Some June Blues Births:
- June 3rd.,1952 -- Louis X. Erlanger
- June 13th.,1905 -- Lester "Esley" Riddle
- June 24th.,1920 -- Lester B. Williams
Answer To The May 2024 Blues Question: The blueswoman we were looking for was/ is Vera Hall, born Adele Vera Hall, on April 6,1902, on a farm in Payneville, Alabama, which is near Livingston, which is the city where some sources show her being born. The family, consisting of father Efron "Zully" Hall, mother Agnes, 2 older sisters, Bessie and Estelle, and a younger brother who died in infancy, lived on the land rented from Will Cobb, in Sumter County. While I'm on the name thing, I'll list some pertinent info. From different sources, these are some things that showed up: first name being spelled Adell; birth name listed as Vera Hall Ward; recording and other listings as Nora Reed: I'll list more on those later in the Blog. Vera learned most of her earliest songs from her parents, mostly their favorite ones, all spirituals. In a later interview, Vera said that her mother was always singing, espacially when cooking or doing the washing, and that her mother was the disciplinarian of the family. During her childhood she attended the Old Shiloh Baptist Church, and that's where she and her singing became known. She would return to that church in the '30's. She also learned songs from Livingston area locals Rich Amerson and Blind Jessie Harris, both blues and folksongs. Hall's family, though "poor" by today's standards, was better off than most in the area, as Ephron (I'm leaving this misspelling here on purpose, as the woman who wrote this particular bit of info spelled it both ways in her article, and she has both a BA and MAT from Livingston University [ now the University of West Alabama], and a PhD in American Literature from the University of Southern Mississippi) owned his own horse and wagon, and the family's farm fed them with vegetables and livestock. It is known that Vera could read and write, but there's no record of a formal education. At the age of 11 she started taking care of children for families in Livingston. While travelling with one of those families in Tuscaloosa she met Nels (some listings show his name as Nash) Riddle, who was a coal miner, in c1917. She was almost 16 at the time of their marriage in 1918. She and Nels had one daughter, Minnie Ada, in 1920. She said, in a later interview with John Lomax, that Nels was shot and killed in a fight in 1923 or '24. After Nel's death she continued to live in Tuscaloosa, working as a cook and washerwoman. Many sources believe that her daughter moved to Livingston to live with Vera's mother. In '40, after the beginnings of the Great Depression, Vera moved back to Livingston to work and be with family. She had met Lomax in '37, so when he recorded her in the late '30's, she got national exposure, as the recordings were for The Library of Congress. All of her recordings were done in Livingston, for several different labels -- she never left Alabama except for one trip to New York City. That trip was done with Alan, John Lomax's son, and Alan's wife, Elizabeth. Vera was scheduled to perform at the Fourth Annual Festival of Contemporary American Music, at the McMillin Theater, at Columbia University (yes, the same Columbia in the news today re: the protests -- my, how times and attitudes have changed!), on Saturday, May 15, 1948, at 8:30 P.M.. Back to her recordings: John Lomax was travelling the Southeast, doing field recordings for the W.P.A.. Ruby Pickens Tartt was chairman of the WPA's Writers Project for Sumter County. Her first assignment in that position was to submit/ document eight full - length spirituals. Those recordings got the attention of Lomax. He went to Sumter County to meet this Dock Reed, who was Vera's cousin. She's on those recordings with Dock, all spirituals, as he believed that all other songs were sinful. She did do some recordings by herself, of secular, folk, and blues when Dock wasn't present. Some of those were Railroad Bill, John Henry, Stagolee, Boll Weevil Blues, Wild Ox Moan, and Another Man Done Gone. That last one is the one she's best known for. Alan wrote a fictional biography of Vera titled "The Rainbow Sign", using stories from Vera that he and his wife had heard about on that trip to New York, but used the Nora Reed name for her in it. Also, some of the earlier recordings with Dock may have listed her as Nora Reed to save confusion. John Lomax said, about that later interview, that she mentioned that a man named Willie Ward, a railroad worker from Greensboro, wanted to marry her. She also noted that she, Ward, and others frequented an area of Livingston called or referred to as Tin Cup, an area with many juke joints and entertainment venues on Saturday nights. There's been no record of a marriage found, but some sources list her name as Vera Hall Ward. The recordings that she made were on the Library of Congress, Folkways, Atlantic, and Prestige labels. Through the '40's, '50's, and '60's she was active in the Morning Star Baptist Church, which served the Livingston & Tuscaloosa area. She became inactive when, in the '60's, she is said to have lost her eyesight due to an illness. She had entered the Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa, where she passed away on January 29,1964. She was reportedly buried in the Livingston Negro Cemetery. I found no listing for a cemetery with that name, but I did find one that says she was buried in a cemetery near her beloved Morning Star Baptist Church. A close one is "Myrtlewood", aka Livingston Cemetery, photos of which show a neatly kept location, with many markers, ie headstones, gravestones, wooden crosses, and other markers, the whole place accessed through a large entryway, with 2 iron gates. The actual closest one is the City of Livingston and Morning Star Baptist Church, located at 200-214 Johnson Street, which has a total of 4 headstone records. Pictures of that whole place (6 of them, anyhow) show mowed, trimmed, manicured clearings scattered about, in a wooded area. It shows all sorts of small groups of markers, areas with larger amounts of them: verticals, some flats, statues, and yes, wooden crosses. Most of the crosses are old , probably no readable info on them. Vera's will never be found, as it's been said that her cross marker and others were bulldozed away in the '70's, and this place looks like it could have been done here.
Blues Question For June 2024: This bluesman, born in Memphis, performed for many years before finally recording in the '60's. He learned piano in his teen years and started performing shortly after that. I know that's skimpy info, but would you like to take a shot at who we're looking for ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For June 2024: The song is "Bed Bug Blues", and the artist is Lightnin' Slim (Otis Hicks). The performers were: Slim on vocals and guitar; Lazy Lester (Leslie Johnson) on harmonica; Roosevelt Samples on drums, and possibly Vince Monroe (real name Willie Monroe Vincent, aka Polka Dot Slim) on percussion. This was the "B" side of Excello # 2173, possibly recorded June 10,1957, in Crowley, Louisiana. The "A " side was "Tomcat Blues", recorded July 6,1956. This side also featured "Guitar Gable" (Gabriel Perrodin) on rhythm guitar. Supposedly the bass player, who is shown as "unknown" may possibly have been Clinton "Fats" Perrodin (Guitar Gable's brother), as he was a studio session player for J.D. "Jay" Miller. That record, # 2173, was released in 1959, though some sources show a 1960 release date. If you look at the actual label on the record, you'll see that writing credit on the "A" side shows as J.West. On the "B" side, the credit shows as West- Hicks. That's the name used by Joseph D. Miller, to get writing credit, and to get his name out in the marketplace for better distribution of the records being pushed. That record, under the #2173, was a 10", 78 RPM vinyl record, with the 45 RPM 7" version being numbered 45-2173.
Blues Trivia For June 2024: This I ran across while researching the above listed recording. The label on the record itself shows, in large print, Excello Record Co. It also shows, around the edge of the label, Nashboro Record Co., which actually owns Excello, was originally started to record gospel music, so Excello was created to record R & B and blues. Not appearing on the label, but showing up in the production records, you'll see "Mastered at Sheldon". In the '50's and '60's it was a mastering, plating, and record pressing business in Chicago. It was owned and operated by Jack Weiner. Besides owning Sheldon and Sheldon Recording Studios, Inc., he was a recording and mastering engineer -- who also worked for Chess.
Some June Blues Passings:
- June 8th.,1972 -- James Andrew "Jimmy" Rushing
- June 17th.,1994 -- Claire Austin
- June 27th.,2021 -- Per- Ake Tommy "Peps" Persson
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