Some February Blues Births:
- February 2nd.,1901 -- Walter Vinson
- February 16th.,1951 -- James "Super Chikan" Johnson
- February 23rd.,1910 -- Lottie "The Wolf" Murrell
Answer To The January 2025 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is Leroy Washington, born March 1, 1932 in Palmetto, Louisiana, a small farming community, just a little to the north and east of Opelousas, Louisiana, to parents John and Evelyn, who separated shortly after his younger brother Sidney was born. Then the two boys lived with their mother and her common-law husband Milton Bottom. Leroy picked up a guitar in his early teens and was self- taught. When he was a little older, he quit school and went to work on the railroad, to help his mother, who was, by then, raising the two boys by herself. Years later, his first cousin Albert Davis, who later in his own life would become a blues and Zydeco player, recalled that, in their youth, growing up together, he would go to visit his "Auntie" (Evelyn Washington), and said that Leroy was "always foolin' with that guitar". When he got good enough, he decided he wanted to be a musician full time, and left the railroad job. He teamed up with local drummer Chuck Martin, and the pair played in the white nightclubs, just drums and a guitar. They used to call Leroy "The Guitar Wizard". Davis said that his father, referring to back then, said to him "I never seen a man play lead and bass at the same time". Albert also said that he tried to take lessons from Leroy a couple of times, but "he was too fast and I couldn't keep up". Leroy spent most of his life in Opelousas, as it was one of those areas where you could hear and see live music seven nights a week. Jam sessions were big. On Monday it was at "Blues Paradise", on Tuesday it was at the "Hollywood Inn", on Wednesday at was at the "Blue Goose", and on Thursday it was at "Gabriel's Place". Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was "wide open" everywhere, according to Roscoe Chenier, a blues singer and guitarist, and Leroy's cousin. Davis also rembered that Mondays at the "Blues Paradise" were called "Blue Monday", where Leroy would hold court each week, attracting a large throng of fans and other musicians. One of those fans would come down from Baton Rouge, a teenager with no transportation. He would hitchhike the roughly 65 miles, just to watch and learn from Leroy. He would become a recognised bluesman later on. His name was George "Buddy" Guy. The really striking thing about Leroy that everyone seemed to remember was his guitar playing skills, at the top of the list of the great ones who had come from that area. Chenier said "he could play enough guitar that you'd swear that it was an orchestra. He played so many chords, man, and fast. He could do all that Mexican and Spanish stuff too. I asked him, I said Leroy, where'd you learn that stuff ? He said "right there, sittin' on the porch" ". Yeah, he could play, man. He could run chords, like big band orchestra chords. And he was self- taught. Oh, he was good, Leroy was a monster". Guitar Gable (Perrodin), who was quite good at the time, around the mid-'50's, also said about Leroy that "he was a nice, quiet fellow, and he was a hell of a guitar player. He could play, boy, could he play!". Knowing that Gable had been recording for J.D.Miller's Excello label for awhile, Leroy called him and asked him to set up an audition for him. He got a call back telling him when to be there. After the audition, J.D. told him to call back when he wanted to record. This is in 1958, and he called Gable and told him he had written a couple of songs he wanted to record. One turned out to be Leroy's biggest hit, "Wild Cherry", flip side being "Be Kind". If you listen to this, you have to hear the original release of it, as there is a later version of it most often the one you can find, and it's nothing like the originally released one. Incidentally, Guitar Gable played on both recordings, but I could find no listing of the other players on them, but listening to it, you'll know they were all good. Albert Davis lived in Lake Charles from '61 on, and said it was a hotbed for blues seven nights a week. Davis said that Leroy would play clubs there, using a big, old Fender amp he'd bought. He'd play them big chords off that, and they would say "that man's knockin' the boards off the walls". That's how bad Leroy would get 'em! But every time a guitar player was needed, he was never out of work. Leroy was playing in Lake Charles with another musician from Opelousas, "Good Rockin' Bob"(Ed Thomas), a bass player, singer, and band leader. That group was scheduled to play the last weekend of June in 1962, at the "Big Casino" club in Leesville, which was a popular spot with Black soldiers from nearby Fort Polk. The club was in a historically Black section of town called "The Crossing". Toward the end of Saturday's performance, Leroy was singing and had an aneurism, a broken blood vessel in his head. He was rushed across the street to his hotel room, where he was laid down --- a mistake, as the high blood pressure he had caused a fatal heart attack, June 30,1962. Davis remembered that besides being a highly respected and admired musician, he was also a good- natured and well- loved human being. Leroy lived with two or three women, but he wasn't married to none of them. I'll tell you what, man, Leroy had a bunch of women, you know-- friends, and I never seen so many women visit a casket, and bust out crying. You could tell everyone was in love with him. Every one of them women would bust out crying when they passed by the casket. He wasn't no problem guy. When his tombstone was finally located in Little Zion Baptist Cemetery in Opelousas, it was written in the ancient Biblical language of Phoenician Hebrew. I'll try to explain a lot of this in the Blues Trivia section.
Blues Question For February 2025: This is another obscure bluesman, even more so than the last few that I've covered. The old college die hards who followed the blues and this man hold him in high esteem. I couldn't dig up much info on him, save for an almost 50 year old interview. He recorded on several different labels from '70 to '79, the last one being an album on his own label. Here's one little clue -- he was born in South Carolina. Any idea on who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song (s) And Artist (s) For February 2025: The song is "We're Ready" and the main featured artist is Amos "Junior" Wells. The song was recorded for an album called "Hoodoo Man Blues" on Delmark Records, #DL- 612 (mono) and DS- 612 (stereo). It was recorded in Chicago on September 22 & 23, 1965, and released in November. It was recorded by Stu Black, and featured Junior Wells on vocals and harmonica, "Friendly Chap" (Buddy Guy, listed that way because of a supposed contract with Chess records, which was later found to be not in force ) on guitar, Jack Myers on bass, and Billy Warren on drums. Just so you know, Buddy's amp broke, so his guitar was wired to the amp for the organ, which is why you get some strange sounds on different songs on the album.
Blues Trivia For February 2025: These are some of the things found in the search for info on Leroy Washington. Not sure when or where I found Leroy's name listed but it had to be when tracking another old artist, and not finding anything on Leroy at the time. Most of what's included in this month's blog came from a featured article of Living Blues magazine of the December 2012 issue, called "Lost Blues Files", by Gene Tomko, a man who has dedicated his life to finding all info on all Louisiana musicians of the jazz, blues, cajun, creole, zydeco, swamp pop, and gospel musics. He has written a book called The Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians, with over 1600 entries. I interspersed some info from some of the researching I've done, and blended in some loose notes from other sources. Leroy passed away in Leesville, close to Fort Polk. When I was in the Army, outside the C.O.'s office was a list of "Off Limits" places. Those were the ones I'd always go to, as a lot of them had live music, usually blues or jazz. 'Course, if the M.P.'s or S.P.s' caught you, you were in trouble when you got back to base. The reason Living Blues got involved in tracking down info on Leroy, was that there were many other short, sparse, and sometimes incorrect info, such as when he actually passed. Also, between '58 and '61, he recorded more than 30 tracks for Miller, but none had the success of "Wild Cherry". You'd have to read the article/ story yourself to see that there was far more involved than what I've listed. If you want to listen to the original recording/ release on your own : under your search enter Wild Cherry Leroy Washington youtube. That'll bring up several pictures of the record, so look for the one that shows a small orange square on the right side of that listihg. Click on that listing and it should give you the original release, along with a pictoral about the song and Leroy. Good Luck!!
Just a note: I've ordered that encyclopedia written by Gene Tomko, and another by a different author, Peter Krampert, The Encyclopedia of Harmonica, Players and Songs, about 900 entries
Just a note: I've ordered that encyclopedia written by Gene Tomko, and another by a different author, Peter Krampert, The Encyclopedia of Harmonica, Players and Songs, about 900 entries
Some February Blues Passings:
- February 7th.,2000 -- David Jack "Dave" Peverett, aka "Lonesome Dave"
- February 18th.,1995 -- Edward Earl "Eddie" Williams
- February 25th.,2012 -- James Wesley "Red" Holloway
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