6/26/2015

Furry Lewis - Falling Down Blues

Born March 6, 1899, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. At the age of seven he and his family moved to Memphis, where young Lewis took up the guitar under the tutelage of a man whose name he recalled as "Blind Joe." Blind Joe apparently was versed in nineteenth century song and taught his protégé "Casey Jones" and "John Henry," songs based around the exploits of heroic figures. Lewis would later record these two songs for the Victor and Vocalion labels respectively. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He also was invited to play several dates with W.C. Handy's Orchestra.

Lewis hoboed around the country until 1917, when he lost a leg in a railroad accident. He returned to Memphis, playing in association with Jim Jackson, Gus Cannon (who would form Cannon's Jug Stompers for recording dates), and Will Shade. Though primarily a solo performer, Lewis worked with this combination in a variety of clubs on Beale Street including the famous Pee Wee's (now the site of a Hard Rock Café) into the 1920s. The loss of a leg did not prevent him from touring during the early 1920s with the Dr. Willie Lewis Medicine Show, where he made the acquaintance of a young Memphis Minnie. His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Texas Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene.

In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded for the Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session that saw sides waxed by the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The recordings from these dates exhibit a nimble, clean, and versatile picking style that provides an excellent counterpoint to his complex verses. Several of his recordings (notably "Judge Harsh Blues" and "Cannonball Blues") display Lewis's bottleneck slide playing, a style in which he was proficient but not a master. His vocal range was limited but he compensated by composing humorous verses that were by turns bawdy, sly, boasting, and pleading.

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 brought Lewis's recording career to a halt. He continued to play Beale Street and became a frequent performer in W.C. Handy Park during the 1930s and 1940s. During the "Blues Revival" of the 1960s, Lewis was rediscovered by a younger generation of fans that appreciated his expressive lyrics, dexterous playing, and charismatic charm. He parlayed his delayed celebrity into a movie cameo (initially offered to Sleepy John Estes), a talk show appearance, and large hall shows with the rock and roll bands that were his musical progeny.

Furry Lewis died in Memphis September 14, 1981.




6/21/2015

Furry Lewis - John Henry Blues

Born March 6, 1899, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. At the age of seven he and his family moved to Memphis, where young Lewis took up the guitar under the tutelage of a man whose name he recalled as "Blind Joe." Blind Joe apparently was versed in nineteenth century song and taught his protégé "Casey Jones" and "John Henry," songs based around the exploits of heroic figures. Lewis would later record these two songs for the Victor and Vocalion labels respectively. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He also was invited to play several dates with W.C. Handy's Orchestra.

Lewis hoboed around the country until 1917, when he lost a leg in a railroad accident. He returned to Memphis, playing in association with Jim Jackson, Gus Cannon (who would form Cannon's Jug Stompers for recording dates), and Will Shade. Though primarily a solo performer, Lewis worked with this combination in a variety of clubs on Beale Street including the famous Pee Wee's (now the site of a Hard Rock Café) into the 1920s. The loss of a leg did not prevent him from touring during the early 1920s with the Dr. Willie Lewis Medicine Show, where he made the acquaintance of a young Memphis Minnie. His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Texas Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene.

In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded for the Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session that saw sides waxed by the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The recordings from these dates exhibit a nimble, clean, and versatile picking style that provides an excellent counterpoint to his complex verses. Several of his recordings (notably "Judge Harsh Blues" and "Cannonball Blues") display Lewis's bottleneck slide playing, a style in which he was proficient but not a master. His vocal range was limited but he compensated by composing humorous verses that were by turns bawdy, sly, boasting, and pleading.

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 brought Lewis's recording career to a halt. He continued to play Beale Street and became a frequent performer in W.C. Handy Park during the 1930s and 1940s. During the "Blues Revival" of the 1960s, Lewis was rediscovered by a younger generation of fans that appreciated his expressive lyrics, dexterous playing, and charismatic charm. He parlayed his delayed celebrity into a movie cameo (initially offered to Sleepy John Estes), a talk show appearance, and large hall shows with the rock and roll bands that were his musical progeny.

Furry Lewis died in Memphis September 14, 1981.




6/19/2015

Sonny Boy Williamson II - Keep it to Yourself


Aleck "Rice" Miller, a.k.a. "Sonny Boy Williamson"

According to his gravestone, Rice Miller was born March 11, 1897, in the country between Glendora and Tutwiler, Mississippi. He was raised by his mother Millie Ford and stepfather Jim Miller, and acquired the nickname "Rice" as a young child. Miller, who was interested in music as a toddler, taught himself to play harmonica at the age of five. Interestingly, W.C. Handy heard early blues played on a train platform in Tutwiler about this same time. Miller became quite adept at the harmonica, playing spiritual music at parties for tips as a child. As he grew older, he began playing spirituals at schools and street corners as "Little Boy Blue." During the 1920s he left his parents' home and began to hobo, playing blues to support himself.

Miller hoboed through Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri during the 1920s, playing levee and lumber camps, juke joints, and parties. He claimed to have made unissued test recordings in the late 1920s, but these have never been found. During the 1930s Miller teamed up with guitarists Elmore James and Robert Johnson for short periods. He also developed a partnership with a young Johnson protégé, guitarist Robert Jr. Lockwood. During the late 1930s, Jackson, Tennessee, harmonica wizard John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson recorded several hits including "Good Morning Little School Girl" and "Bluebird Blues" for the Bluebird label in Chicago. During the early 1940s, Rice Miller began calling himself "Sonny Boy Williamson" and responded to anyone who questioned it that he was "the original Sonny Boy."

As Sonny Boy Williamson, he and Lockwood auditioned for executives of Interstate Grocer, the makers of King Biscuit flour, in the Interstate Grocer Co. Building. Interstate Grocer agreed to sponsor the pair and in 1941 they began broadcasting from the Floyd Truck Lines Building on KFFA radio. King Biscuit Time was arguably the most influential radio show in blues history, reaching as-yet unrecorded blues artists Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Jimmy Rogers, as well as the large Delta blues audience. As remuneration for hawking King Biscuit flour and cornmeal, Williamson was allowed to announce his upcoming gigs on the air. He became an established star throughout the Delta and recruited guitarist Joe Willie Wilkins to augment the group.

Williamson left KFFA in 1944, and hooked up with Elmore James after the latter's discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1945. By 1947, Williamson had taken lodgings in the Belzoni, Mississippi, boarding house where James lived. Ever the promoter, he and James broadcast from O.J. Turner's drugstore in Belzoni, over a hookup to Yazoo City's WAZF and Greenville's WGVM, hawking Talaho Syrup. Williamson toured the Delta with James and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup during the late 1940s before leaving for West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1948. In West Memphis, he secured another radio job, this time pitching Hadacol Tonic on KWEM. It was here that he met B.B. King, who had approached Williamson for work as a sideman. Typically, Williamson had a more lucrative job offer in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but was scheduled the same night for the 16th Street Grill in West Memphis. He gave the 16th Street Grill job to King, admonishing the young guitarist not to fail.

Williamson first recorded on January 5, 1951, for Lillian McMurry's Trumpet label. The session took place at Trumpet's studio at 309 Farish Street in Jackson, Mississippi, and featured backing from pianist Willie Love, Elmore James, Joe Willie Wilkins, and drummer "Frock" O'Dell. Although nothing was issued from this session, McMurry continued recording Williamson for several more years. Many of the sides he recorded for Trumpet, such as "Eyesight to the Blind," "Nine Below Zero," and "West Memphis Blues," have since become blues harp standards. After Trumpet suspended operations in 1955, Williamson moved to Milwaukee and began recording for Chess subsidiary Checker Records.

At Checker, Williamson began a series of hit singles, beginning with "Don't Start Me to Talking," which featured sympathetic backing from Muddy Waters's band. His harp style featured a phenomenal technique that layered a wide dynamic range, complex phrasing, and a variety of effects, all held together by his impeccable timing. Williamson's singing lacked the dynamism of his playing and his gruff, hoarse vocals conveyed a broad range of emotion unmatched by the range of his voice. He was also an accomplished songwriter, and many of the songs he recorded for Checker, including "One Way Out," "Fattening Frogs for Snakes," and "Your Funeral And My Trial," are considered blues classics. Backed by Lockwood and ace Chess session musicians including guitarist Luther Tucker, pianists Otis Spann and Lafayette Leake, bassist Willie Dixon, and drummer Fred Below, Williamson created a modern sound that revolved around his harmonica shuffles.

Williamson continued to tour the Delta, working his way back to Milwaukee through Helena, Memphis, and St. Louis. He toured Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festival package in 1963 and 1964, remaining for some time in England, where he became a sensation. He returned to Helena in 1965 and rented a room at a boarding house at 427 ½ Elm Street, telling everyone who asked that he had "come home to die." He resumed playing King Biscuit Time, now broadcast from KFFA's studio atop the Helena National Bank Building.

Sonny Boy Williamson died May 25, 1965, at his boarding house. Aleck Miller's grave is near Tutwiler, Mississippi, just off Highway 49.




6/14/2015

Cream - Sunshine of Your Love

Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup power trio consisting of bassist/singer Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and guitarist/singer Eric Clapton. Their sound was characterised by a hybrid of blues rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock, combining psychedelia-themed lyrics, Clapton's blues guitar playing, Bruce's powerful, lashing voice and prominent bass playing and Baker's jazz-influenced drumming. The group's third album, Wheels of Fire, was the world's first platinum-selling double album. The band is widely regarded as being the world's first successful supergroup. In their career, they sold over 15 million albums worldwide.[8] Their music included songs based on traditional blues such as "Crossroads" and "Spoonful", and modern blues such as "Born Under a Bad Sign", as well as more eccentric songs such as "Strange Brew", "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and "Toad".

The band's biggest hits are "I Feel Free" (UK, number 11), "Sunshine of Your Love" (US, number 5), "White Room" (US, number 6), "Crossroads" (US, number 28), and "Badge" (UK, number 18). The band made a significant impact on the popular music of the time, and, along with Jimi Hendrix, and Terry Kath of Chicago, popularised the use of the wah-wah pedal. They provided a heavy yet technically proficient musical theme that foreshadowed and influenced the emergence of British bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Jeff Beck Group and Black Sabbath in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The band's live performances influenced progressive rock acts such as Rush. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. They were included in both Rolling Stone and VH1's lists of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time," at number 67 and 61 respectively. They were also ranked number 16 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".




6/12/2015

Howlin' Wolf - Sittin' On Top Of The World


Chester Arthur Burnett, "Howlin' Wolf", born June 10, 1910, in West Point, Mississippi, Chester Arthur was one of Dock and Gertrude Burnett's six children. Burnett refined his singing at Life Board Baptist Church in Aberdeen as a lad. At the age of thirteen, he moved with his family to sharecrop on the Young and Myers Plantation near Ruleville. Burnett learned to play the guitar as a teen, influenced by guitarists Charley Patton and Willie Brown, who played on the square in nearby Drew. Burnett moved to the Dockery Plantation in 1929, both to work and to be around Patton.

Between 1928 and 1933, Burnett augmented his sharecropping income playing fish fries, dances, and the streets of Drew, Cleveland, and Ruleville, Mississippi. He adopted the stage name "Howlin' Wolf" during the 1930s, possibly from a record by Texas bluesman J. T. "Funny Paper" Smith. In 1933, Wolf moved to Twist, Arkansas, to farm, occasionally playing on the road with Robert Johnson, Texas Alexander, and brother-in-law Sonny Boy Williamson. Williamson also taught him the rudiments of harmonica, though not to Sonny Boy's own level of expertise. During the late 1930s Wolf often ventured to Memphis, playing local juke joints off Beale Street or in W. C. Handy Park for tips.

Wolf entered the U.S. Army in 1941, often entertaining troops during his hitch. After being mustered out in 1945, he returned to farming in the Delta. During the 1940s Wolf received his first radio work at KFFA, broadcasting King Biscuit Time from the Floyd Truck Lines Building in Helena, Arkansas. Joe Willie Wilkins contacted Wolf while the latter was in Moorehead and offered him work on King Biscuit Time playing harmonica when Williamson was away. In 1948, Wolf moved to West Memphis, Arkansas, where he landed a job as a DJ for radio station KWEM. Adapting to new technologies in electrical amplification, he assembled a crackerjack band featuring Willie Johnson on guitar, Bill "Destruction" Johnson on piano, and Willie Steel on drums. Sam Phillips, a white recording engineer in Memphis, heard Wolf's show and immediately arranged a recording session for the band at his 706 Union Avenue studio.

The session yielded the songs "Moanin' at Midnight" and "How Many More Years," which were leased to Chess Records and released as a single. On record, Wolf's huge, ferocious voice sounded as if it were torn from the back of his throat. His high-pressure moaning punctuated by a wolfish howl sounded like an amped-up Tommy Johnson. Wolf's harmonica playing held the melody while Willie Johnson played slashing guitar riffs and Willie Steel pounded the drums ferociously. The single soon entered Billboard's R&B Top 10, rising to number eight.

Wolf moved to Chicago in 1952 to be closer to the Chess studio but he continued to record Delta blues including "I Asked for Water" (a version of Tommy Johnson's "Cool Drink of Water Blues") and the Mississippi Sheiks' "Sitting on Top of the World." He continued to tour the South, and eventually became a successful international draw.

Howlin' Wolf died January 10, 1976, in Hines, Illinois. He is buried in Chicago.




6/07/2015

Cream - White Room

Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup power trio consisting of bassist/singer Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and guitarist/singer Eric Clapton. Their sound was characterised by a hybrid of blues rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock, combining psychedelia-themed lyrics, Clapton's blues guitar playing, Bruce's powerful, lashing voice and prominent bass playing and Baker's jazz-influenced drumming. The group's third album, Wheels of Fire, was the world's first platinum-selling double album. The band is widely regarded as being the world's first successful supergroup. In their career, they sold over 15 million albums worldwide.[8] Their music included songs based on traditional blues such as "Crossroads" and "Spoonful", and modern blues such as "Born Under a Bad Sign", as well as more eccentric songs such as "Strange Brew", "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and "Toad".

The band's biggest hits are "I Feel Free" (UK, number 11), "Sunshine of Your Love" (US, number 5), "White Room" (US, number 6), "Crossroads" (US, number 28), and "Badge" (UK, number 18). The band made a significant impact on the popular music of the time, and, along with Jimi Hendrix, and Terry Kath of Chicago, popularised the use of the wah-wah pedal. They provided a heavy yet technically proficient musical theme that foreshadowed and influenced the emergence of British bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Jeff Beck Group and Black Sabbath in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The band's live performances influenced progressive rock acts such as Rush. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. They were included in both Rolling Stone and VH1's lists of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time," at number 67 and 61 respectively. They were also ranked number 16 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".




6/05/2015

Mississippi John Hurt - Nobody Cares for Me


"Mississippi" John Hurt

Born July 3, 1893, in Teoc, Mississippi, Hurt and his family moved in 1895 to Avalon, a town on the edge of Mississippi's hill country. He dropped out of school at the age of nine to begin working as a farmer. In 1902, Hurt picked up the guitar, a $1.50 "Black Annie" his mother bought him. Self-taught, Hurt developed a distinctive three-finger style that bears no resemblance to other area musicians. He also developed proficiency with the harmonica but was always a self-accompanied musician. Unlike Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie, Hurt refused an offer to accompany a traveling medicine show, preferring to stay close to home.

Hurt played solo at local parties where his fluid yet highly syncopated guitar style made him a favorite among Carroll County dancers. His fame was localized, however; it was not until 1912 that he started playing parties around Jackson, Mississippi, 103 miles from his native Avalon. While Hurt worked mostly outside music as a farmer and laborer, his musical reputation among whites as well as blacks led to his first recording session in Memphis in 1928. Willie T. Narmour and Shell W. Smith, two white country musicians from Carroll County, recommended him to their record producer, Tommy Rockwell.

Hurt recorded eight sides for the Okeh label, two of which were released and sold well: "Frankie" and "Nobody's Dirty Business." In Memphis for the same recording session was St. Louis guitarist/pianist Lonnie Johnson, and Hurt later recalled that Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith were also in town. He saw none of these famous musicians play but instead returned home to Avalon. Okeh called Hurt to New York City for another session in December 1928, where he cut twelve additional sides, including "Avalon Blues." Again, Hurt returned home to Avalon to farm and play music for local parties.

These two sessions were the extent of Hurt's recording before the Great Depression curtailed record sales. His graceful picking, gentle crooning, and homespun lyrics marked him as an exceptionally talented musician. The preponderance of songs about legendary figures in his repertoire ("Casey Jones," "Frankie," "Stack O'Lee Blues") and the lack of then-modern blues influences on his style, establish Hurt as a link between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Okeh originally designated two of his songs "Old Time Music," an appellation reserved for the label's hillbilly series. This, together with the fact that white musicians were familiar with and recommended his musicianship, suggests strongly that Hurt's music sprang from a common source that produced blues and country music.

Hurt lived a quiet life as a farmer and laborer, playing occasional parties and fish fries until 1963. He was rediscovered in Avalon, a consequence of having named it as his hometown in a record made thirty-five years before. Hurt enjoyed great popularity during the blues revival of the 1960s, making television appearances, playing folk festivals, and recording albums. Exceptionally well liked by all who came in contact with him, he became the most famous of all the rediscovered 1920s bluesmen, eclipsing in his fame the celebrated Son House and Skip James.

His newfound fame lasted three years before his death on November 2, 1966. Mississippi John Hurt's grave is located outside his hometown of Avalon, Mississippi.