Some September Blues Births:
- September 3rd.,1915-- Peter "Memphis Slim" Chatman,aka Leroy
- September 18th.,1929-- Louis Myers, aka Louie Meyers
- September 29th.,1937-- Joe "Guitar" Hughes, born Maurice Hughes
Answer To The August 2021 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/is Frank Edwards, aka Mr. Frank, Black Frank, and/or Mr. Cleanhead, born March 20,1909, in Washington, Georgia. He worked as a singer, guitarist, and/or a harmonica player for roughly 80 years. His day job(s), to pay the bills and allow him to play the blues, was as a carpenter, painter, and/or plumber, except for a two year stretch, when a house fire left him without a guitar. He left home at fourteen years of age, after an argument with his father, and headed to St.Augustine, Florida. Once there, he bought a guitar and was encouraged to learn how to play it by a local bluesman, one Tampa Red (Hudson Whittaker), who was only six years his senior. During that period he also learned to play the harmonica, influenced by listening to recordings by John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (the first). He had also met and become friends with Tommy McClennan, who encouraged him to make some recordings. In his career he recorded for 4 labels: OKeh, on March 28,1941; Regal, in August 1949, but that one is shown to be done in May of 1950, which went unreleased at that time (those are now on several compilation c.d.'s); Trix, on September 27, November 17, and December 8, of 1972 (#3303, titled "Done Some Travelin'"); Music Maker Relief Foundation's recordings of him were done from 1996 to 2002, at different locations (venues), with a couple of his early recordings added in to showcase his talent. Those were released on a c.d. titled "Chicken Raid", named after one of his songs. He was being driven home from that last session, done on March 22, 2002, just two days after his 93rd. birthday. His driver was in Greenville, South Carolina, on the way to Frank's home in Atlanta, Georgia. when Frank had a heart attack. An ambulance was called to transport him to the hospital, but while in it, he passed away, March 22, 2002. There is one other recording of him, done live, at a blues festival in Georgia, on the Southland label, in 1984. You'd have to read his full bio, to get a true idea of how much he travelled while honing his craft.
Blues Question For September 2021: This bluesman was born in South Carolina, and now lives in England. He's a songwriter, singer, and harmonica player, who, at various times, lived in New York, the Carolina's, and good ole' northern California. Any idea who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For September 2021: The song is "Blue Midnight- Alternate Version", and the artist is Little Walter (Jacobs), recorded in October of 1952. The other players on it are Louis Myers Dave Myers on guitars, with Fred Below on drums. Nothin' like a good blues instrumental !! So, ENJOY !!
Blues Trivia For September 2021: While digging for facts on Frank Edward's recordings, I wondered about the OkeH label, and how it came to be. Ah, yes--open another can of worms, please! It's a figure of speech and not meant to degrade the poor worms, just don't want to upset the word police. Anyhow, Otto K. E. Heinemann founded the Otto Heinemann Phonograph company in 1916. In 1918, he changed the "parent" company's name to The General Phonograph Corp., and began cutting records. The label's were changed to read OKeh. That label has been re-done many times over the years, in what's in caps, mixed with lower case letters. That company was sold to Columbia in 1926, and re-named The American Record Corp. (ARC). CBS bought the company in 1938. It's now owned by Sony Entertainment. Many things about OKeh have changed over all these years; the way the name is on the actual record or c.d. label, the types of musics recorded, the registered owner of the company, what label gets to distribute those recordin medias, and on and on. And, yes, it's name has been shut down/discontinued many times, by all the different owners, only to be resurrected for another time. You want to really scramble your brain, research the OKeh record label's full history, from it's inception in 1916, to the present day ! And people tend to think there's nothing to all this info being checked. Yeah, right !
Some September Blues Passings:
- September 3rd.,1998-- Spike Ravenswood, born Uwe Gleich in Germany
- September 18th.,1983-- Roy "Bunny" Milton
- September 26th.,1976-- Louis Charles Robinson, aka Good Rockin' Charles
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