Some November Blues Births
- November 3rd.,1943-- Bert Jansch
- November 19th.,1908-- Willie Anderson "Smokey" Hogg (not to be confused with Andrew "Smokey" Hogg, Isaac Hogg, or John Hogg, all of whom were guitarists and from Texas)
- November 29th.,1894-- Lucille Hegamin, born as Lucille Nelson, aka Fanny Baker
Answer To The October 2016 Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for is/was Freddie Spruell, aka Papa Freddie or Mr. Freddie, born December 28th.,1893, probably in Lake Providence, Louisiana. He is regarded as the first Delta bluesman to be recorded, though he, as a boy, had moved to Chicago with his family. He is regarded as a Delta bluesman because he played in the style of the music he had heard in his youth, before the move to Chicago. The distinction of being the first two to record blues vocals goes to Mamie Smith, who recorded in August, 1920, and "Blind" Lemon Jefferson, who recorded in March, 1926. The first song Freddie recorded, "Muddy Water Blues" on the OKeh label, #9908A, on June 25th.,1926, in Chicago. His second recorded song, "Milk Cow Blues", same label, same town, but on November 17th.,1926, was #9793A. He recorded both as "Papa Freddie". Both were released as #8122. He would, later, record on the Paramount and Bluebird labels, though he only recorded over a nine year period. A couple of things about his early recordings-- "Milk Cow Blues" is generally considered by blues historians and fans to have been first written and recorded by "Sleepy" John Estes on May 13th.,1930, in Memphis. Another "oops" in blues facts. By the way, that song has been covered by many people and should be familiar to you. Some of those are Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Eddie Cochran(Summertime Blues), just to name a few. Another song, recorded on April 12th.,1935, in Chicago, with the featured artist shown as "Sugar Cane Johnny"(Ellis), had Freddie as the guitarist and "Washboard Sam"(Robert Brown) on washboard. That song was titled as "Who Pumped The Wind In The Doughnuts?". That song was originally recorded in New York City on January 6th.,1933, and was titled as "Mama's Doughnut", performed by "Spark Plug Smith". A few months after the 1935 version by Sugar Cane Johnny, it was recorded by Washboard Sam and re-titled again as "Who Pumped The Wind In My Doughnut", and was a hit for Sam. In the late 1920's Freddie met and married his lifetime wife. She said, in an interview years after Freddie's passing, that the last time he played was for his mother's birthday, and that his mother asked him to stop playing blues and return to the church, which he did. By 1945 he was a preacher in a Baptist church, but didn't do so often, and he never played in church. He passed away on June 19th.,1956, in Chicago, after a prolonged hospital stay. No death certificate has ever been found. One odd thing about Freddie is that he always used a 12-string guitar, where almost all other Delta bluesmen used either a 4 or 6-string guitar.
Blues Question For November 2016: this bluesman learned guitar at the age of 17, from some of the early greats in blues. He would later go on to teach and sometimes play with the latest greats. He made his first recordings at the age of 57. He's not well-known because he didn't like to travel to perform. Any ideas who this bluesman is ??
Blues Trivia For November 2016: if you read the October 2016 Trivia section, you'll remember that it covered the ABCO, Cobra, and Aritocrat labels and that it gave a start to some of the blues greats. One of those listed was "Magic Sam" Maghett, who made his first hit record, "All Your Love", in May of 1957 (featuring Willie Dixon on bass). Now we'll cover some of the trivia around Sam. His first actual recording session was backing Morris Pejoe on "Screaming and Crying" and "Maybe Blues", on the short-lived ABCO label in May of 1956. Sam would first record under his own name on the fore-mentioned "All Your Love", which was recorded on the Cobra label a few months later. Sam was drafted into the U.S.Army in 1959, and promptly deserted, which netted him six months in the stockade(jail) and a dishonorable discharge. He "rehabilitated" himself in the early 1960's and became a sought-after performer. He toured quite a bit with Charlie Musselwhite. Sam's uncle and part-time manager was "Shakey Jake" Harris. At the time Sam recorded for ABCO and Cobra records he used the pseudonym "Good Rocking Sam", but changed that to Magic Sam, which was suggested by his longtime friend and current bass player, Mack Thompson. The reason for the change being that another performer, a blues and rhythm and blues singer went by the "Good Rocking Sam" moniker. His real name was Sam Beasley, and he recorded on the Excello label, usually with the Kid King Combo, out of Memphis
Some November Blues Passings
- November 2nd.,1966-- "Mississippi" John Smith Hurt
- November 18th.,1971-- Herman "Little Junior" Parker
- November 26th.,1978-- Beverly "Bev" Jean Hill, aka "Big Mama Bev"
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