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Country Blues => Weenie Campbell Main Forum => Topic started by: dj on February 19, 2009, 02:08:20 PM
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Earlier this afternoon the Juke played "Like A Damn Fool (The Bear Blues)" by Guitar Shorty (John Henry Fortescue) from the Trix album Alone In His Field. I was reminded of just what a unique talent Shorty was, and thought he merited a mention.
A bit of background: Shorty was born at "an unknown time" (according to the liner notes) in North Carolina; at the time he recorded for Trix in 1972 and 1973 he was "possibly in his early forties". Shorty was a farm-worker and laborer by trade. He died in 1975. Besides his Trix recordings, Shorty recorded at least two sides for Savoy in 1952, as "Hootin' Owl".
In the original liner notes to Trix LP 3306, William Bentley claims that Shorty always tuned his guitar to EAEGBE, and always played with a slide on his little finger, though he didn't always use it in a given song.
So much for background. On to the music. In a world where the word "unique" is used way too often, hearing Shorty's Trix LP is truly a unique experience. While Shorty does some songs that are straight 12 bar blues, most of his work is far from that. He seems to have started with a more or less set backing on the guitar and a lyric idea, and went on from there with unpredictable results, which included humming, whistling (he was a great whistler), scat singing, falsetto passages, a vocal imitation of a harmonica solo, and spoken asides in which he often does several different voices playing different parts. The songs that really set Shorty apart are the ones where he gets into a guitar groove and performs a playlet, for want of a better word. "Like A Damn Fool (The Bear Blues)" is a one chord "song" that revolves loosely around bears and foolish things Shorty has done, and ends with Shorty meeting the ugliest bear he's ever seen, which he eventually realizes is a mirror. In "Pull Your Dress Down", Shorty plays himself, a young girl in his house, and an FBI agent. (Rapping on guitar - "Who is that?" "FBI." "FBI? You got your clothes on" "Of course I've got my clothes on, why'd you ask?" "Well, we don't want anyone comin' in here naked.") Both songs are delivered with a frantic torrent of words - one wishes the CD came with subtitles. Guitar Shorty is solidly within the country blues tradition, but he's certainly an eccentric branch of that tradition, and worth a close listen.
This is one of those times when I wish the Fancourt/McGrath discography went past 1970. Did Guitar Shorty record anything else in the 1970s that saw the light of day? All of the Trix artists from the southeast leave me wishing more of their work was available. For most of them, like Henry Johnson, Peg Leg Sam, and Pernell Charity, this is because you get the feeling that these artists had more songs in a well-developed repertoire than have seen the light of day. But with Guitar Shorty, I wish there was more just because I get the feeling that he could have been endlessly surprising. If shorty hadn't been born into a life of prejudice and grinding poverty, I get the feeling that he could have ended up being a musical Robin Williams or Flip Wilson.
I can't imagine Alone In His Field was one of Trix's better sellers. Is anyone else here a Guitar Shorty fan?
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dj -
Right you are concerning sales (although Frank Edwards was probably a lesser seller! So much for uniqueness.). There's more material, enough for an additional album. Glad you like his stream-of-unconciousness tales. One day I asked Shorty to "do the dirtiest song you can think of"... he did, another of those fables which I remember had the line "that pussy big enough to drive a Greyhound bus through!" Like Booker White, or Sam Hopkins, he could create material of the moment... note the two songs about his boss, and Easter Monday! Fancourt/McGrath have copies of my complete master book, so if a follow-up does come out, the info will be there!
Most of the artists I released have more material "in the can", BUT, to be honest, I cherry picked the stuff (unless later sessions were done after the LP, as was the case with Pernell Charity) and while the leavings are better than most other's top shelf, some are best left with that one album. Roy Dunn was the most difficult album to program due to the sameness of his tunes... I worked HARD on that sucker! It IS a good portrait of Roy, though. I was one lucky s.o.b. in many ways during my decade in-the-field... only wish that more had been interested back in the day so that the artists could have benefited, but don't get me going on that particular rant!!! I love music and hate the business,
yrs,
Peter B.
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I originally bought the Flyright LP called "Carolina Slide Guitar" having heard the odd track on the radio. I was attracted to the unconventional (well, slightly mad) approach. I subsequently acquired "Alone In His Field" when Pete reissued it on CD.
I see Guitar Shorty as another of those artists who is not for the faint-hearted or those looking for strict convention. He certainly was alone in his field...
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as the Trix cover photo demonstrated!
Peter B.
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I see Guitar Shorty as another of those artists who is not for the faint-hearted or those looking for strict convention.
I have to admit that the first time I heard the LP, my reaction was pretty much "I'm looking for blues, not this weird stuff." But I eventually "got it".
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Here is his discography by Wirz:
http://www.wirz.de/music/guitsfrm.htm
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My apologies to Herr Wirz. I should have thought to check there. Thanks for pointing that out, jostber!
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Just look at the main photo in Stefan's discography. What an image! That coat, those boots, that flat cap - he looks a bit like a hip dustbin man. I love it. This man invented "shabby chic" long before the trendies got onto it.
Maybe that's part of the reason I bought his LP years ago.
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When not laboring in the fields, Shorty would wander around with his wife, Lena, playing at various houses. On Sundays they would play a various churches. Would that I had had access to a usable video camera back in the day... I'd have filmed everyone I recorded! Such is life. The so-called portable units were hardly that in 1970. I still have in my memory (the part that still works) an image of Shorty at the concerts that Bastin and I assembled in Chapel Hill, NC - at the end of his set, Shorty grabbed Lena's wig off of her head, put it on his, and went into his Elvis Presley imitation... pretty good one, too!.
As for that photo, it was taken by Danny McLean - AND IT WAS WINTER. The outfit was necessary. Shorty's living conditions were close to the most abject I saw in my decade in the field. Poverty ain't cute, p.p.! He was freezing his cojones off.
Peter B.
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As for that photo, it was taken by Danny McLean - AND IT WAS WINTER. The outfit was necessary. Shorty's living conditions were close to the most abject I saw in my decade in the field. Poverty ain't cute, p.p.! He was freezing his cojones off.
Peter B.
I realise that Peter. I'm just one of those weird country blues fans who gets all inspired by pictures of people playing acoustic guitars! Also, being from Yorkshire, the flat cap somehow strikes a chord...
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I'm with Parlor Picker on this one. The clothes, the pose, the guitar, the lighting, all combine in a photo that looks like it came out of a particularly cool fashion shoot. I know it's a picture of a guy who led a particularly hard life, but at that one moment, everything came together to make a truly great photo.
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That was taken by Danny McLean - both Val Wilmer and I have further photos of Shorty from a bit later in time.
Peter B.
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... a few of them I just added to my discography (http://www.wirz.de/music/guitshor.htm)
(along with two articles to be read as pdf files: one in German, one Valerie Wilmer's obit)
Stefan
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Thanks for putting up those articles, Stefan. The Valerie Wilmer obituary from Blues Unlimited was a beautiful piece that added much to my appreciation of Shorty.
The Juergen Henning article will take me a month to read, though I am looking forward to having a chance to practice my German skills.
Peter, do you know what Shorty died of?
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Peter, do you know what Shorty died of?
The german article on Stefan Wirz's site states cirrhosis of the liver as cause of death.
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Given his drinking skills, I'm not surprised at cause of death. Still do not know his birth date - will try and put Eric LeBlanc onto that task!
Peter B.
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I was a young English major at UNC Chapel Hill in the early 1970s and I used to see Guitar Shorty every time he played in town, which was pretty frenquently. He used to play often at a small basement club called The Endangered Species and I remember one particular night with a bunch of drunken hippies cheering him after a typically rousing performance when Shorty stumbled off the stage area right into the small mob loudly proclaiming "Guitar Shorty put on a good show for you, didn't he?!!!" Those were some good times. I was also there at the Blues Festival on campus where Shorty stopped his whole set to walk out into the audience to grab his wife Lena's wig off her head and to march back on stage and preceed to do an Elvis imitation. What a hoot!!
Danny McClean is a good friend of mine (I just talked to him today) and recorded what was released on the Flyright LP on the porch of Shorty's shack on a small cassette player. He does not have any more recordings of Shorty and says he gave everything he had to Bruce Bastin back in the early 70s. He says that Shorty's life was not a glamorous one. He would work in the fields all week and pick up enough booze on Friday in Elm City to stay drunk all weekend. Those were different times and while we miss characters like Guitar Shorty and his wonderfully spontaneous blues music, there are much fewer shacks and black tenent farmers in eastern North Carolina anymore.