Skip James: Im So Glad

Nehemiah Curtis James was born near Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1902. James was raised just south of the Mississippi Delta near Bentonia, on the Whitehead plantation, where his mother was the plantation cook. James’s friends named him “Skippy” due to his peculiar style of dancing. Skip’s father, a guitar-playing bootlegger, abandoned his family when Skip was a young boy. 

In 1931, after years of work as a laborer, bootlegger, and sometimes musician, James entered a singing competition at a store in Jackson, Mississippi. James had just begun to play his song, “Devil Got My Woman,” when he was awarded the prize-a train ticket to Grafton, Wisconsin, and a recording session with Paramount Records.

Paramount was famous for the poor quality of its recordings, and sadly, many fine performances were poorly recorded by the label, including those by James. James recorded several songs with guitar during his first session, and eight piano songs during the second session. James recalls recording 26 sides in all, though only 18 have been found. Among the classic recordings he made at those sessions were, “Devil Got My Woman,” “I’m So Glad,” “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” “22-20 Blues,” and “Special Rider Blues.”

James was only paid 40 dollars for his efforts, and as the recordings were made during the height of the depression, only a few sides were ever released. Disillusioned with the music business, James quit and turned to religion. Little is known about his life during the 33 years between his Paramount recordings and his rediscovery in the mid-Sixties.

James played his first show in 33 years at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. His performance was a brilliant one and it seemed that his powers were still completely intact despite his long lay off. Many believed that James performance at the festival topped all others who appeared.

Despite his huge popularity at Newport, James did not have a recording deal. When Cream recorded “I'm So Glad” on their Fresh Cream album, James, now ailing, used his royalties to get into a good hospital in Washington, DC, where he could have the surgery that extended his life by three years.

James recorded the excellent albums, “Today!” (1966) and “Devil Got My Woman” (1968). James died in 1969, in Philadelphia.

W.C. Handy The Father of the Blues

William Christopher Handy will forever be remembered as “The Father of the Blues.” It was Handy who was most responsible for taking this regional folk music of the American South and turning it into another form of popular American music.

Handy was working as a popular minstrel bandleader when he heard blues music for the first time while stopping over in the Mississippi Delta. Handy would eventually write the first popular blues songs, “Memphis Blues,” ”St. Louis Blues,” Yellow Dog Blues,” and “Hesitating Blues.”

Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1873. His father was pastor of a church in a nearby town. Handy’s upbringing was strict and his pious father viewed secular music and anything associated with it as instruments of the devil. It was with much secrecy then, that young W.C. Handy purchased his first instrument, a guitar. When his father found the guitar, Handy was instructed to return it. Handy moved on to organ and eventually acquired a cornet, the instrument with which he would be forever associated.

Handy joined a local band as a cornetist during his teens-a fact that he kept hidden from his parents. During the 1890s Handy traveled around Alabama in various bands playing the minstrel music that was popular at the time and working odd jobs to make ends meet. He eventually became the leader of the Mahara’s Colored Minstrels and toured The South with that band for three years.

From 1900-1902, Handy was recruited as a music teacher at the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes. Handy’s frustration with the college’s emphasis on European classical music and apparent lack of appreciation for American styles led to his resignation from his post.

Handy quickly rejoined his old band and set off on the road again. It was while on tour with the band in the Mississippi Delta that Handy heard the blues, a music that he described at the time as “the weirdest music I had ever heard.” Handy studied the blues as played by locals during subsequent visits to the Mississippi Delta, and by the time Handy and his band had relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1909, the blues was part of his repertoire. Handy wrote what is often coined as the first blues song, “Memphis Blues,” as a theme song for a Memphis mayoral candidate, Edward Crump. The song was originally titled, “Mr. Crump.”

Handy wrote subsequent songs with “blues” in the title such as “Beale Street Blues” and “St. Louis Blues” and became one of the first African-Americans to become wealthy by publishing songs. Handy moved his publishing business to New York City, in 1917, and set up offices in Times Square.

In early 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band had made the first jazz recording with a side titled, “Livery Stable Blues.” Handy organized a band called Handy’s Orchestra of Memphis to make his own recordings for Columbia. The resulting sides contained music that was closer to blues than that which was recorded by jazz bands. Handy was not enamored with this new music, jazz, and tried to stick to tradition.

Handy recorded for various labels from 1917 to 1924 and recorded versions of his own songs, “Memphis Blues,” “Yellow Dog Blues,” and “St. Louis Blues,” among others. Handy’s renditions of these classic tunes are not considered as classics of the era, but they are of tremendous historical rather than aesthetic interest.

Among the limited compilation albums that may be found on Handy’s recordings are “Father of the Blues” (1980) and “Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey” (2003).

the Allman Brothers: Ramblin' Man

Southern rock and blues rock legends the Allman Brothers were formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969. The band was named after brothers Greg and Duane Allman, the band’s lead singer and lead guitarist, respectively. The Allman Brothers are perhaps the quintessential example of “Southern Rock.” Southern rock bands such as the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynard, and the Marshall Tucker Band all hailed from below the Mason-Dixon Line and infused their hard rock with elements of the blues and country music and often expressed the conservative or “redneck” outlooks.

 The Allman Brothers were perhaps the most blues-influenced of southern rock bands. Their first two albums, “The Allman Brothers Band” (1968) and “Idlewild South” (1970) contained several blues cover tunes each. The ragged, soulful voice of Greg Allman and bluesy slide guitar of Duane Allman and Dickie Betts enabled the band to produce some of the best blues rock of the era.

 The Allman Brothers Band was a tremendous live act, and live performances allowed the band’s instrumental highlight, Duane Allman to display his prodigious slide guitar technique. Two of the band’s finest albums, “Live at the Fillmore East” (1971) and “Eat a Peach” (1972) are live albums which feature long tracks which serve as vehicles for Duane Allman’s and Dickie Betts’ impressive chops. Duane Allman died tragically in a motorcycle accident in 1971, at the age of 23, when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a peach truck. Following the death of Duane Allman, Dickie Betts became the instrumental centerpiece of the band, and the Allman Brothers Band continued to record and tour. The band reached the height of their commercial success with the classic album, “Brothers and Sisters” (1973) ,which featured two of their best known tunes, “Ramblin’ Man” and the instrumental, “Jessica.”

Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

Louis Jordan is another of the key figures in the development of rock and roll and R&B. He was a talented and colorful figure who was a saxophonist, songwriter, and bandleader. He has been credited with creating a style of music called “jump blues” which is the direct forerunner of R&B, the music which would later morph into rock and roll.

Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas, in 1908. He studied clarinet and saxophone and while still in his teens, and in the Thirties, he was invited to join Chick Webb’s orchestra at New York’s Savoy ballroom. As Webb was physically disabled, Jordan took over the leader’s usual role of MC at shows. In 1938, Webb fired Jordan after he suspected Jordan of trying to take over control of the orchestra.

Jordan soon had a new band and a recording deal with Decca Records. The first recording session for his new band, which would later be dubbed, “The Tympany Five,” was in late 1938. His band contained an ever-changing lineup of sidemen that would accompany Jordan’s singing and saxophone on his Forties hits, “Five Guys Named More,” “Knock Me A Kiss,” “Caledonia,” and a song which some claim to be the first rock and roll recording, “Saturday Night Fish Fry.” Jordan’s recordings were raucous and often humorous, with a solid narrative structure. His songs celebrated good times, food, drinking, parties, and women.

Jordan became the most successful African-American bandleader in the country save Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He was one of the first African-American “crossover” artists as well. Unlike other African-American artists who were known only to African-American audiences, Jordan was very popular with white audiences, too.

Jordan’s best recordings can be found on the following collections: “The Best of Louis Jordan” (1975), “Louis Jordan’s Greatest Hits” (1980), and “Rock and Roll” (1989).

Tommy Johnson: Canned Heat Blues

Tommy Johnson was country blues singer and guitarist from Terry, Mississippi. Johnson was born in 1896, and by the Twenties he was an established figure in Mississippi blues. The Sixties blues rock band, Canned Heat, took their name from the Johnson song, “Canned Heat Blues.”

Johnson was a dissolute figure who actively cultivated a sinister image through excessive drinking and stories that he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical mastery. A similar mythology would later be attached to Robert Johnson.

Johnson made his first recordings for the Victor label in 1928 with the sides, “Canned Heat Blues” and “Big Road Blues.” Johnson also recorded for Paramount Records in two sessions, one from 1928 and another from the following year. These recordings proved Johnson to be a vocalist of great depth and a fine guitarist. Unfortunately, his recordings for Paramount, are of lo-fidelity.

Johnson’s classic sides can be found on the compilation, “Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1928-1929)” (1994).

Josh White: Jim Crow Blues

Josh White, like Leadbelly, was a country blues singer from the early part of the 20^th century who found new life and success as a part of the Sixties folk boom. White was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1915, and made his recording debut in 1932 with “Baby Won’t You Doodle-Doo-Doo.”

White recorded for number of labels including Perfect and Melotone in the Thirties during his initial incarnation as a country blues performer. In the early Forties White’s music became some of the first African-American music to find acceptance among a white audience when he scored a million-selling single with his song, “One Meatball,” in 1944.

By the Forties White had become a civil rights leader, and in fact, became a close confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the decade, White became the first African-American performer to perform at previously segregated clubs, and he later became the first folk/blues performer to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. White also appeared on Broadway as Blind Lemon Jefferson in the musical, “John Henry.” White’s appearance on Broadway brought him to the attention of the New York City folk crowd which at that time included Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Burl Ives.

By the late Fifties, White was a fixture in the Folk revival and was recording more folk-oriented material. White continued performing in folk music festivals and toured the world up until his death, in 1969.

The best collections of White’s music include, “Chain Gang” (1940), “Ballads and Blues” (1946), and the great collection of civil rights tunes, “Southern Exposure: An album of Jim Crow Blues Sung by Josh White” (1941).

The Animals: Animalism

The Animals, lead by singer, Eric Burdon, were part of the British invasion of the Sixties. The Animals were among the finest of the blues-based rock bands to emerge from Britain in the Sixties.

Burdon, organist Alan Price and drummer John Steel started out in a Newcastle band called the Kansas City Five. In 1962, with the additions of guitarist Hilton Valentine and bassist Chas Chandler, the band eventually became known as the Animals.

The band landed a regular gig at the Crawdaddy Club in London. Record producer Mickie Most got them signed to EMI on the strength of their live performances, and the label released their first singles, “Baby Let Me Take You Home” and “House of the Rising Sun,” in 1964. The latter song would become a huge hit and transform the band into one of the leading acts of the British Invasion.

The Animals continued recording a slew of hits throughout the Sixties with, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “We Got to Get Out Of This Place,” “When I Was Young,” “Monterrey,” and Sky Pilot.”

After recording several excellent albums, starting with their fine debut release, “The Animals” (1964) the band broke-up in 1969.

Among their best albums are the classics, “The Animals on Tour,” (1965) “Animalization” (1966) and “Animalism” (1966), and “Animalisms” (1966).

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell: How Long-How Long Blues

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell comprised one of the most influential musical partnerships in the history of the blues. Singer and pianist Carr teamed up with the brilliant guitarist Blackwell Carr was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1905. Blackwell was born in Syracuse, South Carolina, in 1903. After both men had worked for several years as accompanists for other performers, they formed a duo in 1928 and made their first recordings for Vocalion records that year.

The duo’s first recording, “How Long-How Long Blues,” was a smash hit and a million-seller that ushered in a more polished urban sound for blues recordings. The money that the duo made from the song allowed Scrapper Blackwell to quit his bootlegging activities, but provided Leroy Carr with the means to exacerbate his already serious alcoholism.

Carr and Blackwell recorded several more classic sides between 1928 and 1935, including “Midnight Hour Blues,” “Mean Mistreater Mama,” “Blues before Sunrise,” and the song that seemed to foretell Carr’s early demise, “Six Cold Feet in the Ground.”

By 1935, Carr’s drinking had resulted in kidney failure and entire recording sessions were scrapped as a result. Carr died later that year of nephritis at the age of thirty.

Carr and Blackwell’s classic sides can be found on the following compilation albums: “Blues before Sunrise” (1962), “(1929-1935)” (2000), and “Naptown Blues” (1996),

Them: Here Comes the Night

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Them was perhaps the best of the British blues-rock bands that emerged during the Sixties. The band covered much of the same blues/R&B terrain as bands such as the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds, yet they possessed the best white blues shouter of the era, Van Morrison.

Them was formed in Belfast, Ireland, in 1964, and the band quickly gained a reputation for its hard drinking and brawling as well as music.

The band’s first album, “Here Comes the Night” (1965), was a brilliant debut which combined inspired covers of blues standards and original material. The title track, “Here Comes the Night,” would become a hit. “Mystic Eyes” and “Gloria” are also standout tracks. The band’s sophomore album, “Them Again” (1966), continued in the same rave-up R&B vein with outstanding covers of “Turn On Your Love Light,” “I Put a Spell on You,” and “I Got a Woman.”

Van Morrison left the group after Them Again to pursue a solo career and the band continued without him. Despite the loss of Morrison, Them produced two more solid albums featuring a new psychedelic sound, “Now and Them” (1968) and “Time Out! Time in for Them” (1968). Complete Them (1964-1967) is a fine compilation of the band’s work 

Benny Goodman Sing Sing Sing

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Benny Goodman and long-time rival, Artie Shaw, are the two greatest and best-known white clarinetists in the history of jazz. Both men achieved huge commercial and critical success during their respective careers. It was Goodman, however, who would forever be identified with the title, “King of Swing,” for his role in the invention of the most popular jazz subgenre during the height of the music’s popularity.

Benny Goodman was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1909. His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who struggled to provide for their large family. Despite the family’s relative poverty, David Goodman arranged for music lessons for three of his sons, including Benny, at a local Chicago synagogue. After a year’s training, Benny Goodman, aged eleven, joined a boys’ club band and received further musical training from the club’s director, and later from a classically-trained clarinetist. With this solid foundation, Goodman would launch a career that would span seven decades and would span musical genres from early classic jazz to classical music.

Goodman’s began his jazz career as a clarinetist in the Ben Pollack Orchestra at the age of sixteen. He would make his first recording with the Pollack Orchestra in 1926. He would continue performing and recording with the Pollack Orchestra and its various off-shoots until 1929. During this frenetic period, Goodman also recorded with nationally- known bands of Ben Selvin, Red Nichols, and Ted Lewis. He also recorded under his own name with trombonist Glenn Miller and others as “Benny Goodman’s Boys.”

In the early Thirties, John Hammond of Columbia records arranged for Goodman to record in the company of other stellar jazz musicians in a jazz “all star” band. Other members of the band included pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Kroupa, two musicians that would form the core of the rhythm section of Goodman’s later orchestra. In 1935, Goodman expressed interest in appearing on the nationwide radio dance music show, “Let’s Dance.” At the advice of John Hammond, Goodman secured “swinging” arrangements of songs from Fletcher Henderson, leader of one of New York’s best jazz orchestras. These arrangements helped make Goodman a hit with the West Coast audience that heard his performance.

On the strength of the Let’s Dance performance and the rave reviews of Goodman’s recordings of “King Porter Stop” and “Sometimes I’m Happy” with Fletcher Henderson arrangements, a large and enthusiastic crowd of young fans were waiting in Oakland, California when the band played a show there in August of 1935. When the Goodman band began to play, the crowd went wild. The same reaction greeted the band in Los Angeles during the debut of a three week engagement at the Palomar Ballroom in August, 1935. During the three-week engagement the “Jitterbug” dance was born, and along with it, the “Swing Era.”

In the wake of the tremendous success of the Goodman band in California, Fletcher Henderson disbanded his great orchestra and become Goodman’s full-time arranger. With the addition of Henderson and pianist Teddy Wilson, both African-Americans, Goodman’s band became the first racially-integrated jazz band in America. Goodman would later add another African-American, the great Charlie Christian, on guitar.

Goodman was coined, “The King of Swing” in 1937, and was secured as such when his orchestra became the first jazz band to play New York’s Carnegie Hall, in 1938. The concert, which included members of Count Basie’s and Duke Ellington’s orchestras, was a true test for jazz music as an art form. If the high-brow Carnegie Hall set could be moved by jazz, the music would earn a much needed stamp of approval from the music establishment. After an uninspired start, the Goodman Orchestra slowly built momentum and climaxed with an epic version of “Sing, Sing, Sing” featuring spectacular solos by Goodman and pianist, Jess Stacy.

In 1939, John Hammond introduced the electric guitarist, Charlie Christian, to Goodman as a prospective band member. Despite initial doubts, Goodman was greatly impressed with Christian’s playing and included him in the Benny Goodman Sextet for the next two years. The sextet recordings with Christian including “Rose Room,” “Breakfast Feud,” and “Grand Slam” are some of the finest recordings in jazz history.

Goodman continued to have tremendous success as a big band leader until the mid-Forties when swing music began to lose steam. Goodman flirted with be-bop music and even formed a bebop band before finally denouncing the music. In 1949, at the age of 40, Goodman turned his back on jazz to devote himself to the study of classical music. Following a lengthy retirement from jazz, Goodman died of a heart attack in 1986.

A plethora of fine collections are available for Goodman’s recordings at various phases of his career including the fine four volume “Chronological Classics:Benny Goodman and His Orchestra” (1996) while “The Famous 1938 Carnegie HallJazz Concert Vol.1-2” (1950) is one of the finest live recordings of popular music ever made.

Ma Rainey Songs and Albums

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Bessie Smith was known as the “Empress of the Blues,” so it’s only fitting that her mentor and senior, Ma Rainey, should be forever remembered as “The Mother of the Blues.” Ma Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia, in 1886. She acquired the moniker, “Ma,” after she married William “Pa” Rainey in 1904.

Rainey began performing music when she was 12-years-old, and she and her husband eventually became members of the legendary touring ensemble, F.S. Walcott’s Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels. From 1914, the Raineys became known as “Rainey and Rainey, Assassins of the Blues.” Ma Rainey eventually met Bessie Smith, and she acted as a mentor for the younger singer.

Mamie Smith became the first African-American woman to make a blues record in 1920, and the sensation that her recording, “Crazy Blues,” stirred led to record companies searching out other African-American blues singers. Paramount discovered Rainey in1923, and enabled her to make her first recordings. She went to Chicago in late 1923 to make her first record “Bad Luck Blues,” Bo-Weevil Blues,” and “Moonshine Blues.”

Rainey would record over 100 sides for Paramount over the next five years. She was marketed as “Mother of the Blues” among other tags. In 1924, she recorded with the young Louis Armstrong on “See See Rider Blues,” “Jelly Bean Blues,” and “Countin’ the Blues.”

As the Thirties approached, Rainey’s brand of Vaudeville blues was beginning to lose popularity, and Paramount failed to renew her recording contract. Rainey died in Rome, Georgia, in 1939, of a heart attack.

Ma Rainey’s best recordings can be found on the following compilations: “Ma Rainey” (1974), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (1975), and “The Best of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey-Mother of the Blues” (2004).

BB KIng: History and Album Guide

Riley B. King was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, in 1926. He is still active today as a blues performer well into his eighties. He is currently a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, the city he came to in the Forties to play music and work as a radio DJ.

King arrived in Memphis with his cousin, the country blues guitarist Bukka White, and landed a job as a disc jockey on the Memphis radio station, WDIA. It was here that he was coined “BB,” a moniker which means, “blues boy.” In 1949, he landed a recording contract with RPM Records. Many of his early recordings were produced by Sam Philips who would later found Sun Records. He also assembled a band which came to be known as the BB King Review.

During 1949, King played at a honky-tonk where a fire broke out during one of his shows. As the patrons, musicians, and King fled the bar, King realized that he had forgotten his guitar inside. He battled the flames as he reentered the burning structure in order to save his forgotten guitar. He later heard that the fight in the bar was about a girl named, “Lucille.” King named his guitar after the girl and Lucille, the guitar has been with him ever since.

By the Fifties, King had become one of the biggest names in the blues, amassing numerous hit recordings and touring almost constantly. Among his hits during the Fifties were, “3 O Clock Blues,” “Woke Up This Morning,” “Please Love Me,” Whole Lotta Love,” “Everyday I Have the Blues,” “Ten Long Years,” and “Bad Luck.” He gained a reputation as one of the best guitarists in popular music with his economical style which featured string bending and heavy vibrato. Every rock guitarist that followed would be influenced directly or indirectly by King’s style of playing.

In late 1964, King would perform a show at the Regal Theatre in Chicago. The performance was recorded, and the resulting album, “Live at the Regal,” would be hailed as one of the best live blues or rock recordings of all-time. King had a huge hit in 1970 with the song, “The Thrill is Gone.” The song would appear on both the pop and R&B charts. By 1964, King had signed with ABC Records which would be absorbed into MCA Records and then Geffen Records, his current label.

In addition to Live at the Regal, “Live in Cook Country Jail” (1971) is an excellent live album. “Completely Well” (1969) and “Indianola Mississippi Seeds” (1970) are outstanding studio albums. Several greatest hits collections are also recommended especially for his earliest work. Among these albums are: “The Best of B.B. King” (1973), “The Best of B.B. King Volume One” (1986), “The Best of B.B. King Volume Two” (1986), “The Vintage Years” (2002), “Original Greatest Hits” (2005), and “Gold” (2006).

Delmore Brothers: Freight Train Blues

The Delmore Brothers were one of the most important and influential acts from the early days of country music. The duo consisted of the brothers, Alton and Rabon Delmore, a pair of guitarist/vocalists who helped to pioneer the country music genre with their melding of gospel music, folk, and the blues. The brothers were born into poverty in Elkmont, Alabama.

The Delmore Brothers made their first recordings for Columbia Records, in 1931, and produced “I’ve Got the Kansas City Blues” and “Alabama Lullaby.” The duo continued to record until 1952, when Rabon Delmore died of cancer.

During their run, the Delmore Brothers recorded some of the all-time classics of country music including, “Blow Yo’ Whistle, Freight Train,” “When It’s Time for the Whippoorwill to Sing,” “Freight Train Boogie,” and “Blues Stay Away from Me.” The latter tune would be covered by later rockabilly performers Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette, while “Freight Train Boogie” has been called the first rock and roll recording by some pundits.

Blind Willie McTell: Atlanta 12 String Guitar

Blind Willie McTell was a country blues singer/guitarist and probably the greatest performer of the Piedmont style of blues playing. He also played ragtime music. McTell was born blind as William Samuel McTier, in Thomson, Georgia, in 1898.

McTell learned to read and write music from Braille, and acquired a six-string guitar in his early teens. He was born into a musical family, and is a relation of gospel music pioneer, Thomas A. Dorsey. When his mother died during the Twenties, the now parentless McTell began wandering The South. He wound up in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1927, and scored a recording contract with Victor Records. He would remain in Atlanta and record for several record companies.

McTell’s best known song is “Statesboro Blues,” which was recorded by the Allman Brothers Band. The White Stripes have recorded two of his tunes, “Southern Can Mama” and “Lord, Send Me an Angel.”

McTell’s albums, “Atlanta Twelve String: Blues Originals Vol. 1” (1972), “The Definitive Blind Willie McTell” (1994), and “King of Georgia Blues” (2007) are all essential listening.

Blind Lemon Jefferson: Matchbox Blues

Blind Lemon Jefferson was born in Coutchman, Texas, in 1893. He was an enormously influential country blues singer whose songs have been covered by rock performers as diverse as the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Dylan recorded Jefferson’s “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” on his debut album, while Beatles and others, recorded rocking versions of his “Matchbox Blues.”

After traveling around Texas with the legendary folk and blues singer, Leadbelly, Jefferson wound up in Chicago in the mid-Twenties. He secured a recording contract with Paramount Records and began laying down classic sides. Jefferson’s recordings proved for posterity that he was, in fact, one of the best singers and guitarists of early country blues.

Jefferson was a fast picking guitarist of tremendous facility, and he played in a wide variety of styles. Jefferseon’s recordings seldom become tiresome as is the case with many other country blues singers. Jefferson’s recorded classics include, “Hot Dogs,” “Jack O’ Diamonds Blues,” “Black Snake Moan,” and “Easy Rider Blues.” He was one of the first male blues singers to record solo with his own guitar accompaniment.

Jefferson died of exposure when he became lost in Chicago in December, 1929 during a bad snowstorm. Several fine compilations of Jefferson’s recordings are available including, “King of the Country Blues” (1985), “Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order” (Volumes 1-4) (1991), “The Best of Blind Lemon Jefferson” (2000), and “Classic Sides” (2003).

Blind Willie Johnson Dark Was the Night

Blind Willie Johnson was born near Brenham, Texas, in 1897. Johnson is one of the greatest guitarists in the history of blues music and likely the greatest slide-guitarist in the country blues genre. Johnson is considered a gospel performer by many, as most of his recordings were of a religious nature.

Johnson was not blind from birth. It is not entirely clear how he lost his sight, but it has been suggested that his step-mother threw lye in his eyes to exact revenge on his father.

Johnson began singing on street corners for tips as a youth. He continued busking for many years when this was apparently his only source of income. He busked in several Texas cities, but it seems he spent most of his time in the Texan town, Beaumont. Johnson only made 30 commercial recordings in his lifetime. These recordings were made for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930.

Fortunately, Johnson recorded after the advent of microphones and his recordings are of high-fidelity. Among his best known sides are: ”God Moves on the Water,” about the sinking of the Titanic, “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” which was recorded by Led Zeppelin, “Motherless Children,” which was recorded by Eric Clapton, and “John the Revelator” which has been recorded by many.

Johnson was poor throughout his life, and it was his status as an African-American resident of the American South that contributed to his early demise. After his house was destroyed by fire, Johnson, with no place to go, was forced to sleep in its scorched remains. He contracted malarial fever, and when his wife brought him to hospital, he was refused admittance, likely because he was black. Without treatment he succumbed to the fever on September 18, 1945.

Of several fine compilations of Johnson’s music, “Praise God I’m Satisfied” (1977), “Sweeter as the Years Go By” (1990), and “The Complete Blind Willie Johnson” (1993) are the best.

Blind Willie

A deal with the crossroads Urban Legend Grim Dark

The Rolling Stones: Midnight Ramblers

The Rolling Stones are, save the Beatles, the most famous rock band of all time. The Stones emerged from London around the same time that the Beatles were breaking out from their hometown, Liverpool. While the Beatles have long ago parted, The Rolling Stones are still a functioning rock band, although with its members now in their seventies, the band is now only occasionally productive.

The Stones current lineup consists of Mick Jagger on lead vocals; Keith Richards on guitar; Charlie Watts on drums; and Ron Wood on guitar. All the current members except Wood have been with the band from the beginning, and the band has seen limited personnel changes despite its long run of 50 years.

The Stones started out in the early Sixties as one of the finest white blues bands of the day, led at that time, by the late blues guitarist, Brian Jones. In the band’s earliest incarnation, they were a blues and R&B band, and Jones was the driving force and resident blues expert. The band’s name came from the Muddy Waters song, “Rollin’ Stone.” The band played their first gig at London’s Marquee Club before landing a regular gig at the Crawdaddy Club. Former Beatles publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham became the Stones manager around this time.

Oldham’s first act was to secure a lucrative recording deal for his new band. Decca Records, which was still reeling from their failure to sign the Beatles, offered Oldham a sweet deal for the Stones. Oldham, then began to publicize the Stones as the anti-Beatles, a band of louts who were the polar opposite of the clean and decent Beatles. In spring 1963, Decca released the first Stones’ single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s, “Come On.”

The Stones recorded their debut album, “The Rolling Stones,” in 1964. The album only contained one song written by Jagger and Richards, with the rest of the songs being blues cover songs. Oldham encouraged Jagger and Richards to work on their songwriting, as he believed that the band would have limited appeal if it continued to just perform songs by “middle-aged blacks.” Two more albums relying heavily on covers of R&B and blues, “The Rolling Stones Number 2” and “The Rolling Stones Now,” were released in 1965. The songwriting team of Jagger and Richards were beginning to produce results with their first self-written hit, “Heart of Stone,” appearing in 1964.

The Stones first album with a significant amount of original material, “Out of Our Heads,” was released in 1965. This album contained the Stones first big international hit single, “Satisfaction,” and the single turned the band into bona-fide pop stars. The album contained several other excellent tracks such as, “Play with Fire” and “The Last Time.”

The Stones would continue to improve on their next release, “Aftermath” (1966), an album of mostly original songs that includes the early classic songs, “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Lady Jane,” and “Under My Thumb.” The latter track riled feminists and helped to solidify the band’s “bad boy” image.

In early 1967, the band’s next album, “Between the Buttons,” was released. This album saw the band moving away from the blues and R&B they had long focused on, and further into the realm of rock and the psychedelia that was so pervasive at the time. Later in 1967, the band would dive headlong into psychedelia with “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” a full-blown psychedelic freak out which was panned by many critics, but is still an interesting offering with the excellent tracks, “She’s A Rainbow” and “2000 Light Years from Home.”

Between 1968 and 1972, the band would enjoy a golden period that would see the band record an outstanding string of albums which are all now considered among the very best albums of 20^th century popular music.

The first, “Beggar’s Banquet,” appeared in 1968, and featured some of the best rock and blues tracks ever recorded by a rock band. “Sympathy for the Devil” is the most famous track on the album, followed closely by ”Street Fighting Man.” The blues chops of the band, especially in the case of Brian Jones, are on full display on tracks such as “No Expectations” which features fine slide blues guitar by Jones. “Prodigal Son” is a fine country blues cover. Brian Jones would die tragically from drowning in his swimming pool shortly after the release of the album.

In 1969, “Let it Bleed” appeared, and like its predecessor, it contained excellent tracks of rock and blues. Several of the band’s most famous songs are found here such as, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Gimme Shelter,” and the title track. The cover of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain” is one of the highlights of the band’s recording career.

After a two-year hiatus from the studio, during which time the excellent live album, “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” (1970) appeared, another classic album, “Sticky Fingers” (1971), was released. The album was the hardest rocking Stones album yet, and featured new guitarist, Mick Taylor, who was brought in to replace the deceased Brian Jones. Taylor’s presence on the album gave the band a fuller rock sound that was exploited on the numbers, “Bitch,” “Can’t You Hear Me knocking,” and “Brown Sugar.” A fine country-rock moment can be heard with “Wild Horses,” a song that Keith Richards wrote with Gram Parsons of the Flying Burrito Brothers.

In 1972, the comprehensive and outstanding double album, “Exile on Main Street,” was released, and it is considered by many as the band’s definitive work. A slew of blues, R&B, and even gospel tunes populate the album along side rock songs such as the hits, “Happy” and “Tumbling Dice.” 

The Stones’ work started to slide in the mid-Seventies, with the band recording several albums which were several notches below the superb work of the past. Keith Richard’s drug use would become an issue, especially following his arrest at a Toronto hotel. It was not until 1978 that the band would finally make an album worthy of their reputation. That album was “Some Girls” (1978), featuring the stellar tracks, “Shattered” and “Beast of Burdon.”

The band’s work from the Eighties to present has been spotty, but there have always been fine moments such as the album releases, “Tattoo You” (1981), “Stripped” (1995), “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus” (1996), and “Shine a Light” (2008).

The band is still a touring unit and they have ventured into new territory, playing concerts in Shanghai, China, in 2009.