Just a head’s up that today’s show will be a re-run of and older show. Next week I’ll air a new show and after that I’ll be taking a brief pause to recharge. For those who listen live or to the internet stream, you will hear some older shows I’ve selected to fill the gap. I also urge you to check out some of the older shows you may have missed, and there’s certainly no shortage with well over five hundred shows available. If you’re a jazz fan, you may hear me sitting in on Thursday nights on the Jazz Odyssey with my buddy Steve Pearl.
Big Road Blues Show 5/5/24: I’m Going To Live For Today – Mix Show
ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
---|---|---|
Chuck Higgins | Here I'm Is | The Dootone Story |
Herb Fisher | Don't Want Nobody Else | Further Mellow Cats 'N' Kittens |
Al Jackson | It Ain't Gonna Be Like That | Laughin' At The Blues |
Frank Stokes | Nehi Mamma Blues | Memphis Blues Singers Vol. 1 |
Furry Lewis | You Can Leave Baby | Memphis Sessions 1956-1961 |
Gus Cannon, Will Shade, Laura Dukes | Dirty Mother for You | Memphis Sessions 1956-1961 |
Joey Thomas | Bad Luck Child | New York City The Blues Yesterday Vol .9 |
Bob Marshall | I'm Going to Live for Today | New York City The Blues Yesterday Vol .9 |
Bobby Smith And Orchestra | Don't Shake Those Hips At Me | Lost R&B Shouters Vol 1 |
Julius Daniels | 99 Year Blues | Blues Images Vol. 2 |
Blind Joe Reynolds | Ninety Nine Blues | Bluesin' By the Bayou: Rough 'N' Tough |
Dan Pickett | 99 1/2 Won't Do | 1949 Country Blues |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe | 99 Half Won't Do | Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol. 5 |
Ramblin' Hi Harris | I Haven't Got A Home | Bluesin' By The Bayou: Aint' Broke, Ain't Hungry |
Ramblin' Hi Harris | Trying To Call My Baby | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 3 |
William Moore | Midnight Blues | The Great Race Records Vol. 1 |
Robert Wilkins | Losin' Out Blues | Masters of the Memphis Blues |
Kokomo Arnold | Goin' Down in Galilee (Swing Along With Me) | Kokomo Arnold Vol. 4 1937-1938 |
The Famous Hokum Boys | Pig Meat Strut | The Famous Hokum Boys |
Dickie Thompson | Hand in Hand Blues | New York City The Blues Yesterday Vol .9 |
Arkansas Johnny Todd | Keep Em Down | Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 4 |
Cleoma Falcon | Raise My Window High | Cajun Early Recordings |
Lizzie Miles | A Good Man Is Hard To Find | Jazzin' The Blues 1943 -1952 |
Baby Face Turner | Gonna Let You Go | The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 2 |
Ike Turners Kings Of Rhythm w/ Tommy Hodge | Down & Out | Cobra Records Story |
Buddy Guy | I Hope You Come Back Home | This Is the Beginning: The Best of the Aritistic, Cobra & U.S.A. Sessions |
Smiley Lewis | The Rocks | New Orleans Guitar 1953-1954 |
Dave Bartholomew | The Golden Rule | Dave Bartholomew 1950-52 |
Little Sonny Jones | Going Back To The Country | Crescent City Bounce |
Lonnie Johnson | Away Down in the Alley Blues | A Life in Music: Selected Sides |
Texas Alexander | Yellow Girl Blues | Texas Alexander & His Circle 1927-1951 |
Juke Boy Bonner | Call Me Juke Boy | Goin' Down To Louisiana |
Billy Boy Arnold & Johnny Jones | Tell Me Baby | Chicago Blues: Live At The Fickle Pickle |
Sonny Boy Williamson | Going In Your Direction | Cool, Cool Blues: The Classic Sides |
Papa Harvey Hull and Long Cleve Reed | Don't You Leave Me Here | Blues Images Vol. 12 |
Charlie Patton | Jim Lee Blues Pt. 1 | Best Of |
Casey Bill Weldon | Big Katy Adam | The Essential |
Jazz Gillum | Big Katy Adams | Bill ''Jazz'' Gillum Vol. 2 1938-1941 |
Show Notes:
A fine batch of recordings today spanning the 20s through the 50s. On deck today are a couple of sets of jump blues, we hear from several early Memphis blues artists, two sides from the mysterious Ramblin’ Hi Harris and some tracks featuring Lonnie Johnson. In addition we here a set of related blues and gospel songs, a set of terrific pre-war guitarists, some blues songs sung in French, some fine New Orleans artists, songs about steamboats and much more.
I want to give a plug to Gérard Herzhaft, a first rate blues researcher who has run the terrific blog, Blue Eye, for several years. Gérard puts together thematic collections of blues for download which would make for a great CD’s. Gérard collects lots of hard-to-find tracks that I’ve often used on this show because they are not available elsewhere. Today we spin several tracks from New York City The Blues Yesterday Vol .9. From that collection we hear from Bob Marshall who’s featured track is the title for today’s show. He recorded 12 fine sides in 1949-50, some as vocalist of the Cozy Cole Orchestra. We spin the fine “Hand in Hand Blues” from Dickie Thompson. Thompson is best known for “Thirteen Women” which was covered by Bill Haley. During the 1940’s to the 60’s, Thompson made himself a name in New York City as a trustworthy and talented sideman, playing jazz or R&B with the same efficiency behind Cozy Cole, Lawrence Brown, Sam Woodward, Wild Bill Davis, Clifford Scott, Harry Edison, Johnny Hodges, Dinah Washington and others. He was the lead guitarist for singer Jackie Wilson and the Jonah Jones Quintet. Thompson managed to make some R&B records as a leader with little success.
We spin a fair bit of early blues artists, several who made records in the post-war era. From Memphis we spin some track for a hard-t0-find collection titled Memphis Sessions 1956-1961. In 1961 Dave Mangurian and Donald Hill recorded Gus Cannon, Will Shade and Laura Dukes over two days in Memphis. The recordings have been issued as bootlegs on Will Shade & Gus Cannon 1961 (Document) and the above mention album on Wolf. Cannon’s band of the ’20’s and ’30’s, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, along with contemporaries, The Memphis Jug Band, recorded the finest jug music of the era.
We hear some top-flight guitarists from the pre-war era include outstanding sides by William Moore, Robert Wilkins, Kokomo Arnold and The Famous Hokum Boys on the dazzling guitar workout “Pig Meat Strut.” Moore was a A resident of Tappahannock, Virginia and recorded sixteen sides for Paramount in 1928. The name “The Hokum Boys” is a bit confusing as several groups of musicians worked under this name. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom recorded as Tampa Red’s Hokum Jug Band and The Hokum boys at sessions done in 1928. In 1929 a group calling themselves the Hokum Boys began recording for Paramount. Throughout the six sessions that year the group consisted of a varying mix of personal. As Chris Smith notes: “By 1930 ‘The Hokum Boys’ was a well-established identity, cloaking a number of different musicians who produced a similar sounding music, reliant on agile guitar playing and ingenious double entendres. …ARC boldly entered the market with its dimestore labels, and promoted Georgia Tom, Big Bill Broonzy and Frank Brasswell as the ‘Famous Hokum Boys.’ According to Dorsey he and Big Bill never worked together outside the studio.” Brasswell was later replaced by Bill Williams. Also joining the group Hannah May who also recorded as Jane Lucas and Kansas City Kitty. The group recorded close to fifty sides by the end of 1930. A last session, in January 1931, consisted of Jane Lucas, Big Bill and Georgia Tom recording under the name Harum Scarums.
Like most Americans, I don’t speak a second language – I blame my schooling in the Bronx but that may be a cop out. Regardless, we spin two numbers sung in French by Cleoma Falcon and Lizzie Miles. Guitarist/Singer Cléoma Falcon who, along with her husband Joe Falcon, recorded one of the first known examples of Cajun music. In the mid-1920s, she was joined in performing by accordion player Joe Falcon and would later marry in 1931. In 1928, politician and music enthusiast George Burrs hoped to capitalize on the group’s popularity on the dance-hall circuit, and negotiated a deal with Columbia Records to record the trio which included vocalist Leon Meche. In August 1929, they were invited to Columbia Records’ headquarters in New York City to record six sides. Their next recording session was on August 8, 1934, for Decca Records.
Lizzie Miles was born in New Orleans in 1895. She worked with Joe Oliver, Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson, and A.J. Piron from 1909-1911. She then toured the South, performing in theaters, circuses, and with minstrel shows. She moved to New York and made her first recordings in 1922. Miles toured Europe in 1924 and 1925 and then returned to New York and worked in clubs from 1926 to 1931. She recorde around sixty sides between 1922 and 1930. Miles suffered a serious illness and retired from the music industry in the 1930s. Despite her illness, Miles appeared in two films in the early 1930s. She began working regularly again in 1935, performing with Paul Barbarin at the Strollers Club in New York.She sang with Fats Waller in 1938, made some recordings in 1939 and then worked in Chicago until she left music in 1942. In 1950, Miles lived in California where she sang with George Lewis in 1953 and 1954, performed and in Las Vegas from 1955 to 1957 and sang with Joe Darensbourg in Chicago in 1958 and 1959. She returned to New Orleans, where she appeared with Freddie Kohlman and Paul Barbarin. She recorded with several Dixieland and traditional jazz bands, appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, and made regular radio broadcasts before retiring in 1959.
As usual we spin some related songs, this time dealing with the number ninety nine. In blues songs ninety nine is not a great number as it usually connotes a jail term as is the case in Julius Daniels’ “Ninety-Nine Year Blues ” recorded in 1927. Blind Joe Reynolds cut “Ninety Nine Blues” in 1930 but with a a different meaning: “I got ninety-nine women, cravin’ nineteen more/And if I get them hundred, boys, I’m gonna let nineteen go.” The number is also associated with a classic gospel number. The first release of “Ninety-Nine and a Half Won’t Do” I found was by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Her Mother (Katie Bell Nubin) with the Sam Price Trio recorded in 1949. Tharpe recorded it again in 1956. Dorothy Love Coates & The Original Gospel Harmonettes recorded a version in 1956. It was since covered by many gospel artists. Dan Pickett’s “99 1/2 Won’t Do” cut in 1949 is related but seems to be an amalgam of different songs.
We hear from one of my favorites, Lonnie Johnson on the amazing instrumental, “Away Down in the Alley Blues” and back Texas Alexander on “Yellow Girl Blues.” Alexander was popular and prolific, cutting sixty-four issued sides between 1927 and 1934, first for Okeh and then for Vocalion. The record companies must have had some faith in Alexander as his recorded were advertised nine times in the Chicago Defender between 1928 and 1930. He had he good fortune to work with superb accompanists such as guitarists Little Hat Jones, Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, Carl Davis, Willie Reed to the string band blues of the Mississippi Sheiks and the jazz bands of King Oliver.
We hear a set of songs about famous river boats. Charlie Patton’s 2-part number, “Jim Lee Blues”, celebrates a Mississippi river boat that plied between Vicksburg and Memphis. Kate Adams was the name given to a series of four side-wheel steamers made famous by their operation on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The steamer’s name was mentioned by Long “Cleve” Reed & Little Harvey Hull (The Down Home Boys) in their song, “Don’t You Leave Me Here”: “Kate Adams got ways, just like a man/Well, she steals a woman, sweet lovin’ babe, everywhere she lands.” Casey Bill Weldon, Jazz Gillum, Mooch Richardson, Robert Wilkins all had songs that referenced the Kate Adams.
I’ll wrap up with some mysteries from J.D. Miller’s studio in Crowley, Louisiana. We heard quite a bit of great music on last week’s show from Miller’s studio. Today we spin two tracks from Ramblin’ Hi Harris who was given that name at a later date because Miller couldn’t remember the singer’s real name. We also spin “I Hope You Come Back Home” from Miller’s studio which may be be Buddy Guy’s first recording made in 1957. Guy cut two other sides the same year in Baton Rouge.
Big Road Blues Show 4/28/24: I’m Gonna Kill That Hen – Forgotten Blues Heroes 26
ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
---|---|---|
Left Hand Charlie | Honey Bee | Bayou Rhythm & Blues Shuffle |
Left Hand Charlie | Miss My Lagnion | Louisiana Swamp Blues 1954-1961 |
Left Hand Charlie | Whole Lotta Drinkin' on the Block | Louisiana Swamp Blues 1954-1961 |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Irene | The Excello Story Vol. 2 1955-1957 |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Life Problem | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 36 |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Congo Mambo | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 36 |
Wonder Boy Travis | That's Alright | Fort Worth Shuffle |
Wonder Boy Travis | Imitation of Love | Bluesin' By the Bayou: Rough 'N' Tough |
Wonder Boy Travis | She Was Gone | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Nights Of Sin, Dirty Deals & Love Sick Souls |
Jimmy Dotson w/ Sylvester Buckley | I Wanna Know | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 3 |
Jimmy Dotson w/ Sylvester Buckley | Looking for My Baby | Bluesin' By the Bayou: Rough 'N' Tough |
King Charles | Won't Be Me | Louisiana Swamp Blues 1954-1962/63 |
King Charles w/ Left Hand Charlie | But You Thrill Me | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Livin', Lovin' & Lyin' |
King Charles w/ Left Hand Charlie | Bop Cat Stomp | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Bop Cat Stomp |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | This Could Go On Forever | House Rockin' & Hip Shakin', Volume 3: Killer Swamp Blues Guitar |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Cool, Calm and Collected | Louisiana Swamp Blues 1954-1962/63 |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Have Mercy On Me | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 36 |
Wonder Boy Travis | She Went Thataway | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Rompin' & Stompin' |
Wonder Boy Travis | You Know Yeah | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By the Bayou: Mad Dogs, Sweet Daddies & Pretty Babies |
Wonder Boy Travis | She's Got Eyes Like A Cat | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Rompin' & Stompin' |
Silas Hogan w/ Sylvester Buckley | Trouble At Home Blues | Bluesin' By The Bayou: I'm Not Jiving |
Silas Hogan w/ Sylvester Buckley | You're Too Late Baby | Authentic Excello R&B |
Left Hand Charlie | I'm Gonna Kill That Hen | Genuine Excello R&B |
Left Hand Charlie | Watch That Crow | Rhythm 'n' Bluesin' By The Bayou |
Left Hand Charlie | Don't Bring No Friend | Bluesin' By The Bayou: I'm Not Jiving |
Lazy Lester w/ Guitar Gable | They Call Me Lazy | I Hear You Knockin'!: The Excello Singles |
Lazy Lester w/ Guitar Gable | Lester's Stomp | I Hear You Knockin'!: The Excello Singles |
Sylvester Buckley | She Treats Me So Evil | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 2 |
Sylvester Buckley | I Can Be On My Way | Bluesin' By The Bayou |
Sylvester Buckley | Mumblin' Blues | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 2 |
Sylvester Buckley | I'm Getting Tired | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 49 |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Long Way from Home | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 36 |
Guitar Gable With King Karl | Walkin With The Kings | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 36 |
Lazy Lester w/ Sylvester Buckley | You Better Listen | I Hear You Knockin'!: The Excello Singles |
Lazy Lester w/ Sylvester Buckley | Pondarosa Stomp | I Hear You Knockin'!: The Excello Singles |
Mr. Calhoun (Vince Monroe) w/ Guitar Gable | Hello Friends, Hello Pal | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 3 |
Mr. Calhoun (Vince Monroe) w/ Guitar Gable | I'm Ragged And Dirty | The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol. 3 |
Mr. Calhoun (Vince Monroe) w/ Guitar Gable | Change Your Ways | Bluesin' By the Bayou: Rough 'N' Tough |
Wonder Boy Travis | Do The Everything | 45 |
Wonder Boy Travis | Travis Stomp | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou: Rompin' & Stompin' |
Show Notes:
Today’s show is part of a semi-regular feature I call Forgotten Blues Heroes that spotlights great, but little remembered and little recorded blues artists that don’t really fit into my weekly themed shows. For today’s program we head to Louisiana for a batch of fine, little remembered artists who were recorded in Louisiana at Jay Miller’s small studio in Crowley, Eddie Schuler’ studio in Lake Charles as well as other small studios. Miller met with Ernie Young and worked out a deal that would lease the material he was recording to Excello Records for release and distribution. Soon Miller’s studio became ground zero for the sound known as “swamp-blues” issuing records by Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Silas Hogan, Lonesome Sundown and many others. Miller recorded way more material than he could issue hence many recordings were never released which includes many of the tracks featured today. In the 70’s the Flyright label, with the assistance of Miller, began a series called the The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions to issue these unissued sides. The series ran to over fifty volumes.
The inspiration for this show comes from a recent article by Gene Tomko on the mysterious Left Hand Charlie who saw just a couple of singles released during his lifetime on Goldband and Excello. Guitar Gable was the second artist Miller leased to Excello who’s half dozen sides came out over two years plus many others that were not issued. King Karl was the vocalist/arranger/composer for the band. Gable also backed Lazy Lester and Vice Monroe sides heard today. Travis Phillips AKA Wonder Boy Travis came to Miller’s studio in 1959 with Clifton Chenier’s band and cut several sides that went unissued. Sylvester Buckley backed Lazy Lester, Silas Hogan and Jimmy Dotson on harmonica and cut some excellent sides under his own name, all of which went unissued. Willie Monroe Vincent recorded as Vincent Monroe, Mr. Calhoun and Polka Dot Slim. He was recorded by Miller in 1959 for Zynn and Excello and on Instant in the 60s.
Left Hand Charlie was born Charles Morrison September 30, 1919, in Geismar, Louisiana. Although Morris’ early days as a musician are unknown, by the time he arrived on Eddie Shuler’s doorstep at Goldband Records around 1954 he was a highly seasoned musician and bandleader in his mid-30s. Backed by a crack band that included blind saxophonist John Hart (who would later work with Clifton Chenier, Little Bob, Rockin’ Dopsie, and others), Morris recorded five titles with some alternate takes that included the slow blues “Miss My Lagnion” (Shuler’s misinterpretation of l’argent, which is Creole French for money), “Honey Bee”, a tough, electrified reworking of Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie’s classic “Bumble Bee”, and “Whole Lotta Drinkin’ on the Block.”
Despite discographies citing 1954, Morris’ trip back to Goldband instead took place in March of 1956 as a band member with King Charles, a bandleader and trumpet player. Shuler released only one single by King Charles on Folk-Star, “Bop Cat Stomp” backed with “But You Thrill Me.” By the end of 1956 and into early 1957 Morris was leading his own band seven nights a week at Whit’s Lounge, a popular white nightclub in the Four Corners section of Lafayette. Morris was back in the studio in April 1957 for what appears to be his final recording session as a leader, this time at J.D. Miller’s studio in Crowley. Backed by Miller’s studio band at the time, which included guitarist Guitar Gable and his brother John Perrodin on bass, Tal Miller on piano, and Jockey Etienne on drums, Morris laid down several originals including “I’m Gonna Kill That Hen” and “Don’t Bring No Friend”, which Miller leased to Excello and was subsequently issued on its Nasco subsidiary. Through the late 1950s Morris continued performing with his own group and as a member of King Charles’ band. He was also lending his guitar talents out to regional bands. The guitarist was also known locally for playing jazz. Throughout the 1960s Left Hand Charlie performed as a member of bandleader and saxophonist Buddy Stewart’s famed Topnotchers of Baton Rouge. Morris continued to perform until the late 1970s when health issues forced him to retire from music. He died on October 8, 1983, at age 64.
Gabriel Perrodin AKA Guitar Gable was born in Bellevue, St. Landry Parish , Louisiana in 1937. Gable was influenced by the music of Guitar Slim, and was self-taught in playing the guitar by his mid-teens. He formed a group called the Swing Masters, and was later introduced to King Karl and formed the band the Musical Kings a with Gable’s brother, Fats Perrodin on bass and Clarence “Jockey” Etienne on the drums. Introduced to Jay Miller, the band eventually became the heart of Miller’s house band. They backed musicians such as Lazy Lester, Classie Ballou, Bobby Charles and Slim Harpo. Guitar Gable and the Musical Kings recorded their own debut single for Excello in 1956. His first track was the instrumental “Congo Mombo”, and he A-side of the single was “Life Problem”, which featured King Karl’s vocals. The follow-up release included the swamp pop classic, “Irene.”
After his debut, subsequent releases followed a similar pattern with Gable’s Caribbean-laced instrumentals such as “Congo Mom bo,” “Guitar Rhumbo” and “Gumbo Mombo,” pitched against rock and roll tracks including “Cool, Calm, Collected” and “Walking in the Park.” It was the blues influenced ballads including “Irene,” “Life Problem” and “This Should Go On Forever” that caused most interest. The latter track was recorded by Gable and his band in 1958, but did not find favor with Miller. A cover version was recorded by Rod Bernard, and it reached the Top 20 of the US Billboard R&B chart. Gable’s original was finally released in February 1959, but failed to match the success of Bernard’s cover. Gable and Karl left Miller and Excello and were reduced to issuing work on the much smaller labels of La Louisianne and Tamm into the early 1960s. Gable served in the armed forces but later continued with his own band, maintaining a following in local clubs until 1968. In the 1970s, Gable performed regularly with Lil’ Bob and the Lollipops, before he initially retired from performing in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Guitar Gable was tempted back to the performing stage by C.C. Adcock. Gable died in hospital at Opelousas, Louisiana, on January 28, 2017, at the age of 79.
Travis Phillips, aka Wonder Boy Travis, came from Texas as part of Clifton Chenier’s band and during a long recording session in J.D. Miller’s Crowley studio took over the singing duties while Chenier gave his voice a rest. Impressed by his singing and guitar playing, Miller kept the tape running. Although none of the tracks made it to vinyl, they have been issued posthumously. It seems Travis saw his name on just one 45, “That’s Alright/ Do The Everything”, released a few years later on the Jox label out of San Antonio as by Travis Phillips & His Wonder Boys.
Sylvester Buckley backed Lazy Lester, Silas Hogan and Jimmy Dotson on harmonica and cut four excellent sides under his own name circa 1963, all of which went unissued.
Jimmy Dotson cut two records, one for Zynn and the other for Rocko (Miller’s own labels) in Crowley, Louisiana in 1959 and 1960 backed by Silas Hogan, Sylvester Buckley and Isaiah Chatman. One other record was issued on HOB in 1962. Five other Dotson sides were not issued at the time. When Hogan made his debut in 1962 the other musicians were present but not Dotson. Dotson said: “The Baton Rouge blues scene in the ’50s was nice, we had a following, we played from club to club. I played drums for Lightnin’ Slim for a while and with Slim it fluctuated, I was a kind of utility musician. If they needed a drummer I’d go play drums, if they needed a bass player, a guitar … I couldn’t play any too good on any of them but I could fit in. But they had a tremendous following, Lightnin’ Slim and Slim Harpo. They would go from club to club, sometimes we would play Sunday afternoon somewhere back over North Baton Rouge in the park area from two o’clock to six and the place would be full of people. OK then we would go across the river (to Port Allen) and they’d just line up in cars and follow us across the river! It was fantastic, it really was.”
Willie Monroe Vincent recorded as Vince Monroe, Mr. Calhoun and Polka Dot Slim. His first recordings were made in 1956 and 1959 in Crowley, Louisiana, for Jay Miller, who released them under two different pseudonyms on Excello and Zynn. Several other sides from these sessions went unreleased. In 1964, he recorded “A Thing You Gotta Face” and “Ain’t Broke Ain’t Hungry”, produced by Sax Kari and released as a single on the Instant label as Polka Dot Slim. His last sides were cut for Apollo in 1966. He was a regular performer for many years in clubs and bars in New Orleans. Researcher John Broven described him in the 1970s as one of “the last of the rural country bluesmen still playing in New Orleans.”
Big Road Blues Show 4/21/24: Footrace To A Resting Place – Johnny “Big Moose” Walker & Pals
ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
---|---|---|
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Sitting Here Wondering | Ike Turner: Rocks The Blues |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Wrong Doing Woman | Blues Complete |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Talkin' About Me | Ike Turner: Rocks The Blues |
Lonnie Holmes | '51 Boogie | Shout, Brother, Shout! |
Charlie Booker | Walked All Night | The Sun Blues Box 1950-1958 |
Sonny Boy Williamson II | She's Crazy | From The Bottom |
Earl Hooker | Yeah Yeah | Chicago Blues from C.J. Records Vol. 2 |
Earl Hooker | Swear To Tell the Truth | Earl Hooker And His Blues Guitar |
Earl Hooker | That Man | Earl Hooker And His Blues Guitar |
Earl Hooker | Rocking Wild | Earl Hooker And His Blues Guitar |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Footrace to a Resting Place | To Know A Man |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | The Bright Sound | Blue Guitar |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Look Over Yonder Wall | Don't Have To Worry |
Earl Hooker | Tanya | Simply The Best |
Earl Hooker | You Got To Lose | Don't Have To Worry |
Earl Hooker | Crying Blues | Blue Guitar |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Is You Ever See a One-Eyed Woman Crying? | Don't Have To Worry |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | The Sky Is Crying | Rambling Woman |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Leave My Woman Alone | Rambling Woman |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Would You Baby | Rambling Woman |
Elmore James | Mean Mistreatin' Mama | The Complete Fire And Enjoy Recordings |
Elmore James | Sunnyland Train | The Complete Fire And Enjoy Recordings |
Elmore James | Talk To Me Baby | The Complete Fire And Enjoy Recordings |
Sammy Myers | Poor Little Angel Child | Blues Harmonica Wizards |
A.C. Reed | That Ain’t Right | Blue Guitar |
Muddy Waters | Little Brown Bird | The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62 |
Muddy Waters | Going Home | The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62 |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Things I Used to Do | Complete Studio Recordings 1955-1984 |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Cry, Cry Darling | Living Chicago Blues Vol. 2 |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Blackjack | Complete Studio Recordings 1955-1984 |
Junior Wells | I'm a Stranger | Calling All Blues |
Junior Wells | It Hurts Me Too | Calling All Blues |
Junior Wells | Messin' With The Kid | Calling All Blues |
Elmore James | Up Jumped Elmore | The Complete Fire And Enjoy Recordings |
Elmore James | I Gotta Go Now | The Complete Fire And Enjoy Recordings |
John Lee Hooker | Baby, I Love You | If You Miss 'Im...I Got 'Im |
Andrew ''Big Voice'' Odom | I Got The Feeling | Farther Up The Road |
Otis Rush | Cut You A Loose | Cold Day In Hell |
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker | Moose on the Loose Boogie | Complete Studio Recordings 1955-1984 |
Show Notes:
Today’s show is devoted to pianist/organ/singer Johnny “Big Moose” Walker and is inspired by a recent two-part article in the magazine Blues & Rhythm, The Gospel Truth (#382 & 383) by Jim O’Neal. The program spans 1955, when he made his first recordings, through 1979. Walker recorded variously as Big Moose, Bushy Head, Moose John, J. W. Walker, over the course of several decades for a variety of labels both as a leader and session player. During the ‘50s he became known as a pianist and bass player as he roamed through the Delta and beyond. He played with many local Greenville bluesmen, joined Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm in Clarksdale and sat in with the King Biscuit Boys in Helena, Arkansas. He worked the Mississippi juke joints with Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson and traveled extensively with Earl Hooker. Starting in 1955 he recorded several more or less obscure singles for Ultra, Age and The Blues under variants of his name. In 1960s Chicago he spent time with fellow pianists Sunnyland Slim and Johnny Jones and toured with Otis Rush, Muddy Waters – playing bass, a skill he had picked up while with Ike Turner and Howlin’ Wolf. In the early 60s he appeared on several records with Elmore James for the Fire/Enjoy label. He then rejoined Earl Hooker, playing on his 1969 Bluesway album Don’t Have To Worry. Bluesway producer Ed Michel also featured him on his own album, Rambling Woman, and hired him for the singer Andrew “Big Voice” Odom’s Farther On Down The Road, and a joint effort by Earl and John Lee Hooker, If You Miss ‘Im… I Got ‘Im. In the 70s and 80s Walker worked with the singer-guitarists Jimmy Dawkins, Mighty Joe Young and Son Seals. He was featured in Alligator Records’ showcase series of albums titled Living Chicago Blues and made further albums of his own in the US and Europe.
John Mayon Walker was born June 27, 1927, in Stoneville, Mississippi, but the way Moose told it, “I was really born in a graveyard, playing with the tombstones.” Indian blood and long flowing hair ran in the family. He picked up the nickname Moose as a youngster hanging around the pool hall in Greenville, Mississippi. “I wore my hair so long maybe I looked like a moose, I don’t know. I asked the guys, ‘Why you call me Moose?’ They said, ‘Well, that’s the only thing that fit for you.'” Moose made his first music on an old church organ and also picked up guitar. In his 50s he played piano in bands led by the drummer Cleanhead Love and the Memphis-based bass-player Tuff Green, then toured with Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson. He switched to guitar for gigs with Boyd Gilmore in Arkansas and with pianist Eddie Snow in Cairo, Illinois. He backed Sonny Boy on a 1953 Trumpet session, with several tracks unreleased at the time as well as backing the obscure Lonnie Holmes for the label. Trumpet Records was the first record company in Mississippi to achieve national stature through its distribution, sales, radio airplay and promotion. Willard and Lillian McMurry launched the label from their retail store, the Record Mart, at 309 North Farish Street, in 1950, and later converted the back room into a recording studio. The first releases by Mississippi blues legends Sonny Boy Williamson II, Elmore James, and Willie Love appeared on Trumpet in 1951. “Dust My Broom” by Elmo (Elmore) James was the only Trumpet record to reach the national rhythm & blues charts of Billboard magazine (in April 1952), but other records by Williamson and Willie Love appeared on regional charts. “We all was young and crazy,” Moose would say of those days. “All we wanted was some whiskey and some place to play. We didn’t care anything about any money.” He was in the army in Korea in 1953-55.
In 1955 Ike Turner taped Moose in a Greenville club; two of those sides, credited to J.W Walker, appeared years later on the Kent Label. He appeared with Earl Hooker on Johnny Otis talent show in Los Angeles and cut his first 45, as Moose John, for Otis’ Ultra label, also in 1955. In 1960 Big Moose Walker with Jump Jackson’s Combo cut two takes of “Footrace To A Resting Place” for End Records which is essentially the same song. He recorded the song several times over the years including a fine version simply titled “Footrace” on the album Rambling Woman for Bluesway in 1969. I’ve always been intrigued by this strange song which was first recorded by James Stanchell in 1959 as “Anything from a Foot Race to a Resting Place.” The song was also recorded as “Foot Race ” by Frank (Shake Aplenty) Frazier in 1960. In the notes to Treasury Of Field Recordings Vol. 2, Mack McCormick wrote: “The song is Jealous James’ own composition, well known around Houston and Kansas City from his own singing, but not previously recorded or published. The recording came about one afternoon when Lightnin’ Hopkins was scheduled to make some tapes but, as usual, found himself without an acoustical guitar. He went out and found Jealous James inviting him and his guitar to come along. After finishing ‘Corrine, Corrina’ – in Volume I of this set – Lightnin’ turned things over to Jealous James who sang several of his own songs including this. Lightnin’ was so delighted with it that he promptly recorded a boogie which he dubbed ‘The Footrace is On’ which takes its inspiration from Jealous James his song.”
Moose recorded even more after Sunnyland Slim brought him to Chicago. He backed Earl Hooker, Ricky Allen, Lorenzo Smith and others on local sessions. Willie Dixon took Moose to New York in 1960 to do some studio work for Prestige/Bluesville (he played guitar on Curtis Jones’ album Trouble Blues). Moose rejoined Elmore James at Silvio’s on the West Side and went to New Orleans with Elmore to record for Bobby Robinson’s Fire/Enjoy label. At another session for Robinson, Moose sang a few himself. Those tracks ended up being credited only to “the mysterious Bushy Head” on an Elmore James LP release titled To Know A Man (Blue Horizon, 1969). Earl Hooker was Moose’s closest partner, on Chicago gigs and chaotic road trips.
Earl Hooker’s initial recordings were in 1952 for King with Johnny O’Neal, cutting sides the following year for Rockin’ and Sun. By the early 50’s he was back in Chicago cutting singles for Argo, C.J., and Bea & Baby before joining with producer Mel London (owner of Chief and Age) in 1959. Walker appeared on some of the C.J. & Chief records and also backed Junior Wells on Chief. When Hooker contributed slide work to Muddy Waters’ 1962 Chess waxing “You Shook Me”, Moose also appeared on the record along with backing Hooker on his own 45 for Chess. In 1957, Mel London recorded Junior Wells for Profile, Chief, and U.S.A., among other labels. His “Little by Little” on Profile hit the national R&B charts in 1960. During this period he also cut “Come On in This House” and “Messin’ with the Kid,” which became his signature tune and features Walker on organ.
Moose rejoined Elmore James at Silvio’s on Chicago’s West Side and went to New Orleans with Elmore to record for Bobby Robinson’s Fire/Enjoy label. At another session for Robinson, Moose sang a few himself. Sam Myers cut his first sides for Ace in 1957 and played both drums and harp behind slide guitar great Elmore James at a 1961 session for Bobby Robinson’s Fire label in New Orleans. In 1960 he cut a single for Robinson’s Fury label and another in 1961 backed by Elmore James and Big Moose Walker.
Between recordings under his own name and session work, Earl Hooker was prolifically recorded by BluesWay in 1969 less than a year before he passed away. Hooker brought along Walker and singer Andrew Odom for the sessions. After the initial sessions, Producer Ed Michel was so impressed with results that additional sessions were set the following week for Big Moose Walker and Andrew Odom. Walker and Hooker back Odom on Farther On Down The Road and John Lee Hooker’s If You Miss ‘Im…I Got ‘Im…. The Odom record wasn’t treated well by the critics as Mike Leadbitter clearly expressed in a 1973 edition of Blues Unlimited: “What a bitter disappointment! Muffled sound, endless boring songs and total lack of variation. What have BluesWay done to my heroes?” The album was finally released in 1973 and virtually sank without a trace. On the other hand Leadbitter gave a rave write up to Walker’s full-length debut, Rambling Woman (recorded five days after the Odom session) in the January 1971 issue of Blues Unlimited: “He plays piano with the sort of boogie-woogie drive you just don’t hear anymore, and has a nice husky voice-this is an exceptionally good blues album.”
In the late ‘70s, Moose joined Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang, just in time for their session for Alligator’s Living Chicago Blues series. Alligator president Bruce Iglauer was so impressed by Moose’s two-fisted piano that he offered him a session of his own for the series. Moose backed artists on Delmark in the 70s including Mighty Joe Young (Blues With A Touch Of Soul) and Otis Rush (Cold Day In Hell). Moose went on to record a handful of albums for various small labels, mostly in Europe, and to tour whenever anyone called him. “I never wanted to be a bandleader or have a big name,” he claimed. “I just like to be in a band and make it sound good if I can.” Walker suffered a serious stroke in the late 1980s and lived for a number of years in a Chicago nursing home before his death in 1999.
-Brisbin, John Anthony. “Big Moose Walker: Playin’ All Night Long.” Living Blues no. 105 (Sep/Oct 1992): 34–41.
-Danchin, Sebastian. “John ‘Big Moose’ Walker.” Juke Blues no. 46 (2000): 64.