Some Blues you Just Have to Hear Series - Mississippi Fred McDowell

Fred McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee to parents who farmed the land. They died when he was fairly young. It is generally believed that he was born in 1904 but there is no documentation of that and he really isn’t sure. By the age of fourteen McDowell was playing the guitar using a slide that was hollowed out of a steer bone. Prior to that he had used a pocket knife for a slide and would later switch to a glass slide for a clearer sound. He played on street corners of Memphis for tips as a teen.

He eventually got tired of wondering around and ended up in Como, Mississippi and started farming. He still played his music on the weekends, performing at house parties and fish fries. It was in this town that musicologist Alan Lomax found McDowell some 30 years after he settled there. Although Lomax was able to convince him to record for the American Folk Music series at Atlantic Records it did little to change his fortune. He continued farming and playing only on the weekends, often on street corners or in front of stores.

Lomax had found a real Delta bluesman that no one had ever heard before since he had never been recorded. McDowell was not an ambitious man, he was content to share his music locally and be a farmer. It was not until Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz went after McDowell and talked him into recording for his label. There were two volumes, Fred McDowell, Vol 1, and Vol 2 that were recorded and released during the mid 1960’s. These homespun country blues made him popular on the festival circuit throughout the 60’s.

His first use of an electric guitar was in 1969 for the recording of I Do Not Play No Rock ‘n’ Roll for Capital Records. McDowell was filmed in 1968’s The Blues Maker, his own documentary in 1969 Fred McDowell, and 1940’s Roots of American Music: Country and Urban Music.

McDowell gave a young Bonnie Raitt lessons on the slide guitar and she has since recorded several of his songs. His songs have been recorded by many others including Bob Dylan, Dan Berth, The Rolling Stones’, Watermelon Slim and the North Mississippi Allstars.

McDowell died of cancer in 1972 and is buried at Hammond Hill Baptist church near Como.

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 –Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy and B.B. King were both superstars of all times in blues music being the inspiration for other artist such as Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

In my previous blog I talked about BB King, today I want to share with you George Buddy Guy. Buddy was another child born to a sharecropper back in 1936 in Louisiana, back when segregation was still in full swing. Buddy’s parents tried to keep as much of the reality of the segregation from Buddy and his other four siblings while growing up and always encouraged them to be the best they could be, regardless of their skin color. He used examples throughout Buddy’s life such as Jackie Robinson, and Joe Louis whom both made names for themselves regardless of their skin.

In his late teens, Buddy started working as a custodian at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Buddy played the guitar when time allowed in blues bands. (Buddy Guy had a serious case of stage freight when he first started making public appearances. It took him quite sometime to conquer this fear and even throughout his whole career, Buddy would get an occasional twinge. Never before out of the state of Louisiana, Buddy decided to move to Chicago after a friend of his returned from a trip there and told him how he knew he would fare well there playing the guitar in the evening and working during the day. Buddy was more interested in working in Chicago rather then playing. It was only secondary to the thought of doubled income he could make working in Chicago as a custodian. The added benefit to Buddy in regards to his move was to see some of the blues greats play. Little did he know it wouldn’t be long when he would be playing right along side of some of the blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Otis Rush.

Guy’s success didn’t take right off, not at least in the style he would have rather played in. Guy’s did make some records under Chess label; however, it was not the style of music he necessarily wanted to record. It wasn’t until the later years of his career and a couple record label later that Guy was able to play how he always wanted to, and what he is known for today, a showman, provocative guitarist and commanding vocalist with just the right touch of the wild side that even make hard core rockers admire him.

Even after opening a blues club in Chicago back in 89, the Buddy Guy’s Legends, a very popular nightclub, Guy still manages to perform at the age of 73, with the same commanding presentation he has always had. Stayed tuned for more great blues artists you must hear. Until then, some Buddy Guy for your listening pleasure..