The Re-Discovery Recordings of Mississippi John Hurt

The year 2011 brought a number of new biographies of blues legends including Phillip R. Radcliffe’s Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues (University Press of Mississippi). Hurt made some recordings for Okeh Records in 1928, some of which were reissued on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Tom Hoskins, a member of Washington DC area record collectors, headed towards Avalon, Mississippi, 35 years later on the hunch that Avalon, Mississippi” which Hurt sang about in Avalon Blues, might be Hurt’s home. Hoskins’ journey to the Delta proved fruitful as Hoskins located the legendary recording artist which led to his relocation for several year to the North and what would be three years of celebrity and fame as one of the great rediscovered blues artists.

Hoskins recorded and interviewed Hurt at the time of the discover on March 3, 1963. These recordings have just been issued on a fascinating new release on Spring Fed Records, Discovery: The Rebirth of Mississippi John Hurt. Wonderfully remastered the CD has 19 tracks including a previously unissued and lengthy interview where Hurt and his wife talks about his early life and recordings, and life after those recordings. It opens with Hoskins introducing Hurt who plays a deft instrumental, presumably as a test, which he names after he finishes Cow Hookin’ Blues.

Many of the songs will be familiar to Hurt’s many fans including Stack’O’Lee, Coffee Blues (known also as A Spoonful Blues), Richland Woman Blues, Candy Man, Spike Driver Blues, and Louis Collins. His playing is facile although the field tape recording make sound a little bit muffled (especially his vocals as Hoskins seems to have miked the guitar better) and the guitar has a slightly harsh tone. Also one can hear folks shuffling in the background as well as hear livestock, such as a rooster crowing in the background of Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me, whose melody is taken from one of Jimmy Rogers’ blue yodels.

The limitations of the field recording though are minor and when folks like Dick Spottswood and Mike Stewart heard Hoskins’ tape, one can imagine the excitement the renditions of Nobody’s Business, and Casey Jones, engendered. Recording limitations aside, the renditions of Stack-O-Lee and Richland Woman Blues are superb. As noted on the back cover, he re-recorded some of his Okeh recordings as well as other songs that would become staples of his performances and be recorded by various labels) over the next three years. Also there were some religious songs like Do Lord, Remember Me, which his wife Jessie, joined by another woman, sings backed by Hurt’s guitar. Waiting For You, is a charming duet between Jessie and John.

Hurt biographer Radcliffe along with Bruce Nemerov wrote the very informative accompanying booklet that detail this recording and include some of the photographs Hoskins took of Hurt and his home community as well as from performances and old 78s. Radcliffe, Nemorov and Evan Hatch produced this marvelous and historically important release, that despite the unavoidable audio flaws, contains some marvelous music. This is not an essential recording, but those interested in Mississippi John Hurt will want to at least hear this and likely will be buying it.

I purchased this.

D'Mar and Gill Are Real Good Friends

The combination of acoustic guitarist and vocalist Chris Gill and Derrick "D'Mar" Martin on drums and congas is heard on Real Good Friend (Airtight). While at first sight one might wonder if this duo is another in the vein of North Mississippi Hill Country groups, they are not as rhythmically heavy in their style. Martin embellishes Gill's vocals and guitar playing as opposed to the the no holds bar approach on some North Mississippi Hill Country styled recordings.

Gill wrote most of the songs (the one cover is My Babe) and sings with a definite warmth and plays very adeptly whether finger-picking or adding slide runs while Martin's percussion adds a swinging feel. The songs suggest, without copying, the classic country blues. One example is the title song where Gill opens with a spoken reference to Honeyboy Edwards and Robert Johnson before his delta-flavored, slide accompaniment to a lyric about riding the rails and jump off and get to the hobo jungle. Maybe Baby is built upon a delta groove and features nice slide. Martin's drumming and percussion helps this performance percolate. He never is flashy but it always sounds like he has added just the right amount of syncopation.

Crawfish Boogie is an infectious medium tempo salute to the mudbugs with a catchy vocal chorus (with D’Mar adding a vocal response) and a kazoo solo before some nice finger-picked guitar. It is followed by the jazzy sophistication of Harmony Street as Gill whistles and displays a different side of his guitar playing. The contrast in these two performances shows how the two are able to paint a varied musical palette here. The rest of the album is as engaging with Tore Down, a focused blues with a strong vocal, standing out. This concludes with an instrumental, International Blues Stomp, that matches Gill’s adroit slide playing and the duo’s refreshingly understated approach.

D'Mar & Gill have provided here solid performances of interesting and original songs. The performances of Real Good Friend are rooted in the blues tradition but provide their own slant on acoustic blues and will delight folk-blues lovers. Recommended.

My review copy was provided by a publicist.

Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings

It was in 1959 when Alan Lomax returned to the North Mississippi Hill country that he had been in 1940-1941 recording the varied repertoire of Sid Hemphill and others. He had discovered a variety of others including the Pratcher Brothers as well as Ed and Lonnie Young. It was at Lonnie’s house that a small farmer in overalls came over to his neighbor’s with his guitar after a day of picking cotton. When the man started playing, Lomax realized that here was a master musician. On Saturday Lomax came to his house to record for the first time Mississippi Fred McDowell. A bit over 5 years ago, Rounder issued a McDowell album HIs First Recordings, from Lomax’s archive, but now on the Global Jukebox, the Alan Lomax Archive’s label, comes Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings. The twelve recordings here predate when Mississippi was added to his name, although their is some duplication with the Rounder release (from song titles and track length), there are several selections which appear to be issued for the first time.

Fred McDowell arguably was the last great Mississippi blues artist (with due respect to Jr. Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside) and listening to these recordings from over a half century ago, one can still hear what it was that caught Lomax’s attention. WIth McDowell’s sister Fanny Davis on comb, his wife Annie Mae joining on vocals and Miles Pratcher adding second guitar for a few selections, it is still McDowell’s gritty vocals and slide guitar that draws us in. Whining slide guitar is set against a driving, droning accompaniment that mesmerizes. While he adapted Bukka White’s Shake ‘Em Down, the song seems even more focused than the powerful original.

Fred McDowell Blues, sounds like a composite of John Lee Williamson’s Down South Blues, and Sleepy John Estes’ Diving Duck Blues, made coherent but McDowell’s aching singing and strong accompaniment. Drop Down Mama is another Estes blues that McDowell transformed into a staple of his repertoire in his readily identifiable style. Also recorded that night was When You Get Home Please Write Me A Few of Your Lines, which he learned from Eli Green with whom McDowell played with after moving to Como from Memphis in the early 1940s. Then there were a couple of gospel numbers including Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, with his wife joining on vocal.” A gospel number “When the Train Comes Along,” has his accompaniment behind the vocal by Sid Hemphill Carter and Rosalie Hill.

The performances have been digitally remastered from the original tapes and the sound is exemplary. Included is a booklet annotated by Arhoolie Records’ Adam Machado and the Alan Lomax Archive’s Nathan Salsburg that provide history of Lomax’s Mississippi recordings and Fred McDowell’s life and music. The playing time is only 37 minutes, however, the music displays McDowell as among the greatest of down home blues artists. From these superb recordings made at his home, he would go on to make a many more equally compelling recordings over the next decade or so, influencing not just R.L. Burnside and his progeny, but also the likes of Bonnie Raitt. For more information on this and other releases from the Lomax archive vist http://www.culturalequity.org/features/globaljukebox/ce_features_globaljukebox.php.


A publicist for this recording enabled me to download my review copy of this.

The life and legacy of Mississippi John Hurt explored

Mississippi John Hurt
His Life, His Times, His Blues
by Philip R. Radcliffe
2011: University Press of Mississippi

Since I first learned about Philip Radcliffe's biography of folk-blues icon, Mississippi John Hurt, I have been awaiting its publication. It has been released and will certainly be welcome for its providing so much detail around the life of this gentle, yet so accomplished a performer as well his impact upon so many, even felt today. The background of his family and ancestors is provided (including the surprising information that his ancestors were once slaves of ancestors of Arizona Senator John McLain.

Making use of census and other data, Radcliffe presents much objective information about the world that John Hurt grew up, his occupation and how he learned to play music in. He details the famous trip to New York where he recorded for Okeh records and his life after returning back to the Avalon area living in the segregated state and then the story how Tom Hoskins found Hurt and brought him to the Washington DC area, and how he became a major star on the folk and emerging blues circuit for three brief years. It should bebe noted that Hoskins located Hurt in Mississippi contemporaneously with the violent segregationist response to civil rights.

Radcliffe details how Hoskins located Hurt and includes material from Hoskins' archive which included photographs of Hurt in his community before he was went north, Hoskins own recollections as well as the recall of those who were involved such as Mike Stewart and Dick Spottsword. Hoskins himself has been subject to attacks over the years. Radcliffe depicts him as perhaps irresponsible but one who cared deeply about Hurt.

When Hurt signed a management contract with Music Research Incorporated, we learn that it was Hurt who insisted that the Manager get paid 50% of gross compensation, because he would not have seen any extra money but for Tom's help. Hoskins himself had suggested Hurt receive 90%. While Tom received 50%, his friends insisted he spent most of his share helping Tom and his family. I note this because he details some of the other business arrangements as well as an overview of Hurt's travels and performances and the aftermath after Hurt's passing when he discusses the various litigation about unauthorized recordings and litigation between Hurt's estate and Hoskins, making extensive use of court materials. It also discusses his legacy and the establishment of the Mississippi John Hurt Museum and annual festival.

There is plenty of new information uncovered here. Radcliffe interviewed many of the folks involved in Hurt's brief period of musical celebrity as well as had access to Hoskins' notes and a two hour tape of Hurt recorded when Hoskins travelled to Mississippi and located him. One shortcoming of this book is that while he discusses Hurt's performances and some of the reactions of folks like Patrick Sky and Jerry Ricks, he does not bring Hurt's music and performances to life. In an overview of the Library of Congress recordings he notes that perhaps Hurt showed a little rust 35 years after recording for Okeh.

Despite this significant flaw, Mississippi John Hurt: His LIfe, His Times, His Blues will be the essential reference on Mississippi John Hurt's life. I do not regret purchasing this. It contains a loving introduction by his granddaughter, Mary Frances Hurt Wright, Hurt's granddaughter and a full listing of Hurt's recordings.

Portrait of A Young Mississippi Bluesman

A strong album from the delta area is the Rooster Blues debut album of Lonnie Shields, Portrait. Born in West Helena, Arkansas, Lonnie Shields’ career started in church and also playing guitar as a teenager. In high school he played in a band that did a fair amount of Al Green songs. Later he developed friendships with drummer Sam Carr and Frank Frost. Lonnie’s blues is rooted in the soul-blues as represented by the late Z.Z. Hill, Bobby Bland, B.B. King, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis.


Portrait has been several years in making and finds Lonnie backed by several different sets of musicians. Supporting musicians include Sam Carr, Frank Frost, Lucky Peterson, Eddie Shaw, and Eddie ‘Vaan’ Shaw who play in different groupings of musicians. The opening Fistful of Dollars (which is never enough, of course) has added percussion which imparts some of the rhythmic flavor of a delta fife and drum band. The titles with Lucky Peterson on rhythm guitar, and horn players Anthony Royal and Dennis Bates (then with Al Green, but also from Lonnie’s high school band) are excellent modern soul-blues and Lonnie really delivers this groove.


The lyrics cover the spectrum of blues themes from lost love, cheating lovers, and hard times, and Lonnie invests his performances with feeling and heart. Strong backings help these recordings rise above more commercially successful soul-blues recordings. I was impressed by Eddie Shaw’s saxophone work on Eight Days a Week and My Baby Left Me. His playing here shows he can play more with more imagination and finesse than the limited raspy sax heard on his own recordings suggests.


A real fine effort.

Portrait was Lonnie’s debut album and this review appeared in slightly different form in the June 1993 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 182). I likely received a review copy from Rooster Blues Records. I have had the pleasure of seeing Lonnie a number of times over the years and he is such a nice person. Fistful of Dollars is often his opening style, and illustrates his hard, percussive style which cause him to break more than one guitar string.

Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes at 2010 Pocono Blues Festival

2010-0723 Pocono Blues Day 1-145, originally uploaded by NoVARon.

I must confess a certain disappointment to listening to one of Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes CDs when he was being presented as carrying on the Bentonia, Mississippi blues tradition best known throw the brilliant music of Skip James. James was one of those singular musician and by presenting Holmes as a member of the James' school is a disservice to him as he inevitably suffers in comparison. Yet, I found his set of simply,played from the heart solo blues at the Pocono Festival quite enjoyable. Some tunes that became part of the blues repertoire and one fellow attendee seemed to suggest a Hill Country influence, but in this day of mass media and the internet, the persistence of localized traditions seems long gone. But just like I enjoyed Eddie Cusic's blues before, Holmes was a fine traditional bluesman who I just may have to check out his most recent CD.

K.C. Douglas Mercury Blues and more

One thing about blues is that often a performer with modest talent is still capable of making moving music. One such gentleman was K.C. Douglas. Douglas, a Mississippi native born in 1913 near Jackson, moved to California to work in the Naval shipyards. Growing up he started playing music, first learning from an uncle, and then catch local musicians at Saturday Night getaways. At the same time he started listening to the records of Tommy Johnson whom K.C. met and played with him around 1940 in Jackson. Johnson’s music left its imprint that remained when K.C. moved to California.

After settling in California, he somehow ended up in Bob Geddins’ studios and recorded a song “Mercury Boogie” that was issued on Geddins’ Down Town label and became somewhat of a hit in the Bay area and parts of Texas and Louisiana. This song of course is better known by versions by the Steve Miller Band and Alan Jackson. Geddins though moved on from the downhome blues so it would be a few years before he would record again. At the very beginning of the folk revival he recorded for Cook and then two albums for Bluesville that were produced by Chris Strachwitz. In 1973 and 1974 Strachwitz assembled Douglas with a small group that included Richard Riggins on harmonica, Jim Marshall on drums and Ron Thompson on guitar. The result was an album on Arhoolie, “The Country Boy,” that subsequently has been issued on CD as “Mercury Blues,” with added unissued selections, including some from the early sixties that are solo or with an unidentified band.

The band here plays efficiently and supportively to Douglas’ heartfelt vocals and simple, rhythmic guitar playing. I know little about drummer Marshall. Riggins, who recorded as Harmonica Slim for Trix and Fedora, passed away few years ago while Thompson is still active in the blues world as a first-rate traditionally based multi-instrumentalist. His work on this recording as well with Little Willie Littlefield, Riggins and Schoolboy Cleve for the Blues Connoisseur label were amongst his earliest recordings who also spent several years with John Lee Hooker and Mick Fleetwood’s Blue Whale.

In any event, “Mercury Blues” is a solid unassuming but easily recommended recording of Mississippi blues performed by Douglas and his ensemble. There is a reworking of his “Mercury Boogie,” along with a nice rendition of “Catfish Blues,” and his original “Woke Up This Morning.” One of several recordings from the 1960s is the fervent “I’m Gonna Build a Web” is a solid, more modern, blues with an emphatic vocal and some nice piano and sax. Then there are three solo tracks including “Make Your Coffee, with some very adroit guitar. another 1960 solo performance, ”Night Shirt Blues,“ is an excellent original built around the ”Catfish Blues,“ and then followed by a fine rendition of Tommy Johnson’s ”Canned Heat Blues.“ Listening to these solo tracks are certainly going to encourage me to try to locate his Bluesville recordings which I believe were reissued as part of the Original Blues Classics series. These solo tracks are a bonus to the fine down home blues group heard here.

I won’t say that the music on ”Mercury Blues“ is essential to a blues collection, but it is strongly performed and delivered from the heart. The music here is certainly equal to anything produced by some of Douglas’ better known contemporaries from Mississippi such as Honeyboy Edwards and Son Thomas. I purchased this on sale from Arhoolie (http://chulasfronteras.com/) and I believe it is on sale (as I write this) at a bargain price but even at regular price is well worth it for folks who love real deal downhome blues.

Dave Riley & Bob Corritore's bluesy partnership

The following review has been submitted for publication and in the interim, I run it here.

Blues at base can be a very simple music. Simple guitar riffs and crying harmonica accompaniment for heartfelt vocals can get to the listener’s heart. This forms the heart of the music by the duo of Dave Riley and Bob Corritore. A Mississippi native, Riley actually grew up in Chicago, played in a family gospel group and showed stuff on guitar by Pops Staples and after serving in Vietnam and playing in soul circles, met Jimmy Reed who helped shaped his musical outlook. But it was meeting Frank Frost after moving back down south, and then started playing with Frost and Sam Carr as well as having associations with John Weston, Pinetop Perkins and Arthur Williams. This post-war delta style forms the basis of his music joined by his partner, Bob Corritore, a solid harmonica player who has been a blues hero as a record producer, blues radio announcer, concert promoter (at Phoenix’s The Rhythm Room) and a extremely adept harp player.

The duo has a new CD on Blue Witch, “Lucky to Be Living,” which displays the duo’s strong blues rooted in the simple Jimmy Reed boogie grooves and solid juke joint sounds that Frost pioneered with the Nighthawks (later known as the Jelly Roll Kings). Dave Riley Jr joins on bass on half the selections, while guitarist Chris James adds his idiomatic playing for three selections on which former Howlin’ Wolf pianist, Henry Gray. Several songs are by the late Frank Frost, including the opening “Jelly Roll King,” which Riley makes into a tribute about Frost, Carr and Weston. “Lets Get Together,” is a solid shuffle by Riley with Gray pounding outs some nice boogie piano as part of the driving accompaniment, while Gray also enlivens another Frost blues, the rocking “Ride With Your Daddy Tonight,” which also has a lively rocking solo from guitarist James. Frank Frost also wrote the title track, a stone Muddy Waters styled slow blues with Riley contributing some nice guitar fills and Corritore wailing on hap in support of Riley’s singing. Riley’s straightforward, somewhat hoarse singing is direct and if lacking in subtlety, it compensate with his honest delivery, while Corritore shifts from a full Little Walter styled harp tone to a more crying Rice Miller attack as appropriate. There is nothing new here but Riley and Corritore have produced a set of honest Delta to Chicago blues that should delight many.

Dr. Ross is the cure for the Boogie Disease

This review of Dr. Ross' Boogie Disease on Arhoolie, appeared back in the November 1992 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 176) back before the explosion of the World Wide Web. He would pass less than a year after this was written. He had moved to the Detroit area in 1954 and I had the pleasure of seeing him perform at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival where he was as vigorous as anybody. The Swedish blues artist, Robert Lighthouse, based in the Washington DC area, is among those who was musically influenced by this marvelous player. The album is still in print too.

Now a resident of the Detroit area, Isaiah “Dr.” Ross developed from a fine delta blues artist in the tradition of Big Joe Williams and Robert Petway into a one-man band. One of the artists who recorded for Sam Phillips, his early Memphis recordings have been reissued on Boogie Disease. Listening to the exuberance of the alternates to Boogie Disease and Chicago Breakdown, one can detect not only the strong delta rhythmic style of a Big Joe Williams (as well as northern transplant John lee Hooker), but also more than a bit of the influence of John Lee Williamson, reflected in a variety of songs including Going Back South and Polly Put a Kettle On. Of considerable note are his strong interpretations of such delta themes as Going to the River (Derived perhaps from Blind Lemon Jefferson, but played in the delta style), Shake ‘Em Down and Mississippi Blues. The latter is a Catfish Blues variant better known as Cat’s Squirrel and the source of the recording by the rock group, Cream. In addition to his youthful influences of John Lee Williamson and Tommy McClennan, one can also appreciate the impact of Muddy Waters, and John lee Hooker, particularly on the hypnotic rhythms of Industrial Avenue Boogie, a reworking of Hooker’s Boogie Chillum.This is an updated version of a vinyl reissue, and Steve La Vere has updated his and Bob Eagle’s original liner notes. Some of you have heard some of Dr. Ross’ Sun recordings and will have an idea of the exuberant boogie and barrelhouse blues to be found here. Others are in for a treat with respect to these superbly rendered performances.