Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Skip James

From a son of a servant mother and a bootlegging father turn religion, Nehemiah Curtis James, more commonly known as Skip James life was a 360 event with the blues weaved all the way through. Skip was born in 1902 in Mississippi. Segregation was still in full swing as well as prohibition. Compared to many blues artist, Skip had a tad bit better of an upbringing then most black kids of the times since his mother worked for a wealthy family, however, it still did not come without its share of up’s and downs. Skips father left him at the tender age of five, escaping from the law some say where others say he was running from the IRS. Skips father would re-enter his life two more times, the first time when he was 14 when his mother tried reuniting with him, and then again, when Skip was in his early 30’s. Both reunions were huge turning points in Skip’s life.

At the age 10, Skip’s mom got him a guitar. Henry Stuckey, age 15 at the time, taught Skip how to play the guitar by teaching him the well-known eight bar staple “Drunken Spree”. It was only two years later when Skip would come into contact with his father again when his mother moved them to Sidon, where his father resided at the time. His mom’s 2-year attempt to reunite with his father failed and at the age of 14 Skip ran away from home to return a year later. Skip tried school only to drop out, however did pick up some piano skills from his aunt.

James composed his first song “Illinois Blues” while working on a construction camp. After a series of different jobs in construction and lumber camps, James moved to Arkansas and began working as a lumber grader. It was there that he met up with a well known pimp of the times, Will Crabtree. Crabtree was an excellent pianist who taught young James how to play as well as how to work the women. James continue his fast paced lifestyle of working as a pianist and working the women to support his new interest in having a flashy wardrobe. This worked well for him for a while, but after a dispute with one of the women he had been hustling, James made fast tracks back to his home state.

By this time prohibition had gone to the way side and James started bootlegging to continue to sport the lifestyle he had become accustomed to. The return home was good for James, as he began to play the guitar again and dabble in singing the blues. He quickly picked up his own style of playing the guitar that he coined “cross note tuning” which was a mix of the three finger pick as done by Charlie Patton, Mississippi Hurt, and Bo Carter, in a e-minor tone. This style got him noticed by Paramount Records that lead to James having 26 singles recorded. James may have recorded many more ground braking blues had it not been for the 30-year furlough he took when he found religion with his father. He did not re-enter the music world again until the early 60’s. Skip James died from cancer only 5 years after re-entering the blues world at the age of 67.

Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Willie Dixon

William James “Willie” Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 1, 1915. His mother habitually tried to turn everything she said into rhymes and Willie quickly followed suit and carried the habit into his poems and song writings. He first heard the blues at age 12 while he served time on a prison farm for stealing fixtures from a house that had been torn down. He served a second stint the following year for being a vagabond. He learned how to sing harmony from Leo Phelps who was a local carpenter. Phelps had a gospel quartet, the Jubilee Singers, and Dixon sang bass. Dixon wrote poems and often made them into songs, some of which he sold to local music groups.

He headed to Chicago in 1936. Because of his size, he took up boxing. He was 6 foot 6 inches and weighed 250 pounds. He was so good that in 1937 he won the novice division of the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship. He turned pro but left boxing after only four fights because his manager was cheating him out of his money. He worked briefly as a sparring partner to Joe Louis. It was at the boxing gym where he met Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston who was the major influence in getting Dixon to pursue a music career. Caston built Dixon’s first bass out of a tin can and one string. Because Dixon sang bass, playing the bass instrument came easily. He also learned to play the guitar.

Dixon performed with Baby Doo and together they formed the Five Breezes group. They blended blues, jazz, and vocal harmonies. This success was cut short because when he was drafted he refused to go, claiming he was a conscientious objector. He spent the next ten months in prison. After the war, he formed the group Four Jumps of Jive. Dixon then rejoined pianist Caston in 1945, forming the Big Three Trio with guitarist Bernardo Dennis and went on to record for Columbia Records. After a year, Ollie Crawford replaced Dennis.

In 1948 Dixon signed as a recording artist with Chess Records but ended up performing less and getting into the business end of Chess. By 1951, he was working as a producer, A&R talent scout, session musician, and staff songwriter. Although his years there were less than perfect for him, his output and major influence was enormous.

Dixon also worked as a producer for Checker Records where he worked with such greats as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, and Bo Diddley among others. He performed on many of Chuck Berry’s early recordings further proving his link between the blues and rock and roll.

Dixon is remembered mainly as a songwriter as he wrote around 500 compositions. The biggest boost to his song-writing career happened after he cornered Muddy Waters at a Chicago Club in the men’s room and taught him the hard circumstances and boastful lyrics of Hoochie Coochie Man. Muddy’s voice added a tough bravado to the song. It was a classic case of the right singer, singing the right song at the right time. Some of his other hit songs include Little Red Rooster, Evil, Spoonful, Back Door Man, I Just Want to Make Love to You, I Ain’t Superstitious, My Babe, Wang Dang Doodle and Bring It On Home.

Later in life Dixon became an ambassador of the blues and a vocal advocate for its practitioners by founding the Blues Heaven Foundation. It worked to preserve the blues legacy and to secure copyrights and royalties for blues musicians who were exploited in the past. Dixon put it like this, “The blues are the roots, and the other musics are the fruits. It’s better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on. The blues are the roots of all American Music. As long as American music survives, so will the blues.”

Heart failure claimed the life of Willie Dixon on January 29, 1992 in Burbank, California. He is buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Following his death he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the ‘early influences’ category in 1994.

Some Blues you Just Have to Hear Series – Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters reminds me of the Mississippi River after a heavy rain as the water is rushing muddy and very powerful; however, the Muddy Waters I am referring to is none other then the Father of Chicago Blues, McKinley Morganfield, more famously known as Muddy Waters.

Muddy waters was born as McKinley Morganfield back in 1913 or 1914, or 1915, as there is much debate as to when Muddy was actually born. Born into a sharecropper family in Issaquena County, Mississippi, Muddy’s mother died when he was only 5 years old leaving his grandmother, Della Grant to raise him. He had been dubbed Muddy at an early age because he loved to play in the mud. He later added Water to “Muddy” and finally ended up calling himself “Muddy Waters”.

Like most blues artists, he started out playing the harmonica but switched to the guitar. By the age of seventeen, he was playing the guitar at parties imitating two popular blues artists, Son House and Robert Johnson.

In 1940, Waters moved to Chicago but a year later found himself back in Mississippi. In the early 1940’s Waters ran a juke joint complete with gambling, moonshine, and a jukebox, where he often performed himself. In 1943 he went back to Chicago with the hopes of become a full time musician. He drove a truck, worked in a factory during the day, and performed at night. A leading bluesman, Big Bill Broonzy, helped Waters break into the business by allowing him to be the opening act for his shows. In 1945, Waters received his first electric guitar, which allowed him to be heard over the noise of the audience.

The first few times Waters recorded music it wasn’t released. The first recording was for Columbia and later for Aristocrat, which was a new label run by Leonard and Phil Chess. In 1948 two hits, “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and “I Feel Like Going Home” accelerated his popularity in the clubs. Aristocrat changed their name to “Rollin’ Stone” which was a Waters smash hit directed by Chess.

The Chess brothers tried to keep Waters from using his own musicians but by September 1953, they gave up trying. With Waters playing second guitar and singing he was joined by Little Walter Jacobs on the harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds on drums, and Otis Spann on piano. Bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon helped too. The group recorded a series of classics including ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’, and ‘I’m Ready.’ These songs were not his usual style but they were so extraordinary that it helped him to break out of the local mold and made him a national star.

By 1954, Waters was at the top of his career. His singing had taken on a shouting quality and the band’s music resembled a throbbing rhythm. As members of his band left for solo careers Waters’ style went with them and continued to evolve. Waters was forced to replace his band members with various studio musicians and some of the magic was lost.

In 1958, he shocked the audiences in England. Patrons, expecting to hear folksy blues, were bombarded with Muddy’s booming loud electric guitar and a deafening beat. At the 1960, Newport Jazz Festival, Muddy’s performance was recorded and released as his first live album. Although it was a hit he was saddened by the fact that his own race were turning their backs on his style of music even though it had the white audience looking at the blues with a new respect. Waters’ sound literally electrified the Delta blues.

On November 25, 1976, Muddy Waters performed at The Bands farewell concert in San Francisco. The following year Waters signed on the Blue Sky label (a Columbia Records subsidiary), and was off and running again with an LP Hard Again. Johnny Winter had convinced Blue Sky to Sign Waters, and he produced his final four albums including Hard Again, ¬I’m Ready, King Bee ¬ and Muddy “Mississippi” Waters – Live.

His influence was notable across a multitude of music types including the blues, rhythm and blues, rock n roll, folk, jazz and country. Because of ill health Waters’ last public performance took place in Florida in the fall of 1982 when he sat in with Eric Clapton’s band during a Clapton concert.

Waters received six Grammy Awards and five Blues Foundation Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed four of his songs in the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Muddy Waters died quietly in his sleep on April 30, 1983 at his home in Westmont, Illinois.

Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Eddie James Son House

Eddie James “Son” House, Jr. was born in Riverton, Mississippi on March 21, 1902, the middle of three brothers. Around 1909 his parents separated and his mother and the three boys moved to Tallulah, Louisiana. House picked cotton as a teenager and by the age of 15 was preaching sermons in the Baptist Church. By the time he was 20, he was the pastor of a small country church south of Lyon. He left the church to follow a woman (10 years his senior) with whom he had been having an affair.

House was a self-taught guitarist who furthered his ability with the help of a little known local musician named James McCoy. He was inspired by the slide guitar work of Willie Wilson. He developed quickly as a guitarist and within a year was playing with Delta musician Rube Lacy.

In 1928 during a party House shot and killed a man, claiming self-defense, after the man shot him in the leg. He was sentenced to 15 years at Parchman Farm Prison but was released after just 2 years when a Clarksdale judge re-examined the case. The judge advised him to leave the area and he moved to Lula where he met bluesman Charley Patton. In 1930 Patton, House, Willie Brown (guitarist) and Louise Johnson (pianist) gathered in Grafton, Wisconsin for a recording session with Paramount Records.

House continued playing solo and with Brown and Patton (died in 1934) during the thirties. After moving to Robinsonville, Mississippi, he met a young Robert Johnson. After Johnson learned to play the guitar, he began playing with House and Brown, picking up some of their styles. In 1941 House, Brown, Joe Martin, and Leroy Williams were recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. House did not make another commercial record until the “blues revival of the 1960s.

In 1943, House moved to Rochester, New York and worked for the New York Central Railroad. He worked outside of music for sixteen years. In the early and mid 1960s he started playing again. That led to touring and more recording. Among the artists who were influenced by him were Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, and Robert Nighthawk.

From the early 1970s, House was plagued by ill health. His playing became infrequent and then stopped all together in 1974. He moved to Detroit, Michigan and lived out the rest of his life. Son House died on October 19, 1988 from cancer of the larynx. He was buried at the Mt. Hazel Cemetery and members of the Detroit Blues Society held benefit concerts to raise money to put a fitting monument on his grave.

Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Charlie Patton

In Southern Mississippi in April 1891, Charlie Patton was born to sharecropper parents. When he was nine years old his family moved to the Will Dockery Plantation located in the Delta. The Mississippi Delta is a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, the Mississippi River on the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The Delta is famous for its fertile soil and extreme poverty making it the ideal location for sharecroppers.

Henry Sloan was an African American musician who moved to the Delta area around the same time as the Patton’s. Although Sloan is considered one of the earliest performers in the history of Delta Blues he never recorded any music. His claim to fame is that he tutored Charlie Patton on the guitar in the ways of the blues. Charlie dogged his every step and played the blues with him for several years.

It was said that Patton defined the life of a bluesman. He had an earthy voice many considered course and it was attributed to hard times and harder living. He drank and smoked excessively. It’s not known for sure but it thought that he had eight wives. He moved around a lot and never stayed in one spot long. He even spent a short time in jail.

Patton made his first recording in June of 1929 for the Paramount label. He recorded fourteen songs for them, all recorded on 78’s. His first session was so successful that he was invited back just four months later and recorded an additional twenty eight tunes.

He played the slide guitar too making it a popular instrument in the playing of the blues. Patton is at the top of the list in blues history. He influenced the style of the blues and the performers in the succeeding generation. Performers that can trace their blues style back to Patton include Son House, Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson. It’s even been suggested that Patton may have been the first rock and roller. He was a real ham while performing on stage, playing the guitar loud and rough while holding it between his knees or behind his back. He jumped around, tapping the body of the guitar or using the back of his guitar as a drum.

In February of 1934, Patton had his last recording session in New York City. That was just two months before his death on April 28, 1934. He is buried in Holly Ridge, Mississippi and his major role in developing the Delta Blues is noted on his tomb stone. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson was among the most famous of the Mississippi Delta blues musicians. He was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazelhurst, Mississippi to Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson. Because they were not married he had his mother’s name, Dodds. His stepfather changed his name to match his, and he used Spencer until his late adolescence when he took the name of his birth father, even though he had never met him. He spent much of his early life in the northern delta region while his parents lived and worked on plantations and then lived in levee camps during construction of the levees.

The family spent four years in Memphis and at the age of seven his stepfather sent him to the Abbay and Leatherman Plantation near Robinsonville, Mississippi. There he learned how to play the Jew’s harp and the harmonica and started hanging around the older blues musicians. Johnson occasionally played with Willie Brown and his partner Charlie Patton. In 1930 Son House was released from Parchman Farm Prison where he served time for killing a man that he claimed was self defense. Johnson was so impressed by House’s guitar playing that he gave up his harmonica and took up the guitar.

He returned to Hazelhurst, married and kept practicing his guitar and learning new songs. He started imitating Ike Zinnerman, a local guitarist. Several months later he returned to Robinsonville playing a combination of shuffling rhythms and slide guitar leads that outshone other musicians. Some believed that he traded his soul for his new found musical ability. He was a traveler and played in many places including taverns, speakeasies, levee camps, and even coal yards. He traveled the Midwest, East Coast and Canada.

Johnson’s first recording was in San Antonio, Texas in November, 1936 and included the songs “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, “Cross Road Blues” and Walkin’ Blues” as well as many others. His second recording was in Dallas, Texas in June, 1937. There were a total of twenty nine songs recorded during those two sessions.

His popularity grew quickly after the recordings. His success and his life were cut short after he died on August 16, 1938 from poison at the young age of 27. His music style and original songs have influenced such musicians as Muddy Waters, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Johnson was ranked fifth in the Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is also an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Some Blues You Just Have to Hear Series - BB King

Riley B. King, otherwise known as B.B. King to the blues world was one of the strongest influences that helped keep the roots of the Mississippi Delta Blue alive. B.B. King was born in 1925 in Indianola Mississippi. Riley grew up a hard life. His parent’s, tenant farmers, separated when riley was very young. His mom did the best she could to bring Riley up. They attended church where Riley got his first taste of the gospel choir. This was the root beginnings of Riley’s love for the blues music and guitar. After his mothers early demise, Riley at the age of 9 pretty much raised himself. His aunt played a partial role when she could in trying to keep Riley on the straight and narrow. Her love of blues and jazz kept Riley coming back to her throughout his young years to listen to the collection of records she had. At the age of 12, Riley began to play the guitar and started performing on street corners as an early teen to make some money to survive.

Some of Riley’s inspiration he received to play the blues was from artist such as Lonnie Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, T-Bone Walker, and Bukka White. Bukka White was Riley’s cousin and played a huge role in Riley’s decision to try to take his act on the road. After training under his cousin White, at the age of 21, Riley hitchhiked to Memphis Tennessee and within three years, developed a nice gig playing in clubs and even having some records made. It was also in Memphis that Riley began DJ’ing on the radio. His DJ’ing is where he earned his nickname, B.B. King. He began announcing himself on the radio station as Beale Street Blues Boy, which was later shortened to Blues Boy then to B.B.

B.B. King continued to make a huge name for himself in the Blue’s Industry as well as the music world as a whole. He and “Lucille”, a name he began giving all of his guitars early on in his music career, literally came from what most would consider dirt poor, and rose to the cream of the crop. (Lucille was a woman in BB Kings early career where an incident ensued over a fight for Lucille resulting in a fire where BB almost lost his guitar to the fire over this woman.)

By 1952, B.B. made it to the top of the Billboard Charts for rhythm and blues with his song “Three O’clock Blues”. From then on it was just one hit after another, for six decades and 50 albums later. B.B. is known for his strong guitar tone and his smoky deep vocals in his smooth mix of the traditional blues with a dash of country guitar tone. On the more risky side of B.B. Riley King, it has been reported that he was quite the ladies man in his career singing the blues. B.B. was married twice, both times ending in divorce due to his demanding career, however it has also been said that B.B. fathered 15 children by different women as well as in just one single year, had 341 one-night-stands! I can see where that could make for quite a bit of material for some blues music.

Women and the Blues

The 1920s was the era of the female blues singer starring Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Sippie Wallace, and many more. Their inspirations ranged from the world of gospel, vaudeville, and jazz music. These blues singers never failed to sell out a venue regardless of its setting and their blues are still alive amongst us today. Although a hot tickets item in the 20’s, come the 30’s, the fan base for female blues singers fell to the weigh side, however their impact remained later paving the inspiration for other singers such as Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Bonnie Raitt just to name a few.

Ida Cox was born in Toccoa, Georgia and made her first public appearance belting out the blues in minstrel shows when she traveled with the White and Clark’s Black & Tan Minstrels. She sang with several other minstrel shows and it was where she met and married a trumpeter by the name of Adler Cox. After his death, she married Eugene Williams and had a daughter, Helen. After her divorce from Williams, she married Jesse Crump, a pianist. Together they wrote songs. He managed her career and even played on some of her records. By the time Ida Cox started her professional career in 1923 she had already been singing in theaters for 13 years. She signed with Paramount Records and recorded 78 songs over the ensuing 6 years. It was the beginning of a career that would last until her final recording in 1961. What brought Cox to the forefront was her ability to write lyrics that her southern women counterparts could relate to regarding struggles of poor hard times, love, and love lost. She appeared regularly in shows until she had a stroke in 1944. It stopped her touring but not her singing career. Cox not only sang the blues but also dabbled in comedy, hotel management, and acting but also was and will forever be known best for her bluesy voice and her commanding stage presence.

Bessie Smith was considered the “Empress of the Blues” and probably the most famous of the female blues singers. She had the highest record sales of any female blues singer of the time. Smith had a strong and powerful vocal, which demanded attention and got just that.

Ma Rainey was considered the “Mother of the Blues” with her blues carrying a southern country flavor that sang to the hearts of poor Southern African Americans of the times. Ma Rainey was a groundbreaking teacher for her younger counterparts Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Marcia Ball, and Bonnie Raitt; however, she was a hard act for them to follow. Her costuming alone was that of a diva decked out in sequined gowns dripping in jewelry and her make up quite extravagant for a black woman of the times.

When Memphis Minnie took a stage, she also demanded attention through her vocals, tone, and voice. Minnie set a twist on the stage of early female blues artist toting along her six-string strumming out music that made many of her male counterparts green with envy of her skills. Moreover, Sippie Wallace the sweet “Texas Nightingale” made her impact on the jazz and blues world for seven decades.

The women of the blues, although gone, will never be forgotten for the impact they made on the Blues Industry.

Blues and Whiskey

The Blues and Whiskey go back since the beginning of whiskey, or would that be the blues. Either way, much like the chicken and the egg, regardless of which came first, the two have never really parted. It has been said that the best medicine for the blues is a fifth of whiskey, drowning the sorrows from a bottle of swirling golden caramel colored liquor that can burn or warm as it makes itself known. But if not for the whiskey, many a blues songs would not have risen out of the minds and souls of entrapment of pain. The whiskey eased the pain and allowed the words to escape, expressing feelings like only the blues can.

I have to put a plug in for a smooth biting, body tingling, warming gem called Connemara. Boy, the blues one could sing after a few dozen shots of that soul medicine. Connemara is a smooth little gem that the Cooley Distillery kicks out. A quite night and a cast of Connemara, a person could write albums worth of blues. Repressed thoughts, memories, lost dreams and desires arise from the elixir as it slowly takes over. So, with blues, although not all are songs of pain and despair, does the blues come first and then the whiskey, or does the whiskey come first then the blues.

(Picture from Wikipedia)

Janis; From Ball and Chain to Me and Bobby McGee

Janis Joplin is a name that anyone who has even the slightest interest in music or culture should know. Not only was she a wild 60's hippie who sang psychedelic rock and folk songs, she has been considered by many the woman who truly open the doors to a new revolution for women. Beginning in her teen years, Janis began her interest in singing through a local choir belting out the blues. The African American Blues sealed the deal in Joplin's choice to make a living singing, with one of her early remakes of Big Mamma Thornton's "Ball and Chain" leaving listeners in awe. Sadly, due to Janis's drug and alcohol addiction, she died at the height of her success.

The song that most people think of when they think of Janis is "Me and Bobby McGee" she recorded this track for her album "Pearl" just a few days before her death in 1970. Released after her death, the song, which has been recorded by many other artists, became a Janis Joplin signature tune. No one who hears it can deny the throaty sultriness of Janis' voice and the fact that the song seems to have been written just for her to sing.

The songwriter Kris Kristofferson was a lover of Janis' and had sung the song for her a few years before. He had no idea until after she had passed that she had covered the song. Janis' version of "Me and Bobby McGee" was her only number one single and the 2nd posthumous release to make it to the top of the charts. Kris declares that he didn't write the song about Joplin as it was originally intended that Bobby was a girl, but that the song is definitely associated with her.

Since Janis' death, many enterprising young singers have tried to harness the amazing Joplin spirit when performing the song "Me and Bobby McGee". Many have tried, many have failed, and a few have come close; Melissa Etheridge does a wonderful job with this song. Another up and coming young singer has been compared to Janis Joplin in the past few years; Joss Stone, can belt out the lyrics, and make you feel her pain just as Janis could. Nevertheless, there is and will never be another Janis Joplin, no matter how hard others' in the music industry try to capture the magic that Janis had. She was an artist, a singer, music arranger, a storyteller, a drug user, an alcoholic, a lover, a friend, a woman, and she was amazing.


Janis and "Ball and Chain"



Janis and "Me and Bobby McGee"





Picture credited to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia