Some April Blues Births:
- April 4th.,1952 -- Robert William Gary Moore, aka Gary Moore
- April 12th.,1923 -- Dr. Harry Oster
- April 29th.,1941 -- Frankie Lee Jones, aka Little Frankie Lee
Answer To The March 2025 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is Cecil Gant, born April 4, 1913, in Columbia, Tenessee (originally a 4 block area of Nashville on the banks of the Duck River), and there is no record of his parents names, but Cecil, along with older brother Ernest, were moved with/by their mother, to Cleveland, Ohio, to live with and be raised by their grandparents. It's thought that their mother moved back to Nashville to live among friends. By the mid- 30's he had a band of his own with which he toured, and also performed as a single musician in Nashville. He did that until he joined the U.S. Army, was assigned to the Quartermaster Corp., after performing at a war bond rally in Los Angeles, California. Being stationed there gave him the opportunity to record his song "I Wonder", on the black- owned Bronze Records label. When that recording started to gain in popularity, he re-recorded it on the newly- formed, white owned Gilt - Edge record label. On that label it was released under the name "Pvt. Cecil Gant, the G.I. Sing- Sation". All of his later releases on that label were listed the same way. Since he was stationed there, he was able to work local gigs, while also promoting war bonds up into the mid- '40's. He also recorded for the King Records label in Cincinnati, Ohio. He recorded for the Bullet Records label of Nashville up to '49. The co-founder of Bullet was Jim Bulleit, who said about Cecil "He drank too much. He would say "I want to do a session", when he ran out of money. We would get a bass player and a guitarist, find and get him a piano. I'd go sit in the control room and he'd tinkle around on it, then he'd say "I'm ready", and tap that bottle; if we didn't get it the first time, we didn't get it, because he couldn't remember what he did. He'd dream up and write a song while he sat there, and he'd give me the title of it. And the uniqueness of it was that all of them sold ". He returned to Los Angeles and recorded for the Downbeat and Swing Time labels, prior to his move to New Orleans, Louisiana, to record for the Imperial label, in 1950. Diminishing sales by both Bullet and Cecil, led to a 1950 recording by him credited to Gunter Lee Carr, which was a hit, titled "We're Gonna Rock". You can listen to that one on youtube under Cecil's name -- it will not appear under the Carr name. While in Nashville and preparing for a gig in Clarksdale, Mississippi, it was said that he died of pneumonia, but it's believed that it was from a heart attack, possibly from his alcoholism. He had been taken to Hubbard Hospital, admitted, and that's where he passed on February 4, 1951. His remains were shipped to Cleveland, where he was buried in the Highland Park Cemetery, which was the cemetery used for/ by African- Americans during those years.
Blues Question For April 2025: This bluesman is kind of an oddity, as he was born in Chicago, not far from Maxwell Street. Typical for a bluesman of / in the '50's and '60's period, he spent two years in the Cook County jail, convicted of an assualt charge, I believe. He performed with and was an influence to many of the Chicago bluesmen you would be familiar with. He's also one of those who met an unfortunate end. He was active for many years before that happened. Any idea who this bluesman might be ??
artistBlues Song(s) And Artist(s) For April 2025: The song is "Sinful Woman" and the arrtist is Elmore James. It was recorded on November 22, 1952, in Chicago, on Meteor Records # 5002 (the "B" side), and it was released in April 1953, as Meteor # 5003. The "A" side was Meteor # 5000 -- titled "Baby, What's Wrong". Elmore played lead guitar and did vocals, with J.T.Brown on tenor sax, Johnny Jones on piano, Ransom Knowling on bass, and Odie Payne on drums. You might remember Elmore better if you've heard a song he wrote and recorded in 1959 -- "The Sky Is Crying", which he came up with, on the spot, because it was pouring down rain there in Chicago during his studio time, and it's been covered by many artists ever since.
Blues Trivia For April 2025: I keep finding that not all that long ago, it was difficult for an African-American to be taken in at a lot of hospitals. When Cecil had his heart attack and was put in the hospital, it was in Hubbard Hospital and Meharry Medical College, founded and named after a retired Union soldier who recognized the need for a teaching and functional college for African- Americans. When I was looking into the Cecil Gant recording of "We're Gonna Rock" credited under the Carr name, I thought it was to avoid problems with the Imperial recordings. Turns out, that was way off base, but there were so many things that happened at and with Bullet and Jim Bulleit (who was one of the original partners at Sun Records), that it would take another whole blog to cover that story, so we'll move on.
Some April Blues Passings:
- April 7th., 2024 -- Clarence "Frogman" Henry
- April 24th., 2015 -- Frankie Lee Jones, aka Little Frankie Lee
- April 29th., 1990 -- Samuel David "Sammy" Lawhorn
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