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Joe's Blues Blog July 2015

6/25/2015

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Some July Blues Births:
·         July 1st, 1915—“Big” Willie James Dixon
·         July 18th, 1929—Jalacy “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins
·         July 30th, 1940—“Big” Jack Johnson, aka The Oilman

Answer To The June 2015 Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for is/was Arthur “Sam“ Jackson, aka “Peg-leg Sam” or “Peg Pete”, born December 18th.,1911, in Jonesville, South Carolina. In the blues question I had stated earlier that he had hoboed all over the U.S. and other countries. When doing so in the “States” he would most often hop a freight train, as did a lot of the bluesmen of the period. On one of those rides he fell off and lost part of a leg, hence the nickname. In his travels he would perform in the streets, at picnics and fairs, even on ships while in route to other countries. He did this type of travelling from about 1921 up into 1972. While in the U.S. during that time he chose to work in “medicine shows”, stating that it paid the best over other venues. Some of the ones he performed with were the “Doc” Thompson Carnival, the Emmet Smith Medicine Show, “Doc” W R Frank “Smiley” Kerr’s Indian Remedy Company Medicine Show (that one was with him performing with Pink Anderson—the Pink of Pink Floyd). The last group he travelled/ performed with was the Chief Thundercloud Medicine Show (the Chief’s real name was Leo Kahdot, a Potowatomie Indian from Oklahoma). Peg-leg recorded with that group and then with Rufe Johnson and Louisiana Red (Red was in last month’s blog). From 1972 on, until his passing on October 27th.,1977, in Jonesville, of natural causes, he mostly played at festivals and occasionally in the recording studio. He has stated that his two main influences were Pink Anderson and Elmon “Keg-Shorty” Bell (an Atlanta harp player).

Blues Question for July 2015: this bluesman was born, raised, and worked on a farm. He got his first instrument at eight years of age and at nine years of age he was a “sideman” at local country dances, suppers, and fish fries. His first recordings were at age nineteen. Over his career he recorded on at least seven different labels, as a solo performer, a duo, and as a band member. He was known for bantering, clowning and shouting back and forth with his audiences. He toured and performed all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He penned at least fifteen original songs. One of his four children is a gospel singer. Any idea who this man is/was ?? I’ll give you this much—he’s originally from Texas

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Blues Trivia for July 2015: Sometimes the trivia will be regarding places or things that are not about just the performers. If you’ve been to Memphis, there are four places you should have seen: usually first and most obviously Beale Street with its various nightspots and museums. Then, second, the Peabody Hotel, which is the focal point for this trivia session. Its present location is not the original building, but is an exact duplicate of it. The original was at the corner of Main and Monroe streets, built in 1869. It closed in 1923. The current one, at 149 Union Avenue, was built in 1925. It went bankrupt in 1965 and was sold in a foreclosure auction, to the Sheraton Hotels chain. It closed again in 1973. It was sold by the county in 1975 to Edward Hanover, who then sold it to his son-in-law, Jack A.Belz, for the same amount he paid for it-- $400,000.00. Belz spent $25 million renovating it and re-opened it in 1981. This hotel should be remembered for two good reasons: first, that blues musicians of the period were recorded in that hotel in 1929/1930, and second, for the Peabody ducks, a tradition which began in 1933. By the way, the ducks now have had built,  just for them, a “suite” of their own, on the top of the hotel, complete with it’s own staff. The third place to see is the W.C. Handy Home and Museum on Beale Street, a location to which it was moved in 1980, from its original location on Jeanette Place. The fourth place to see is Sun Records, which started out life as the Memphis Recording Service, at 706 Union Avenue. It was founded by Samuel Cornelius “Sam” Phillips on January 3rd.,1950. Next month’s trivia section will be on Sam Phillips and Sun Records. Oh, by the way, these places to see in Memphis are all equally important, so choose your own order.

Some July Blues Passings:
·         July 1st, 1977—Robert Henry “Baby Boy” Warren
·         July 15th, 1997—“Big John” Thomas Wrencher
·         July 27th, 1974—Otis V. “Lightnin” Slim” Hicks
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joe's blues blog june 2015

6/1/2015

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 SOME JUNE BLUES BIRTHS:
·         June 2,1917—Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston, aka “Baby Doo”/”Baby Duke”
·         June 13,1928—Lafayette Earl “The Thing” Thomas
·         June 30,1936—David “Dave” Von Ronk
 ANSWER TO THE MAY 2015 BLUES QUESTION: the bluesman we were looking for is/was Iverson “Red” Minter, aka Playboy Fuller, Cryin’ Red, Iverson Boy, Guitar Red, Richard Lee Fuller, Rockin’ Red,  Walkin’ Slim, Elmore James Jr., and Rocky Fuller. If you look for his recordings however, you’ll find him listed under his best-known name—Louisiana Red. He was possibly born March 23rd.,1936, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, but other sources list his birthplace/date as Bessemer, Alabama, on March 23rd.,1930. Which is correct ?—I don’t know. If you were at that birth, please let me know which is correct. As I stated in the question originally, he had lost both parents by age 5, and lived with his grandmother, in New Orleans, for a short period. At or around the age of 11/12, he lived briefly in Waco, Texas, before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was just 13/14 when he sat in with Muddy Waters, in the late 40’s. He supposedly served a year in the reformatory in 1950(?). He joined the U.S. Army in 1951 and was assigned to the 82nd.Airborne and trained as a parachutist. Part of that unit was transferred to Korea, where he was then attached to the 3rd.Infantry Division. He stayed in the Army until 1958. He returned stateside to Detroit, Michigan, where he would often sit in with John Lee Hooker from late ’58 into ’59. He was then on to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he worked with James Wayne Nighthawks. From there it was on to Brooklyn, New York, where he worked with Jimmy Reed, in the early ‘60’s. From that point, it was southbound, performing in Georgia and Florida into the early ‘70’s. Then, again, early ‘70’s, up into 1981, he toured/performed mostly in the northeastern states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania), with the occasional show in Atlanta. In the mid to late ‘70’s he also toured/performed in Canada, France, Germany, England, Switzerland, and Japan. In 1981 he made Hanover, Germany his home, though he frequently returned to the U.S. to perform at festivals, with occasional club dates and recording work. He passed away February 25th.,2012, in Hanover Germany, after having a stroke which led to a coma. He stated his two main influences were Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins and Jimmy Reed.

 JUNE 2015 BLUES QUESTION: This bluesman taught himself to play the harmonica at the age of 9. At 10 years of age he ran away from home and hoboed throughout the U.S.A., Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, during which he worked mostly outside the music field. He was recorded as a sideman on three different labels and was also recorded in a video of a music festival in Philadelphia. He has been known or recognized as a master of the French harp, a singer and dancer, and as an amazing story-teller. Any idea who this man is/was ??
 BLUES TRIVIA FOR JUNE2015: You’ve probably never heard of a bluesman by the name of Douglas Elijah “Doug” Quattlebaum. He was born January 22nd.,1927, in Florence, South Carolina. Somewhere between the ages of 3 to 5 he would take a stick, put a nail in each end, tie a piece of screen wire (yes, screens were actually made of metal!) to one, stretch it tight, and fasten the other end to the other nail and strum a tune on it. From that he graduated to the home-made “cigar box” guitar that most of the early bluesmen started out with. He got his first real guitar at the age of 14, from his step-father who taught him the only chord he knew, after the family moved to Philadelphia. Most of his early career was as an accompanist to the gospel groups The Haze Quartet, The Charity Gospel Singers, The Bells of Joy gospel singers, The Harlem Gospel Singers, The Ward Singers gospel group, and The Musicalaires gospel group. He was recorded while performing with some of these groups. During this same time, he occasionally worked as a preacher. Enough background—on to the trivia, and there is a lot of it, but it is all tied together. In the early ‘50’s Doug cut several sides for the local Philly label Gotham Records. None of them, at that time, were chart-toppers. Two of those cuts, however, titled “Lizzie Lou” and “Longing For My Baby”, are highly sought-after by blues record collectors today. During the early to late ‘50’s he continued to perform with the various gospel groups and work a “day job”. That job was driving a Mr. Softee ice cream truck in the south side of Philly, often referred to as “the Black Quarter”. He would park his truck in the street, next to the sidewalk, hook up a small amplifier he’d hooked up to the truck, plug in a cheap microphone, and proceed to play the pop music of the day, with an occasional blues song thrown in, all in an effort to build a crowd, which it always did, so he could sell his wares. A man  named Herb Gart heard about Doug, went to hear him, and was impressed. Herb got Doug’s contact info and called a friend of his, Peter J “Pete” Welding, to tell him about Doug. Pete, a Philly native, was working as a journalist for Down Beat magazine, with occasional articles for other magazines, including Rolling Stone. He was putting together a show to feature black musicians playing their “folk music” for local educational FM radio station WHYY. Pete took the info from Herb, got in touch with Doug, and arranged a meeting, which then turned into several. A friend of Pete’s also attended the meets, Kenneth S “Ken” Goldstein, who was also highly impressed with Doug’s musical abilities. Somewhere during those meetings, Doug agreed to do an album, which ended up being produced jointly by Pete and Ken. One of the problems with doing an album is “front money”, which includes studio time, all things related to production and distribution, and possibly wages paid somewhere along the line. Those funds weren’t readily available to them at that time, so Pete somehow found a local Philly businessman who was willing to help. That man was Maurice Strauss, known as “Moe”. Keep that name in mind. Ever heard of Emanuel Rosenfeld or Graham Jackson ? No? You know them as Manny, Moe, and Jack, the founders and owners of a Philly auto parts store. That store is now a national chain known as “Pep Boys”. With everything now in place, they set up a recording date of November 27th.,1961, at the Philly studios of Prestige/ Bluesville. Of note here is that Doug had stated in one of their meetings that his influence in playing was Blind Boy Fuller, a North Carolina bluesman. On this album Doug used the same type of instrument that Blind Boy Fuller had—a National steel-bodied resonator guitar.  In three hours, Mel Kaiser, the recording engineer, recorded 14 songs, 4 of which were Doug’s originals (Sweet Little Woman; Come Back Blues; Love My Baby and Worried Mind Blues), the other 10 were covers or Doug’s interpretations of them, with some of them done in their original style. The album was titled later as “Softee Man Blues”. Another bit of noteworthy trivia here is that Pete Welding moved to Chicago in 1962. With encouragement from Bob Koester, founder/owner of Delmark Records and The Jazz Record Mart, founded Testament Records to record blues artists. One other little bit of trivia—remember my mention of the man who gave Doug his first guitar at the age of 14, his step-father? Well, that man was the brother of Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. Big Boy Crudup is considered to be the father of rock & roll. Three of his songs were “That’s All Right, “My Baby Left Me” and “So Glad You’re Mine”, which were covered by Elvis Presley and became hits for Elvis. No royalties went to Crudup until well after his passing, when his family finally won their lawsuit.

 SOME JUNE BLUES PASSINGS:
·         June  1, 1968—Carl Davis
·         June 16, 1970—Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson
·         June 25, 1971—Elton Island Spivey, aka the Za Zu Girl

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    Joe Vassel

    Proprietor of The Sound of Blue record shop in Kent, Ohio. 

    You are probably familiar with the current crop of blues performers, so the next time you’re at a performance or listening to some sort of broadcast of them, you should wonder and find out what “old-timer” they were/ are influenced by!         


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