This is the first post of a multi-part series that will identify as many of the blues artists from around the world that I can locate information and/or photos of. I hope that you’ll follow along with me on this journey from the deep south to the far ends of the earth as I tell these stories.
Part I of the series is entitled: Early Country Blues
PART Ia: Early Country Blues
Name Birth Year Death year
Black Ace was the most frequently used stage name of the American Texas blues musician, Babe Kyro Lemon Turner (December 21, 1907 – November 7, 1972),who was also known as B.K. Turner, Black Ace Turner or Babe Turner.
Born in Hughes Springs, Texas, United States, he was raised on the family farm, and taught himself to play guitar, performing in east Texas from the late 1920s on. During the early 1930s he began playing with Smokey Hogg and Oscar "Buddy" Woods, a Hawaiian-style guitarist who played with the instrument flat on his lap. Turner then bought a National steel guitar, and began playing what one later critic called "Hawaii meets the Delta," smooth and simple blues.
In 1937, Turner recorded six songs (possibly with Hogg as second guitarist) for Chicago's Decca Records in Dallas, including the blues song "Black Ace". In the same year, he started a radio show on KFJZ in Fort Worth, using the cut as a theme song, and soon assumed the name.
In 1941 he appeared in The Blood of Jesus, an African-American movie produced by Spencer Williams Jr. In 1943 he was drafted into the United States Army, and gave up playing music for some years. However, in 1960, Arhoolie Records owner Chris Strachwitz persuaded him to record an album for his record label. His last public performance was in the a 1962 film documentary, The Blues, and he died of cancer in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1972
Black Ace 1907 1972
Pink Anderson 1900 1973
Kokomo Arnold (February 15, 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician.
Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style set him apart from his contemporaries.
Kokomo Arnold 1901 1968
Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk, blues musician, and multi-instrumentalist, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced.
He is best known as Lead Belly. Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly", he himself spelled it "Lead Belly". This is also the usage on his tombstone, as well as of the Lead Belly Foundation. In 1994 the Lead Belly Foundation contacted an authority on the history of popular music, Colin Larkin, editor of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, to ask if the name "Leadbelly" could be altered to "Lead Belly" in the hope that other authors would follow suit and use the artist's correct appellation.
Lead Belly 1889 1949
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell (February 21, 1903 – October 7, 1962) was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting that he veered towards jazz.
Scrapper Blackwell 1903 1962
"Blind" Blake (born Arthur Blake; 1896, Newport News, Virginia – December 1, 1934, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist
Blind Blake 1895 1937
Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931) was an early American Piedmont blues musician. His nickname came from the fact that he was a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two extant photographs of Bob show him playing his guitar while wearing a full length white apron and cook's hat.
Barbecue Bob 1902 1931
Son Bonds (March 16, 1909 – August 31, 1947) was an American country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of both Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, and was similar in his guitar playing style. According to Allmusic journalist, Jim O'Neal, "the music to one of Bonds's songs, "Back and Side Blues" (1934), became a standard blues melody when Sonny Boy Williamson I from nearby Jackson, Tennessee, used it in his classic "Good Morning, School Girl"." The best known of Bonds's other works are "A Hard Pill To Swallow" and "Come Back Home."
Son Bonds 1909 1947
Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1903 – August 15, 1958) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.
Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs. As a blues composer, he was unique in that his compositions reflected the many vantage points of his rural-to-urban experiences.
Big Bill Broonzy 1893 1958
Gabriel Brown (1910–1972) was an American Piedmont blues singer and guitarist.
Gabriel Brown 1910 1972
Kitty Brown was an American classic female blues singer. She sometimes used the pseudonyms of Bessie Williams (although she was not alone in using this name), Jane White, Dixie Gray, Rosa Green and Mazie Leroy. Brown was active as a recording artist from 1923 to the mid 1930s. Her best known tracks were "I Wanna Jazz Some More" and "It's De-Lovely". Little is known of her life outside of her music.
Kitty Brown unknown unknown
Richard "Rabbit" Brown (c.1880 – c.1937) was an American blues guitarist and composer. His music was characterized by a mixture of blues, pop songs, and original topical ballads. He recorded six record sides for Victor Records on May 11, 1927.
Rabbit Brown 1880 1937
Willie Lee Brown (August 6, 1900 – December 30, 1952) was an American delta blues guitarist and singer.
Willie Brown 1900 1952
Gus Cannon aka “Banjo Joe”
Gus Cannon 1883 1979
Alice Leslie Carter was an American classic female blues singer. She was active as a recording artist in the early 1920s, and her best known tracks were "Decatur Street Blues", and "Aunt Hagar's Children Blues." Although Carter was a contemporary of better known recording artists of the time, such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, and Bertha "Chippie" Hill, little is known of her life outside of her music.
She is not to be confused with Alice Carter, another blues singer, who recorded four songs herself in 1923.
Alice Leslie Carter unknown unknown
Sam Collins (August 11, 1887 - October 20, 1949) who was sometimes known as Crying Sam Collins and also, according to one authoritative website,as Jim Foster, Jelly Roll Hunter, Big Boy Woods, Bunny Carter, and Salty Dog Sam, was an early American blues singer and guitarist.
Sam Collins 1887 1949
Martha Copeland was an American classic female blues singer, who recorded thirty four songs between 1923 and 1928. Her best known offerings are "Everybody Does It Now," "Good Time Mama Blues," and "Sorrow Valley Blues." Promoted by Columbia Records as 'Everybody's Mammy', her recordings did not sell in the quantities enjoyed by her label mates Bessie and Clara Smith. Outside of her recording career, little is known of her life.
Martha Copeland unknown unknown
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1895 – June 29, 1987) was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.
A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
Elizabeth Cotten 1895 1987
Floyd Council (September 2, 1911 – May 9, 1976) was an American blues guitarist and singer. He became a well-known practitioner of the Piedmont blues sound from that area, popular throughout the southeastern region of the US in the 1930s.
Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, to Harrie and Lizzie Council, Floyd began his musical career on the streets of Chapel Hill in the 1920s, performing with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd as "The Chapel Hillbillies". He recorded twice for ARC at sessions with Blind Boy Fuller in the mid-thirties, all examples of the Piedmont style.
Council suffered a stroke in the late 1960s which partially paralyzed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills, but did not significantly damage his cognitive abilities. Folklorist Peter B. Lowry attempted to record him one afternoon in 1970, but he never regained his singing or playing abilities. Accounts say that he remained "quite sharp in mind".
Council died in 1976 of a heart attack, after moving to Sanford, North Carolina.
Floyd Council 1911 1976
Ida Cox (February 25, 1896 – November 10, 1967) was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues"
Ida Cox 1896 1967
Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972) was an American blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica. His finger-picking guitar style influenced many other artists and his students in New York included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Woody Mann, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Winslow, and Ernie Hawkins. He has influenced the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Townes van Zandt, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Jack White and Resurrection Band.
Reverend Gary Davis 1896 1972
Madlyn Davis was an American classic female blues singer. She was active as a recording artist in the late 1920s, and her best known tracks were "Kokola Blues" and "It's Red Hot". Although Davis was a contemporary of better known recording artists of the time, such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Mozelle Alderson, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, and Bertha "Chippie" Hill, little is known of the life outside of her music
Madlyn Davis unknown unknown
Mattie Delaney (1905 – unknown) was an American delta blues singer and guitarist. She was active in the 1930s with only two known recordings: "Down the Big Road Blues," and "Tallahatchie River Blues."
Born Mattie Doyle in Tchula, Mississippi, she recorded two songs for the Vocalion Records label in February 1930.Her song "Down The Big Road Blues" was a variant of Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues". One music journalist noted "Delaney issuing a matter-of-fact report in "Tallahatchie River Blues". She was unusual for a female performer of the time, in that she played guitar accompaniment and sang topical songs. Nothing is known of her life after the recordings.
Two of Delaney's songs were featured on the Mississippi Girls (1928-1931) compilation album, issued in September 1991
Mattie Delaney 1905 unknown
Little Buddy Doyle (March 20, 1911 – unknown) was an American Memphis and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of Big Walter Horton and Hammie Nixon.
Charlie Doyle was probably born in Forrest City, Arkansas, United States. During the 1930s, the diminutive Doyle performed regularly on Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.
It is generally accepted that Big Walter Horton made his first recording backing Doyle, on Doyle's Memphis based eight song recordings made for the Okeh and Vocalion labels in 1939. Doyle also recorded with the harmonica player, Hammie Nixon, around the same time, although some of their recorded work remains unissued.
Little is known of Doyle's life outside of his recorded work, and his death appears to be unrecorded
Little Buddy Doyle 1911 unknown
Archie Edwards (September 4, 1918 – June 18, 1998) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, who in a sporadic career spanning several decades, worked variously with Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and John Jackson. His best known tracks included "Saturday Night Hop", "The Road is Rough and Rocky", and "I Called My Baby Long Distance". In the 1950s, his own barber shop attracted blues musicians, who helped to kickstart Edwards' musical career.
Edwards described his performing as "I play what they call the old Piedmont style, but I call it East Virginia blues 'cause that's where I learned it".
Archie Edwards 1918 1998
John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1904 – June 5, 1977), best known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.
Sleepy John Estes 1904 1977
William Ezell (December 23, 1892 – August 2, 1963) was an American blues, jazz, ragtime and boogie-woogie pianist and occasional singer. He was also billed as Will Ezell, and was a regular participant in recordings made by Paramount Records in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Ezell was noted by the music journalist, Bruce Eder, at Allmusic as "a technically brilliant pianist, showing the strong influence of jazz as well as blues in his work".
Ezell's "Pitchin' Boogie", and Cow Cow Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues", were amongst the earliest boogie-woogie recordings. However, Pinetop Smith's "Pinetop's Boogie-Woogie" was the first to use the phrase in the song's title.
Two of Ezell's more notable solo recordings, "Heifer Dust" and "Barrel House Woman" (both 1929) were noted for containing "elements of both blues and barrelhouse [boogie-woogie] in their form".
William Ezell 1892 1963
Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen) (July 10, 1907 – February 13, 1941) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. He was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists with rural Black Americans, a group that also included Blind Blake, Josh White, and Buddy Moss.
Blind Boy Fuller 1908 1941
Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 — January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues".
Jesse Fuller 1896 1976
William McKinley Gillum (September 11, 1904 – March 29, 1966), known as Jazz Gillum, was an American blues harmonica player.
He was born in Indianola, Mississippi. After running away from home at the age of seven, Gillum spent the next few years in Charleston, Mississippi, working and playing for tips on local street corners. He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1923, meeting up with the guitarist, Big Bill Broonzy. The duo started working club dates around the city and, by 1934, Gillum started recording for both ARC and Bluebird Records.
Jazz Gillum 1904 1966
Lillian Glinn (c. 1902 – unknown) was an American classic female blues and country blues singer and songwriter. She spent most of her career in black vaudeville. Her most popular recordings were "Black Man Blues," "Doggin' Me Blues" and "Atlanta Blues." The blues historian, Paul Oliver, commented that there a number of women blues singers who "deserve far greater recognition than they have had" and that one such was Lillian Glinn.
Lillian Glinn c.1902 unknown
Ida Goodson (November 23, 1909 – January 5, 2000) was an American classic female blues and jazz singer plus pianist.
Goodson was born in Pensacola, Florida, the youngest of seven sisters, six of whom survived to adulthood. Her father and mother both played piano. Her father was deacon at Pensacola's Mount Olive Baptist Church.
Ida Goodson 1909 2000
Coot Grant (June 17, 1893 – unknown) was an American classic female blues, country blues, and vaudeville, singer and songwriter. Her own stage craft, plus the double act with her husband and musical partner, Wesley "Kid" Wilson, was popular with African American audiences in the 1910s, 1920s and early 1930s.
Coot Grant 1893 unknown
Blind Arvella Gray (January 28, 1906 – September 7, 1980) was an American blues, folk and gospel singer and guitarist.
His birth name was James Dixon, and he was born in Somerville, Texas, United States. He spent the latter part of his life performing and busking folk, blues and gospel music at Chicago's Maxwell Street flea market and at rapid-transit depots. In the '60s, he recorded two singles for his own Gray label including "Freedom Rider" backed with "Freedom Bus."
Gray's only album, 1973's The Singing Drifter was reissued on the Conjuroo record label in 2005. The re-issue producer was Cary Baker
Gray died in Chicago, Illinois in September 1980, at the age of 74.
Arvella Gray 1906 1980
Shirley Griffith (April 26, 1908 – June 18, 1974) was an American blues singer and guitarist, mainly based in Indianapolis. He is best known for his recordings, "Walkin' Blues" and "Bad Luck Blues".
Griffith was born in Brandon, Mississippi, United States. He died from heart disease in Indianapolis in June 1974, at the age of 66.
Shirley Griffith 1908 1974
Hattie Hart was an American Memphis blues singer and songwriter. She was active as a recording artist in the late 1920s to the mid 1930s, and her best known tracks were "I Let My Daddy Do That" and "Coldest Stuff in Town". Hart worked both as a solo artist, and previously as a singer with the Memphis Jug Band. Little is known of her life outside of music.
It was stated that "Hart wrote gritty songs about love, sex, cocaine and voodoo".
Hattie Hart unknown unknown
Silas Hogan (September 15, 1911 – January 9, 1994) was an American blues musician. Hogan most notably recorded "Airport Blues" and "Lonesome La La", was the front man of the Rhythm Ramblers, and became an inductee in the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.
Silas Hogan 1911 1994
Andrew 'Smokey' Hogg (January 27, 1914 - May 1, 1960) was an American post-war Texas and country blues musician.
Hogg was born near Westconnie, Texas, United States and grew up on the farm and was taught to play guitar by his father Frank Hogg. While still in his teens he teamed up with a the slide guitarist and vocalist, B.K. Turner aka Black Ace and the pair travelled together playing the turpentine and logging camp circuit of country dance halls and juke joints that surrounded Kilgore, Tyler, Greenville and Palestine in East Texas.
Smokey Hogg 1914 1960
Sam John Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas. Rolling Stone magazine included Hopkins at number 71 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
Robert "Mack" McCormick stated, "Hopkins is the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act".
Lightnin' Hopkins 1912 1982
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. (March 21, 1902 (?) – October 19, 1988) was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music. House did not learn guitar until he was in his early twenties, as he had been "churchified", and was determined to become a Baptist preacher. He associated himself with Delta blues musicians Charlie Patton and Willie Brown, often acting as a sideman. In 1930, House made his first recordings for Paramount Records during a session for Charlie Patton. However, these did not sell well due to the Great Depression, and he drifted into obscurity. He was recorded by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941 and '42. Afterwards, he moved north to Rochester, New York, where he remained until his rediscovery in 1964, spurred by the American folk blues revival. Over the next few years, House recorded several studio albums and went on various tours until his death in 1988. His influence has extended over a wide area of musicians, including Robert Johnson, John Hammond, Alan Wilson (of Canned Heat), Bonnie Raitt, The White Stripes, and John Mooney.
Son House 1902 1988
Joshua Barnes Howell, known as Peg Leg Howell (March 5, 1888 - August 11, 1966), was an African American blues singer and guitarist, who connected early country blues and the later 12-bar style. He had the strong delivery and ear-catching repertoire of the professional street-singer.
Peg Leg Howell 1888 1966
Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith. In the 1950s, she retired from performing and entered the medical field, only to successfully resume her singing career in her 1980s
Alberta Hunter 1895 1984
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt (July 3, 1893 or March 8, 1892 — November 2, 1966) was an American country blues singer and guitarist.
Mississippi John Hurt 1893 1966
To Be Continued . . . . . .
Thank you for taking the time to read the first post of my new series. I hope that you enjoyed it, and are looking forward to the next post as much as I am. Until next time ~ ~ ~
Musician By Night . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment