This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And today we dig into the story of the Trumpet record label, from Jackson MS. A label that brought us Dust My Broom of Elmore James and that was the home label for Sonny Boy Williamson the second - and a label that has a story that tells so much about the situation of African American music in the deep South back in the early fifties.
It also recorded gospel and hillbilly - but on number 129 we find the first great blues of Sonny Boy Williamson. Here is Eyesight To The Blind.
01 - 129 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Eyesight To The Blind
02 - 132 - Luther Huff - 1951 Blues
The 1951 blues of Luther Huff on Trumpet number 132 and today I present you a special on the Trumpet label here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. And that story starts with Mississippi-born Lillian Shedd who in 1945 married Willard McMurry, a furniture trader. In 1949 they acquired a building at 309 Farish Street in a black neighborhood of Jackson, MS, and while cleaning out the place Lillian stumbled upon a stack of records. She never heard of any the names on the labels, and out of curiosity she gave them a spin on the phonograph.
Now Ms. McMurry came from a musical family but the music she heard now, was completely new to her. And that is not strange given the strongly segregated society that Mississippi was in these days. Blues were not played on decent radio, and African American culture was a world apart from the white society. But Lillian was thrilled by the pureness and originality of the Rhythm & Blues and in the neighborhood they appeared to sell well. As she said it herself, "It was the most unusual, sincere and solid sound I'd ever heard. I'd never heard a black record before. I'd never heard anything with such rhythm and freedom." Segregation had made her never been aware of this music made by people who lived so close by.
And so the store's main activity, of which accounts differ whether it's been a furniture store, a hardware store or a radio repair shop, well it was soon named the Record Mart. And within a year since she first got to know the blues, Ms. McMurry started a record label to record the local African American legends, who has no place to go to record their music but in the far-away cities up North or out West. And that's another effect of segregation and Jim Crow laws, that seriously hampered the development of the talents and ambitions of any black inhabitant of the deep South, be it a musician or in any other profession.
And we go to another frequent visitor of the recording facilities for Trumpet records, that initially was done in hired locations. Willie Love played the piano on many recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson, but he got also quite some recordings in his own name. Here is Take It Easy baby. And after that you'll get pianist Clayton Love - not related; he became the piano player with Ike Turner's band - and from him Shuffling With Love.
03 - 137 - Willie Love - Take It Easy Baby
04 - 138 - Clayton Love - Shuffling With Love
(jingle)
05 - 141 - Luther Huff - Bull Dog Blues
06 - 145 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Pontiac Blues
The Bull Dog Blues of Luther Huff and after that the Pontiac Blues of Sonny Boy Williamson II, that sings about the car of Lillian McMurry, the owner of Trumpet records. Now Sonny Boy Williamson was some legendary name Lillian McMurry had heard about and she decided to track him down, all the way in Helena, AK where he was known for his weekly stint on local radio station KFFA in a program that gained fame as the King Biscuit Time - named after it's sponsor.
It wasn't after years that McMurry learned that his real name was Alex Miller and the real Sonny Boy Williamson had died in 1948. There are several accounts for the reason why he took the name of another bluesman, but one legend has it that he tried to escape a convict for stealing a mule from a neighbor, that he'd painted white and he got caught when the paint wasn't rain proof. Fact is that he'd taken that name for a long time, while the real Sonny Boy Williamson still was alive and at some point it came to a confrontation between the two, but not to legal action, I think due to the physical distance between the two, the one in Chicago and the other in the Mississippi delta, and to the untimely death of the real Williamson who got killed in a robbery just a block from his home in 1948.
Alex "Rice" Miller, so Sonny Boy Williamson II, he was an unfriendly heavy drinker who ran into problems time and time again, using foul language and carrying a gun and a knife, and he once did that against Lillian McMurry, and she sent him away to never come back again. She must have had a loyal heart though as she took him back after his apologies. Also she bailed him out of jail a few times and she used to give him advances on his royalties.
Now Williamson definitely was the label's greatest asset. That could well though have been Elmore James, who recorded his classic Dust My Broom with Trumpet. James was a such a shy boy and so afraid of the microphone, that McMurry decided to wax and release what *he* thought was just a rehearsal of Dust My Broom, a cover of Robert Johnson's classic. He was so angry about that, that he didn't want to do any more business with her, and he moved on to the Bihari Brothers and their West Coast Flair label. Still his version of the song gained him fame, and the slide guitar intro is iconic in the blues. So here is Elmore James with Dust My Broom.
07 - 146 - Elmore James - Dust My Broom
08 - 147 - Willie Love & His Three Aces - Everybody's Fishing
Willie Love with his self-penned Everybody's Fishing that he recorded as Trumpet number 147. Love who'd been a friend of Sonny Boy Williamson II for a long time also plays the piano on many another Trumpet record. He was a heavy drinker and died in 1953 of pneumonia, still under contract with Trumpet.
Next Joe Williams, through the catalog of Trumpet variously billed as Big Joe Williams or Joe Lee Williams. Unlike most of the artists on Trumpet he had recorded before, that was for the OKeh and Bluebird labels, and he'd played along with that other Sonny Boy Williamson, or should I say the real Sonny Boy Williamson. He had his own typical style of the Delta blues and here he is with a song titled Delta Blues.
09 - 151 - Big Joe Williams - Delta Blues
10 - 171 - Joe Williams - She Left Me A Mule
More Joe Williams with She Left Me A Mule. And where we haven't had enough of using other people's name the next one is Arthur Crudup who recorded under the name of Elmer James - just a slight difference in spelling with the man who'd walked away from Lillian McMurry after she'd released his classic Dust My Broom and that I've played just a few minutes ago. Crudup sings Gonna Find My Baby on this release numbered 186 of Trumpet.
11 - 186 - Elmer James a.k.a. Arthur Crudup - Gonna Find My Baby
12 - 173 - Willie Love - Vanity Dresser Boogie
And more Willie Love with his biting and mocking Vanity Dresser Boogie. Next the shouter Tiny Kennedy - of him nothing was tiny at all. McMurry described him as big and fat and his first session for Trumpet in 1951 led to no releaseable material. This is from the second session he had in 1952 done in the studio of Sam Phillips in Memphis. Here is the Blues Disease.
13 - 188 - Tiny Kennedy - Blues disease
14 - 189 - Sherman 'Blues' Johnson - Pretty Baby Blues
Sherman 'Blues' Johnson was that with his Pretty Baby Blues and after he'd auditioned with Lillian McMurry his piano style sounded very much like Cecil Gant. McMurry sent him to Memphis to the studio of Sam Phillips and with his house band she got some takes that she could use. Together with the Tiny Kennedy takes that also were done in Memphis, it was a fruitful cooperation with Phillips.
One more of this bluesman, who faded in obscurity after these takes for Trumpet, with Hot Fish.
15 - 189 - Sherman 'Blues' Johnson - Hot Fish
16 - 215 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Getting Out Of Town
One more of Sonny Boy Williamson II - Getting Out Of Town and that was released as Trumpet #215. Now the numbers may run up rapidly in this show, well in an hour I just have time to play a few songs, but also the catalog of Lillian McMurry's label leaves many gaps in the numbering.
By 1953 she had set up her own studio in the building that housed the Record Mart store on ground level. And that was the place where Alabama-born Jerry 'Boogie' McCain did his recordings after he'd sent her a demo. McCain had played his harp on the local WETO radio station where his uptempo style earned him his nickname Boogie. Later he recorded twelve sides for the Nashville based Excello label before specializing more in a jazz-like style in later decades.
Here is East Of The Sun
17 - 217 - Jerry 'Boogie' Mccain - East Of The Sun
18 - 231 - Jerry 'Boogie' McCain - Love To Make Up
And with Love to Make Up of Jerry Boogie McCain I end my show on the Trumpet label, a story that ends with financial troubles that made the label fold in 1955. Mrs. McMurry managed to pay off the debts and also continued to make sure that her artists got the royalties they were entitled to, with the re-releases of Trumpet material through time. And with that she was a rare example of how it should be done, where most record bosses did all they could to avoid paying their artists. From the biographies I read of Lillian McMurry, I get the story of a gentle woman and that she regarded the artists - all of them African-Americans - as her equal. With that her little company must have been an oasis in the harshly segregated deep South of the early fifties where the life of a black man or woman hardly had any value.
Well my time is up so leaves me the usual things to say, such as where you can provide me feedback which is greatly appreciated - the adress is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And to read back the story I told you today, review the playlist or to find out what will be on next week - find my website with a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
As for now have a wonderful and rocking day. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!