Some July Blues Births:
- July 4th.,1910 -- "Champion Jack" Dupree
- July 17th.,1940 -- Marjorie Ann Johnson, aka "Margie Evans"
- July 27th.,1897 -- Hattie Burleson
Answer To The June 2024 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is James "Jimmy" Walker, born March 8, 1905, in Memphis, Tennessee. The family moved to the South Side of Chicago when he was three. Somewhere in between then and the '20's, he learned piano. By the early '20's he was good enough to be performing with Lonnie Johnson and Leothus "Lee" Green, aka "Pork Chops" (who was a mentor to Roosevelt Sykes) at local dances and rent parties, along with working outside the music field. He did this from the '20's up into the early '30's. He also worked with "Homesick James (John A. Williamson) in the '30's, '40's, and up into the '50's. In the early '50's he toured with Big Joe Williams, playing club dates through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Around '55 he worked with Elmore James at a couple of clubs, and from '55 through '58 he worked with Billy Boy Arnold. He made his first recordings with Erwin Helfer (a then 28 year old) in 1964, released on the Testament label, L.P. # T-2202, with seven tracks on each side. While Willie Dixon was on four tracks, all with Helfer, there were four tracks with Jimmy only, and six tracks with Jimmy and Erwin. It was issued on c.d. in 1994, Testament # TCD-5011, with six added tracks, two being alternate takes, and four being new tracks from the same original recording session. An interesting thing is about track # 17. It's titled in most sources as being "Mean and Exit". Almost everyone who lists it that way has used the same "original source", which is often wrong. The correct title, as you have probably already guessed, is "Mean and Evil". The thing about that track is that the vocal on it is by Lillian Walker, Jimmy's wife. All the songs were recorded in '64, in the Walker's basement apartment, in Chicago. Through the '60's and '70's he worked mostly outside the music field, as a janitor in a South Side apartment building. He recorded with Erwin on the Flying Fish label in '74. That was L.P. # 001, with mastering # of 21709, titled "Blues and Boogie-Woogie Piano: Duets and Solo", and it too, had 14 tracks. Besides Jimmy and Erwin, the only others on it were, on various tracks, Sam Lay and Alvino Bennett, both on drums, one drummer on different tracks, of course. In '76, Jimmy recorded on the Sirens label, album # SR-5002, titled "Heavy Timbre - Chicago Boogie Piano". He was still working club dates until he passed away on October 6, 1997, at the age of 92.
Blues Question For July 2024: This is another blues piano man. His father wanted him to work on the cattle ranch he owned. He was self- taught on the piano, and left home in his teens to work as an itierant pianist in juke joints, bordello's (you should know what those were), barrelhouses, and honky- tonks (tonks) in Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. At the age of 28 he had his own business in the town he finally settled in. He did do some touring and radio shows. Any idea who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For July 2024: The song is "Brutal Hearted Woman", and the artist is Johnny Shines. Johnny did the guitar and vocal, with "Big Walter" "Shakey" Horton on harmonica, and Al Smith on bass. It was recorded January 22, 1953, in Chicago, on the J.O.B. Records label, # JOB- 1010, label # u- 2338. Incidentally, "Shoeshine Johnny's" birth name was John Ned Lee Shines Jr., and Big Walter was also known as Shakey Horton, Mumbles Horton, Tangle Eye, Mumbles. The "Shakey" and "Tangle Eye" most likely came from his involuntary movement of his head, caused by his nystagmus illness, and he hated the "Mumbles " moniker. Oh, and by the way, Willie Dixon said that Horton was the best harmonica player that he'd ever heard, bar none!, -- and that's saying something about Horton's ability on/ with the harmonica !!
Blues Trivia For July 2024: While looking at the above Song Of The Month, I noticed that Big Walter Horton was on that recording. Different sources show his birth year as 1917, 1918, or 1921. It's believed that the 1921 is correct, which would make him six years younger than Johnny, who was born in 1915. Walter could play the harmonica by the age of 5. He was self- taught after his father gave him a harmonica as a gift. He quit school at the age of seven. In his early teens, his family moved to Memphis. Johnny said that when you would walk by the house where Walter lived, he'd be sitting on the porch, blowing into tin cans, and getting sounds that you wouldn't believe, out of them. Shines said that he had met Walter in 1930, in Memphis. It's believed that Walter spent a short time in Chicago in '38, possibly already experimenting with an amplified harmonica. Two others were listening to and watching him perform, so they could work on their styles of playing: those would be Little Walter (Jacobs) and Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller). In the '40's he stopped playing harmonica due to health issues, possibly tuberculosis. In that period he worked as a cook, an iceman, and an undertaker. One time, when asked about that last job, he said, in an interview, that "ten minutes after you die, you turn to your natural color-- black". Also in the '40's he gave lessons to Little Walter and James Cotton. In the '50's he returned to recording, his first one being in '51 with Joe Hill Louis. Eddie Taylor invited him to play in Jimmy Reed's band, so he moved from Memphis to Chicago. A couple of weeks after getting to Chicago, he was invited to join Muddy Waters' band, after Junior Wells was drafted into the U.S.Army in late'52. He was with the band only long enough to record one session with them, in January of '53. Horton was fired by Muddy in late '53, because of his drinking (heavy) and his unreliability (not showing up for gigs with the band). Muddy had done some checking, and found out that Horton had been doing solo shows at the times he was supposed to be at a gig with Muddy's band. That, evidently, was the "last straw". He was replaced by a young but inexperienced harmonica player, who did show some promise. That was Henry "Pot" Strong. Now, here's the real trivia part: Strong and his girlfriend lived in the same apartment building that Muddy Waters lived in. Strong, during an argument with his jealous girlfriend, was stabbed by her with a pair of scissors. He died at age 26 (9/1/1928 - 6/3/1954), in the back seat of Muddy Waters' car, on the way to the hospital.
Some July Blues Passings:
- July 2nd.,1994 -- Marion W. Williams
- July 17th.,1984 -- Mary Elizabeth "Bessie" Jones
- July 26th.,2013 -- John Weldon "J.J." Cale
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