This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And again a special on a record label today and this one brings us all the way back to 1931 with some releases on the Brunswick label, that is, their "race" series that ran from 7000 to 7233. 1931 was the last year of this series so I'm bringing a good blues selection from that. The race series also brought some calypso songs of Lionel Belasco and Wilmoth Houdini that I won't be bothering you with. What I will start with is number 7200 of the series and that is Jim Thompkins, also known as James Peg Leg Thompkins and I know of only one side he did - the flip of this record was a song of Speckled Red. It was recorded in Memphis in 1930 and here it is - the Bed Side Blues. The blues was later recorded as the Low Down Dog by Joe Turner. I'm not sure if this is the original but for sure it's a little gem. Here is Jim Thompkins.
7200 - Jim Thompkins - Bedside Blues
7202 - Mississippi Blacksnakes - Farewell Baby Blues
The Mississippi Blacksnakes as they were billed on this Brunswick release with the Farewell Baby Blues. The group of guitar player Armenter Chatmon or better known as Bo Carter, was most often called the Mississippi Sheiks and it consisted of Carter's brothers Lonnie who played the fiddle and Sam Chatmon on the banjo and then Walter Vinson, also a guitarist. A lot of the songs were penned by members of the band and their Sitting On Top Of The World that they recorded for OKeh, well that became a true classic.
Next a bluesman named John Oscar and his impressive Dying Mother Blues that I'm gonna play is much better than the flip titled the Whoopee Mama Blues. So here is the Dying Mother Blues.
7203 - John Oscar - Dyin' Mother Blues
7204 - Freddie Redd Nicholson - Freddie's Got The Blues
(jingle)
7205 - Robert Wilkins - Alabama Blues
7207 - Phillips' Louisville Jug Band - Soldier Boy Blues
The Soldier Boy Blues was that and you heard Phillips' Louisville Jug Band, one of the very few instrumentals on this series of Brunswick records. Jug bands originated from the musicians of African-American vaudeville, and the medicine shows - a phenomenon we now can't imagine they were around up to the thirties. Medicine shows sold miraculous elixirs that would cure any disease - and to draw the crowd and keep it around while the stuff was sold, showmen gave their performances; a practice that dates back to the early middle ages in Europe. Imagine a small town with no entertainment was around so a travelling show like that, it drew the whole town. Of course, both twenty-century improvements in health care and the cinema killed these medicine shows from two sides.
Jug bands employed both traditional and makeshift instruments. Home made banjos and cigar box guitars, washboards, stovepipe, the kazoo - made of comb and tissue paper - washtub bass and of course the jug, that gave the kind of band its name. The sound is made from blowing into the jug and by changing lip tension, just like with brass instruments, the player can change the pitch. In dixieland-like jazz, the sound of the jug takes over the rhythm function of the trombone or the tuba.
This band employed a jug, a guitar, a walking cane flute and a C-pitched saxophone - and that is pretty uncommon nowadays, but they were in regular production up to 1930. They have mouthpieces different from regular saxophones that produce a somewhat muted sound closer to the clarinet and in this Soldier Boy Blues you could clearly hear.
You got more 'cause I played four in a row - before that jug band tune I did the Alabama Blues of Robert Wilkins and before the jingle was Freddie 'Redd' Nicholson with Freddie's Got The Blues.
Next up is Brunswick 7209 and that is the Revenue Man Blues of Arthur Pettis.
7209 - Arthur Pettis - Revenue Man Blues
7210 - Lucille Bogan - Alley Boogie
The Alley Boogie of Lucille Bogan and like much of the thirties blues this stuff is easy to find on extensive releases on the Document series, that publish 'complete recorded works' series of virtually any bluesman or woman of note, together with complilations of musicians who didn't record enough to get a CD full. Next to that, the on-line music services started to publish virtual albums and what they call EP's, small compilations of anything they have available of an artist. In the three years that I'm doing this program, listeners, I found it harder to get hold of late forties Rhythm & Blues, especially of the smaller labels, than the blues and jazz of the twenties and thirties.
So Lucille Bogan and her alter ego Bessie Jackson made up for two CD's covering all of her recordings and that is a nice set of bawdy dirty blues that would do well in a juke joint full of noisy and drunken men. These CDs do not include some takes she done in Birmingham, AL, the town where she was raised and she returned in 1935 - these takes were lost.
Next on Brunswick 7212 I'll get you Al Miller - a mandolin player and singer and his style was a nice blend of blues, country music and hokum - bawdy party music that was quite popular on the South Side of Chicago. Like so many of the bluesmen of his generation we don't know anything of him except for the time he was professionally active in the studios. Here he is with a humorous song on bad liquor - That Stuff Ain't No Good
7212 - Al Miller - That Stuff Ain't No Good
7213 - Eddie Miller - School Day Blues
The School Day Blues of Eddie Miller, and this blues pianist is best known for writing the blues I'd rather drink muddy water. For the rest, virtualy nothing is known except that he is not one of the three contemporaries with the same name - a jazz saxophonist, a country and western songwriter and a British-born pianist.
Next another bluesman whose biography is obscured in thick fog. Gene Campbell cut some records for Brunswick in Dallas and in Chicago, and given his style you'd think he's from Texas. And that's about all that's known about him. Fortunately the music survived time so here he is on Brunswick number 7214 with the Don't Leave Me Blue Blues - really, that's what was on the label.
7214 - Gene Campbell - Don't Leave Me Blue Blues
7216 - Sam Hill From Louisville - You Got to Keep Things Clean
Sam Hill From Louisville as this bluesman went by on the label of Brunswick number 7216 with You Got to Keep Things Clean. Sam Hill was one of the pseudonyms of Walter Vinson, one of the members of the Mississippi Sheiks or Mississippi Blacksnakes that I played earlier today, and with that he used the name of a nephew of the guitarist of the band, Bo Carter. Whether Carter appreciated the name of his nephew being used, well the story doesn't tell.
Next Lovin' Sam Theard or Lovin' Sam from Down in 'Bam as he used as a name on his earliest recordings. Sam also was a songwriter and his best known song is I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You that was recorded by many great performers including Louis Armstrong, Clarence Williams, Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan.
Here he is with a song about his dog - I'm Crazy 'Bout My Bozo - but listening to the lyrics you get the impression that there's more than just the dog that this blues is about.
7218 - Lovin Sam Theard - I'm Crazy 'Bout My Bozo
7220 - Judson Brown - You Don't Know My Mind Blues
You don't know my mind - a blues classic and this is the version of Judson Brown - the only recording under his own name. Brown was mostly a session man with a good barrelhouse piano playing style.
Next one more of the Mississippi Blacksnakes. On Brunswick 7222 here is the Family Disturbance.
7222 - Mississippi Blacksnakes - Family Disturbance
7223 - Big Boy Teddy Edwards - Alcohol Mama
Alcohol Mama of Big Boy Teddy Edwards - and big boy was know for playing a tiny guitar, the tiple. Now we seen guitar-like instruments in these early blues that fell out of favor later, like mandolins, ukeleles and banjos, but with a tiple, this Teddy Edwards was the only recorded bluesman of the twenties and thirties.
The Alcohol Mama marks the end of today's show devoted to the 'race' series of Brunswick - at least, some 1931 releases. Pretty old stuff and I hope you enjoyed it. Well of course you can let me know whether you liked it, send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. All I told you today, and the playlist is on my website, just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. This was show number 153 in that long list of episodes that I done already. Of course you can also take a sneak peek to what'll be on for next week.
For now time's up. I got you the blues today but I hope you liked them. So have a wonderful day and I hope to see you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!