Some September Blues Births:
- September 4th.,1930-- Jerry Ragovoy
- September 15th.,1921-- James Edward "Snooky" Pryor
- September 27th.,1927-- "Earring" George Mayweather
Answer To The August 2023 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is James "Son" Thomas, aka "Cairo", "Son/ Sonny Ford", born on October 14,1926, on an Eden, Mississippi farm. Don't have father's first name, but his mother was Annie Mae Estes. He got the Son/ Sonny Ford nickname as a child because he used the red "gumbo" clay of Yazoo County to make/ mold models of Ford tractors. With little money to be made in Eden, the family moved to Leland, which was west and slightly north, about 60 miles away. Son worked as a field-hand, picking cotton. There's conflicting info on at what age he did this: some sources say he was in his teens, while others show that he moved in 1961, with his wife and 7 children. At any rate, during his tenure as a field-hand he started listening to blues on the radio. Then he heard his grandfather, Eddie Collins, and his uncle, Joe Cooper, playing blues at house parties. He has said that the 2 Mississippi bluesman who influenced his style of playing were Elmo Davis and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. He'd been learning, self- taught, the guitar. He'd gotten good enough with it to start performing in the Leland/ Greenville areas, at barrelhouses, juke joints, house parties, fish fries, or wherever he could get a gig. To supplement his income from that, he worked as a gravedigger. His mother got him a job as a porter at the Montgomery Hotel, where she worked. He worked at a furniture store for a while. He was also a sculptor, using unfired red clay from the banks of the Yazoo River, making figures of local animals, such as birds, rattlesnakes, and alligators, but the ones he's best known for were/ are funerary figures and busts, sometimes using real teeth and hair, adding beads, wire, and other items, as he saw fit. He always lived in run-down, rickety "shotgun" houses, because he said it fit his personality.Though well- known in his local area of Leland and Greenville, he didn't get more widely known until 3 films made by The Center for Southern Folklore that featured him, and 1 by Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi -- "Gateway to The Delta: Delta blues singer James ("Sonny Ford") Thomas", which was based on his life, and it won the Mississippi Arts Film Festival award in 1972. He did some recording in 1968, for some small, local record labels, but I haven't seen any of those. Because of his new-found recognition, he toured and performed in several European countries, where he did most of his recordings: France, Germany, Italy, and others. Most all of those can be found, but the prices for most of those L.P.'s is usually somewhere between $200.00 and $400.00, depending on condition and rarity. A couple of those have been made available on cd's. The cd that I prefer is "Beefsteak Blues", on the Evidence label, #26095-2, as it is a compilation featuring his best songs, with him mostly playing acoustic guitar, but also with him on the electric guitar, which was rare for him. Sadly, he passed away on June 26,1993, after battles with a brain tumor, emphysema, and the main cause, a stroke, in Greenville, Mississippi.
Blues Question For September 2023: This bluesman was born in Alabama, spent some time in Georgia, and then settled in Chicago. He was known as a guitarist, but he also played harmonica and kazoo. He only recorded one album. Not famous, just good, as he can be found on many other recordings featuring a different lead artist. Any idea who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) for September 2023: The song is "Going Fishing(ain't got no pole)", and the artist is Jimmy Reed. It was on an album titled: "Jimmy Reed at Soul City: His first Honest-to-Goodnes Live In-Person Recording!". It was VeeJay records album #1095. It was recorded in 1964, most likely in either July or August. Jimmy did the vocal, played guitar, harmonica, bass, and drums on it.
Blues Trivia For September 2023: Often when you look at the offspring of some of the big name bluesmen, you find that their sons and/or daughters have followed in their footsteps, such as: Muddy Water's sons Big Bill Morganfield and Mud Morganfield; Carey Bell and Lurie Bell, etc-- you get the idea. One that you hear nothing of is Jimmy Reed and Jimmy Reed Jr. Those two actually played and recorded together on occasion, with Jr. on either guitar or electric or stand-up bass. That's trivia, but here's a little more: James "Son" Thomas has that in common with one of his sons, Raymond "Pat" Thomas. Not only does he play and sing some of his father's songs, in the same, traditional Delta style, he also sculps like his father, the same types of animals, birds, etc, though he is mostly known for his extremely detailed cat's faces drawings. His singing and guitar playing aren't the best, by any means. But-- what they are is the true, deep Delta blues, telling stories of centuries past and up into the present, but in that honest, deep Delta style. His are the real blues !!
Some September Blues Passings:
- September 6th.,2020-- Sterling Magee,aka "Mr. Satan"
- September 13th.,1981-- Helen Elizabeth Humes
- September 21st.,1974-- Jewell "Babe" Stovall
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