war representatives of the Delta blues as Floyd Jones, Arthur Big Boy' Spires, or Blue Smitty, or their recordings discussed in this book, despite them being equal to some of the recordings that Gioia considers essential. Nor will you find any detailed discussion of the commercial post-war delta recordings of Drifting Slim, Junior Brooks, Boyd Gilmore, Joe Hill Louis, Dr. Ross, J.B. Lenoir, John Littlejohn, Charlie Booker, Walter Horton or Willie Nix. While Sam Phillips and Sun records is acknowledged, the important role of Joe Bihari's field trips in the South, usually with Ike Turner, and the legacy of the recordings he made of Delta artists is ignored. One will not find Pinetop Perkins, whose piano played such a big role in the Delta blues scene of the forties and fifties, in the book's index.

And it is not that the missing artists are biographical phantoms. The late Mike Leadbitter conducted pioneering research on the post-war blues in the Delta Region that has been followed up by many, including most notably, Jim O'Neal. There have been articles published and essays in the booklets accompanying recent reissues of these Delta Blues recordings. Several of the English Ace Records reissues of the Modern Downhome Blues Sessions contain Jim O'Neal's scholarly discussion of the sessions and artists. The volumes devoted the Delta region have been available for a couple of years. In fairness, I have no idea whether Gioia approached O'Neal and others (such as Bill O'Donohue who is writing a biography of Rice 'Sonny Boy Williamson' Miller) about their research. It is possible that work is still ongoing on the post-war Delta blues volume and that some material was not open to be shared, awaiting its separate publication. But the fact is that some of the results of this research have been published. Nothing in the text, or the list of recommended reading provided by Gioia indicates he made use of available material. There is also no reference or the use of the autobiography by the late Delta blues harmonica player, Sam Myers.

His discussion of the blues revival provides an overview of the rediscovery of some of the prewar artists who found a new audience for their music as well as discusses some of the more recent artists uncovered such as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough and the Fat Possum label, but there is no mention of the late Jesse Mae Hemphill, nor of Roosevelt Booba' Barnes, the remarkable singer-guitarist who ran his own Mississippi juke joint, or Joe Willie Wilkins, another associate of Robert Johnson and later guitarist on King Biscuit Time, who Steve Lavere recorded and produced an extremely rare, but excellent album by.

Gioia provides a list for further reading, which also has significant omissions relating to books germane to his text. He does not include several of Paul Oliver's writings (a couple of Oliver's books are included, but not The Story of the Blues, and Oliver's writings specifically directed at the questions of the blues origins are not listed). Another significant omission is Mike Rowe's Chicago Breakdown. Gioia also provides a dubious list of 100 essential blues recordings (Gioia selects songs, not albums, because albums might go in and out of print). The uselessness of this list is seen by the inclusion of a Cream recording but nothing by Eddie Taylor, Floyd Jones, Boyd Gilmore, Junior Brooks, Willie Huff, Little Johnnie Jones, Sunnyland Slim, Robert Lockwood or Jesse Mae Hemphill to name a few. If one is going to include Bessie Smith and Blind Lemon Jefferson for context, where are representative recordings by Leroy Carr and Lonnie Johnson? I would also question some specific choices such as Tommy McClennan's Bottle Up and Go, whose controversial lyrics was atypical of McClennan's recordings. I would suggest checking out Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, and track down the various recordings Wald discusses.

One might be more forgiving of Gioia if there was substantial new material presented here, but there is little, if any, here. There is discussion that many will find insightful of the music, and Gioia's consideration of the musical legacy of John Lee Hooker is the most credible discussion of John Lee Hooker's recordings readily available; and there is also cogent discussion with respect to early 78-RPM recordings by Mississippi artists. In fact, he shares, with long-standing enthusiasts of the music, the recognition that some of the recordings that reach us so deeply today had little, if any, commercial success. At the same time, one still must place the performers accurately in the history of this music, not simply relying on the fact it influenced modern popular artists. Gioia simply does not cover the full spectrum of Delta Blues or the idiom's performers.

In addition to photographs of some of the principal figures here (many from Dick Waterman's collection), the book does benefit from Neil Harpe's artwork. Neil, based in Annapolis, Maryland, is an accomplished artist as well as a pretty darn good blues guitarist and vocalist, and even if I am not very enthusiastic about this book, I am about the artwork. That does not change the fact that this book is simply not the authoritative work on the Delta Blues that it is proclaimed to be on the back cover. That work requires substantially deeper digging into the entire Delta Blues history.

By the way, the book has received a number of rave reviews including into the NY Times and JazzTimes as quoted on Gioia's website, http://tedgioia.com/deltablues.html. I disagree with their opinion.

Also this book is being carried by the major book retailers in addition to online retailers. For those having an Amazon Kindle, you can purchase this for the Kindle.

Son House Tribute falls short

The latest Rory Block album, Blues Walkin’ Like a Man (Stony Plain), is a well-intentioned tribute to Eddie 'Son' House, one of the giants of the Delta Blues, following up a Robert Johnson tribute album. I have not heard the latter and wonder why I would insofar as I have found her renditions of classic country blues too close to the originals and often sounding studied, even academic. I have found her own songs much more appealing than her covers. But doing an entire album of Son House is a brave but ultimately unsatisfying effort, as her performances cannot avoid comparison to House’s originals, and even where House had lost his dexterity, the force of his playing and vocals make these emulations that generally fall flat. And this is not to ignore Block being a skilled musician. House’s singing voice was a straight extension of his speaking voice whereas Block’s vocals are not a similar extension of her voice. A comparison might be a New York vocalist singing with so much heart in cajun French but unable to shake a tinge of a newyawk accent. John Sebastian plays harmonica on several selections, and Block overdubs a vocal chorus on a couple selections, more satisfactory on the gospel number I Want to Go Home On the Morning Train, than on the remake of House’s Paramount recordings, Dry Spell Blues, where the added vocals make the track into an aural mess. I note that Dick Waterman, who was Son House’s manager after his rediscovery, has endorsed this tribute. Perhaps some will discover Son’s music from this, and that certainly is not a bad thing. Still, the back cover quotes Blues Revue that Rory Block “can hold her own with the legends who inspired her.” Listening to this tribute, I respectfully disagree.

Dick Waterman Blues Photo Exhibit Returns to DC

Those living in the DC area may want to make it to the Govinda Gallery's new Prince George's County location at National Harbor which will be exhibiting Dick Waterman's music photography. Govinda Gallery in 2003 hosted the exhibit of Waterman's acclaimed and historic photography at The gallery's Georgetown location. That exhibit was memorialized in the wonderful book, Between Midnight and Day which is available from Dick Waterman's website, www.dickwaterman.com. The exhibit includes images of legends like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf, and numerous others. The present exhibit is between July 4 and August 31 at Govinda Gallery at National Harbor, 189 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD.

Son's Fires Still Burned Hot

It has 15 years since Columbia, based on the success of its Robert Johnson set, issued a variety of excellent blues reissues. One of note was the double CD of Son House, Father of the Delta Blues — The Complete 1965 Sessions. Here is my review from late 1992 Jazz & Blues Report. I have seen a few reviews on amazon note his earlier recordings were better performances, but still when Son started singing, the voice just went through you like a hurricane. This is the blues at its most basic. The CD set is still available.

The most direct influence on Robert Johnson is sometimes said to be Eddie “Son” House. Columbia/Legacy has reissued House’s Father of the Delta Blues — The Complete 1965 Sessions, a double compact disc that reissues the original album on one disc with the second disc devoted to alternate takes and other songs. Son House was one of the most riveting vocalists the blues ever had, and in his prime, a master of the bottleneck. These recordings were made not long after the discovery of House in Rochester, New York. House had not played in a long period of time which is reflected in the rustiness of his performances and the slight stiffness in his playing and singing. This is evident in President Kennedy, a recasting of House’s Library of Congress recording of American Defense, that was inspired by the assassination of the President. The originally released recordings of Death Letter, Preachin’ Blues, Pearline and Empire State Express and the acappella spirituals John the Relevator and Grinning in Your Face are as compelling as ever. House, who also was a preacher, is the singer most folk delta blues wannabes use as their paradigm, but their intensity seems forced compared to the real thing. The first disc is a highpoint of country blues of the past three decades. The second disc, however, is primarily for collectors and completists.