Blues in the 1920's

[Sasaferrato]

And then we have Ma Rainey’s protégé Bessie Smith. Again recording in 1923.


View attachment 279252

Bessie Smith (Down Hearted Blues, 1923) Jazz Legend - YouTube

Bessie Smith-Gulf Coast Blues - YouTube


I guess Bessie Smith is the best know of the three but she wasn’t the first.

I’m probably already missing somebody already, so do chip in.

Janis Joplin paid for a headstone for Bessie Smith's unmarked grave.

And Dory Previn wrote a song about it.

 

[Knotted]

1928 and John Smith Hurt aka Mississippi John Hurt cuts a record. It’s fast and dextrous but relaxed picking with easy going story telling albeit with some dark lyrics. This is at the more straight folk end of things – he’s not singing those hard bluesy notes that Ma Rainey did – but it does have that strong alternating bass that’s characteristic of the delta blues.



It’s hard finding a photo of him as young man so this will have to do.

Frankie - MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT (1928) Folk Blues Guitar Legend - YouTube

'Nobody's Dirty Business' MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT (1928) Blues Legend - YouTube

He didn’t make much impact in his time but was lauded in the 1960’s blues revival. Here’s a great clip of him on TV.

Mississippi John Hurt - You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley (Live) - YouTube

 

[Knotted]

I think John Hurt was an extraordinary talent in terms of his playing and his lyrics/songwriting. It's sad he spent most of his life as a sharecropper and only achieved fame at the very end of his life.

 

[Numbers]

nice one knotted, look forward to diving in on this (though cant for a while)

First time I've seen this thread, can't wait to tuck in. Blues is an area I've only skirted with.

Nice one Knotted / everyone.

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[belboid]

My dad was a big Ida Cox fan. There isn’t much of her stuff about now, but what there is is cracking.

 

[Knotted]

Another important west coast bluesman was Leroy Carr. He was a pianist and a singer with a strong delivery.




LEROY CARR - HOW LONG BLUES - YouTube

LEROY CARR - TENNESSEE BLUES - YouTube

I must admit that I haven't heard any of his solo material before. A little later he collaborated with guitarist Scrapper Blackwell and that's the period where I have some familiarity of his work. I feel these slightly earlier recordings capture a real classic blues sound though.

 

[belboid]

I love this stuff.
What is the rudest song recorded in this period that you know?

Another contender

 

[Knotted]

My dad was a big Ida Cox fan. There isn’t much of her stuff about now, but what there is is cracking.

Not familiar with her. That is indeed cracking. I think I'm missing a lot on this sort of side of things and it seems to be proving popular.

 

[Knotted]

One of the first albums I ever bought was a Lightnin' Hopkins compilation and it's one of my most listened to albums. But he's just a little bit later than the period I'm looking at. I guess Blind Lemon Jefferson and Peetie Wheatstraw would have been precursors.

 

[Sasaferrato]

One of the first albums I ever bought was a Lightnin' Hopkins compilation and it's one of my most listened to albums. But he's just a little bit later than the period I'm looking at. I guess Blind Lemon Jefferson and Peetie Wheatstraw would have been precursors.

Aye, I am conscious of that, but, although he didn't record until later, he was playing in the 20's.

Your thread, your rules, but by restricting it to the 20s, you are missing guys like this.

 

[Knotted]

Here’s Leroy Carr with Francis “Scrapper” Blackwell. Carr died young but Blackwell was still around for the 60’s revival




Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell-Prison Bound Blues - YouTube

Christmas in Jail, Ain't That a Pain - YouTube

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[Knotted]

That's a good call. Part of the reason for this thread is to think about what the blues was back then rather than as a precursor to more familiar later blues. Blues was at least in part a style of jazz. Jazz bands would play blues numbers and of course they always have done.

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[Humberto]

Gospel inspired blues from Blind Willie Johnson in the late 20's. I love it. He was a master slide guitarist too which you hear in the second video.

 

[Knotted]

According to discogs the earliest Charlie Patton recording was Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues / Mississippi Boweavil Blues. Known as the father of the delta blues he was a very influential figure, a real entertainer and something of a rogue.





Charlie Patton "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues" - YouTube

Mississippi Boweavil Blues CHARLEY PATTON (1929 Delta Blues Guitar Legend) - YouTube

These are really rough freewheeling songs. It’s difficult to make out what he’s saying and I think there’s a lot of improvisation. It does feel like they've grabbed him from the street and stuck him in the studio and that in some ways is more special. There are no recordings of Charlie Patton that aren't a raw blast of Charlie Patton.

 

[Knotted]

I do have a special fascination for Patton’s Spoonful Blues which has more of a definite structure. And if you analyse it, it’s a particularly harmonically rich structure even though it is built on four short slide guitar phrases. I think from any sort of classical functional harmony, it’s all very much an “erm, you aren’t supposed to do that”. But then of course you aren’t. It also has that alternating thump on the bass strings. The bass perhaps doesn’t come out that well in the recording but it’s a thumping dance tune with a dizzyingly short structure – no verse-chorus-verse-chorus, just four jabbing refrains about addiction. It’s like nothing else.

 

[Knotted]

I'm really finding the Rate Your Music website a particularly useful resource these days for systematically going through (near?) everything in a particular sub genre. It seemed that the more Ma Rainey side of things is popular on here and they've got her down as the originator of Vaudeville Blues in 1902 (no citations unfortunately). But apparently the first recording of this style of blues goes all the way back to 1913 with Bert Williams My Landlady/Nobody.

Bert Williams "My Landlady" Columbia A1289 (1913) = lyrics by Ferd E. Mierisch & James T. Brymn - YouTube

Well I can’t say that’s a particularly exciting song. It's mostly spoken and not sung and kinda slow and sentimental. But hey – nice list to go through.

 

[Knotted]

Now this is a bit more like it. Marion Harris with Paradise Blues. I really need to read a book or two on this to do these introductions any justice. Young white singer getting recorded before the black singers sounds like America at that time. It’s not a full on thing like Crazy Blues but it’s fine song with that style of lilting bluesy melody.

Paradise Blues - YouTube

 

[ska invita]

BARBECUE BOB - Going Up The Country [1928] - YouTube

Before hitting play on that I was wondering if it would be the original to the Canned Heat tune of the same name...its isnt at all
However it turns out (from wiki) that the Canned Heat is a 20s blues cover of this:


As was On The Road again
Which goes (according to wiki):
Original


VErsioned in the 50s


then into:


then Canned Heat (probably with a bunch of versions in between)

 

[Knotted]

Before hitting play on that I was wondering if it would be the original to the Canned Heat tune of the same name...its isnt at all
However it turns out (from wiki) that the Canned Heat is a 20s blues cover of this:


As was On The Road again
Which goes (according to wiki):
Original


VErsioned in the 50s


then into:


then Canned Heat (probably with a bunch of versions in between)

Didn't know about that Henry Thomas song or Henry Thomas for that matter. That's made my day.

I'll come back to this thread at the weekend. Still lots more to explore.

 

[existentialist]

These old recordings are all on Okeh records and Lonnie Johnson was one of their biggest names. I think he was more from a jazz/gospel background.

View attachment 279267

Earliest recording I can find, playing violin not guitar it seems.
'Falling Rain Blues' LONNIE JOHNSON (1925) Violin Blues Legend - YouTube

And a bit later

Life Saver Blues LONNIE JOHNSON (1927) Guitar Hero Legend Of Blues - YouTube

Liked for early use of blues violin . Excellent example of the whole call and response thing (which I use extensively when I'm ever bluesing it up, particularly if I'm improvising).

 

[ska invita]

Didn't know about that Henry Thomas song or Henry Thomas for that matter. That's made my day.

This one is cool
all his tunes seem to have a pipe in them

 

[ska invita]

ive got a copy of this

its got portraits of his music heroes accompanied by a page of text
ive kept it all this years so as to plough through the artists one day

Heres the blues list:

 

[blossie33]

Love the Robert Crumb pictures!

 

[rutabowa]

I do have a special fascination for Patton’s Spoonful Blues which has more of a definite structure. And if you analyse it, it’s a particularly harmonically rich structure even though it is built on four short slide guitar phrases. I think from any sort of classical functional harmony, it’s all very much an “erm, you aren’t supposed to do that”. But then of course you aren’t. It also has that alternating thump on the bass strings. The bass perhaps doesn’t come out that well in the recording but it’s a thumping dance tune with a dizzyingly short structure – no verse-chorus-verse-chorus, just four jabbing refrains about addiction. It’s like nothing else.

It is v difficult to try to play charley patton's stuff even though (maybe because?) it is pretty crude. you may well be familiar with this series of books, they are by far the best resource for getting an idea of what the players were doing on the guitar, stefan grossman actually learnt direct from a lot of them (or at least learnt direct from people who had learnt direct from them, in the case of charley patton): Delta Blues By Stefan Grossman | Used | 9780825602863 | World of Books

he is very careful to transcribe every single note/ghost note, so it often makes simple things look v complicated, but that is also the great thing about it. The volume on Texas Blues cover blind lemon jefferson, and Ragtime Blues covers blind blake and more blind lemon jefferson and a load of others.

 

[killer b]

ive got a copy of this

its got portraits of his music heroes accompanied by a page of text
ive kept it all this years so as to plough through the artists one day

Heres the blues list:

View attachment 282333

funnily enough I was looking through my copy of this the other day, after my brother dropped off a load of books that have been in storage at his house for a few years. it's a great book.

 

[ska invita]

funnily enough I was looking through my copy of this the other day, after my brother dropped off a load of books that have been in storage at his house for a few years. it's a great book.

I want to tour the Country section too... I need a country selection in my life, have high hopes on this early stuff