Some November Blues Births:
- November 4th.,1943 -- James "Boo Boo" Davis
- November 16th.,1931 -- Hubert Sumlin
- November 26th.,1939 -- Travis "Moonchild" Haddix. Hey Travis-- long time - no see ! Joe and Lee
Answer To The October 2024 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is Clifford "Grandpappy" Gibson, born April 17, 1901, in Louisville, Kentucky, to parents William and Letha Gibson. Another source shows it being on April 11 (possibly a smudge on that person's source copy) in Walnut Bottom, which is west of Louisville. He is shown with an "aka" of "Sluefoot Joe", but that's incorrect. That aka belonged to Ed Bell, and the two of them recorded together, with Ed doing the vocals and Clifford backing him on guitar. In the late '20's the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. By then, Clifford had gotten good enough on vocals and guitar that he performed in local and close-by clubs from the late '20's into the early '30's. His first recordings were the forementioned ones with Ed (as Sluefoot Joe), in Long Island City, in New York City, for/ on the Q S R (and Paramount) labels, in April of '29. Gibson recorded under his own name in June of '29. On November 26,1929, and December 10,1929, he recorded on the Victor label in New York City. One interesting track recorded in that November 26th. session was "Don't Put That Thing On Me", a song about Hoodoo, which is an African- American form of "folk music". If you're any kind of blues fan, you should be familiar with the "Hoodoo thing". Besides, it's right in line timewise with the October/ November rollover, so, Happy Halloween, and we hope you all have had a good one! Anyhow, in June of '31 Clifford recorded once again on the Victor label, but this time it was in Louisville, Kentucky, as a session guitarist, backing different lead artists, such as R.T. Hanan (believed to actually be J.D. Short), Jimmy Strange, Willie Kelly (who is actually Roosevelt Sykes), and an unissued at that time, single track with Jimmie Rodgers (the "Singing Brakeman"). That song was "Let Me Be Your Sidetrack". It was later issued on Document C.D. # BDCD- 6015. On December 18,1951, he recorded two tracks on the Baul Records label, in St.Louis, unissued at the time. In 1989 those two tracks were issued on an L.P., titled "Times Are So Tight", on the Swingtime label out of Denmark, album # BT 2017. They were later included on Document Records # DOCD 5619. In 1960 he recorded three tracks on Little Milton's (Campbell) Bobbin label, in St.Louis, to be released on 7" 45 rpm records.Other than that, Clifford worked as an itinerant street musician, with a trained dog, for tips. He did work at Gaslight Square in St.Louis for another three years. He was admitted to the Homer G. Phillips Hospital, where, on December 21,1963, at 3:50 A.M., he passed away from pulminary edema (excess fluid in the lungs). His body was donated to a local med center. His remains are buried at the Anatomical Board Cemetery in St.Louis. Incidentally, the two songs he's known for are "Bad Luck Dice" and "Hard Headed Blues". If you ever see the picture that was taken of him for a record release cover ad, notice his exceedingly long fingers. It's said that's why he got the sounds out of his guitar that he did.
Blues Question For November 2024: This bluesman put in a lot of effort to learn to play and sing the blues. As with many early players who moved around a lot, he played the easy to carry guitar and mandolin, while often working other jobs. His recording career is almost non- existent under his own name, but he did record with many others as a sideman. He was a large influence to many early players. Any idea who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For November 2024: The song is "The Telephone Is Ringing", and the artist is Connie Curtis "Pee Wee" Crayton. The original recording was done and issued in September of 1956 on Vee Jay Records, # VJ- 214. After several days searching through the Clemson University's "The Early Years of Vee Jay; 1954- 1961", I found that Vee Jay recorded all types of musics, using different numbering systems at times, with an order clear to the owners only., so all research one does is to read the entire listing, one line at a time, and in no chronological or genre order or artist order. What I finally found was that it was Pee Wee on vocals and lead guitar, Red Holloway on tenor sax, Mac Easton on baritone sax, Horace Palm on piano, Quinn Wilson on string bass, and Paul Gusman on drums. WHEW !!
Blues Trivia For November 2024: Did you know that the Peacock Records label, started in '49 in Houston by Don Roby, was named after his bar -- The Bronze Peacock ? The "Jiffy" label, started by Jiffy Fowler, in West Monroe, Louisiana, recorded six tracks by "Papa" Lightfoot, but never issued them. In fact, that label only ever issued eight tracks total, by four different artists.The "QRS" label mentioned in the Answer section of this month's blog supposedly used the same recording studio as Paramount, but selling records was only to get a bigger market share. That company, originally started in 1900, made piano rolls and the pianos to go with them, and designed them to accept and play rolls made by their competitors, most of whom, they bought out along the way. The factual source of the "QRS" name is unknown to this day, but was possibly from the words in their ads: Quality Reel Service. They were the only manufacturer of piano rolls who had figured out how to punch the rolls directly off the artist playing the song at that instant, live, and developed the way to do it. Some of the great artists who used this service and system have said that "that's the first time I've heard myself play". That's beause no other roll manufacturers, who punched their rolls off copies of sheet music, could match all the little personal nuances that their live punching captured. By the time QRS got into making records, they had grown considerably, as they had bought out most all of their competitors, taking over some of their facilities, buildings, workers, and closing some others. Founded in Chicago, but due to rapid growth, expanded to San Francisco, then opened a 5-story plant/ office building in The Bronx, NY. It was later moved to Buffalo. Over the years, QRS recorded 11,060 different rolls, physical count of sales well into the millions. All of this gave root to another theory of where the QRS name came from: that the company's mailbox at the post office was R, and that there was so much volume to it that the overflow went int the Q and S boxes next to it. Enough whacko trivia for this edition.
Some November Blues Passings:
And a remembrance and in recognition to our friend Robert Lockwood Jr., who passed away on November 21, 2006. We honor your memory and achievements.
- November 8th.,1983 -- "Little" James Corroll Booker
- November 18th.,1973 -- Luther Henry Huff
- November 24th.,1993 -- Albert "the Iceman" Collins
And a remembrance and in recognition to our friend Robert Lockwood Jr., who passed away on November 21, 2006. We honor your memory and achievements.
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