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 I go way back in history with some releases from 1930 on the Race series of the Brunswick label. Brunswick was founded in 1916 and still exists - the 7000 race series was started in 1927 and stayed for five years.
I start somewhere in the middle today with a blues of Robert Wilkins. On Brunswick 7158 here is his Get Away Blues.
7158 - Robert Wilkins - Get Away Blues
7159 - Mozelle Alderson - Tight In Chicago
Tight In Chicago - you heard Mozelle Alderson with on the piano Judson Brown - the man who always did the accompaniment on her blues. Brown had a very own style of playing giving Alderson's blues a somewhat eerie effect and that is best heard on her recordings for the legendary Black Patti label.
Also in 1930 she did a session with Big Bill Broonzy and Georgia Tom recording the ultimate 1930 party record for Paramount - the Alabama Scratch. It's not sure but probably she's also the singer with the aliases of Kansas City Kitty, Hannah May, Thelma Holmes, Mae Belle Lee, and Jane Lucas.
Next number in Brunswick's catalog, number 7160, St. Louis based blueswoman Mary Johnson. By then she was married to Lonnie Johnson and between '29 and '36 she done some 22 titles. The marriage lasted until 1932 and after she ended her music career in the mid-forties she lived with her mother on St. Louis Biddle street in deep poverty.
Here she is with the Death Cell Blues.
7160 - Mary Johnson - Death Cell Blues
7163 - Lucille Bogan - They Ain't Walking No More
(jingle)
7164 - Speckled Red - Speckled Red's Blues
7165 - Charlie McCoy - Blue Heaven Blues
That was a lot of old blues - after Mary Johnson's Death Cell Blues you got They Ain't Walking No More of Lucille Bogan. Her sessions for Brunswick were backed by Cow Cow Davenport and Tampa Red. Lucille Bogan also recorded as Bessie Jackson and she has a vast output of blues. Together with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith she is often seen as the top of twenties and thirties female blues singers.
If you look her up on Youtube chances are fair that you will first encounter the dirty version of Shave 'em dry. That's what she's most remembered of these days, cause the lyrics of that are simply obscene. That is not typical for her repertoire - that is, she done quite some risque blues but not like this one, simply because records with lyrics like this only sold as under-the-counter party records. There's a regular version out there too, by the way.
You got more - after the jingle that was the Speckled Red Blues and Speckled Red was the stage name for Rufus Perryman, the bluesman who got most fame for his Dirty Dozens, the musical version of an old African-American tradition of insulting each other to the max, until one gives up simply because he can't make up more insults. This Speckled Red's Blues was done in his second session for Brunswick, that also brought a re-recording of the Dirty Dozen and the Right String But The Wrong Yo Yo - that his younger brother Piano Red also recorded and he made it to a hit.
Speckled Red saw a revival of his career in the late fifties and sixties with the blues revival, like many other artists, with more interest for him than he'd ever known, but his age - he was born in 1892 - his age hampered a real comeback.
And then finally the Blue Heaven Blues of guitarist and mandolin player Papa Charlie McCoy. McCoy does the mandolin on this one - and mandolins are rare in the blues. Then the fiddler was Bo Carter and Walter Vincson played the guitar.
Next in the catalog of Brunswick is number 7166 - Mississippi Joe Callicott - another blues singer for whom interest came with the blues revival. From before that, just four tracks exist - one single for Vocalion and one for Brunswick. Callicott lived in Nesbit, MS and he never got in the big recording centers of pre-war America - this was recorded in the Peabody hotel in Memphis.
Here he is with the Fare Thee Well Blues.
7166 - Joe Callicott - Fare Thee Well Blues
7168 - Robert Wilkins - Police Sergeant Blues
The Police Sergeant Blues of Robert Wilkins and that was number 7168 on the catalog of Brunswick's Race series, that I feature today with a few 1930 issues. Brunswick is one of the oldest record companies still in existence - be it that ownership had changed often through the years and the label has been dormant for twelve years since 1982. The label started in 1916 and from 1920 they standardized on the then ususal 78 RPM 10-inch lateral cut discs. Their acoustic recordings, up to 1925 were among the best of sound quality but they made the wrong choice for the system of electrical recordings and their output in the second half of the twenties has a horrible sound - and many masters were never released due to the problems.
By the time this 7000 Race series started. sound problems were over - and record executive Jack Kapp had joined the company. When Kapp left to set up the American branch of Decca many artists - including the Rhythm & Blues artists - followed him. Brunswick later was sold to be a subsidiary of Decca and there it became an important Rhyth & Blues and rock 'n roll label - and soul affeccionados will remember the vast output of Chicago soul in the sixties, that since 1995 is being re-issued under the Brunswick name.
Next on number 7170 of the label's catalog, the Wondering Blues of Gene Campbell.
7170 - Gene Campbell - Wondering Blues
7175 - Mary Johnson - Morning Sun Blues
One more of Mary Johnson with the Morning Sun Blues - and with that we make a small jump to number 7175. In between a few recordings of the calypso orchestra of Lionel Belasco - and I don't know if you like that but I thought it not fit for this program.
Next a recording of Lovin' Sam Theard, the composer and first one to record his famous You Rascal You - officially titled I'll Be Glad When You're Dead. On the flip of this the second recording of it - and I'll play that in a later show as you'll get yet another version today.
Here is Sam Theard with Can You Imagine That.
7176 - Lovin' Sam Theard - Can You Imagine That
7177 - Gene Campbell - Wash And Iron Woman Blues
The obscure Gene Campbell with the Wash And Iron Woman Blues. Beyond his recordings nothing is known of this bluesman. As two of his sessions for Brunswick were done in Dallas, is's assumed Texas was his home base and that for the two sessions he done in Chicago he took the train up North. After his last session for the label in 1931 he left no trace.
Next one of the greatest female pianists ever - Mary Lou Williams. In 1930 she had just joined her husband John in the band of Andy Kirk. This was recorded during a band trip to Chicago. The flip Drag 'Em is in the background now - well here is she is with Night Life.
7178 - Mary Lou Williams - Night Life
7180 - Andy Kirk - You Rascal You
I already promised you another version of You Rascal You - this is a septet taken from the band of Andy Kirk billed as the Seven Clouds of Joy. In the background the flip Getting Off A Mess composed by Mary Lou Williams - she done a lot of composing and arranging for Kirk's orchestra.
And on Brunswick 7181 here is Snow Bound and Blue of a bluesman whose name I never found but for this one song - the flip is done by Spider Carter. Here is Ell-Zee Floyd.
7181 - Ell-Zee Floyd - Snow Bound and Blue
7182 - Arthur Petties - That Won't Do
That Won't Do - you heard on Brunswick 7182 Arthur Petties and guess this will have to do as the hour is done. You got a whole lot of 1930 blues and well it's obvious that there was a vibrant blues scene while the nation slipped into the deepest of the Great Depression. Hard times were to come - also for the record industry. Simply when you had to survive, your last three quarters were for bread - not for a new record.
In 1932 Brunswick was sold to the ARC company where it remained its flagship label, but in the meanwhile most of the still low sales were from the other ARC labels, that went for 35 cents a record, instead of 75. When in 1934, Jack Kapp quit to start the American branch of Decca, many artists followed him leaving little for ARC but to re-release popular recordings from the years before - on the cheap labels.
I hope you enjoyed today's set of old blues and well, you cam of course let me know and send e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And all of today's story, you can find it back on the website of the program, that you can find simply searching Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This show is number 221 but of course, keying in Brunswick in the episodes list will also do.
Next week you will get another shot of Rhythm & Blues. So I hope to see you then, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!