Name: Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Where Shall I Be When The First Trumpet Sounds @alzo61
Uploaded: 2026-09-29T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Where Shall I Be When The First Trumpet Sounds

Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Where Shall I Be When The First Trumpet Sounds

alzo61 2026-09-29 | Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Where Shall I Be When The First Trumpet Sounds

Mary Williams And Big Joe Williams - Oakland Blues

alzo61 2014-01-22 | From the Hear Me Howling: Blues, Ballads & Beyond

Recorded by Chris Strachwitz in the 1960s; Mary Williams, vocal; Big Joe Williams, guitar...Previously unissued

http://www.wirz.de/music/willjfrm.htm

Photos: Wayne F. Miller; Big Joe Williams and Family

Mance Lipscomb - Willie Poor Boy

alzo61 2014-01-22 | From the Hear Me Howling: Blues, Ballads & Beyond

Recorded by Chris Strachwitz in the 1960s; Mance Lipscomb, vocal and guitar...Previously unissued

http://www.wirz.de/music/lipscfrm.htm

Photos: Ed Badeaux; Mance Lipscomb at the UC's Greek Theatre, Berkeley, California, by Chris Strachwitz; William Carter

Sister Ernestine With Bunk Johnsons Jazz Band - Does Jesus Care?

alzo61 2014-01-22 | From the Sister Ernestine Washington (1943-1948)...Document DOCD-5462

Recorded January 1, 1946, in New York City, New York; Sister Ernestine Washington, vocals; Bunk Johnson, trumpet; George Lewis, clarinet; Jim Robinson, trombone; Alton Purnell, piano; Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau, string bass; Lawrence Marrero, banjo; Warren "Baby" Dodds, drums...Originally issued on Disc 6038-A, matrix: D707

Photos: Dietmar Dath; Leonard Freed; Lewis W. Hine; Robert E. Williams; Margaret Bourke-White; Edwin Rosskam; Esther Bubley; Russell Lee; LOC; found images

Bill Gaither (Leroys Buddy) - L & N Blues

alzo61 2013-10-02 | From the Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 1 (15 December 1935 to 21 October 1936)...Document Records DOCD-5251

Recorded October 20, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois; Leroy's Buddy (Bill Gaither), vocal and guitar; Honey Hill, piano; unknown, string bass...Originally issued on Decca 7246

Photos: Bert Hardy; Vivian Maier; Todd Webb; found images

Big Boy George Owens - Kentucky Blues

alzo61 2013-09-30 | From the Sinners And Saints (1926 - 1931)...Document Records DOCD-5106

Recorded October 15, 1926, in Richmond, Indiana; George "Big Boy" Owens, vocal and guitar...Originally issued on Gennett 6006-A (78 RPM), in 1927

Photos: Leonard Freed; Russell Lee; Wayne F. Miller; Jack Delano; Edwin Rosskam

Walter Roland And Sonny Scott - Frisco Blues (Take 1)

alzo61 2013-09-30 | From the Too Late, Too Late: More Newly Discovered Titles And Alternate Takes Volume 12 (1917-1948)...Document Records DOCD-5659

Recorded July 19, 1933, New York City, New York; Jolly Two: Walter Roland, guitar; Sonny Scott, vocal and guitar...Vocalion test, matrix: 13587-1

"Frisco Blues" take 2 was issued on DOCD 5144 [Walter Roland: Complete Recorded Works, Volume I (1933)], but a rim bite caused many missing grooves there. 'Blues & Gospel Records' do not list this first take as it was assumed that the alternative take was not different "despite differences in speed and pitch" and I cannot but agree. The song refers to a train on the St. Louis to San Francisco Railroad. The version on DOCD 5144 was only two minutes and eighteen seconds, this complete version is thirty-four seconds longer. The intro and the first verse are now to be heard and the following should be added to the transcription in Document Blues 4 by R. R. MacLeod (Pat:1996):
"I'm worried now, and I won't be worried long,
I'm worried now, and I won't be worried long.
The black gal I know, Lord, she got the Frisco and gone."
Despite both 'Blues & Gospel Records' and the credit on the original disc, Sonny Scott is the only vocalist, and Walter Roland is the only to be heard on guitar. ~ Dr. Guido van Rijn, November 1, 1999 (from the liner notes)

Photos: Dorothea Lange; found images

Dorothy Lee, Norma Jean, Shirley Marie And Robert Johnson - You Got To Give An Account

alzo61 2013-09-26 | From the Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey Of Rural Black Religious Music (1975)...Advent 2805 (LP)

Recorded August 26, 1967, in Skene, Mississippi, by David Evans and Marina Bokelman Shebitz; Dorothy Lee, Norma Jean and Shirley Marie Johnson, vocals; Robert Johnson, guitar

http://www.wirz.de/music/advenfrm.htm

Photos: Cheryl T. Evans; Robert Johnson and Family, 1967, by Marina Bokelman Shebitz

Robert Pete Williams - When I Lay My Burden Down

alzo61 2013-09-26 | From the When I Lay My Burden Down...Southland SLP-4

Recorded in December, 1971; Robert Pete Williams, vocal and guitar

http://www.wirz.de/music/wil_rfrm.htm

Photos: Robert Pete Williams, by Robbie Bedell, source: http://robbiebedell.photoshelter.com/image/I0000wEbIjU9nIOs
; Jack Delano; Robert Pete Williams, by Fay Rogers, source: front cover of SLP-4

Johnny Barfield - Aint I Right?

alzo61 2013-09-05 | From the Classic Field Recordings: Landmark Country Sessions From A Lost Era

Recorded Monday, February 5, 1940, in Atlanta, Georgia; Johnny Barfield, vocal, own guitar; acc. Ralph Pleasant, fiddle...Originally issued on Bluebird B-8486-B (reissued on Montgomery Ward M8657)

Photos: James Shaughnessy; The Georgia Wildcats on radio WLW, Cincinnati, in 1931, from left: Johnny Barfield, Bert Layne, Clayton McMichen and Slim Bryant, Tony Russell Collection

Slim Jim (Debs Mays) - Rabbit Blues

alzo61 2013-09-05 | From the Classic Field Recordings: Landmark Country Sessions From A Lost Era

Recorded September 9, 1936 in New York; Slim Jim (Slim Mays*), vocal and guitar...Originally issued on Bluebird B-6603-B

*Pseudonym on Bluebird for Debs Mays

This recording is *not* by Jack Pierce, as erroneously claimed in some sources!

Photos: Constance Stuart Larrabee; John Vachon; John Tefteller Blues Images

A Bluegrass Tribute - Mothers Little Helper

alzo61 2013-08-26 | From the Pickin' On The Rolling Stones: A Bluegrass Tribute (2000)

Blind Benny Paris And Wife - Im Gonna Live So God Can Use Me

alzo61 2013-07-26 | From the Gospel Piano & Guitar Classics (1926-1935)...Blues Documents BD-2003

Recorded on October 22, 1928, in Atlanta, Georgia; Blind Benny Paris, vocal and guitar; Mrs. Paris, vocal

Photos: Edwin Rosskam; Jack Delano; Marion Post Wolcott; Lewis Hine; Russell Lee

Jimmy DeBerry - Since I Laid My Burden Down

alzo61 2013-07-26 | From the Jimmy DeBerry And Walter Horton's The Complete 1972-73 Memphis Sessions, Volume 2: Back...Crosscut Records

Recorded in Memphis, 1972-73; Jimmy DeBerry, vocal and guitar

Lottie Kate Bunkley And Jim Bunkley - The Lord Will Make A Way

alzo61 2013-07-19 | From the George Mitchell Collection: Rosa Lee Hill And Friends...Fat Possum Records FP 1051-2

Recorded in Geneva, Georgia, 1969, by George Mitchell

Photo by Edwin Rosskam

Roosevelt Charles - Mean Trouble Blues

alzo61 2013-07-19 | From the Blues, Prayer, Work And Trouble Songs (1964)

http://www.wirz.de/music/osterfrm.htm

Roosevelt Charles, vocal, accompanied by Otis Webster on guitar

Field recording by Harry Oster in 1960

Photos by Edwin Rosskam

Lottie Kate Bunkley And Jim Bunkley - Black Gal

alzo61 2013-07-19 | From the George Mitchell Collection: Rosa Lee Hill And Friends...Fat Possum Records FP 1051-2

Recorded in Geneva, Georgia, 1969, by George Mitchell...Lottie Kate Bunkley, vocal; Jim Bunkley, guitar...Originally issued on Rounder 2001, as bonus track

http://www.wirz.de/music/roundfrm.htm

Sadly, this album is a memorial to Jim Bunkley. He was killed in a head-on collision on a rainy day in October, 1970. I learned of his death about a month later when I visited his home to tell him his recordings were going to be issued.
Bunkley lived in a small tar-papered house he bragged was his own, in Geneva, Georgia, his birthplace. He was "eight years old when they took the census in 1920." It was about that time he made friends with the guitar. "When I was about eight, my brother had one, and me and my nine-year-old sister used to play it. Us couldn't hold it. Had it hanging up 'side of the wall and we'd get up on a chair and play it. Everyone in my family could play - we had five boys and four girls. my mother and father could play. We could play fiddles, too."
When he "got up in age," Bunkley was about the best known musician around Talbot County. He recalled the many times he walked away with prizes offered at a theater in nearby Junction City. "I was rough then," he said, "I had on a great big ole cowboy hat and I got up there on the stage and cracked a whole lot of jokes and then played. I win all that money, too." Lottie Kate Bunkley, Jim's wife, was born October 22, 1918. She sang only two songs for us but both were superb. ~ by George Mitchell (from the liner notes of Rounder 2001)

Photo: Jim Bunkley with wife Lottie Kate, by George Mitchell, source: Rounder 2001

Catherine Porter And Will Shade - Wont You Ride With Me Tonight

alzo61 2013-07-05 | From the George Mitchell Collection: Rosa Lee Hill And Friends...Fat Possum Records FP 1051-2

Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, 1963, by George Mitchell; Catherine Porter, vocal; Will Shade, guitar

Photos: Catherine Porter and Will Shade, photographed by George Mitchell, source: front cover of FP 1051-2; Found image

Charley Patton - Im Goin Home

alzo61 2013-07-04 | From the Too Late, Too Late: More Newly Discovered Titles And Alternate Takes Volume 2 (1897-1935)...Document Records DOCD-5216

Recorded June 14, 1929, in Richmond, Indiana; Charley Patton, vocal and guitar; probably Buddy Boy Hawkins, second vocal...Originally issued on PM 12883 (78 RPM)

Charley Patton's Paramount 12883 ("Lord I'm Discouraged" and "I'm Goin' Home") dates from his first recording session in 1929. Both sides of this 78 were reissued on DOCD-5009, but for this anthology a 78 with far superiour sound quaility was available. Patton's last four tracks on this first session were all religious: PM 12799 was issued as by Elder J. J. Hadley, but the present 78 appeared under Patton's own name, in spite of the religious nature of the songs. Both songs are in Open G. "I'm Going Home," was also recorded by Blind Willie Johnson and Lonnie McIntorsh as "Take Your/A Stand." Patton had also sung part of this spiritual earlier in his "Prayer Of Death - Part 1. In "I'm Goin' Home," as in several songs of his first session, a second male voice is to be heard. This may well be Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins who had travelled with Patton in the train from Jackson, Mississippi to Richmond, Indiana, a journey of 750 miles. ~ Guido van Rijn, October 28, 1993 (from the liner notes)

Photos: Semmes Chapel, Michigan City, Mississippi circa 1920, source: Dust-To-Digital; Rosetta Patton Brown, Duncan, Mississippi, 1996, by Bill Steber

Roscoe Holcomb - Train That Carried My Girl From Town

alzo61 2013-06-28 | From the An Untamed Sense Of Control (2003)...Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40144

Recorded in Daisy, Kentucky, 1972, on Roscoe's front porch, by John Cohen; Roscoe Holcomb, guitar and voice...Originally issued on the "Close To Home," FA 2374, in 1975

The song was originally recorded in the late 1920s by Frank Hutchison. Roscoe's performance follows Hutchison's guitar licks closely. Hutchison played around West Virginia in local stage shows and schoolhouses. With the guitar in opening runing, this sound attracted the attention of mountain musicians. Doc Watson made his own hot guitar version of this song in the 1960s. ~ by John Cohen (from the liner notes)

LYRICS:

There goes that train that carried my girl from town
If I knowed her number I'd sure flag her down

Chorus:
Must have been the fast train that carried my girl from town
There goes my girl, somebody call her back
'Cause she's got her hand in my money sack

Chorus:
Supper on the table, h'it a getting cold
Some old rounder stole my jelly roll

Photos: Esther Bubley; Roscoe Holcomb, photographed by John Cohen, source: front cover of SFW 40144

Jake Staggers - Garfield

alzo61 2013-06-27 | From the Art Of Field Recording: Survey...Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum

Recorded April 18, 1981, in Toccoa, Stephens County, by Art Rosenbaum; Sung and narrated by J.C. "Jake" Staggers with 5-string banjo

Jake Staggers is the only black banjo-picker we have recorded in Georgia. He was born in 1899 in Oconee County, South Carolina, though he has spent the last fifty years across the Tugaloo River in Toccoa, Georgia. At ten he began to learn the banjo from his older brother, Hansell, a friend named Jesse Godine, and Garnett Spencer, a white man. He acquired a rich repertoire of railroad songs, pre-blues frolic pieces, and spirituals, and a solid drop-thumb frailing style on the banjo that made him a sought-after musician for black and white dances, and gathering where "black and white get on the flo' at one time and dance." He is proud that in those days he "Couldn't be beat", and even in the 1980's his playing and singing vividly exemplifies the black contribution of the African-derived banjo and the songs associated with, to American music. This song is a cante-fable, or spoken narrative interspersed with sung elements; Jake learned it from his brother, Hansell, who learned it as a railroad worker. The white North Carolina collector-performer Bascom Lamar Lunsford sang and recited this piece, also to banjo accompaniment (Library of Congress recording AFS L29, "Songs and Ballads of American History and the Assassination of Presidents"); Lunsford's version associates the story with President Garfield's assassination by Charles Guiteau, seen as a small-town street attack. The sung melodies in Stagger's and Lunsford's versions are similar, and point to a black origin of the piece. ~ Art Rosenbaum

Photos: James Van Der Zee; Jake Staggers, Toccoa, 1981, photographed by Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, source: Art of Field Recording Volume 2 booklet and Folk Visions & Voices, Etnic Folkways Records FE 34161

Big Bill Broonzy - Texas Tornado Blues

alzo61 2013-06-27 | From the Too Late, Too Late: More Newly Discovered Titles And Alternate Takes Volume 7 (1927-1955)...Document Records DOCD-5525

Recorded January 28, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois; Big Bill Broonzy, vocal and guitar; Memphis Slim, piano; Ransom Knowling, string bass; Tyrell Dixon, drums

Here Bill's baby is a Texas tornado who blows the house down if you ask her where she's been. Some issued titles from these Columbia sessions appeared as "Big Bill and His Rhythm Band." ~ Dr. Guido van Rijn, November 20, 1996 (from the liner notes)

Photos (in order of appearance): Pim van Isveldt and Big Bill Broonzy at recording session at the Hoog-Wolde studio in Baarn, Holland, February 17, 1956, photograph by Hans Buter/ Maria Austria Instituut; Tornado, USA, 1950s, unknown photographer, courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery; Big Bill Broonzy on the movie set of 'Low Light and Blues Smoke,' Brussels, December 1955, Yannick and Margo Brynoghe Collection

Lawrence Eller, Vaughn Eller And Ross Brown - Lonesome Valley

alzo61 2013-06-26 | From the Art Of Field Recording Volume 1: Religious...Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum

Recorded circa May, 1978, in Hiawassee, Towns County by Art Rosenbaum; Lawrence Eller, vocal and 5-string banjo; Vaughn Eller, guitar; Ross Brown, fiddle

Photos: Arthur Witman; Margo Newmark Rosenbaum: Vaughn Eller, Lawrence Eller and Ross Brown, Upper Hightower, Towns County, 1979

Lucy And Brady Doc Barnes - Savior, Dont You Pass Me By

alzo61 2013-06-24 | From the Art Of Field Recording Volume 2: Religious...Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum

Recorded circa August 16, 1983, in Athens, Clarke County, by Art Rosenbaum

Doc and Lucy Barnes' small house in Athens has been called "Holy Ghost Headquarters" - Doc explains that: "I have mo' singin' there than they do at lots of different churches." He and Lucy have a repertoire of several hundred spirituals and gospel songs, and on the days when other singers do not come by they sing them for themselves, sometimes until late at night. Lucy was trained in singing sacred music by her father, "Singing" Charlie Jackson of Washington, Georgia. Doc, born in Arnoldsville near Athens in 1908, learned alavery-days spirituals from his grand- and great-grandparents; but he started out with wordly music, playing frolic tunes and blues on the organ, and later for several years, though he had been a member of a gospel quintet. He learned to make and play the quills, or panpipes, as a boy, from a former slave named Joe Peelin. He has worked at picking cotton, and driving a truck for a textile mill; in his retirement he devotes his voice and musical talent to the service of his faith. This spiritual, which the Barneses learned is a prayer in song. The singer, as Doc puts it, is "askin' God for what he want throughout the song." ~ by Art Rosenbaum

Photos: Arthur Witman; Mavis Moon, Doc and Lucy Barnes, and Kenny, Little Lucy and Jackie Gilmore, Athens, 1977, photographed by Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, source: Ethnic Folkways Records (FE 34161)

Shirley Griffith - Maggie Campbell Blues

alzo61 2013-06-24 | From the Art Of Field Recording Volume 1: Blues...Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum

Recorded circa July 1961 in Indianapolis, Indiana, by Arthur Rosenbaum; Shirley Griffith, vocal and guitar...Originally released on Bluesville BVLP 1087 (1965)

http://www.wirz.de/music/grifffrm.htm

"Maggie Campbell Blues" was Tommy Johnson's version of the well known C. C. Rider or Easy Rider; I find it the most moving of the variants I've heard. The vocal line is like that of a spiritual in its free, moaning quality. The guitar is returned "in Spanish", an open chord tuning. Shirley explains that "Maggie Campbell was Tom's old lady." ~ Art Rosenbaum

Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt; Shirley Griffith, photographed by Art Rosenbaum, source: eBay auction of photograph used on the front cover of Flyright LP 523

Robert Johnson - Precious Lord

alzo61 2013-06-13 | From the George Mitchell Collection

Recorded in Skene, Mississippi, July 2, 1969 by George Mitchell; Norma, Dorothy and Shirley Johnson, vocals; Robert Johnson, guitar

Born December 5th, 1916, in Crowley, Louisiana, Robert Johnson came with his family to the Delta when he was three. Settling East of Cleveland, Johnson's mother worked as a maid while his father farmed. Like many Mississippi blacks of the era, Johnson's father eventually moved north to Chicago, while his family stayed in the South. Johnson learned the guitar when he was eight, taught by one of his uncles. As a teenager, Johnson played local dances for both blacks and whites, playing two-steps and waltzes: "before boogie woogie," as Johnson said to George Mitchell. "Blues hadn't reached us yet," he told Mitchell. "I imagine it was in other places, but when it got here, we taked hold." Johnson started out playing pieces like "Pine Top Blues" and "Broke and Hungry Blues," but eventually gave up blues for the church in 1927. "You know that not the way of the Lord, if you're going play blues. You just out on your own. The Lord can't get no glory out of you when you play blues." Johnson spent the next several years bouncing between the church and the blues, before finally giving up "the devil's music" entirely in 1952. When Mitchell met him, he was living in a small Delta settlement called Skene, outside of Cleveland, working the fields of the huge Circle H plantation, and maintaining a home with his wife and eight kids, all of whom sang gospel. When asked about the future, Johnson told George Mitchell that he'd like his daughters to get a "good, decent" job so they wouldn't have to do field work, while Johnson himself looked forward to buying his own house and plot of land near Cleveland. ~ Sam Sweet (from the liner notes)

Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt; Robert Johnson, photographed by George Mitchell

Furry Lewis - Old Hobo

alzo61 2013-01-09 | From the Good Morning Judge (2003)...Fat Possum CD 80374

http://www.wirz.de/music/lewisfrm.htm

Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in the summer of 1967 by George Mitchell

Happy Birthday, Mr. George Mitchell! Thank you for everything!

Mississippi Fred McDowell And Johnny Woods - Goin Away

alzo61 2012-11-23 | From the Mama Says I'm Crazy (2002)...Fat Possum CD 0364-2

Recorded August 1967, in Como, Mississippi by George Mitchell...Fred McDowell, vocal and guitar; Johnny Woods, harmonica

http://www.wirz.de/music/mcdowfrm.htm

http://www.wirz.de/music/woodjfrm.htm

One of the most talented musicians of his time, Fred McDowell performed to large crowds all over the United States and Europe for several decades. He also spent most of his life working at a service station in Como, Mississippi, where I first approached him. This was in 1967. Fred couldn't have been more excited about doing a recording session and insisted we hire Johnny Woods, his old friend and a local legend, to accompany him on harp.
No one in the area had seen Johnny in about either years, but Fred had heard he was back in town. Three hours on a dirt road later, we pulled up to a dilapidated shack in a town called Senatobia and found Johnny Woods - who I later found to be a cordial, gentle man, forty-something, one hell of a harp player - passed out on the front porch.
Crammed inside the two-room house were fifteen or twenty men boisterously enjoying their Sunday afternoon, drinking and shooting craps. "Hey, Shake 'Em, what you doing?" they greeted Fred, who is best known in the area for his performance of "Shake 'Em on Down." When Fred sat down with his guitar and a bottleneck, everyone joined in. A couple of songs later, Woods dragged himself in, still in a haze so thick you could see it in his eyes. He started rummaging through his pockets for his harmonica, ahd when Fred launched into "Shake 'Em on Down," Johnny's shrill harmonica joined the whang of the guitar to make a sound powerful enough to bring the walls down. We arranged for Woods to meet us at Fred's house the following evening.
Woods never showed that night, so we spent the next few days trying to track him down. We finally found him at a barbeque, stopped behind a car sneaking a swig from a friend's bottle of corn. Wodds agreed to go right then to a nearby house to record.
It was hard to believe that these two men had not played together in eight years. No practice was necessary; there were no second takes. They sat facking each other while Fred gave Johnny instructions under his breath. The veins in Fred's face bulged as he sang and played, and the spit drooled from Johnny's harmonica, which might as well have been a natural extension of his mouth. It is an honest and electrifying thrill to present two fo the greatest living blues men togeter, on tape, for you, and the rest of the world to hear. ~ George Mitchell, 1967 (from the liner notes)

Photography by Wayne Miller

Furry Lewis - Brownsville Blues

alzo61 2012-11-14 | From the Tennessee Recordings: The George Mitchell Collection (2006)...Fat Possum FP 1092-2

http://www.wirz.de/music/lewisfrm.htm

http://www.wirz.de/music/southfrm.htm

Recorded by George Mitchell between 1962-63 in Memphis, Tennessee...Furry Lewis, vocal and guitar

Photography by Barney Sellers: Furry Lewis; Jack Delano

Albert Macon And Robert Thomas - Dont Nothing Hurt Me But My Back And Side

alzo61 2012-11-14 | From the Lower Chattahoochee Valley: The George Mitchell Collection (2006)...Fat Possum FP 1053-2

Recorded in Society Hill, Alabama, early 1980's by George Mitchell...Albert Macon, vocal and guitar; Robert Thomas, guitar

Photography by Vivian Maier; Jim Alexander: Robert Thomas and Albert Macon, National Blues Downhome Festival, Atlanta, 1984, source: front cover of Southland SLP-23

Bud Grant - Mean Ole Frisco

alzo61 2012-11-14 | From the Bud Grant: The George Mitchell Collection (2007)...Fat Possum Records

Recorded by George Mitchell in Thomaston, Georgia, spring 1969...Bud Grant, vocal and guitar

Photography by Gordon Parks; George Mitchell: Bud Grant

Will Shade And Furry Lewis - The Train

alzo61 2012-11-14 | From the Tennessee Recordings: The George Mitchell Collection (2006)...Fat Possum FP 1092-2

http://www.wirz.de/music/southfrm.htm

http://www.wirz.de/music/lewisfrm.htm

Recorded by George Mitchell between 1962-63 in Memphis, Tennessee...Will Shade, vocal and harmonica; Furry Lewis, guitar

Front cover photograph: Will Shade and Jennie Mae Clayton, by George Mitchell

Bud Grant - Trouble In Mind

alzo61 2012-11-14 | From the Bud Grant: The George Mitchell Collection (2007)...Fat Possum Records

Recorded by George Mitchell in Thomaston, Georgia, spring 1969...Bud Grant, vocal and guitar

Front cover photograph: Bud Grant, by George Mitchell

Cecil Barfield (William Robertson) - My Babe

alzo61 2012-10-28 | From the Cecil Barfield: The George Mitchell Collection (2006)...Fat Possum FP 1039-2

http://www.wirz.de/music/barfifrm.htm

Recorded by George Mitchell in Plains, Georgia, late 1970's and early 1980's...Cecil Barfield (William Robertson), vocal and guitar

Photos: Bessie Mae Fair, Ft. Gaines, Georgia, by George Mitchell; Mrs. Donald Byrd, 48th Street, New York City, 1960, by William Claxton; Cecil Barfield, by George Mitchell

Ernest Phipps And His Holiness Singers - Went Up In The Clouds Of Heaven

alzo61 2012-10-23 | From the Kentucky Gospel (1927 - 1928) (1997)...Document Records DOCD-8013

Recorded Monday, October 29, 1928, in Bristol, Tennessee; Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers: A.G. Baker, Minnie Phipps, Nora Byrley, unidentified others, vocal group; acc. Ernest Phipps, fiddle; Roland N. Johnson, fiddle; Ethel Baker, piano; Ancil L. McVay, mandolin; Eula Johnson, banjo; Shirley Jones, guitar; Alfred G. Karnes, unidentified others, clapping...Originally issued on Victor 40106 (78 RPM)

http://www.wirz.de/music/karnefrm.htm

Ernest Phipps was preacher from the Corbin, Kentucky, area. His recordings from the famed Bristol, Tennessee, recording sessions of 1927 and 1928 were among the earliest recorded examples of Anglo-American gospel music.
Ernest Phipps (born May 4, 1900) and members of his Free Holiness Pentecostal Church congregation recorded six songs at each of the two Bristol sessions. At the 1927 sessions, Phipps's group, labeled the Holiness Quartet, featured two singers and a standard string band. At the 1928 sessions, Phipps fronted a larger group, known as Ernest Phipps and his Holiness Singers, consisting of four singers with piano, ﬁddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin accompaniment. The resulting twelve commercial recordings, with their evangelical lyrics, repetitions, strong rhythms, improvised harmonies, hand clapping, and guitar backup, provide a rare record of the fervent, intense Holiness style of gospel singing heard in many Appalachian churches in the early twentieth century. Phipps's recordings, including "Do, Lord, Remember Me," "Old Ship of Zion," and "Don't Grieve after Me," were among the ﬁrst 78s issued from the Bristol sessions. Phipps's "If the Light Is Gone Out of Your Soul," backed with "Bright Tomorrow," sold almost twelve thousand copies and stayed in print into the 1930s. He died April 17, 1963. ~ William Bernard McCarthy, Encyclopedia of Appalachia

Photos: Ernest Phipps, 1927; Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers in the 1920s. Phipps is pictured in the back row (fourth from left), with the striped necktie

Oscar Preacher Nelson And Newton Hoss Nelson - Broke And Aint Got A Dime

alzo61 2012-10-05 | From the Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar (1993)...Catfish Records 1003

http://www.wirz.de/music/catfifrm.htm

Recorded April 16, 1966, by Tary Owens; Oscar "Preacher" Nelson, vocal and guitar; Newton "Hoss" Nelson, guitar

The Nelson Brothers, Oscar "Preacher" Nelson And Newton "Hoss" Nelson, came from Cameron, Texas, where they played for country suppers and dances until 1935 when they ceased playing in public for the next thirty years. Their songs reflect the roughest of the Texas tradition on stomping country blues. Both brothers played guitar, and Oscar also played fiddle. The vocal is by Oscar Nelson who died in 1982. ~ Tary Owens and Julie Howell (from the liner notes)

Newton "Hoss" Nelson died on May 21, 1995, in Cameron, Milam County, Texas...He was 89 years old

Photography by Vivian Maier; Tary Owens: Oscar "Preacher" Nelson And Newton "Hoss" Nelson, source: booklet of CTF 1003

Mance Lipscomb And Teodar Jackson - Reconsider Baby

alzo61 2012-10-05 | From the Ruff Stuff: The Roots Of Texas Blues Guitar (1993)...Catfish Records 1003

http://www.wirz.de/music/catfifrm.htm

Recorded at a party in Austin, Texas, August 22, 1965, by Tary Owens; Mance Lipscomb, vocal and guitar; Teodar (T'Oley) Jackson, fiddle

Photography by Vivian Maier; Burton Wilson: Mance Lipscomb with Bill Neeley, source: front cover of CTF 1003

Carl Hodges - Poor Boy Blues

alzo61 2012-10-02 | From the Virginia Traditions: Tidewater Blues (1982)...BRI Records 006 (LP)

Recorded in Saluda (Middlesex County), Virginia, on March 3, 1979, by Kip Lornell; Carl Hodges, vocal and guitar

Carl Hodges is perhaps typical of a group of Afro-American folk musicians who came of age during the era just prior to the civil rights struggles beginning in the mid 1950's. This was a time when many rural roads were unpaved, farmers still used mules, and segregation was the social order. This group, which includes such fine musicians as Turner Foddrell of Stuart, Virginia, Willie Robertson of Plains, Georgia, and Guitar Shorty of Elm City, North Carolina, was all born around 1930, and most of them began playing music in the early to mid 1940's. Blues and other forms of black folk music were still widely circulated by way of oral tradition at that time. It seems evident from field research by David Evans, George Mitchell, Pete Lowry, and others over the past decade that Carl Hodges and his contemporaries are the last generation to play blues in great numbers. The country blues tradition is hardly dead in Virginia, however, and some younger blacks have continued on. Richard Wright from Bedford County, Virginia, provides one fine example.

The basic themes of this song have been previously examined by many blues musicians. The themes of loneliness and poverty occur frequently in blues, and "Poor Boy Blues" is a typical example of their treatment. Versions of this song have been collected many times by researchers interested in Afro-American folk music. Howard Odum, for example, included the following lines in his pioneering study "Folk-Songs and Folk Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes:" 'Poor Boy long ways from home, I'm poor boy long ways from home. Poor boy long ways from home.' [Journal of American Folklore, 24 (July-September, 1911.)]
It seems quite likely that the more rigidly constructed blues recorded by commercial companies during the 1920's and 1930's had their roots in songs such as this. As songs such as "Poor Boy," "Joe Turner" and "Thought I Heard That K.C. Whistle Blow" became more widely circulated, it appears they also became more standardized, finally emerging as something close to the three-line, twelve-bar AAB form commonly found today.
Carl Hodges' interpretation of "Poor Boy Blues" is quite loosely structured and undorned. He rarely varies from the basic I, IV chord progression and alters the melody only slightly when taking a solo. Carl also occasionally deliberately neglects to finish singing a line and lets the guitar complete the line. This device is not uncommon among blues singers, and many musicians refer to it as "letting my guitar talk." ~ Kip Lornell (from the liner notes)

LYRICS:

Poor boy stood on the road and cried.
Poor boy stood on the road and cried.
Poor boy got no where to...

Poor boy, long ways from home.
Poor boy, long ways from...
Poor boy stood on the road and cried.

Poor boy don't know which way to go.
Poor boy don't know which way to go.
Poor boy stood on the road and cried.

Photography by John Vachon; Kip Lornell: Carl Hodges, source: booklet of BRI 006

Pernell Charity - Blind Love

alzo61 2012-10-02 | From the Virginia Traditions: Tidewater Blues (1982)...BRI Records 006 (LP)

Recorded in Waverly (Sussex County), Virginia, on October 31, 1972, by Pete Lowry for Trix Records; Pernell Charity, vocal and guitar

Pernell Charity was a quiet unassuming man born in Waverly on November 20, 1920. Except for a short period of time in New York City in the late 1940's, Mr. Charity spent his entire life in the Waverly area. He worked primarily at construction jobs but was forced to retire in 1970 because of a back injury. From that time until his death on April 12, 1979, of cancer, Pernell lived in a small house behind a noxious-smelling sawmill on Robert Wilkins Avenue.
His music was shaped by the popular blues records from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, and the local musicians he heard playing at house parties and weekend gatherings. "Blind Love" is based on a 1953 recording by B.B. King (issued on RPM 395). The text of Pernell's version follows the original quite closely and is a fine example of a thematic/stable blues composition. Although Pernell often utilized lyrics and themes found on records, his interpretations are hardly slavish imitations. He was quite adept at adopting material and changing it to suit his own musical personality. Many such fine examples can be heard on Trix 3309 "The Virginian", including "Black Rat Swing" (Little Son Joe), "Mamie" (Bull City Red), and "Dig Myself A Hole" (Arthur Crudup). The version of "Blind Love" on the Trix album is an alternate take to the one issued here. ~ Kip Lornell (from the liner notes)

LYRICS:

Yes, I was standing at my window, tears running all down my cheeks
Poor me was standing at my window, tears running down my cheeks
I could see that woman I really loved, stopping every man in the world she meets.

Then I started to screaming, "Lord, what wrong have I done?"
Poor me started to screaming, "Lord, what wrong have I done?"
Every woman that I gets, she want some other one.

Yes, I was standing on that corner, between 35th and Main.
Poor me was standing on that corner, between 35th and Main.
Blind man walked up and took my woman, and he even called her name.

He says, "Aw, baby I'm blind, you brought eyesight and made me see."
He says, "Aw, baby I'm blind, brought eyesight and made me see."
Lord, that blind man asked a question, "Now who can your rider be?"

Yes, I was standing out there trembling with my head down in my hands.
Poor me was standing there trembling with my head down in my hands.
Lord, I know that woman going to say, "Lord, I ain't got no man."

Photography by Marion Post Wolcott; Kip Lornell: Pernell Charity, source: booklet of BRI 006

The Chancey Brothers - I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground

alzo61 2012-09-28 | From the Art Of Field Recording Volume 2: Accompanied Songs And Ballads...Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum

Recorded October 22, 1978, in Boardtown Community, Cherry Log, Gilmer County; Chesley Chancey, vocals and 5-string banjo; Joe Chancey, tenor vocal and guitar; Ralph Chancey, mandolin; Don Chancey, bass violin; Gene Wiggins and Art Rosenbaum, fiddles

This song was recorded in the twenties by North Carolinian Bascom Lamar Lunsford (re-issue on Folkways LP FA 2040.) Lunsford, in "Thirty And One Folksongs from The Southern Mountains," New York: Carl Fischer, 1929, pp. 10-11, wrote that this is "a fine type of indigenous American banjo song extant in the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountain region...and has numerous unrelated stanzas born out of the hilarity of mountain banjo picking." The Chancey's fine version with two-part harmony, is more regular in rhythm than Lunsford's." ~ by Art Rosenbaum

LYRICS:

Lord, I wish I was a mole in the ground,
Lord, I wish I was a mole in the ground;
A mole in the ground, turn this wide world around,
Lord, I wish I was a mole in the ground.

Lord, I wish I was a lizard in the spring,
Lord, I wish I was a lizard in the spring,
'F I's a lizard in the spring, I could hear my darlin' sing,
Lord, I wish I was a lizard in the spring.

I'll take you to your mamma next payday,
I'll take you to your mamma next payday,
I'll take you to the door and I'll kiss you no more,
I'll take you to your mamma next payday.

Photography by Esther Bubley; Edwin Rosskam; Arthur Rothstein; Eudora Welty; Gordon Parks; Alan Lomax; Lewis Hine; Marion Post Wolcott; Russell Lee; William Klein; Ben Shahn; Dorothea Lange; Ernest Hemingway Collection; Margo Newmark Rosenbaum: Chesley Chancey, The Chancey Brothers

Lewis Rabbit Muse - Darkness On The Delta

alzo61 2012-09-23 | From the Rabbit Muse: Muse Blues (1976)...Outlet STLP 1005

Recorded 1975, in Ferrum, Franklin County, Virginia; Rabbit Muse, vocal and ukulele

http://www.wirz.de/music/muserfrm.htm

Photography by Marion Post Wolcott: Wagon load of cotton coming out of the field in the evening, Mileston Plantation, Mississippi Delta, October 1939; Blaine Shively: Lewis "Rabbit" Muse, source: back cover of STLP 1005

Bill Jackson - Titanic Blues

alzo61 2012-09-23 | From the Long Steel Rail: Blues by Maryland Songster Bill Jackson (1994)...Testament TCD 5014

Recorded in Philadelphia on New Year's day, 1962 by Pete Welding; Bill Jackson, vocal and 12-string guitar...Originally issued on Testament T-201 (LP) in 1963

http://www.wirz.de/music/testafrm.htm

I started off with an album by Maryland singer and 12-string guitarist Bill Jackson who I had first met almost a decade earlier and had recorded fairly extensively. He was the first artist presented when conducting a folk music program on radio station WHYY, operated by the Philadelphia Board of Education, through which I sought to introduce listeners to the folksong traditions of the Philadelphia area. Bill was one of the foremost discoveries I made during these years and, as the art of the songster was at the time little documented (Jesse Fuller and Mance Lipscomb were the two major songsters then active), it seemed appropriate to initiate the label with an artist whose music not only would expand our knowledge of the idiom but be enjoyed for the accomplished and invigorating singing and playing it was. "Titanic Blues," one of my favorites of Bill's deep repertoire, shows the strength of traditional utterance and Bill's personal handling of it. "Long Steel Rail", the album from which it has been drawn, was the first sampling of the black folksong traditions of rural Maryland and, three decades after its release, remains one of the albums I am proudest of having produced. ~ Pete Welding

Photos: Titanic departing Southampton, April 10, 1912; Bill Jackson photographed by Pete Welding, source: front cover of T-201

John Lee Granderson - A Man For The Nation

alzo61 2012-09-12 | From the Can't Keep From Crying: Topical Blues on the Death of President Kennedy (1994)...Testament TCD 5007

Recorded in Chicago, Illinois, in the weeks following the November 22, 1963 assassination of the president; John Lee Granderson, vocal and guitar...Originally issued on Testament S-01 (LP) in 1964

http://www.wirz.de/music/grandfrm.htm

http://www.wirz.de/music/testafrm.htm

On a more sobering note, "A Man For The Nation," performed on guitar and sung by Tennessean John Lee Granderson, was the initial track recorded for an album of songs about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It actually inspired the album for it was John Lee who mentioned to me that he had written a song about this while, repairing a car, he listened to the radio in the hours following the shooting. When Big Joe Williams told me he had done the same, I contacted other performers to see if they had done likewise, or could write a song abput this tragic event. The album that resulted, "Can't Keep From Crying," recorded in the weeks following the assassination, is a unique document that memorializes the deep feelings Kennedy's death inspired in many black Americans, and stands as one of the few events in modern times to have produced an outpouring of topical song. ~ Pete Welding

Photography by Ed Clark; John F. Kennedy Library Foundation; Pete Welding: John Lee Granderson, source: back cover of Testament T-2220

Papa Harvey Hull And Long Cleve Reed (The Down Home Boys) - Dont You Leave Me Here

alzo61 2012-09-12 | From The Songster Tradition (1927-1935)...Document Records DOCD-5045 (1991)

Recorded c. April 8, 1927, in Chicago, Illinois; Papa Harvey Hull, vocal; Long "Cleve" Reed, speech and guitar; Sunny Wilson, guitar...Originally issued on Black Patti 8002 (78 RPM) in 1927

http://www.wirz.de/music/hullpfrm.htm

The blues emerged around 1900, and rapidly became very popular, but when recording started, there were still musicians around who performed material from the older traditions - songsters. Originally, a "songster" was a songbook, but the term was adapted by blacks to mean a singer (often self-accompanied). This CD surveys some aspects of the songster tradition, beginning with Papa Harvey Hull and Long Cleve Reed, who recorded in 1927.
The guitar duetting between Reed and Sunny Wilson on their six titles seems to place the group in the area south of Memphis - Tate and Panola Counties - where Garfield Akers, Joe Callicott, Frank Stokes and Dan Sane developed their two-guitar sound from the blend of ragtime and parlour guitar heard here. Their repertoire typically for songsters on race records, includes blues, ballads and pre-World War I songs like "Alabama Bound" and the 1900 con song "I've Got A Gal For Ev'ry Day In The Week." The harmony singing, too, comes from an earlier America. It has been suggested that Big Boy Cleveland, who recorded for Gennett shortly after Hull and Reed, was actually Long Cleve(land) Reed. It's not impossible; Tate and Panola Counties were a stronghold of the black fife and drum tradition but the singing and slide guitar on "Goin' To Leave You Blues" are very different from those heard on the group's records. ~ Chris Smith (from the liner notes)

LYRICS:

SPOKEN: All right, boy, let's go back home!

Alabama bound, Alabama bound,
If the boat don't sink and the stack don't drown, Alabama bound

Boats up the river, runnin' side by side
Well, you got my lovin', kind sweet babe, guess you're satisfied

Don't you leave me here, don't you leave me here
Well, I don't mind you goin', sweet lovin' babe, leave a dollar for beer

SPOKEN: Hey, hey! Let's go, boys!

How long, how long, has this train been gone?
How long, how long, sweet lovin' babe, has this train been gone?

Kate Adams got ways, just like a man
Well, she steals a woman, sweet lovin' babe, everywhere she land

Alabama bound, Alabama bound
If the boat don't sink and the stack don't drown, Alabama bound

Can you tell me how long, Jackson to McComb?
Well, it's fifteen miles, sweet lovin' babe, maybe, to my home

Don't you leave me here, don't you leave me here
Well, I don't mind you goin', sweet lovin, babe, leave a dime for beer

Alabama bound, Alabama bound
If the boat don't sink and the stack don't drown, Alabama bound

SPOKEN: Oh, do it, boys!

Alabama bound, baby, turned around
If the boat don't sink and the stack don't drown, Alabama bound...

Images: Ferris, 7 year old newsie, Mobile, Alabama, 1914 by Lewis Hine; Negro Shack, Montgomery, Alabama, by E.G. Fowler, Pub., The Historic Postcards of Alabama; The Down Home Boys (left to right): Long "Cleve" Reed, Papa Harvey Hull and Sunny Wilson, from an advertisement for Black Patti Records that appeared in a 1927 issue of The Chicago Defender

Skoodle Dum Doo And Sheffield - Gas Ration Blues

alzo61 2012-09-11 | From the Rare Country Blues Vol. 2 (1929 - 1943)...DOCD-5641

Recorded probably Newark, New Jersey, circa late 1943; Skoodle Dum Doo And Sheffield: Skoodle Dum Doo (prob. Seth Richard), vocal and guitar; prob. Sheffield, harmonica

Seth Richard was a singer-guitarist who recorded two blues in 1928. One of the titles, "Skoodeldum Doo", provided the pseudonym under which he appeared on his only known recordings some fifteen years later. With harmonica player Sheffield, Skoodle Dum Doo recorded four numbers. "Tampa Blues" once suggested a Florida origin for the duo, but more recent research points to the Bedford County area of Virginia. ~ Dave Moore, April 1999 (from the liner notes)

Photography by Carol Martin; Vivian Maier; Marjory Collins

Bob Campbell - Starvation Farm Blues

alzo61 2012-09-11 | From the Rare Country Blues Vol. 2 (1929 - 1943)...DOCD-5641

Recorded Wednesday, August 1, 1934, in New York City, NY; Bob Campbell, vocal and guitar...Originally issued on Vocalion 02798

More of mystery is Bob Campbell, about whom nothing is known, apart from the four issued titles from his 1934 New York session. He was a fine guitarist, as evidenced particulary by the two up-tempo numbers, "Starvation Farm Blues" and "Worried All The Time", and produced some strong lyrics. His guitar may also be heard accompanying Lucille Bogan (as "Bessie Jackson") on some of her songs from the same session. ~ Dave Moore, April 1999 (from the liner notes)

Photography by Jack Delano

Gus Gibson - Railroad Song

alzo61 2012-09-11 | From the Red River Blues (1934-1943): Library of Congress East Coast Blues Recordings (1991)...Travelin' Man TMCD 08

http://www.wirz.de/music/gibsgfrm.htm

Recorded 1941 at Fort Valley, Georgia by John Wesley Work; Dolphus "Gus" Gibson, vocal and guitar

Photography by Pete Lowry: Gus Gibson, August 1974, source: Blues Unlimited 111 and 112

Johnny Shines, Sunnyland Slim And B. Sam Firk - Two Long Freight Trains

alzo61 2012-09-11 | From the Really Chicago's Blues (1969)...Adelphi AD 1005

Recorded in Chicago, September, 1969; Johnny Shines, vocal, J200; Sunnyland Slim, electric piano; Backwards Sam Firk (Mike Stewart), acoustic guitar

http://www.wirz.de/music/adelpfrm.htm

Photos: Alan Brown collection, Joel Slotnikoff

Washboard Sam - Motherless Child Blues

alzo61 2012-09-09 | From the Washboard Sam: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 7 (31 July 1942 To 27 October 1949)...Document Records DOCD-5177

Recorded October 27, 1949, in Chicago, illinois; Washboard Sam, vocal and washboard; Eddie "Sugarman" Penigar, tenor sax; Bob Call, piano; Willie Lacey, guitar; Ransom Knowling, string bass...Originally issued on Victor 22-0090

Photos: Margaret Bourke-White; Washboard Sam, 1931

Memphis Minnie - Pig Meat On The Line

alzo61 2012-09-09 | From the Memphis Minnie: Queen Of The Blues (1997)

Recorded May 21, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois; Memphis Minnie, vocal and guitar; Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlars, guitar; unknown, string bass...Originally issued on OKeh 06605

Photography by Jack Delano; William Claxton

Maggie Jones - Anybody Here Want To Try My Cabbage?

alzo61 2012-09-09 | From the Maggie Jones: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 1 (August 1923 To April 1925)...Document Records DOCD-5348

Recorded December 10, 1924, in New York City, NY; Maggie Jones, vocal; Louis Armstrong, cornet; Fletcher Henderson, piano...Originally issued on Columbia 14063-D

Maggie Jones, pianist and vocalist, was born Fae Barnes in Hillsboro, Texas, around 1900. The daughter of sharecroppers, she moved in the early 1920s to New York City, where she began to perform in local clubs. Billed as the "Texas Nightingale," she also worked a circuit of traveling shows for the Theater Owners Booking Association, including performances at the Princess Theater in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On July 26, 1923, she became one of the earliest female Texas singers to record a song. She recorded two more sides in August and followed those with two more cuts the following month. She continued to record blues for various labels, including Black Swan, Victor, Pathé, and Paramount. Some of her best-known songs are "Undertaker's Blues," "Single Woman's Blues," and "Northbound Blues."
She recorded with several musical legends between 1924 and 1926, including Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and Charlie Green, and participated in a touring review in 1928--29. She was frequently forced to earn her living outside the world of music, however, and operated a dress store in New York for a time. In the early 1930s she moved to Dallas and formed her own revue, which performed at such spots as the All-American Cabaret in Fort Worth. In the mid-1930s she disappeared from the music scene and from the written record. ~ James Head, Texas State Historical Association

Photography by E.J. Bellocq