Some July Blues Births:
- July 4th., 1943-- Alan Christie "Blind Owl" Wilson
- July 19th., 1940-- Fred Eugene Martin, aka Little Freddie King
- July 23rd., 1946-- Percy Lee Strother
Answer To The June 2020 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is Eugene "Buddy" Moss, born January 16, 1914 (some sources show the year as 1906), in Jewell, Georgia, one of 12 children. When he was 4, his family moved to Augusta, where he remained for the next 10 years. At an early age he taught himself how to play the harmonica. By 1928 he was busking in the streets of Atlanta, where he was noticed by Curley Weaver (aka Slim Gordon) and "Barbecue Bob" (Robert Hicks), who then mentored him. On December 7, 1930 he went with them, to record for Columbia Records, at the Campbell Hotel in Atlanta. They recorded 4 songs, with Barbecue Bob and Weaver on guitars and Moss on harmonica, as the "Georgia Cotton Pickers". He wouldn't record again until '33, and by that time he had learned how to play guitar. Bob died October 21, 1931. Since the two had been performing together up 'till then, he needed to find another partner, which he did: that was Blind Willie McTell, with whom he performed at house parties around Atlanta. In January of '33, he went to New York City, to record for/ on the ARC label. Over a four day period, he recorded 11 songs, accompanied by Curley Weaver and Fred McMullen. Also, during those sessions, playing harmonica, he accompanied Weaver, McMullen, and vocalist Ruth Willis, recording as The Georgia Browns. September of '33 saw him return to New York City, with Weaver and McTell. With Weaver, he recorded some of his own songs, and accompanied the two on their recordings. By mid-'34, his records were outselling both Weaver's and McTell's. Then he teamed up with a new recording partner, Joshua "Josh" White, who recorded as " The Singing Christian". By mid-'35, his recordings had become so popular that his recording fee went from $5.00 to $10.00 a song. In mid-August, Buddy and Josh recorded 15 songs. This was shortly before his legal problems started, when he was arrested, tried, and convicted of the shooting death of his wife, and sentenced to a long prison term. There have been arguments since the trial, about the validity of the whole case-- evidence, trial, the sentence, all of it. What we need to remember here is that, since Blind Blake died in '32 and Blind Boy Fuller died in '41, the recordings of Moss and White, from '33 through '35, are the basis or the big link to the start of the Piedmont blues style development. In '41, J.B. Long, Fuller's manager, petitioned to get Moss released from prison, to fill the gap left by Fuller's death. He was assisted in those efforts by Columbia Records. The effort was successful. In '41, while working for Long, at Elon College, which was part of his parole agreement, Moss met Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. In October of '41, the three went to New York City to record for Columbia. Of the 13 songs they recorded, only 3 were released. In December of '41, the U.S. entered WW II. Because of that, shellac was an item that was rationed, since it was termed as a war material. Since that is what records were made of, that postponed the musical careers of all but the top performers of the time, who could still be allowed the material to make their records. That put Buddy's career on hold for slightly more than 20 years. In '64, Buddy heard that his old partner, Josh White, was performing at Emory University, in Atlanta. He went to visit him, backstage, and White persuaded him to perform together for other college audiences. White also got Buddy a contract to record for Columbia, in Nashville. Buddy went on to perform at many festivals, mostly in the Eastern states. He passed away October 19, 1984, in Atlanta.
Blues Question For July 2020: This bluesman is another of those who didn't quite get the recognition that he should have, both for his voice and the feeling with which he sang. Most often he worked as a sideman, but did do some recording as the frontman. Any ideas on who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For July 2020: The song is "My Grandpa Is Old, Too!", and the artist is Sam Lightnin' Hopkins. The only info I have on it's history is that it first shows up on Bluesville LP #1045, released in 1962. Thought you could use a couple of chuckles hearing the lyrics !
Blues Trivia For July 2020: While going through materials on Buddy Moss, I saw that most of his early recordings, 1930 to 1941, were shown to be on either the Columbia/OKeh label, or ARC. ARC, if you'll remember from an earlier blog, had control of many labels, and determined who got released on what label. The cd that we stock here is a collection of 23 tracks from throughout his career, on the Wolf label. Wanting to find more of his early works, I found listed Travelin' Man Records, which, along with Flyright, Krazy Kat, and Magpie, are trademark labels of Interstate Music,Ltd., out of East Sussex, England. Travelin' Man was started in 1983, and their first LP was TM-800, Buddy Moss: Georgia Blues. In '84, they issued a second one, TM-802, Buddy Moss: Red River Blues (Vol.2). The first one covered 1930-1935, the second one covering 1933-1941. Of note here is that the Vol.2 version was taken off an LP from Kokomo Records, a U.S. company, #K-1003, which was manufactured in 1968. There were only 99 copies pressed. Kokomo Records specialized in pre- WW II recordings. They were only in business from 1967 into 1971. They released a total of 7 different LP's, all re-issues of earlier recordings. In 1990, Travelin' Man started to release some cd compilations of some of their LP's. Their fifth one #TMCD-05 is Buddy Moss: 1930 - 1941, and is of some of the songs on the 2 LP's of him that they did. They produced a total of 9 different cd's, with one of them, Son House, getting two different cd's, both identical in content and information, the difference being that the first one was manufactured in France, as were all their cd's, withe the exception of one other. The second Son House was manufactured in the Czech Republic. The only difference I see is that the one in France had a blue backround on the liner notes cover and on the disc itself. The one from the Czech Republic was yellow in the same places. The other one from the Czech factory is TMCD-09 "I Can Eagle Rock", a compilation of Chicago Blues from 1940--'41, also done in yellow. This was Travelin' Man's final release of any kind, and that was in 1996. Since, in some of the past blogs, I've said that a lot of the earlier bluesmen had been in prison, I'm gonna' throw in a couple of tidbits, one on blues, one on folk musics: tidbit #1- we stock a cd done of Jimmy Reed's songs, by Bill Cosby. And here's the real zapper-- we don't stock this budding folk singer/songwriter/guitarist's LP's or cd's, but we can order them for you-- that would be Charles Manson (by law, the proceeds from those sales go toward restitution to the victims families) and I don't think he's related to Marilyn).
Some July Blues Passings:
- July 4th.,1977-- Earl Bell
- July 13th.,1979-- Lesley "Esley" Riddle
- July 24th.,1997-- Bob Gaddy
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