Some September Blues Births:
- September 2nd.,1914 -- Laurence "Booker T" Laury
- September 15th.,1933 -- Willie Roy "Wilroy" Sanders
- September 27th.,1929 -- Calvin James Jones Jr
Answer To The August 2025 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for was/ is Conish "Pinetop" Burks, born August 7,1907, in or around Richmond, Texas, where he was also raised. As the crow flies, that's about 30 miles SW of downtown Houston, and about 8 miles west of Sugar Land. That's about it for what's known of his early life. He was a Texas blues pianist and songwriter, one of "the Santa Fe Group", a loose association of black pianists who played in the juke joints that were along the areas that were close to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. Another in this group was Robert "Fud" Shaw, one who fared much better in life than what Burks did. Shaw remembered meeting him and said about him "Connie Burks, a dark fellow, about my size, maybe a little thicker than me. When I met him he couldn't play, so I showed him some. Three years later when I was in Richmond again, he played better than me". On October 25, 1937 Burks recorded his only known output of six tracks, at a session for Vocalion, in San Antonio, Texas. One of those tracks was titled "Shake The Shack", but was, in reality, so close to "Pine Tops Boogie Woogie", also recorded for Vocalion, but done in Chicago, on December 29, 1928, by Clarence "Pine Top" Smith, and it's believed that it's where Burks got the "Pinetop" moniker. I have a picture of a bright blue and white label on a record, record company's name "Perfect". Checking the numbers on the label pictured, shows them to be the same as those on the Vocalion and Melotone labels, all of these company's being owned by Vocalion, but sold at different pricing levels. And here we are, almost a hundred years later, doing the exact same thing. Anyhow, in that picture of the label, the song shown is "Shake The Shack", and also printed on the label is : "Blues Singing With Piano, Guitar, and Washboard". Further checking showed that the guitar and washboard were added, at different times, both by unknown artists. The "flip side" song is "Mountain Jack Blues", but Burks is the only one shown on it. It was noted that Burks had "incredible technique and melodic feeling". He disappeared from the music scene in the late '30's, and by 1941 was enlisted and fought in WWII, but was returned home due to being "badly wounded". He passed away January 11th.,1947, in Corpus Christie, Texas. His recordings were all collated on the compilation album "San Antonio Blues 1937", released by Document Records, # DOCD 5032, in 1994.
Blues Question For September 2025: This bluesman got started early, having his first guitar at 8 years old, then he bought a lot better one in his teens, later entered and won a talent contest, out of which came an appearance in a movie. In '52 he moved to New Orleans, and in '53 released his first record. He then moved to Chicago, worked there awhile, then back to New Orleans in '59, but working outside of the music field. He finally got some recognition after he was invited to play in/ at the blues festival in Utrecht, Holland, where people saw and heard his talent. Why did so many blues musicians move to European countries to finally get recognised?? Anyhow, any idea who this bluesman might be ??
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For September 2025: Right now there seems to be a lot of looking back 20 years, at the devastation caused to New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. I decided to go with that in mind when I ran across a recording called "New Orleans Hopscotch Blues", by Steve Freund and Gloria Hardiman, off a Delmark Records c.d. #DE-837, released in 2014, which was a re-release of Razor Records LP #R5103, recorded/ released in '83, But it also gives you the original title, which is/ was "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues. Both versions are available for listening , and you should listen to both, as the early one is instrumental and the later one by Freund and Hardiman is also with vocals. The early version is by the songs title, where the LP and C.D. versions are by the original albums name : "Set Me Free".
Blues Trivia For September 2025: This all has to do with the above listed "Song Of The Month" and a highly talented musical family, the Thomas family. George Washington Thomas Jr. was the 2nd. of 13 children born to Fanny (nee Bradley) and George Sr., in Plum Bayou Township, just outside of the Delta town of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and the family moved to Houston, Texas, where Goerge Sr. became a deacon at the Shiloh Baptist Church. Looking at different listings show his mother's name spelled Fanny or Fannie. At a young age George Jr. played piano, cornet, and saxaphone. He got jobs as a pit pianist in theaters and built a reputation for it. In around 1914 he met another pit pianist named Clarence Williams. Since they were both writing songs, they decided to go into partnership and start up a music publishing firm, to help black musicians get the suppport and teaching that they needed. This was in '14, so they were both in their 20's. In 1916 George wrote and published "the New Orleans Hop Scop Blues", a song about a couple of women and one guy who'd been out all night drinking, looking for a place to get straightened up and back to normal. All the words and notes are in the printied version that they were selling. After the death of his father, he became the "head "of the family, and then the closing down of the Storyville area of New Orleans, he moved the family and business to Chicago, and he was doing local gigs with others and picked up the name "Gut Bucket George", and, by then, he'd bought out Williams and was the sole publishing company's owner. He published new songs and some old ones he'd written. It's been said that he himself wrote and published over 100 songs. He recorded his version of "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues", in 1920, which you can find on youtube, on a recording off an original player piano roll. In the mid-20's his output was diminishing, both in printing and recording/ performing with others. In her later years, Sippie Wallace said that George had died in around 1930, the result of an accident in a streetcar, but his death certificate and other official records show that he died March 6, 1937, aged 53, from a broken back caused by falling down stairs, possibly after a fire had broken out. He's buried in Restvale Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. The man who put the "boogie" sound on the piano map, using "ghost notes" to supply the bass sound, using the left hand. You'll have to look that one up as it's a little too technical to explain here.
Some September Blues Passings:
- September 1st.,1977 -- Ethel Waters
- September 15th.,1977 -- Elmon Mickle, aka Driftin' Slim, Model T Slim, Drifting Smith, Harmonica Harry
- September 26th.,1980 -- Auburn "Pat" Hare: remember him from an earlier blog ?? He did a song called "I'm Gonna' Murder My Baby" --- and he did !!
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