This is a good one, if you haven't come across it yet. Any ideas on the identity of the performer?
Not a clue. This and the other Gellert YTs first appeared on Bruce Bastin's Heritage LP in 1984.
Note writer Bruce Harrah-Conforth has a couple of paragraphs about Boogie Lovin' thus:
The remaining pieces all hail from Atlanta, Georgia and date from 1928 through
1932.
Boogie Lovin' is the first of 8 pieces apparently played by the same guitarist.
Gellert frequently travelled throughout the South with members of his
informant network and it is not impossible that this guitarist may have travelled
with him. Clearly there are different vocalists of varying quality on several of the
pieces and at one point (following the 4th instrumental verse of Boogie Lovin')
someone, probably the guitarist, can be heard to give the vocalist a cue to come
in with the next verse of the song as he asks him to "sing it for me".
Very much in the Lonnie Johnson vein, this guitarist seems to be trying to
translate jazz ensemble chording to the guitar. His ability to do so is limited, and
he plays the same basic accompaniment on all the songs, regardless of lyric
structure. He also seems to be quite fond of using a boogie-woogie bass pattern
for a break. We hear it for the first time in the 3rd instrumental verse of
Boogie
Lovin', again in the traditional 30 Days in Jail, Prison Bound Blues and finally in
Shootin' Craps and Gamblin'.
See pages 673-4 in B&GR4 for a complete list of Gellert's
Negro Songs of Protest recordings
Over to you......