Topic: Wille Walker and Friend

[RobBob]

Who is the second guitarist on the Willie Walker sides like Dupree Blues/South Carolina Rag?  Doesn't Walker play flat pick guitar?

I am having a touch of amnesia.

Bob

[dj]

The 2nd guitar is by Sam Brooks. 

[Bunker Hill]

From memory there's a lengthy discussion in Bruce Bastin's Red River Blues about the Brooks family.

[RobBob]

Thanks,

I have no memory but I have the book.

Bob

[Prof Scratchy]

Which of the two guitarists plays the lightning fast flat picked (presumably) runs?

[dj]

That would be Willie Walker.

[Bunker Hill]

I have no memory but I have the book.

pages 176-77 and in fact rather interesting so have scanned relevant portion for the benefit of those not owning this wonderful work:

A tightly knit group of musicians surrounded Willie Walker. Once he was teamed with Sam Brooks, Walker used no other accompanist. Small wonder that by 1930 they played so well together and that Brooks's dreamy vocal part to "Dupree Blues" sounds in some way an extension of Walker's own delivery. The high, almost falsetto "Oh babe" refrain was usual: local musicians recalled that Brooks could sing like a woman. A fine guitarist in his own right by all accounts, Sam Brooks was first cousin to the man he led. Oddly he is listed in the Columbia files as David Brooks. He survived Walker by many years: one story has him visiting his daughter in the small university town of Clemson, just west of Greenville, and dying there in 1964. Another story had him living into the 1970s, although it appears he is now deceased. In the 1970s, Sam Brooks's nephew "Baby" Brooks was playing with rather more verve and enthusiasm than skill, having given up playing in the mid-1960s. While his uncle played second guitar to Willie Walker, Roosevelt Brooks was the regular second guitarist to Willie's brother, Joe?yet another blind professional musician, listed like his brother as a musician in the city directory in 1931 and 1933 and resident there from 1926 to 1938 at least Joe Walker was the major influence on the young Josh White, and once Josh ceased to lead him, he teamed up with Baby Brooks, who had been born in the city on June 2, 1905, neatly halfway between the birth dates of older musicians like Gary Davis and Willie Walker and the younger men like Josh White and Baby Tate. Brooks recalled Man Arnold and ArchieJackson but spent most of his early years teamed with Joe Walker, occasionally joined by brother Tommy Walker on jug. Joe Walker was alive in Bucknerstown as late as 1969, although by 1972 everyone agreed that he was dead. Baby Tate called Brooks a "C-man" and warned, "Don't ever jump him in C now or he'll run all over you." Tate, who knew Willie Walker and played with Joe Walker and Pink Anderson in their primes, clearly held a respect for Brooks's past playing.

One phase of the Greenville blues scene could be said to be ended by 1933, with the death of Willie Walker and Josh White's departure for New York. The remainder of the Walker-Brooks groups stayed, and Charles Henry "Baby'' Tate joined them. He had lived in town since 1926, had seen Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson before he had left Georgia, and remembered a six-to-eight-piece string band still playing in Greenville when he arrived. He soon became a proficient guitarist and entertainer, a member of the first black group to broadcast over the city's first radio station, WFBC, located on the second floor of the Poinsett (nowJack Tar) Hotel in 1932. He had a Friday spot with the Carolina Blackbirds, which featured Tate's guitar and harp, the ukulele and tenor-steel guitar of McKinley Ellis, and Washboard Willie Young. Sometimes they were joined by Ellis's brother on upright bass. Playing to a substantially white audience they can rarely have featured blues, but the white audiences would have appreciated country instrumentals and probably not all of the music broadcast was of the variety which best suited Ellis, whose use of ukulele and pleasure in singing "Besame Mucho" and "Sheik of Araby" suggests a good deal of "blackface" music. By utter coincidence, Tate and Ellis met again in 1970 after many years apart and they were recorded, with Ellis playing a fine second guitar to Tate's lead.

[Stefan Wirz]

Willie Walker discography online !

Anyone knows other interpretations of 'South Carolina Rag' than the ones I already listed ?!?

Stefan

[jostber]

Just listened to "Dupree Blues" now. Brilliant song.

[RobBob]

Ironically, the blues in Greenville are mostly played by some very good white musicians and you cannot busk here anymore.  The city father's past an ordinance without going public that made it illegal to take tips while playing on the street.  They said they were not in business of providing anyone with a living.  You used to be able to register with the city and get a bucket for tips.  It added to the ambiance of the city but no more.  So it goes for the arts in South Carolina.  Still a feudal state.

[Gerry Clarke]

I hear WW finger-picking with finger picks, not flat picking, and the fast runs are executed by alternating thumb and first finger IMHO.

Gerry

[oddenda]

Gerry -

          Right you are. As Baby Tate said to myself and Bruce Bastin, Willie Played in all the keys with all his fingers!

Peter B.

[doctorpep]

Elijah Wald quotes Josh White as saying the same about Willie Walker and his unbelievable talent in the Josh White biography, free and equal lose. So, both baby Tate and Josh White said that Willie Walker could play with all fingers in all keys!

I wonder if crying for the Carolinas mentions why Willie Walker was not further recorded.

Please excuse spelling and grammar errors due to speech recognition program.

[banjochris]

I wonder if crying for the Carolinas mentions why Willie Walker was not further recorded.

That's an easy one: the Depression. Plus he was dead three years after he recorded.

[Gerry Clarke]

Yes, that's exactly right - unfortunate timing.  Columbia 14578 is down in Mahony's monograph as being 750 pressings, including a supplement, in February 1931.  Blues recordings were taking a big depression hit by then.  Bo Carter and the Shieks last pressings in the 14000 series would only make 400 copies in October of '32.  Records from this period are (were) the toughest to find - late Columbias and Paramounts in the 13000s or high 12s etc.  I was really lucky to get my copy of the WW for $14 back when an advanced collector was discarding his second copy.  Got lucky with the take too for my preferences anyway.

Gerry