Some November Blues Births:
- November 1st.,1903—Don Deadrick Robey
- November 13th.,1965—Candye Kane
- November 29th.,1932—John Mayall, whose wife Maggie, also a musician, who, years ago, performed with Debbie Davies, and currently manages John’s bookings and career
Answer to the October 2015 Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for was/is John Pickens “Bobo” Jenkins, born January 7th.,1916, in Forkland, Alabama. By the age of 5 he was singing in the choir of the family church. At the age of 11, he formed his own gospel quartet and performed in local churches, at local funerals, and at “friendship” schools (those were/are schools that show no discrimination to students, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, religion, etcetera). In his twelfth year he ran away from home ending up, at that time, in Memphis, Tennessee, and worked outside the music field. He hoboed through Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas through the 1930’s. He worked with Sonny Boy Williamson at KFFA radio, in Helena, on the King Biscuit Time show in 1941. He joined the army in 1942. When he was discharged in 1944, he settled in Detroit, Michigan, where he worked for Packard and also managed a garage. He then went on to work for Chrysler for 27 years, which he said is where he wrote almost all his songs while listening to the rhythm of the assembly line machines. He learned guitar and harmonica in the late 1940’s. Bobo was a gifted and poetic songwriter. He wrote his first song “Democrat Blues”, on Election Day in 1952. With the assistance of another Detroit bluesman, a John Lee Hooker, he recorded it in 1954 for Chess Records, basically to voice his displeasure with people voting for Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, to be president, the first Republican to do so in 20 years. He was outspoken about the way government people were doing things as he later wrote “Watergate Blues”. The song “Democrat Blues” is the one he is best known for. The labels he recorded for were Chess, Fortune, Boxer, and his own—Big Star. In the 1970’s he owned/operated “Fort Boulevard Recreation Bowling Alley and Bar”. Hollywood stars have nothing on him—he was married 10 times, the first one at the age of 14!! He passed away on August 15th.,1984, at the age of 68, in Detroit, of high blood pressure and diabetes.
Blues Question for November 2015: this bluesman, though he recorded on 5 labels, is not well known and there was/is not a lot of his work recognized. He worked both in the music field and outside of it. One of his most notable recordings is “Texas Flood”, though he is not the original artist who recorded it, nor is Stevie Ray Vaughan. Any idea who this bluesman is/was ??
Blues Trivia for November 2015: as mentioned in the Blues Births section, an artist, not well known to some, Candye Kane started out her musical career at USC’s music conservatory’s junior opera program, but she found that she didn’t care for opera and dropped out. From there she got into the punk rock scene in the early 1980’s. She became friends with the artists and went on to perform with some of them. Some of those bands were popular at that time. Included in that list were Black Flag, Social Distortion, The Circle Jerks, Los Lobos, The Blasters, and Lone Justice. In 1985 she signed with CBS on a developmental deal, billed as a country performer. CBS dropped her when they found out about her earlier work as a stripper, an adult model, and an adult film star. In the years 1983 through 1985, she was featured in over 150 videos and/or magazines. In 1986 while still writing songs, she accidentally discovered the blues of Big Maybelle, Big Mama Thornton, Etta James, Bessie Smith, and Ruth Brown. Candye has written 7 songs that have been used in T.V. shows and movies. She performs/tours worldwide over 250 days each year. You can often hear her music on “B.B. King’s Bluesville” on XM radio. The trivia part is that in March of 2008 she revealed that she was diagnosed with having pancreatic cancer. On April 18th.,2008 she had surgery to resect it, and in August 2009, she performed in Dublin, Ireland for the World Congress on Down’s Syndrome, with their United by Music charity. After having a “rough and tumble” youth, she is now an activist and philanthropist for many and varied causes. She performs in the basic style of the women singers that I listed earlier, who she had “discovered”. Check her out!!
Some November Blues Passings:
- November 3rd.,1964—John Henry Barbee
- November 14th.,1969—Rev. Rubin (Ruben) “Rube” Lacy
- November 22nd.,1987—Luke “Long Gone” Miles (he was given that nickname by the man who basically took him in and taught him—Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins)
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