I?ve been listening to the Mississippi Sheiks Volume 3 on Document a lot lately. This is a tremendous disc which took me forever to track down (some kind UK shop put it on eBay eventually and I snapped it up). If you only have the Yazoo Stop and Listen record, a small bit of the material will be familiar (and it is some of their strongest material IMO): He Calls That Religion, I?ve Got Blood In My Eyes for You, Shooting High Dice. A few of the other tunes have appeared on other compilations (e.g., the Catfish Records disc Show Me What You Got).
The Sheiks would have already been popular by the time the sessions covered on this CD occurred, so there is some recycling going on of sorts. They redo ?Stop and Listen Blues?, and ?Stop and Listen Blues No. 2?, as the ?New Stop and Listen Blues?, but they are really smokin? on this and it is no lazy rehashing. They also do a gritty ?New Sittin? On Top of the World?, and a fabulous, up-tempo second version of ?Don?t Wake It Up? (marred only by a 78 in less than great condition). It seems to me that Walter Vinson is really loose and relaxed, playing hard on a lot of these and the interplay between him and Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle is wonderful. Sound on the disc is not great in places, though there are many Documents out there with poorer quality records, and the power of the material really overcomes the sound issues.
My point (finally getting to it) has to do with something in the liner notes, which I don?t believe I?ve seen discussed before. For the Sheiks? sessions in San Antonio on 26-27 March, 1934, which is covered partly by the last five tracks on this disc, Chris Smith writes that according to Blues and Gospel Records, Bo Carter is said to be ?the vocalist and guitarist for the Sheiks on these dates, with Sam Chatmon on second guitar, and Lonnie on violin as usual.?
He goes on to write ?The discographers add that ?Walter Vincson (sic) might be present on one of the sessions.? As may be heard on DOCD-5086, Vinson was definitely present at both sessions, but it appears that he was absent for the titles on this CD: the guitar picking (and there seems to be only one on the 26th March session) is characteristic of Bo Carter, although he transposes down, perhaps in an attempt to sound like Vinson. After much listening I conclude that Bo is the singer as well, again pitching lower than usual in an attempt to sound like Vinson.?
?Why Bo Carter had to stand in, we shall probably never know; perhaps Walter had over-indulged the night before, and the teetotal Bo was used in a crisis.?
The last five tracks on Document Vol 3 from the 26 March session are as follows: ?Hitting the Numbers?, ?It?s Done Got Wet?, ?Pencil Won?t Write No More?, ?I Am the Devil? and ?Baby, Please Make a Change.? These are really strong songs with some great playing and singing, but I just don?t believe this is Bo Carter. The guitar playing occasionally dips into Bo territory, like those characteristic D figures up the neck, heard here in ?I Am the Devil.? But surely this is something Walter might just have tossed in there, since it occurs a number of times in Sheiks? accompaniments. The guitar playing overall sounds way more characteristic of Vinson than Carter (or at least like ?generic? Sheiks), including the many ? probably flatpicked ? bass patterns. The singing sounds very much like Vinson as well to my ear, a little higher and reedier than usual. To say it is Bo is to say that Bo is actually doing a full-on Walter Vinson impersonation. I just don?t buy that. Bo himself was popular at the time and I can?t see him disguising his personality and voice in sessions where he was also recording solo and duet material himself (see Bo Carter Volume 2) and sounding very much like Bo. Even ?Pencil Won?t Write No More? is not Bo?s version and is a different song.
There is, however, a slightly different quality to Vinson?s voice here, and I think what makes him sound a bit different is that everything is pitched higher. Whether the Sheiks were just tuned higher or whether the recording speed is off a bit, there is a different sound. I suspect the former: the guitar sounds more taut and punchy, as tuning up a half-step would do.
If you look at Frankie?s handy-dandy Mississippi Sheiks? Keys table here http://www.donegone.net/?page_id=28, you will notice that every song recorded on 26-27 March ? which means the last 5 tracks on Volume 3 and the first 9 tracks on Volume 4 -- is pitched a half-step higher than concert pitch. If you look at the previous sessions on Volumes 1, 2 and 3, and positions and pitches for the Sheiks' material, you?ll see they are frequently pitched at concert or lower by a half or even whole step.
I think playing in a higher register (or recordings that were not made at the correct speed) accounts for the slight difference in Vinson?s overall sound, but it?s still Vinson. I?m not trying to slag the authors and really do respect their expertise, but I think in this case they?re just wrong. Am I nuts?
The Sheiks would have already been popular by the time the sessions covered on this CD occurred, so there is some recycling going on of sorts. They redo ?Stop and Listen Blues?, and ?Stop and Listen Blues No. 2?, as the ?New Stop and Listen Blues?, but they are really smokin? on this and it is no lazy rehashing. They also do a gritty ?New Sittin? On Top of the World?, and a fabulous, up-tempo second version of ?Don?t Wake It Up? (marred only by a 78 in less than great condition). It seems to me that Walter Vinson is really loose and relaxed, playing hard on a lot of these and the interplay between him and Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle is wonderful. Sound on the disc is not great in places, though there are many Documents out there with poorer quality records, and the power of the material really overcomes the sound issues.
My point (finally getting to it) has to do with something in the liner notes, which I don?t believe I?ve seen discussed before. For the Sheiks? sessions in San Antonio on 26-27 March, 1934, which is covered partly by the last five tracks on this disc, Chris Smith writes that according to Blues and Gospel Records, Bo Carter is said to be ?the vocalist and guitarist for the Sheiks on these dates, with Sam Chatmon on second guitar, and Lonnie on violin as usual.?
He goes on to write ?The discographers add that ?Walter Vincson (sic) might be present on one of the sessions.? As may be heard on DOCD-5086, Vinson was definitely present at both sessions, but it appears that he was absent for the titles on this CD: the guitar picking (and there seems to be only one on the 26th March session) is characteristic of Bo Carter, although he transposes down, perhaps in an attempt to sound like Vinson. After much listening I conclude that Bo is the singer as well, again pitching lower than usual in an attempt to sound like Vinson.?
?Why Bo Carter had to stand in, we shall probably never know; perhaps Walter had over-indulged the night before, and the teetotal Bo was used in a crisis.?
The last five tracks on Document Vol 3 from the 26 March session are as follows: ?Hitting the Numbers?, ?It?s Done Got Wet?, ?Pencil Won?t Write No More?, ?I Am the Devil? and ?Baby, Please Make a Change.? These are really strong songs with some great playing and singing, but I just don?t believe this is Bo Carter. The guitar playing occasionally dips into Bo territory, like those characteristic D figures up the neck, heard here in ?I Am the Devil.? But surely this is something Walter might just have tossed in there, since it occurs a number of times in Sheiks? accompaniments. The guitar playing overall sounds way more characteristic of Vinson than Carter (or at least like ?generic? Sheiks), including the many ? probably flatpicked ? bass patterns. The singing sounds very much like Vinson as well to my ear, a little higher and reedier than usual. To say it is Bo is to say that Bo is actually doing a full-on Walter Vinson impersonation. I just don?t buy that. Bo himself was popular at the time and I can?t see him disguising his personality and voice in sessions where he was also recording solo and duet material himself (see Bo Carter Volume 2) and sounding very much like Bo. Even ?Pencil Won?t Write No More? is not Bo?s version and is a different song.
There is, however, a slightly different quality to Vinson?s voice here, and I think what makes him sound a bit different is that everything is pitched higher. Whether the Sheiks were just tuned higher or whether the recording speed is off a bit, there is a different sound. I suspect the former: the guitar sounds more taut and punchy, as tuning up a half-step would do.
If you look at Frankie?s handy-dandy Mississippi Sheiks? Keys table here http://www.donegone.net/?page_id=28, you will notice that every song recorded on 26-27 March ? which means the last 5 tracks on Volume 3 and the first 9 tracks on Volume 4 -- is pitched a half-step higher than concert pitch. If you look at the previous sessions on Volumes 1, 2 and 3, and positions and pitches for the Sheiks' material, you?ll see they are frequently pitched at concert or lower by a half or even whole step.
I think playing in a higher register (or recordings that were not made at the correct speed) accounts for the slight difference in Vinson?s overall sound, but it?s still Vinson. I?m not trying to slag the authors and really do respect their expertise, but I think in this case they?re just wrong. Am I nuts?