Big Road Blues (original) (raw)

Show Notes:

Peg Leg Sam Newspaper Article, Rocky Mount Telegram, Tuesday 15th, January 1963, Rocky Mountain NCPeg Leg Sam Newspaper Article, Rocky Mount Telegram, Tuesday 15th, January 1963, Rocky Mountain NCPeg Leg Sam @ Pink Anderson's House, Spartanburg, SC, October 14th, 1972Peg Leg Sam @ Pink Anderson's House, Spartanburg, SC, October 14th, 1972Peg Leg Sam, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam & Henry Rufe Johnson, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam & Henry Rufe Johnson, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Elester Anderson, Peg Leg Sam, Henry Rufe Johnson @ UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Elester Anderson, Peg Leg Sam, Henry Rufe Johnson @ UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Tarheel Slim, Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Tarheel Slim, Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Peg Leg Sam & Louisiana Red during "Going Train Blues Sessions", February 10, 1975 at Minot Sound Studios in White Plains, NYPeg Leg Sam & Louisiana Red during "Going Train Blues Sessions", February 10, 1975 at Minot Sound Studios in White Plains, NYPeg Leg Sam's Grave, Jonesville, SCPeg Leg Sam's Grave, Jonesville, SCPink Anderson, Spartanburg, SC, 1961Pink Anderson, Spartanburg, SC, 1961Pink Anderson & Little Pink 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES, 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES, 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg. SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg. SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Peg Leg Sam October 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Peg Leg Sam October 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson @ Home early 1970s Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson @ Home early 1970s Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg SCBaby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg SCBaby Tate Spartanburg, SC 1972Baby Tate Spartanburg, SC 1972Baby Tate Spartanburg, SC, 1972Baby Tate Spartanburg, SC, 1972Baby Tate's Grave 1974 Spartanburg' SCBaby Tate's Grave 1974 Spartanburg' SC

Peg Leg Sam, Pink Anderson & Baby Tate

Today’s show is the second of a two-part show devoted to three fine blues based songsters from South Carolina who were active for decades, often worked together and who all passed in the 1970s. We have the good fortune that they left behind a fair bit of recorded music, both issued and unissued and we owe a big debt to Sam Charters and Pete Lowry who documented them extensively. All three have been featured on the show over the years but never in depth. Like our great show on Henry Johnson, which we aired at the end of 2022, the idea for these shows comes from my friend Ethan Iova who greatly helped me in sifting through the many recordings and crafting them into two powerful programs. Also a special thanks to Julian Lowry for making many of the photos available.

Pink left behind the most recordings and was the only one to record in the pre-war era. His first records were with his older mentor Simmie Dooley in 1928, he next recorded in 1950 (the results make up a split album with Rev. Gary Davis), was recorded extensively by Sam in his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1961-1962 and by Pete in later years but unsuccessfully. Pink also spawned the name of a rock band when his name was combined with bluesman Floyd Council’s name. Baby Tate was a fair but younger than Pink but already a seasoned performer when he moved to Spartanburg, working both as a solo act and as a duo with Pink. Tate cut one album for Bluesville in 1961, had some tracks on a Sam Charters anthology album, and was recorded prolifically by Pete Lowry, all of it unissued outside of one 45, some anthology sides and backing Peg Leg Sam on a few numbers. Sam was a veteran medicine show performer from the 30’s through the 70s, acting as a harp blower, singer, comedian and dancer. He wasn’t recorded until the 70s resulting in many unissued sides for Pete, one full-length album for Pete’s Trix label, one album with a real live medicine show, an album with Louisiana Red, several other scattered tracks and a short film. I hope you enjoy these shows as much as I do; they feature some unvarnished, traditional blues from some exceptional performers that deserve a wider reputation.

Blind Simmie Dooley was the first mentor to a young Pink Anderson. Neither musician was born in Spartanburg – Dooley was born in 1881 in Hartwell, Georgia; Anderson in 1900 in Laurens, South Carolina, but the two met in Spartanburg in 1916. Both were playing as a duo at local parties, dances and picnics, and on city streets by 1918. By this time, Pink was already a part of WR. Kerr’s Indian Remedy Company Medicine Show, and Simmie eventually began playing with Pink on some medicine show tours. In 1928, Simmie and Pink traveled together to Atlanta to record four songs for Columbia Records. As Pink’s son noted: “Simmie was the one that molded him.” Simmie passed in 1961. The 1930s and 1940s found Pink traveling extensively with WR. Kerr’s show, where he danced, sang, and performed comedy routines.

It was 1950 before Anderson would record again, playing at the Virginia State Fair in Charlottesville, he was recorded by Paul Clayton in May of that year. Those seven performances, compiled along with eight songs by the Gary Davis on an album on a Riverside titled American Street Songs and Gospel, Blues and as American Street Songs on a different pressing. By now, Pink was working with Chief Thundercloud’s medicine show, often playing with harmonica player and comedian Arthur Jackson, who was known as “Peg Leg Sam” ever since an unfortunate train accident. Anderson and Peg Leg had begun working together in the late 1930s, with Peg acting as the straight man in their routines. The mid-1950s found Pink spending much more time at home in Spartanburg. The medicine show seasons were shorter now that WR. Kerr’s show was no longer in existence, and heart troubles caused Pink to cut back on traveling. He played many days for thrown quarters, dimes, and nickels on the streets of Spartanburg, and he also profited from selling bootleg whiskey. It was during this time period that his son Alvin was born.

Pink’s Forest Street home was the center of all sorts of activity, legal and otherwise, and it was a gathering place for musicians. Pink’s friend Baby Tate, with whom he began playing in 1954, was often around, as was Peg Leg Sam. As his son recalled: “At any time, Daddy, Peg, Baby Tate, another guy called Pete Taylor…they would all sit around, If it’s summertime and you catch ’em sitting outdoors, they got a jug full of ice water and a jar of white lightning, and there would be a crowd out there! The whole neighborhood would be there, with kids out dancing. Those men ain’t tryin’ to sell no snake oil, but they’re putting on a show.” Samuel Charters came to Spartanburg to record Pink Anderson in 1961 and also recorded Baby Tate. Four albums were recorded of Pink; Carolina Blues Man (Bluesville), Carolina Medicine Show Hokum & Blues (Folkways) (which came out posthumously) and Vol. 2 Medicine Show Man (Bluesville) and Ballad & Folksinger, Vol. 3 (Bluesville). Pink and Tate also appeared on the album The Blues: Music from the Documentary Film by Samuel Charters which also includes “Old Cotton Fields Back Home” sung by Pink’s son. An interesting footnote is that Pink Floyd’s name comes from the first names of blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Pink was paid $300 for his efforts on the records. Unaware until years later that Prestige Records had issued more than one album’s worth of material from those living room sessions.

After the Charters recordings Pink went back to playing the streets of Spartanburg, often setting up at Franklin Wilkie’s grocery, and back to traveling with Chief Thundercloud’s medicine show. Around 1964 Pink suffered a stroke that severely hampered his ability to play music. Not many people came to visit Pink but one was Roy Book Binder. “I was on a mission to find Pink Anderson,” says Book Binder. “I had bought the three Prestige records in New York for five dollars, and I had the other records, too. This was in 1970… …Me and this friend of mine decided we were going to find Pink.” The two became fast friends. In 1973 he took Pink on a Northern tour. In 1970 and 1972 Pete Lowry recorded Pink quite a but the recordings were largely unsuccessful and nothing was released. Pink’s time came on October 12, 1974. “The day before he died, I called home,” says Alvin. “He said, ‘Boy, I ain’t gonna be with you much longer. I’m dying.’ I tried to tell him that he wasn’t dying, and he said, ‘All I ever wanted out of life was to see you be grown. I don’t like where you are, but you’re a man. I know you can take care of yourself now, so if I die tonight I’ll die happy.’ The next day, he died.”

Charles Henry Tate was born in northern Georgia, in Elberton, Georgia on January 28th, 1916, but he came into Greenville Carolina in 1925. As an adolescent, he started performing locally, after seeing Blind Blake in Elberton. Tate later formed a trio with Joe Walker (the brother of Willie Walker) and Roosevelt “Baby” Brooks and, up to 1932, played locally. As the Carolina Blackbirds, they performed on radio station WFBC, broadcasting from the Jack Tar Hotel. For the rest of the 1930s he worked other jobs, mainly as a mason. Blind Boy Fuller died in 1940 and Okeh offered him a recording contract but Baby went into service and the contract went to Brownie McGhee. Tate served in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II in the south of England. He returned to the Spartanburg-Greenville club circuit in 1946. He claimed to have recorded several unreleased tracks for Kapp Records in 1950. Relocating to Spartanburg, South Carolina, he performed solo before forming an occasional duo with Pink Anderson, a working relationship that endured until the 1970s, when Anderson was disabled by a stroke.

Tate released his only album_, Blues of Baby Tate: See What You Done Done_, in 1962, and twelve months later appeared in Samuel Charters’s documentary film The Blues. Throughout the 1960s he performed irregularly across the United States. With the harmonica player Peg Leg Sam or the guitarists Baby Brooks or McKinley Ellis, he recorded nearly sixty tracks in 1970 and 1971 for Pete Lowry, but the proposed album remained unreleased after Tate died unexpectedly in the summer of 1972. One 45 on Trix was released. He appeared at a concert at the State University of New York at New Paltz, as a result of Lowry’s efforts, in the spring of 1972.

Arthur Jackson was born in Jonesville, South Carolina and taught himself to play harmonica as a small child. He left home at the age of 12 and never stopped roving. He shined shoes, worked as a houseboy, cooked on ships, hoboed, and then made a living busking on street corners. He lost his leg in 1930, trying to hop a train but made a peg out of a fencepost, bound it to his stub with a leather belt, and kept moving. He joined the medicine show circuit circa 1937-1938, often performing with Pink Anderson. His ability to play two harmonicas at once (while one went in and out of his mouth) made him an attraction; he could also play notes on a harmonica with his nose.

Peg was still in fine form when he started making the rounds of folk and blues festivals in his last years. Pete Lowry captured Sam and Chief Thundercloud on the Flyright album The Last Medicine Show. This was one of the last true medicine shows presided over by Chief Thundercloud (Leo Kahdot) who was still hawking “Prairie King Liniment” from the tailgate of his station wagon at fairs and carnivals in the Southeast in the early 70’s. There’s also some footage of the medicine show act in the film Born For Hard Luck. Sam delivered comedy routines, bawdy toasts, monologues, performed tricks with his harps (often playing two at once) and served up some great blues (sometimes with a guitar accompanist, but most often by himself). Lowry released one album by Sam, Medicine Show Man, and he recorded only once more for Blue Labor in 1975 which was originally issued under the title Joshua and subsequently reissued as Early In The Morning and Peg Leg Sam with Louisiana Red.

As Pete wrote: “Reading Peter Cooper’s book on Spartanburg [_Hub City Music Makers_] …got me to thinking about my experiences thereabouts and made me realize how much began to open up and ‘happen’ after meeting Baby Tate so successfully. Once he realized that we could be counted upon, he did many things for the two of us over two years we had together before his death. Not the least would have been the ‘capture’ of Peg Leg Sam, the finest harmonica player from the SE and one of the best ever on that instrument. …Sam was performing as part of a medicine show then and had some time off, so he paid a visit to his friend and mentor, Pink Anderson, in Spartanburg. Peg (as he was known to all, even his brothers, but was born Arthur Jackson) was at Pink’s place and Tate made sure that he was kept busy over the weekend until we got back – Pink sold corn liquor and beer out of his house, plus there were numerous card games always in progress. …When he was done, he came over to Tate’s house and we met one of life’s most unforgettable characters and one of the best raconteurs I’ve ever met. …He was the consummate entertainer/show-man – singer, dancer, comedian, and musician – plus something of a salesman to boot! …Trained by Pink, Sam was able to handle all the roles needed in a show: straight man, Uncle Tom comic, singer, dancer, player, and seller.” He died in Jonesville in October 1977, at the age of 65.

Show Notes:

Whistling Alex Moore Dallas Texas October 21st 1981 (6)Whistling Alex Moore Dallas Texas October 21st 1981 (1)Whistling Alex Moore Dallas Texas October 21st 1981 (5)Whistling Alex Moore Dallas Texas October 21st 1981 (4)Whistling Alex Moore Dallas Texas October 21st 1981 (2)Whistling Alex Moore Dallas Texas October 21st 1981 (3)Robert Shaw & Lavada Durst Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (3)Robert Shaw Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (4)Robert Shaw Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (5)Robert Shaw Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (6)Robert Shaw Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (7)Robert Shaw & Micheal Hortig Austin Texas October 22nd 1981Robert Shaw & Lavada Durst Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (2)Lavada Durst @ Robert Shaw's House Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (2)Lavada Durst @ Robert Shaw's House Austin Texas October 22nd 1981 (1)Sam Chatmon Hollandale Misissippi November 4th 1981 (1)Sam Chatmon Hollandale Misissippi November 4th 1981 (4)Sam Chatmon & Micheal Hortig Hollandale Misissippi November 4th 1981 (3)Sam Chatmon & Micheal Hortig Hollandale Misissippi November 4th 1981 (4)James Son Thomas Leland Mississippi November 1981 (4)James Son Thomas Leland Mississippi November 1981 (3)James Son Thomas Live Elizabeth Mississippi in Leland November 1981 (3)James Son Thomas Leland Mississippi November 1981 (1)James Son Thomas Leland Mississippi November 1981 (5)James Son Thomas Memphis November 10th 1981 (4)James Son Thomas Memphis November 10th 1981 (1)James Son Thomas & Michael Hortig Memphis November 10th 1981 (2)James Son Thomas & Michael Hortig Memphis November 10th 1981 (5)James Son Thomas & Michael Hortig Memphis November 10th 1981 (3)Joe Cooper Live Elizabeth Mississippi in Leland November 1981 (3)Joe Cooper Live Elizabeth Mississippi in Leland November 1981 (2)Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981Jack Owens @ Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981 (2)Jack Owens @ Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981 (1)Jack Owens @ Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981 (3)Jimmy Duck Holmes @ Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981 (2)Jimmy Duck Holmes @ Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981 (3)Jimmy Duck Holmes @ Blue Front Cafe Bentonia Mississippi October 29th 1981 (1)J C Holmes & Band Clarksdale Mississippi Red Top Lounge 1981 (1)J C Holmes & Band Clarksdale Mississippi Red Top Lounge 1981 (2)Wade Walton Clarksdale Mississippi 1981 (3)Wade Walton Clarksdale Mississippi 1981 (1)Wade Walton Clarksdale Mississippi 1981 (2)Clyde Maxwell Near Camden Mississippi October 30th 1981 (3)Clyde Maxwell Near Camden Mississippi October 30th 1981 (4)Clyde Maxwell Near Camden Mississippi October 30th 1981 (5)Clyde Maxwell Near Camden Mississippi October 30th 1981 (1)Clyde Maxwell Near Camden Mississippi October 30th 1981 (2)Major Johnson Crystal Springs Mississippi Oct or Nov 1981 (1)Major Johnson & Micheal Hortig Crystal Springs Mississippi Oct or Nov 1981 (2)Mott Willis Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (3)Mott Willis Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (2)Mott Willis & Micheal Hortig Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (1)Charley Taylor, Mott Willis @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (3)Charley Taylor, Mott Willis @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (2)Charley Taylor, Mott Willis, Tommy Reed @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981Tommy Reed @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981Charley Taylor @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (1)Charley Taylor Crystal Springs Mississippi 1981 (1)Charley Taylor Crystal Springs Mississippi 1981 (2)Charley Taylor @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981 (2)Michael Hortig, W C Walker, Charley Taylor @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981Charley Taylor & W C Walker @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981W C Walker @ Mott Willis's House Crystal Springs Mississippi November 1981Isaac Youngblood Near Columbia Mississippi October 27th 1981 (4)Isaac Youngblood Near Columbia Mississippi October 27th 1981 (6)Isaac Youngblood Near Columbia Mississippi October 27th 1981 (7)Isaac Youngblood Near Columbia Mississippi October 27th 1981 (5)Isaac Youngblood & Michael Hortig Near Columbia Mississippi October 27th 1981 (7)Trenton Cooper Pine Bluff Arkansas October 18th 1981 (2)Trenton Cooper Pine Bluff Arkansas October 18th 1981 (1)Furry Lewis @ Home Memphis, Tennessee, May 4, 1980Memphis Willie Borum Memphis Tenneesee November 1981 (1)Memphis Willie Borum & Micheal Hortig Memphis Tenneesee November 1981 (2)Mose Vinson Memphis Tenneesee November 9th 1981 (1)Mose Vinson Memphis Tenneesee November 9th 1981 (2)Mose Vinson Memphis Tenneesee November 9th 1981 (3)Mose Vinson Memphis Tenneesee November 9th 1981 (4)Memphis Piano Red (John Williams) Memphis Tenneesee November 9th 1981 (2)Memphis Piano Red (John Williams) Memphis Tenneesee November 9th 1981 (1)Grandma Dixie Davis & Harry Godwin Memphis Tennessee November 12th 1981 (3)Grandma Dixie Davis & Harry Godwin Memphis Tennessee November 12th 1981 (1)Grandma Dixie Davis Memphis Tennessee November 12th 1981 (2)Grandma Dixie Davis Memphis Tennessee November 12th 1981 (4)Tuts Washington New Orleans 1981Little Laura Dukes Live @ Blues Alley Memphis Tenneessee November 11th 1981Boogie Bill Webb New Orleans October 24th 1981 (2)Boogie Bill Webb New Orleans October 24th 1981 (3)Boogie Bill Webb New Orleans October 24th 1981 (1)Boogie Bill Webb New Orleans October 24th 1981 (5)Boogie Bill Webb & Heinz Kratochwill New Orleans October 24th 1981 (4)Arzoo Youngblood New Orleans October 24th 1981 (5)Arzoo Youngblood New Orleans October 24th 1981 (2)Arzoo Youngblood New Orleans October 24th 1981 (6)Arzoo Youngblood New Orleans October 24th 1981 (3)Arzoo Youngblood New Orleans October 24th 1981 (1)Arzoo Youngblood New Orleans October 24th 1981 (4)

All Photos by Michael Hortig 1980-1981

Over the years I have devoted many programs to field recordings, both issued and unissued, from the 30s to the 80s. I have always been fascinated by those recordings made in the field, often more intimate, raw and spontaneous than those made in the studio. Looming over all those who ventured in the field are the giants, John Lomax and his son Alan. There were many who followed in the Lomaxes’ footsteps; from the 1950’s through the 80’s there were folklorists, researchers and dedicated fans such as Harry Oster, David Evans, George Mitchell, Sam Charters, Chris Strachwitz , Mack McCormick, Bruce Jackson, Peter B. Lowry, Tary Owens, Art Rosenbaum, Pete Welding, Bengt Olsson, Gianni Marcucci, Glenn Hinson, Tim Duffy, Axel Küstner and Kip Lornell who actively sought out and recorded rural blues. I’ve always felt the era of truly great field recordings reached its end around 1980 which was the year Axel Küstner and his friend Ziggy Christmann came to the States with the idea to document the remaining country blues tradition. The trip was the last great large-scale recording trips to survey southern blues and gospel.

That’s not to say there wasn’t some important work done after 1980, and a case in point is today’s show. Thankfully Michael Hortig did not heed the advice that told him not bother since everything had been done. During two trips in 1980 and 1981 he recorded many fine artists. Hortig is a pianist and perhaps his most valuable contribution was to record several little recorded pianists, an instrument not widely documented among those who ventured in the field. In 1982 music educator Ed Huey received a grant and recorded several exceptional Mississippi blues and gospel performers. The bulk of today’s recordings are unissued. I want to thank Michael and Ed for allowing me to play these recordings and my friend Ethan Iova who encouraged me to do this show and put together the actual setlist. You can find even more great recordings by Michael and Ed plus much more at Ethan’s fabulous YouTube Channel, LivinTheBlues.

Michael wrote about his trip in a two-part article in Blues & Rhythm magazine which is where today’s quotes come from. “During a trip around the USA using a greyhound ticket during May 1980, I spent some time searching out the blues in Clarksdale and Memphis. I met musicians such as Son Thomas, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Mose Vinson, Memphis Piano Red and Furry Lewis and on returning home, together with Heinz Kratochwill, we decided to return to the South the following year, mainly to find still living country blues guitarists and barrelhouse piano players. Most information relating to their whereabouts came from the sleeve notes of a batch of field recordings done by Gianni Marcucci for the Albatross Label. We contacted a number of U.S. based Blues researchers who told us: ‘Don’t waste time in going down South, everything had been done!’ But we were young and fascinated by the idea of knocking on doors and finding musicians, so we went ahead anyway.”

Michael met several important piano players including Alex Moore, Lavada Durst, Robert Shaw, Memphis Piano Red, Mose Vinson and Trenton Cooper. “Heading then for Dallas, Texas we arrived on 21st October. In Dallas it was easy to locate pianist Alex Moore as he was in the phone book. Alex lived in a nice apartment and was happy to meet with us – and stopped talking only to turn to the piano.” Moore was born Alexander Hermann Moore on 22nd November 1899, he spent all of his life in Dallas. His recording career spans from 1929 until 1988, recording in every decade, except the 1970s. In 1929, he made his debut recordings for Columbia and Moore did not record again until 1937, when a few of his songs were issued by Decca Records. It was 1951 before Moore recorded again, with RPM Records/Kent. However, throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he performed in clubs in Dallas and occasionally other parts of Texas. In 1960 he was rediscovered by Chris Strachwitz, who recorded him for his Arhoolie label. He was invited to join the American Folk Blues Festival Tour in 1969. In Stuttgart, Germany, he recorded again for Arhoolie. In his later years he enjoyed his fame, played wherever he was invited and cut his last recordings in 1988.

A day later in Austin, Texas we tried to find pianist Robert Shaw via the phone book. But all 16 Robert Shaw’s did not bring any success. But when I called the operator, he mentioned to try the ‘Rbt. Shaw’, for Robert – and that fitted. Next day, we spent hours listening to the last member of the Santa Fe group of pianists, and while talking about Black Boy Shine and Joe Pullum we were joined by fellow Lavada Durst (aka Dr. Hepcat) who came to bring Shaw a contract for a festival gig. Durst too played some nice numbers on the piano and we left with the feeling that we had met some great bluesmen….”

Robert Shaw was born on August 9, 1908, in Stafford, Texas. He played piano when the rest of the family was away from home and practiced the songs he heard on errands into town. By the time he was a teenager, Shaw would slip away to hear jazz musicians in Houston and at the roadhouses in the nearby countryside. In the 1920s Shaw became part of an itinerant band loosely referred to as the “Santa Fe Circuit” because the musicians hopped aboard Santa Fe freight trains to do their tours. He appeared as a soloist in the clubs and roadhouses of such Southeast Texas towns as Sugar Land and Richmond, the South Texas town of Kingsville during the cotton harvest, and the big cities of Houston and Dallas. He later owned and operated a grocery store called the Stop and Swat in the predominantly black east side. Shaw continued to play his music privately and for people who dropped by the Stop and Swat. Shaw made one album, called Texas Barrelhouse Piano, recorded in Austin by Mack McCormick over a three-month period in 1963. It was originally released by McCormick’s Almanac Book and Recording Company. Arhoolie Records later reissued the album.

Born in Austin, Texas, January 9, 1913, Lavada Durst learned to play the piano as a child and emulated the styles he heard growing up. In 1933 Durst met the legendary Robert Shaw, who was then living in Austin. From Shaw, Durst learned the rudiments of what is now referred to as the Texas barrelhouse piano style. ““When I was young I used to play at house-rent parties, barbeques, and Saturday night suppers, and then after I became a disc jockey..” Durst worked part time as a disc jockey from 1948 to 1963 on KVET radio in Austin making him the first black disc jockey in Texas. On the air, he used the call name “Dr. Hepcat.” In 1949 he hooked up with the Uptown label owned by Fred Caldwell, the program director at KVET. He cut “Hepcat’s Boogie”, “You Better Change Your Ways Woman”, “Christmas Blues” and Hattie Green” under the pseudonym of Cool Papa Smith. n 1949 he recorded two sides for the Peacock label. In the 80s he was recorded for Documentary Arts and Catfish.

As we have noted on this show previously, Tommy Johnson had a long lasting influence despite his limited number of recordings. Michael recorded Boogie Bill Webb, Arzo Youngblood and Isaac Youngblood who were all influenced by Johnson. As Michael wrote: “When Bill started playing , the house soon filled with friends and we had a good time playing, dancing and drinking.” Webb won a talent show in 1947. He moved to New Orleans in 1952 and became friends with Fats Domino and was thus introduced to Dave Bartholomew and obtained a recording contract with Imperial Records where he cut fours sides, two unreleased at the time. Webb was recorded again in the 60s and 70s by David Evans. Exposure at home and in Europe led to visits to Webb from blues fans and invitations to tour. He was recorded for the Living Country Blues USA series of albums by Siegfried A. Christmann and Axel Küstner. In 1982 he appeared at the Utrecht Festival, in the Netherlands. In 1989, with financial assistance from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, he released the album Drinkin’ and Stinkin’. He passed in 1990.

Isaac Youngblood was located in Columbus, Mississippi who had turned to church music at this point. “But when he took the acoustic guitar I had with me , he started playing some Tommy Johnson numbers and sang ‘Hesitation Blues’, but very quietly, so that the good Lord above could not hear him!” Youngblood learned guitar as a teenager and would listen to the radio and would learn songs by ear well enough to hear it and work it out on his own after hearing it once. He was influenced by Tommy Johnson who was a cousin of his and he learned and played with Tommy around the early 1930s. He traveled around briefly with Little Brother Montgomery in the 1930s. He is most known for his recorded work by David Evans in Clifton, Louisiana, in 1966.

Son Thomas grew up on a farm in Mississippi and played in juke joints and barrelhouses before he began recording in the late ’60s. He appeared in the films Delta Blues Singer: James “Sonny Ford” Thomas in 1970 and Give My Poor Heart Ease: Mississippi Delta Bluesmen in 1975, plus the short Mississippi Delta Blues in 1974. Thomas also made festival appearances in the ’70s and ’80s. He recorded for Transatlantic, Matchbox, Southern Folklore and regional labels in the ’60s,’70s and ’80s.

“We went to Hollandale, where everybody, black or white, knew Sam Chatmon’s home. A tall and really nice man, we were invited into his house, and served cool drinks and Sam played some of his famous compositions.” Chatmon was the brother Bo Chatmon (a.k.a. Bo Carter) who made numerous popular records in the ’30s. Before World War II. the Chatmon brothers and their associate Walter Vincent founded the string band called The Mississippi Sheiks. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Chatmon recorded for a variety of labels, as well as playing clubs and blues and folk festivals across America. In 1972 he cut the album The New Mississippi Sheiks, reuniting with Walter Vinson, cut the excellent The Mississippi Sheik for Blue Goose in the early 70’s as well as albums for Rounder and Flying Fish among others. Chatmon passed in 1983.

“We visited barrelhouse pianists Mose Vinson and Memphis Piano Red Williams. Vinson, who at that time had not too many gigs due to his fondness for gin, was in great shape on his old upright at home, and it was a great pleasure for us to hear that in later years he gained more and more popularity in Memphis as a living blues legend. Piano Red, sitting on the porch of his house in Walker Street, drinking whiskey mixed with milk…was a first rate barrelhouse pianist , doing rough versions of ‘Stormy Monday’ and ‘After Hours’, rapping spoken ‘dozen versions’ and telling stories.” The following on Red comes from Begnt Olsson’s Memphis Blues and Jug Bands: “Born on 16 April 1905, in Germantown, Tennessee, on the border with Mississippi, John Williams grew up in a family of ten children… There was a piano in the Williams home, which his sister Louise could play, and he learned some tunes from her… About 1920, he moved to Memphis, where he played at dances and parties… Using freight trains, he travelled all over the south, playing in hotels and scraping a living. His first recordings appeared on the anthology Memphis Swamp Jam recorded in 1969 and the same year he appeared on the Adelphi collection The Memphis Blues Again Vol. 2. In the 70s he was recorded extensively by Gianni Marcucci and in the 80s by Axel Küstner and Michael Hortig.

Mose Vinson taught himself to play the piano as a child. In his teenage years, he started playing his own style of barrelhouse boogie-woogie in juke joints in Mississippi and Tennessee. In the 1930s and 1940s, Vinson continued to play at local juke house and rural community parties. By the early 1950s, he was working as a custodian at the Taylor Boarding Home, where artists often stayed while recording next door at the Sun Records studio. Sun’s founder and producer, Sam Phillips, occasionally asked Vinson to accompany musicians in the studio. Vinson played there with James Cotton on “Cotton Crop Blues” (1954) and with Jimmy DeBerry on “Take a Little Chance”. Phillips also allowed Vinson to record some tracks of his own, but they were not released until the 1980s. After a period of lessened musical activity, by the early 1980s the Center for Southern Folklore had enlisted Vinson to perform at cultural events and at local schools. He became a regular at the Center, where he played and taught for twenty years. In 1990, his contribution to the album Memphis Piano Blues Today was recorded at his home. In 1997, his first full-length CD compilation album was released via the Center. Declining health stopped him playing not long before his death. Vinson died of diabetes in November 2002 in Memphis, at the age of 85.

Trenton Cooper was a piano player from Arkansas born in 1923. He played at house parties and at some Blues Festivals in the US. The Piano Styles Of Trenton Cooper was issued on Wolf and some tracks on Keep It To Yourself: Arkansas Blues Volume 1.

Ed Huey is a retired music educator who was twice honored by the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts as an Outstanding Music Educator. Huey performs and teaches American Roots Music, specializing in early Blues guitar and harmonica styles. A Lyndhurst Foundation Grant Recipient, Huey gathered field recordings of Mississippi Bluesmen, Jack Owens, Bud Spires, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Jacob Stuckey, Tommy Lee West, A.B. Granderson and Boyd Rivers. In July 1982 he made at the 3rd Annual Bentonia Blues Festival, Blue Front Cafe, Big Mount Zion Church, and Gum Grove Plantation. He also made recordings of Boyd Rivers at his home in Pickens.

Boyd Rivers was born near Pickens in Madison County, Mississippi and started playing blues guitar at the age of 13, but three years later switched into spirituals. In 1979 he played at the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival with one song captured on record. In 1980 he was recorded by Axel Küstner with tracks appearing on the Living Country Blues USA series. Sides captured by Axel in 1991 were issued in 2012 on the album You Can’t Make Me Doubt.

Jack Owens did not seek to become a professional recording artist. He farmed, sold bootleg liquor, and ran a weekend juke joint in Bentonia for most of his life. His peer, Skip James, had left home and traveled until he found a talent agent and a record label to sign him, but Owens preferred to remain at home, selling liquor and performing only on his front porch. He was not recorded until the blues revival of the 1960’s, first recorded in 1966 by David Evans on the album Goin’ Up the Country. In 1970 he recorded It Must Have Been the Devil (with Bud Spires) for the Testament label. He was recorded in the field by Alan Lomax and Gianni Marcucci during the 70’s. Owens traveled the music festival circuit in the United States and Europe in the last decades of his life, often accompanied on harmonica by his friend Bud Spires, until his death in 1997.

Jacob Stuckey was born in Bentonia, Mississippi, in 1916 and learned directly from Skip James. He was recorded by Gianni Marcucci in the 80s. Stuckey was a younger cousin of Henry Stucky, the father of Bentonia Blues style.

Show Notes:

Peg Leg Sam Newspaper Article, Rocky Mount Telegram, Tuesday 15th, January 1963, Rocky Mountain NCPeg Leg Sam Newspaper Article, Rocky Mount Telegram, Tuesday 15th, January 1963, Rocky Mountain NCPeg Leg Sam @ Pink Anderson's House, Spartanburg, SC, October 14th, 1972Peg Leg Sam @ Pink Anderson's House, Spartanburg, SC, October 14th, 1972Peg Leg Sam, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam & Henry Rufe Johnson, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam & Henry Rufe Johnson, Jonesville, SC, October 15th, 1972Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Elester Anderson, Peg Leg Sam, Henry Rufe Johnson @ UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Elester Anderson, Peg Leg Sam, Henry Rufe Johnson @ UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Tarheel Slim, Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Tarheel Slim, Peg Leg Sam, UNC Chapel Hill, March 31st, 1973Peg Leg Sam & Louisiana Red during "Going Train Blues Sessions", February 10, 1975 at Minot Sound Studios in White Plains, NYPeg Leg Sam & Louisiana Red during "Going Train Blues Sessions", February 10, 1975 at Minot Sound Studios in White Plains, NYPeg Leg Sam's Grave, Jonesville, SCPeg Leg Sam's Grave, Jonesville, SCPink Anderson, Spartanburg, SC, 1961Pink Anderson, Spartanburg, SC, 1961Pink Anderson & Little Pink 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES, 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES, 1962 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg. SCPink Anderson & Little Pink Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg. SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Peg Leg Sam October 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson & Peg Leg Sam October 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson October 13 or 14 1972 @ Home Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson @ Home early 1970s Spartanburg, SCPink Anderson @ Home early 1970s Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate Still From Film THE BLUES 1962, @ Home Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate @ Home Spartanburg, SC, 1962Baby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg, SCBaby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg SCBaby Tate December 30th, 1970, Spartanburg SCBaby Tate Spartanburg, SC 1972Baby Tate Spartanburg, SC 1972Baby Tate Spartanburg, SC, 1972Baby Tate Spartanburg, SC, 1972Baby Tate's Grave 1974 Spartanburg' SCBaby Tate's Grave 1974 Spartanburg' SC

Peg Leg Sam, Pink Anderson & Baby Tate

Today’s show is the first of a two-part show devoted to three fine blues based songsters from South Carolina who were active for decades, often worked together and who all passed in the 1970s. We have the good fortune that they left behind a fair bit of recorded music, both issued and unissued and we owe a big debt to Sam Charters and Pete Lowry who documented them extensively. All three have been featured on the show over the years but never in depth. Like our great show on Henry Johnson, which we aired at the end of 2022, the idea for these shows comes from my friend Ethan Iova who greatly helped me in sifting through the many recordings and crafting them into two powerful programs. Also a special thanks to Julian Lowry for making many of the photos available.

Pink left behind the most recordings and was the only one to record in the pre-war era. His first records were with his older mentor Simmie Dooley in 1928, he next recorded in 1950 (the results make up a split album with Rev. Gary Davis), was recorded extensively by Sam in his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1961-1962 and by Pete in later years but unsuccessfully. Pink also spawned the name of a rock band when his name was combined with bluesman Floyd Council’s name. Baby Tate was a fair but younger than Pink but already a seasoned performer when he moved to Spartanburg, working both as a solo act and as a duo with Pink. Tate cut one album for Bluesville in 1961, had some tracks on a Sam Charters anthology album, and was recorded prolifically by Pete Lowry, all of it unissued outside of one 45, some anthology sides and backing Peg Leg Sam on a few numbers. Sam was a veteran medicine show performer from the 30’s through the 70s, acting as a harp blower, singer, comedian and dancer. He wasn’t recorded until the 70s resulting in many unissued sides for Pete, one full-length album for Pete’s Trix label, one album with a real live medicine show, an album with Louisiana Red, several other scattered tracks and a short film. I hope you enjoy these shows as much as I do; they feature some unvarnished, traditional blues from some exceptional performers that deserve a wider reputation.

Blind Simmie Dooley was the first mentor to a young Pink Anderson. Neither musician was born in Spartanburg – Dooley was born in 1881 in Hartwell, Georgia; Anderson in 1900 in Laurens, South Carolina, but the two met in Spartanburg in 1916. Both were playing as a duo at local parties, dances and picnics, and on city streets by 1918. By this time, Pink was already a part of WR. Kerr’s Indian Remedy Company Medicine Show, and Simmie eventually began playing with Pink on some medicine show tours. In 1928, Simmie and Pink traveled together to Atlanta to record four songs for Columbia Records. As Pink’s son noted: “Simmie was the one that molded him.” Simmie passed in 1961. The 1930s and 1940s found Pink traveling extensively with WR. Kerr’s show, where he danced, sang, and performed comedy routines.

It was 1950 before Anderson would record again, playing at the Virginia State Fair in Charlottesville, he was recorded by Paul Clayton in May of that year. Those seven performances, compiled along with eight songs by the Gary Davis on an album on a Riverside titled American Street Songs and Gospel, Blues and as American Street Songs on a different pressing. By now, Pink was working with Chief Thundercloud’s medicine show, often playing with harmonica player and comedian Arthur Jackson, who was known as “Peg Leg Sam” ever since an unfortunate train accident. Anderson and Peg Leg had begun working together in the late 1930s, with Peg acting as the straight man in their routines. The mid-1950s found Pink spending much more time at home in Spartanburg. The medicine show seasons were shorter now that WR. Kerr’s show was no longer in existence, and heart troubles caused Pink to cut back on traveling. He played many days for thrown quarters, dimes, and nickels on the streets of Spartanburg, and he also profited from selling bootleg whiskey. It was during this time period that his son Alvin was born.

Pink’s Forest Street home was the center of all sorts of activity, legal and otherwise, and it was a gathering place for musicians. Pink’s friend Baby Tate, with whom he began playing in 1954, was often around, as was Peg Leg Sam. As his son recalled: “At any time, Daddy, Peg, Baby Tate, another guy called Pete Taylor…they would all sit around, If it’s summertime and you catch ’em sitting outdoors, they got a jug full of ice water and a jar of white lightning, and there would be a crowd out there! The whole neighborhood would be there, with kids out dancing. Those men ain’t tryin’ to sell no snake oil, but they’re putting on a show.” Samuel Charters came to Spartanburg to record Pink Anderson in 1961 and also recorded Baby Tate. Four albums were recorded of Pink; Carolina Blues Man (Bluesville), Carolina Medicine Show Hokum & Blues (Folkways) (which came out posthumously) and Vol. 2 Medicine Show Man (Bluesville) and Ballad & Folksinger, Vol. 3 (Bluesville). Pink and Tate also appeared on the album The Blues: Music from the Documentary Film by Samuel Charters which also includes “Old Cotton Fields Back Home” sung by Pink’s son. Pink was paid $300 for his efforts on the records. Unaware until years later that Prestige Records had issued more than one album’s worth of material from those living room sessions.

After the Charters recordings Pink went back to playing the streets of Spartanburg, often setting up at Franklin Wilkie’s grocery, and back to traveling with Chief Thundercloud’s medicine show. Around 1964 Pink suffered a stroke that severely hampered his ability to play music. Not many people came to visit Pink but one was Roy Book Binder. “I was on a mission to find Pink Anderson,” says Book Binder. “I had bought the three Prestige records in New York for five dollars, and I had the other records, too. This was in 1970… …Me and this friend of mine decided we were going to find Pink.” The two became fast friends. In 1973 he took Pink on a Northern tour. In 1970 and 1972 Pete Lowry recorded Pink quite a but the recordings were largely unsuccessful and nothing was released. Pink’s time came on October 12, 1974. “The day before he died, I called home,” says Alvin. “He said, ‘Boy, I ain’t gonna be with you much longer. I’m dying.’ I tried to tell him that he wasn’t dying, and he said, ‘All I ever wanted out of life was to see you be grown. I don’t like where you are, but you’re a man. I know you can take care of yourself now, so if I die tonight I’ll die happy.’ The next day, he died.”

Charles Henry Tate was born in northern Georgia, in Elberton, Georgia on January 28th, 1916, but he came into Greenville Carolina in 1925. As an adolescent, he started performing locally, after seeing Blind Blake in Elberton. Tate later formed a trio with Joe Walker (the brother of Willie Walker) and Roosevelt “Baby” Brooks and, up to 1932, played locally. As the Carolina Blackbirds, they performed on radio station WFBC, broadcasting from the Jack Tar Hotel. For the rest of the 1930s he worked other jobs, mainly as a mason. Blind Boy Fuller died in 1940 and Okeh offered him a recording contract but Baby went into service and the contract went to Brownie McGhee. Tate served in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II in the south of England. He returned to the Spartanburg-Greenville club circuit in 1946. He claimed to have recorded several unreleased tracks for Kapp Records in 1950. Relocating to Spartanburg, South Carolina, he performed solo before forming an occasional duo with Pink Anderson, a working relationship that endured until the 1970s, when Anderson was disabled by a stroke.

Tate released his only album_, Blues of Baby Tate: See What You Done Done_, in 1962, and twelve months later appeared in Samuel Charters’s documentary film The Blues. Throughout the 1960s he performed irregularly across the United States. With the harmonica player Peg Leg Sam or the guitarists Baby Brooks or McKinley Ellis, he recorded nearly sixty tracks in 1970 and 1971 for Pete Lowry, but the proposed album remained unreleased after Tate died unexpectedly in the summer of 1972. One 45 on Trix was released. He appeared at a concert at the State University of New York at New Paltz, as a result of Lowry’s efforts, in the spring of 1972.

Arthur Jackson was born in Jonesville, South Carolina and taught himself to play harmonica as a small child. He left home at the age of 12 and never stopped roving. He shined shoes, worked as a houseboy, cooked on ships, hoboed, and then made a living busking on street corners. He lost his leg in 1930, trying to hop a train but made a peg out of a fencepost, bound it to his stub with a leather belt, and kept moving. He joined the medicine show circuit circa 1937-1938, often performing with Pink Anderson. His ability to play two harmonicas at once (while one went in and out of his mouth) made him an attraction; he could also play notes on a harmonica with his nose.

Peg was still in fine form when he started making the rounds of folk and blues festivals in his last years. Pete Lowry captured Sam and Chief Thundercloud on the Flyright album The Last Medicine Show. This was one of the last true medicine shows presided over by Chief Thundercloud (Leo Kahdot) who was still hawking “Prairie King Liniment” from the tailgate of his station wagon at fairs and carnivals in the Southeast in the early 70’s. There’s also some footage of the medicine show act in the film Born For Hard Luck. Sam delivered comedy routines, bawdy toasts, monologues, performed tricks with his harps (often playing two at once) and served up some great blues (sometimes with a guitar accompanist, but most often by himself). Lowry released one album by Sam, Medicine Show Man, and he recorded only once more for Blue Labor in 1975 which was originally issued under the title Joshua and subsequently reissued as Early In The Morning and Peg Leg Sam with Louisiana Red.

As Pete wrote: “Reading Peter Cooper’s book on Spartanburg [_Hub City Music Makers_] …got me to thinking about my experiences thereabouts and made me realize how much began to open up and ‘happen’ after meeting Baby Tate so successfully. Once he realized that we could be counted upon, he did many things for the two of us over two years we had together before his death. Not the least would have been the ‘capture’ of Peg Leg Sam, the finest harmonica player from the SE and one of the best ever on that instrument. …Sam was performing as part of a medicine show then and had some time off, so he paid a visit to his friend and mentor, Pink Anderson, in Spartanburg. Peg (as he was known to all, even his brothers, but was born Arthur Jackson) was at Pink’s place and Tate made sure that he was kept busy over the weekend until we got back – Pink sold corn liquor and beer out of his house, plus there were numerous card games always in progress. …When he was done, he came over to Tate’s house and we met one of life’s most unforgettable characters and one of the best raconteurs I’ve ever met. …He was the consummate entertainer/show-man – singer, dancer, comedian, and musician – plus something of a salesman to boot! …Trained by Pink, Sam was able to handle all the roles needed in a show: straight man, Uncle Tom comic, singer, dancer, player, and seller.” He died in Jonesville in October 1977, at the age of 65.

Show Notes:

We are back with our ongoing series spotlighting a particular year. The first year we spotlighted was 1927 which was the beginning of a blues boom that would last until 1930. The Depression had a shattering effect on the pockets of black record buyers and sales of blues records plummeted in the years 1931 through 1933. After a strike by the American Federation of Musicians in 1942, recording had resumed in 1945 and was up considerably from the previous years and continued it’s upswing throughout the decade.

The year 1949 saw many of the older pre-war artists like Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver, Tampa Red, Jazz Gillum, Big Bill Broonzy, Washboard Sam and Lonnie Johnson still cutting strong records, often updating their sound just enough to keep up with changing styles. The Chicago blues that would become so popular, saw important artists continue to release great records like Robert Nighthawk, Floyd Jones, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Baby Face Leroy, who made his debut as leader. As in the prior years, there was plenty of jump blues with honking sax. music that crossed the lines to R&B which would eventually morph into rock and roll, and in fact the term “rock” was used frequently. There were plenty of big voiced singers with rocking bands such as Wynonie Harris, Jimmy Witherspoon, Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson, Billy Wright and a flood of fine west coast artists such had prolific careers such as Floyd Dixon, Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton, Roy Milton and Roy Hawkins among others. Down-home blues didn’t disappear, and there were the big names like John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins, the former cutting over fifty sides in 1949, as well as exceptional blues from lesser knowns such as Dan Pickett, Willie Lane, Pee Wee Hughes, Frank Edwards, Johnny Beck, Jim Bledsoe and others. Plenty of fine blues ladies waxed records in 1949 such as Ruth Brown who made her debut, Blu Lu Barker, Marion Abernathy among others. Significant debuts in 1949 included B.B. King, Billy Wright, Floyd Dixon, Professor Longhair and and Clarence Garlow. 1949 was such a good year for blues we’ve decided to do a two-part shows plus we’ve added some bonus tracks you won’t hear on the over-the-air broadcast.

1949 continued to see some key records for artists that would mold the sound of post-war Chicago blues, picking up the mantle from the older generation of Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie. Muddy Waters waxed key records for Aristocrat such as “You’re Gonna’ Miss Me (When I’m Dead And Gone)”, “Streamline Woman”. “Screaming And Crying” as well as backing Sunnyland Slim and Leroy Foster. Another connection to Muddy was pianists Johnny Jones, who we heard working with Tampa Red on “When Things Go Wrong with You” and would back Muddy on several sessions in 1949 and 1950, with Muddy backing Jones on his 1949 debut for Aristocrat which was issued in 1950. Robert Nighthawk cut three sessions for Aristocrat through early 1950. For his session on July 12, 1949, he waxed five sides that included “Black Angel Blues (Sweet Black Angel)” (based on Lucille Bogan’s “Black Angel Blues” from 1930 and covered by Tampa Red in 1934 with the same title) and “Annie Lee Blues (Anna Lee)” based on Tampa Red’s “Anna Lou Blues” from 1940. “Annie Lee Blues” cracked the R&B charts on December 31, 1949 reaching the number 13 spot and staying on the charts for one week. Billboard magazine wrote of the record: “moody blues could pick up business in the Southern market. In response to Nighthawk’s success with the song Tampa Red recut the song in 1950 as “Sweet Little Angel.” B.B. King later covered “Sweet Black Angel” as “Sweet Little Angel” in 1956, a song he played in his DJ days on WDIA radio. The pairing became a double-sided hit.

Jimmy Rogers played a key role in creating the electrified, band-oriented postwar Chicago sound. He was a member of Muddy Waters’ first band in Chicago, and cut great sides for Chess under his own name including blues standards like “That’s All Right,” “Ludella”, “Chicago Bound,” and “Walking By Myself.” In addition to playing on dozens of sides backing Waters, Rogers also backed numerous others including Memphis Minnie, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones and others. In 1949 Rogers backed Memphis Minnie for the Regal label and cut an early version of ‘‘Ludella,’’ for the label. 1949 also saw some unreleased sides cut for Tempo-Tone and Apollo where he recorded a version of “That’s Alright.” That year he also accompanied Muddy Waters as a sideman on “Screaming and Crying,” which initially came out on the Aristocrat label, soon renamed Chess Records. For the next half-decade, Rogers was a mainstay of the Waters band onstage and in the studio.

There was plenty of down-home blues recorded in 1949 and on these shows we hear terrific tracks by Dan Pickett, Sonny Boy Davis, Willie Lane, Johnny Beck, Dennis McMillon, Pee Wee Hughes, Frank Edwards, Jim Bledsoe, John Lee Hooker and others. Dan Pickett did one recording session for the Philadelphia-based Gotham label in 1949. His real name was James Founty who was born in Pike County, Alabama on August 31, 1907. Five singles were issued by the label while the rest of the titles weren’t unearthed until four decades later. Decades after his death, Pickett a biographical mystery. Blues researcher Axel Küstner went to Alabama in 1993 to see what he could dig up. He found Founty’s surviving family, obtained the only known photograph that shows Founty and was able to piece together some information on his life.

David and Jules Braun ran the De Luxe label, then formed the Regal imprint with Fred Mendelsohn, and Mendelsohn in turn formed the Herald label after Regal ended operations. De Luxe and Regal not surprisingly shared some of the same artists, in fact Regal picked up exactly where DeLuxe had left off on their numbering, at 3229. The Regal label cut a whole batch of exceptional country blues records in 1949 by David Wylie, Frank Edwards, Pee Wee Hughes, Curley Weaver and Dennis McMillian.

One of the most impressive batch of down home recordings was done by Blind Willie McTell who first recorded in 1927 and hadn’t recorded since 1940 when he waxed sides for the Library of Congress. In 1949 and 1950 McTell had his last two commercial recording sessions, both of them for newly established independent record companies. The first was in October 1949 for Atlantic Records of New York. One of its owners, Ahmet Ertegun, had heard about McTell from his Atlanta distributor and came there to record him, knowing of his old Victor 78s. Atlantic chose to release only one blues 78 from the session, further diminishing McTell’s chance for recognition by calling him Barrelhouse Sammy (The Country Boy) on the label. The rest of the session was not released by Atlantic until 1972.

While downhome artists such as Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker would occasionally hit the charts, the music of the day was transitioning into what we call R&B, featuring declamatory vocals and honking sax that would pave the way for rock and roll. In that vein we hear from big voice singers such as Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Wynonie Harris, Tiny Bradshaw, J.B. Summers, Billy Wright, Chicago Carl Davis and Jimmy Preston among others.

Out on the west coast things were heating up with a distinctive brand of piano blues lead by artists featured on these shows like the influential Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Cecil Gant and Roy Hawkins. There were the guitarists too, such as Saunders King, Pee Wee Crayton and Johnny Moore. Floyd Dixon was born in Marshall, Texas and moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1942. There Dixon met Charles Brown, who had an influence on his music. Dixon signed a recording contract with Modern Records in 1949. Both “Dallas Blues” and “Mississippi Blues”, credited to the Floyd Dixon Trio, reached the Billboard R&B chart in 1949, as did “Sad Journey Blues”, issued by Peacock Records in 1950.

In the list of distinguished West Coast piano men Roy Hawkins is unjustly the most obscure and relatively little is known about him. In his heyday he worked extensively in Northern and Southern California, scoring big hits for Modern Records with all time classics “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Why Do things Happen to Me. ”

Inspired by Charlie Christian’s records with Benny Goodman, Saunders King took up guitar in 1938. After working with an ensemble led by Joe Porter, he organized his own sextet, which accompanied him during his debut session for the Rhythm label in June 1942. His two-part “S.K. Blues” became his biggest hit, inspiring covers by Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon. Near the decade’s end, the Bihari brothers purchased most of Saunders’ Rhythm masters and invited him to cut new material for their Modern Records.

Pee Wee Crayton made some records in 1945 and 1947 but came into his own when he signed with Modern in 1948. One of his first recordings was the instrumental “Blues After Hours”, which reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart late that year. He cut a pile of great records for Modern like “Texas Hop”, “Louella Brown”, “Central Avenue Blues”, “Change Your Way of Lovin’” through 1951 when his contract ended.

We hear from some particularly notable pianists and guitarists today such as the first records by Professor Longhair and Dr. Hepcat as well as fine pianists such as Little Brother Montgomery, and Cleo Brown. Longhair debuted on wax in 1949, laying down four tracks (including the first version of his signature “Mardi Gras in New Orleans”) for the Dallas-based Star Talent label. Union problems forced those sides off the market, but Longhair’s next date for Mercury the same year produced his first and only national R&B hit in 1950, the hilarious “Bald Head.” The pianist made great records for Atlantic in 1949, Federal in 1951, Wasco in 1952, and Atlantic again in 1953 plus other scattered small label sides through the 50’s.

Lavada Durst worked part time as a disc jockey from 1948 to 1963 on KVET radio in Austin making him the first black disc jockey in Texas. On the air, he used the call name “Dr. Hepcat.” n 1949 he hooked up with the Uptown label owned by Fred Caldwell, the program director at KVET. He cut “Hepcat’s Boogie”, “You Better Change Your Ways Woman”, “Christmas Blues” and Hattie Green” under the pseudonym of Cool Papa Smith. The same year he recorded two sides for the Peacock label: a slower version of “Hattie Green” and “I Cried All Night.”

On the guitar fron we hear from veterans Lonnie Johnson and Tampa Red, both who were still cutting exceptional records as well as other superb guitarists such as another old-timer, Teddy Bunn as well as Tiny Webb, Calvin Frazier, Lowell Fulson, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and the very first records by B.B. King. Johnson’s stint with King Records ran from 1947 through 1952 and resulted in close to seventy issued sides. hen Johnson signed with King in 1947 his music and music in general was changing. By 1947 he had switched to electric guitar, was incorporating more ballads into his repertoire while the music was in transition from blues to R&B. On December 10, 1947 Johnson entered the King Records studio at 1540 Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio and recorded what was probably the most successful record of his long career, “Tomorrow Night”, a massive hit.

Calvin Frazier ran with Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines in the mid-30’s. In 1938 Frazier was recorded by Alan Lomax. In the post-war era Frazier played with almost every blues or R&B act in Detroit and his guitar playing developed a more “modern” style, very influenced by the rising Californian guitar stars like T-Bone Walker.

Teddy Bunn was considered one of the best acoustic guitarists of the 1930’s playing on dozens of jazz and blues sessions through the end of the 1940’s, switching to to electric guitar around 1940.

In 1943, B.B. King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John’s Gospel Singers of Inverness, Mississippi. In 1946, King followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. White took him in for the next ten months. King returned shortly afterward to Mississippi, where he better prepared himself for the next visit. Two years later, he returned to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1948. He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience. King’s appearances led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten-minute spot on the Memphis radio station WDIA. He worked at WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, where he was given the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy”, later shortened to “Blues Boy”, and finally to “B. B.” According to King and Joe Bihari, Ike Turner introduced King to the Bihari brothers while he was a talent scout at Modern Records. In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records.