Some August Blues Births:
- August 1st. 1931—“Ramblin’ ” Jack Elliot
- August 16th. 1915— Melvin “Lil Son” Jackson
- August 31st. 1938—“Spider” John Koerner
Answer to the July 2015 Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for is/was James “Yank” Rachell, aka “Poor Jim”, born March 16th.,1910, in Brownsville, Tennessee. His first instrument was a mandolin, at the age of 8. By the age of 9 he had taught himself to play it and sometimes worked local gigs with “Hambone” Willie Newbern. Later that year,1919, he teamed up with “Sleepy” John Estes with whom he performed roughly through 1929. The two would, later in their careers, team up again for gigs and to record for a number of different labels. During his career Yank would also team up with John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson (I), Dan Smith, Peetie Wheatstraw (aka The Devil’s Son-in-law), Shirley Griffith and others while working festivals/tours. In his early years, when not performing, he worked sometimes as a farmer, sometimes as a railroad man for the L & N (Louisville-Nashville) Railroad. In 1958 he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, which would be home for the rest of his life, when not touring. He performed all over the U.S.A., Canada, Europe, England, and Germany. He passed away on April 9th.,1997, in Indianapolis, of kidney failure and heart problems. Three little footnotes here. 1st., he played guitar, harmonica, mandolin, and violin. He was known to throw his mandolin in the air and hit the next notes or chord when he caught it. 2nd., about that first instrument and how he got it. His family had given him a pig to raise. When he saw the mandolin for sale, he asked the man “how much to buy it ?”. The man replied $5.00. Yank traded him for the pig. When he got home his mother was upset that he had done that. It has been said that she told Yank “in the Fall when we’re eating pork you can eat that mandolin”. And 3rd., if you read the July Blog, you should have noticed that I stated that he was from Texas. My error, my bad. I was thinking of Brownsville, Texas for some reason. Sorry!
Blues Question for August 2015: This bluesman, from Jonesville, Georgia, played at least 7 different instruments, one of which he invented. He is credited with writing at least 25 songs, some of which have become standards (one of them redone/recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary). He also worked as a tent stretcher, a railroad worker, in movies—both as an extra and as the featured performer, and on various television shows. Any idea who this bluesman is/was ??
Blues Trivia for August 2015: Samuel “Sam” Cornelius Phillips, born January 5th.,1923, on a farm near Florence, Alabama, to tenant farmer parents, the youngest of 8 children. After his father’s death, Sam had to quit Coffee High School, near Florence, to take care of his mother and aunt. He worked in a grocery store and then at a funeral parlor. After that, in the mid to late ‘40’s, he worked at two different radio stations. On January 3rd.,1950, he opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Ave.(the Peabody Hotel is at 149). The Sun Records part wasn’t added until 1952. Since the recording service was intended primarily for amateurs to perform/record, they came from all over. Many of them are names you know today. Some years later Sam was reported as saying “Elvis was the 2nd. best talent I discovered. The best was Howlin’ Wolf”. Some of the other artists who got their start at Sun were B.B.King, Junior Parker, Jackie Brensten and His Delta Cats (led by a 19 year old Ike Turner, to record “Rocket 88”, which referred to the 88 piano keys, not that model of Oldsmobile!), James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, Rosco Gordon, “Little Milton”, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Charlie Rich, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Warren Smith, Sonny Burgess, and Billy Lee Riley, to name a few. Sun produced 226 singles in it’s 16 year existence. In 1955, Sun was having financial difficulties and that’s when Sam sold Elvis’s contract to RCA, for the paltry sum of $35,000. After that sale, Sam started losing his artists. On December 4th.,1956, he had booked a recording session with Jerry Lee Lewis playing piano for a recording of Carl Perkins. Elvis stopped in to visit. Sam saw an opportunity, so he called Johnny Cash and had him come in also. That session was billed as “The Million Dollar Quartet” (we stock that disc). The money Sam got from the sale of Elvis’s contract he invested in a new “start-up” business known as Holiday Inn, a good move, as it enabled Sam to multiply his investment money several times over. Over the years Sam and his family opened up the Sun Studio Café, with locations around Memphis, and then several radio stations around Florence, Georgia. He passed away at St.Francis Hospital, in Memphis, of respiratory failure on July 30th.,2003, one day before Sun Studios was declared a national landmark, and weeks before his former colleague Johnny Cash, on September 12th.,2003. There is a lot more information on Sam than there is room to print here but I tried to give you some of the main points in the room we have. Next month’s trivia is on William Christopher Handy.
Some August Blues Passings:
- August 4th.,2005—James “Little Milton” Campbell
- August 16th.,1938—Robert L. Johnson
- August 26th.,1997 Annie Lockwood (Robert’s first wife)
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