Some September Blues Births:
- September 1st.,1928-- Frank "Honeyboy" Patt
- September 16th.,1925-- Riley"B.B." King
- September 24th.,1924-- Alden "Allen" Bunn
Answer to the August 2016 Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for was/is William Paden Hensley, better known as "Washboard Willie", born July 24th.,1909, in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. The family moved shortly thereafter to Columbus, Georgia. There, by the age of six, he had mastered the drums. In those early years he went to tent, vaudeville, and minstrel shows. He sometimes performed around the area, but not professionally, on drums. Influenced by what he had seen at those shows, somewhere between 1932 and 1940, he bought a wooden framed, steel washboard. To it he attached a 4" frying pan and part of an old dog leash (to be able to suspend it from his neck). Then, using eight metal thimbles, he beat out songs. The pan, he thought, gave it a better sound. In 1945 he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked washing cars at a local dealership. In 1952 he and a friend went looking to find a local blues musician named John Lee Hooker. Instead, who they found first, playing at the Harlem Inn, was Eddie "Guitar" Burns and his band. After listening to a few songs, Willie realized that the drummer was playing "off-time". Willie went out to his car, got his washboard, returned to the club, and started to play in time with the band. After he had finished playing the second song the club owner came over and booked him to play the coming weekend. It ended up with Willie and the Eddie Burns band playing there for three years. Willie's first recordings were as a sideman, with The Eddie "Guitar" Burns Band, in 1953, on the DeLuxe label of Detroit. Somewhere around that time, while working at his day job washing cars, he came up with the name for his own band--" Washboard Willie and The Suds of Rhythm" (sometimes you'll find them listed as The Super Suds of Rhythm). The name came from a laundry soap of the time, which he might have been using at his job. When they were performing in 1955, he gave "Little Sonny" Willis his start (you'll find Little Sonny listed in an earlier blog). Willie first recorded under his own name, Washboard Willie and the Suds of Rhythm, in 1956, on the J-V-B label (named after Joe Von Battle, one of the first black record producers). During his recording career, which spanned from 1953 through 1973, he recorded on the DeLuxe, J-V-B, VON, Blue Lake, Dot, Modern, Knowles, Excello, Herculon, Barrelhouse, Drummond, and Big Bear/Polydor labels. Some of those were under his own name, while others were with him as a sideman for Baby Boy Warren, Lena Hall, Louise Jackson, Henry Smith and His Blue Flames, Calvin Frazier, and Brother Will Hairston. Though most of his work was in Detroit, he did play at the Monterey Jazz Fest in California, recorded in Chicago, and toured England and Europe with The American Blues Legends in 1973. He performed in clubs and at festivals in Detroit and Ann Arbor into the mid 1980's. He passed away in Detroit on August 24th.,1991, of a heart attack.
NOTE: As I have said before, every time you dig into the history of some of the lesser-known blues artists of the past, you start running into conflicting "facts" about them. On Willie, the more I dug, the more confusing it got. He is shown as being born in 1901 and 1909, with the latter showing up more often than the former. His place of birth is another one. I picked the Fort Mitchell location because that source supposedly checked birth records. In 1813/1814, Fort Mitchell was actually a cavalry garrison to protect the people during the Creek Wars. That is located in Russell County. Another source has his birthplace as Union Springs, Alabama, which was incorporated in 1817, after the Creek Wars. It's in Bullock County, which butts up to the west side of Russell County. Still other sources show him to be born in Columbus, Georgia (the home of Fort Benning). If you're familiar with the area, if you start at Columbus, take the bridge across the Chattahoochee River, you'd be in Phenix City, Alabama (yes, Phenix is spelled correctly). From there, go 10 miles (approx.) south and you'd be in Fort Mitchell. Go another 45 to 50 (approx.) miles south and you'd be in Union Springs. They're all close together, so take your pick!
Blues Question for September 2016: This bluesman was born partially blind. He learned (self-taught) his first instrument as a youth. In his teens, he switched instruments, and learned the second one. He did a lot of recording work-- though not under his own name. He later did a few of his own. He made his first money playing music when he was 12 years old. Any idea who this bluesman is/was ??
Blues Trivia for September 2016: previously, in the above answer to the August Blues Question, I listed Joe Von Battle as a black music producer, which is correct, but there was a lot more to him than that. Born Joseph Battle on April 3rd.,1915, in Macon, Georgia, he was a trained and licensed minister. He took the "Von" part of his name as a result of being a fan of the films of Erich Von Stroheim. He kept the Von as he believed that it made him appear to be of European descent, rather than African-American, in his later business dealings. Those dealings were after, in the 1930's, he had moved to Detroit with his wife and four children. He later re-married and had four more children. Skipping all the detail between his moving to Detroit in the 30's and 1948, I’ll pick it up there. By that time, he had established Joe's Records, at 3530 Hastings Street, which was the "hotbed" of black music (blues, R&B, jazz and gospel) at that time. He had roughly 35,000 records in stock and had set up a recording studio in the back of the building. That was the birth of the J-V-B, VON, and Battle record labels. A few of the people who recorded on the different listed labels were John Lee Hooker, Baby Boy Warren, Boogie Woogie Red (Vernon Harrison), Washboard Willie, Little Sonny Willis, Calvin Frazier, Eddie "Guitar" Burns, Joe Weaver, Memphis Slim (Peter Chatman), Little Willie John, One-String Sam (Wilson), Reverand Clarence Franklin, and Brother Will Hairston. There were many others! Here's where the trivia comes in. In 1960, Hastings Street, which was THE musical area for the local musicians and fans, and all the properties thereon, were demolished to make way for the Chrysler Freeway. Not to be deterred, Joe moved his businesses to 12th.Street, on the west side of Detroit. He kept recording all the types of music he always had, up until 1966. About this time he was diagnosed with Addison's Disease and was also afflicted with chronic alcoholism. In 1967, during the "race riots", his businesses were almost totally destroyed, as they were in the area of the problems. He passed on March 26th.,1973, from the effects of his illnesses. The last bit of trivia-- the aforementioned Rev. C. L. Franklin ?-- his daughter, who you know as ARETHA, made her first recording, in 1957, at the age of 14, for/on Battle's J-V-B records label, a gospel song-- "Never Grow Old"!!
Some September Blues Passings:
- September 6th.,1985-- Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery
- September 16th.,2011-- Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
- September 28th.,1975-- Norman G. "Slim"/"Guitar Slim" Green
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