Topic: famous hokum boys music

[dave stott]

I love Big Bill Broonzy's music and have taken a liking to some of his work as part of the Famous Hokum Boys.

There seems to be a large quantity of compilations out there..  I'm not interested in owning every cut or take..

Would some one recommend the best CD of the Famous Hokum Boys to start with?

Thanks

Dave

[Minnesota Dave]

Good question, Dave. 

[Rivers]

Agreed. I count 28 recordings in B&GR. The ones I've heard have always stood out. Gap in the market for a 'Complete...' release.

[banjochris]

There are two volumes of them on Document and you've got it all -- I don't think there's a compilation of just them, although they do appear on Big Bill and Georgia Tom albums both. I bought one volume at Amoeba Music in L.A. for $9.99.
Chris

[uncle bud]

Just to clarify, I believe the two volumes are on Wolf, which is sort of Document, but looking for the Famous Hokum Boys on Document's website yields results only for the Too Late, Too Late series. I have Wolf volume 1, sound is relatively poor, other records have selected tracks in better shape, but when you're a fan, you're a fan, so go for what you want. I don't know what the status of Wolf releases is, but it may mean looking for them used or through Amazon marketplace. Note that they should not be confused with The Hokum Boys, who are a whole nuther kettle of fish as I recall.

[Cooljack]

Im quite a big fan of the Hokum boys and there is a Document CD with what I think is there self titled work on (DOCD-5236), I also have both of georgia toms document ms which has alot of music featuring the hokum boys, I don't know about Big Bills work with them though, neither do I have any of their work with Tampa Red or Bob Robinson though apparently they played with Blind Blake too though I  guess I haven't noticed them in any of his music yet. Also I don't know for certain, but im guessing there is probably quite a big difference between the 1929 Hokum Boys Recordings and the mid to late 30's ones?



This is a very good CD if your considering purchasing it, or anything with the hokum boys.

[dave stott]

my internet search found the following:

DOCUMENT RECORDS

Complete Hokum Boys Vol 1
Complete Hokum Boys Vol 2

WOLF RECORDS

Famous Hokum Boys Vol 1
Famous Hokum Boys Vol 2

and then there are these stragglers

Hokum Boys & Bob Robinson 1935-1937 (Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2)
(no sign of a Vol 1 in existence)

Ain't going that way - Hokum Boys and Banjo Joe 1927 -1929

You Can't get enough of that Stuff- IMPORT

Plus an untold number of compilation CD's with Hokum Boys tunes on them

needless to say, it can dirve a person crazy....

Dave

[uncle bud]

This from the Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings:

"'The Hokum Boys' was a brand name, used by any record company which considered that it fitted the product. As well as the material considered here [The Hokum Boys DOCD-5236; The Hokum Boys and Bob Robinson DOCD-5237], there were Hokum Boys records by Georgia Tom and Tampa Red, one side by Blind Blake, and titles with Big Bill Broonzy as the featured artist. These are considered under the respective artist entries; the Famous Hokum Boys also have their own entry."

FYI, in the Guide, DOCD-5236 lists no Broonzy activity - personnel include Bob Robinson (cl, bj, v); Alex Hill, Jimmy Blythe (p, v); Alex Robinson, Dan Roberts, Banjo Ikey Robinson, unknown (g); unknown (v). DOCD-5237 does.

All this sounds like a job for Chris Smith's Broonzy discography, Hit the Right Lick. Is it still available?

[dj]

Eight of Broonzy's tracks with the Hokum Boys/Famous Hokum Boys are on disk 1 of JSP's "All The Classic Sides 1927 - 1937" collection.  It's my understanding that all his work with the Famous Hokum Boys is on the various Document Broonzy volumes.  If you only want to dip your toe into the Famous Hokum Boys' recordings, but are a big Broonzy fan, the JSP set might be one way to go.

[uncle bud]

BTW, I had a listen to DOCD-5236 - The Hokum Boys Complete Recorded Works June to December 1929. Can't remember where I got this but sure hope I didn't pay full price for for it. These guys commit the cardinal sin for a hokum band. They're boring as hell. Aside from some lyrics about getting drunk, monkey glands, and selling that stuff, this is hokum run through a Lawrence Welk-inator or something. They sound like they're reading charts, really bad charts written by a studio hack.

Broonzy BTW is nowhere on the record. The discographical note says, "earlier titles under the name of The Hokum Boys are actually by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom; they are available on DOCD-5073, 5074, and BDCD-6021. The 1930 session with Big Bill Broonzy is on DOCD-5050. I Was Afraid of That Part II is actually a Blind Blake recording and can be found on DOCD-5026. See also Wolf WBCD-011 and 012 for the Famous Hokum Boys, and DOCD-5237 for the complete 1935-37 recordings by the Hokum Boys, a completely different group."

Maybe I need to listen to it more but can't bear the thought of that right now. Life is too short. Save your money unless you need this for historical purposes.

Edited to add: Hmm, just noticed cooljack gave a favorable opinion of the record earlier. FWIW, Chris Smith, who writes the notes for the disc, agrees with cooljack. I'm standing by my evaluation until further evaluation is possible - I'll need some wine first. 

[Stuart]

There are cuts by the Hokum Boys, Famous Hokum Boys, Georgia Tom, and Big Bill available at The Roots Music Listening Room over at

http://juneberry78s.com/

You'll have to get a password from Norm to enter. Perhaps you can cobble together something that gives you a sense of what the CDs are like.

[dj]

Andrew, I've just listened to DOCD 5236 myself.  Admittedly, I was enjoying some of the Tuthilltown Distillery's Hudson Baby Burbon at the time (the first whiskey distilled in New York State since prohibition, and made with 100% NY State grain!), but hopefully not enough to cloud my judgment.   I'm with cooljack and Chris Smith on this one.  Check out either version of "Gambler's Blues" or the scat vocals on "Let Me Have it" or, if you can hear it past the surface noise, the guitar on the first version of "Caught Him Doing It".  It's enjoyable stuff.  Almost all the string players are first rate, as is the piano on the cuts where Jimmy Blythe plays. 

   

[Rivers]

Cool, controversy boils over on weenie campbell. This could turn out to be a massive flame war. But I sincerely doubt it. 

That's the second contra today, the other was re the value of the liner notes in the Murder Ballads thread.

I'll post all Hokum Boys tracks and personnel tonight after I've cooked my famous Thai green chicken curry, if I can find a green chicken that is.

[uncle bud]

OK dj, you, cooljack and Chris Smith have convinced me I need to revisit the Hokum Boys disc. I'm not promising to like it.  I'll admit I was making a soup as I listened (also involving curry, strangely enough, though not as successful - perhaps the Hokum Boys soured it?), but I had it loud.

Thanks to Dave's Broonzy fixation though, I've been happily revisiting my own Broonzy discs, and also just read through the very worthwhile Broonzy section of the Penguin Guide, penned by Smith as well. Amusing quotes to come.

[Stuart]

That's the second contra today, the other was re the value of the liner notes in the Murder Ballads thread.

I probably should have written, "limited, as opposed to extensive." Sorry for the confusion. The notes for each song are on the order of a couple of sentences--a paragraph at most--followed by a verse or two. Their brevity does not diminish their value or quality. I suspect that I was subconsciously comparing them to the AAFM or Revenant Patton packages, two sets that should not serve as invariable standards by which everything else is measured.

There are many great photos in the set and I give it a "two thumbs up." Sure, there could have been more info, but that's just my opinion, an opinion that probably in the final analysis doesn't pass the "So what?" test.

[CF]

I have some Hokum Boys stuff & if memory serves me their versions of 'Gambler's Blues (St. James Infirmary)' are good & worth checking out. I'll give what else I have a listen.

[Rivers]

I need a bit more time to put the list together, Famous Hokum Boys and Hokum Boys have separate entries in B&GR, which adds up to quite a bit more than I thought. Will put it together over a few days. Broonzy & Brasswell played in both named groups on various sessions. Seems like it was a convenient throw-away band name when various people got together.

Why yes, thanks, the curry was delicious!

[Cooljack]

I can understand why you would dislike the Hokum Boys though Im sticking with my opinion, I really enjoy the Document CD I have of their material. Although the hokum they play isn't anywhere near as sophisticated as say Papa Charlie Jackson there is alot worse out there.

"'The Hokum Boys' was a brand name, used by any record company which considered that it fitted the product. As well as the material considered here [The Hokum Boys DOCD-5236; The Hokum Boys and Bob Robinson DOCD-5237], there were Hokum Boys records by Georgia Tom and Tampa Red, one side by Blind Blake, and titles with Big Bill Broonzy as the featured artist. These are considered under the respective artist entries; the Famous Hokum Boys also have their own entry."

I didn't realise this, though it makes sense. I don't really know much about their background as I got the album I have through emusic as it was out of print last time I checked the document website which basically means I forfitted the notes.

[CF]

I listened to what I have of the Hokum Boys last night & I enjoyed some of it but much of it was forgettable, for me. 'Selling that stuff' 'stuff you sell' etc pretty mundane, Bob Robinson's vaudeville style both pleasing & dated-sounding. Good when it's good & very average otherwise . . . some nice playing on select tracks tho'. I'm wondering who the Blind Blake-sounding player is on some of the tunes? Could it be Blake? I know he did 'I Was Afraid of That P.2' but did he do any more work as a Hokum Boy? Now the Famous Hokum Boys, that's a different kettle of fish altogether. Those guitar instrumentals are really good. Broonzy was a monster. 

[Minnesota Dave]

Speaking of hokum, a book I'm reading mentions "It's Tight Like That" by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom as being an important piece of music in that style, and a precursor to the urban blues. I checked my tunes this morning and I don't own that song (though I do currently own "Tight Like This" by Louis Armstrong who recorded his version three months later). So, looks like I need some more Tampa Red. Disc one of the Document series has two versions of the song, so that's what I'm going for 'less you guys tell me different.

[Cooljack]

I don't have "Tight Like that" either, just the covers (Loose like that by the mississippi sheiks is good has a nice little monologue on the front) I read somewhere, or atleast I think I did that Tight Like that was the first hokum recording, I'd consider it the first hit instead as that would make more sense. Though it is a pretty upfront song.

[Rivers]

I'm wondering who the Blind Blake-sounding player is on some of the tunes? Could it be Blake? I know he did 'You Can't Do That P.2' but did he do any more work as a Hokum Boy? 

B&GR only identifies Blake on the following: Hokum Boys, I Was Afraid Of That Part II. No sessions with the Famous HBs.

Let me know which songs you're interested in and I can tell you who's playing guitar.

[dave stott]

for the record:

I am just as much a fanatic of Blind Boy Fuller as I am Big Bill Broonzy....

there is usually one of these artists music playing in my CD or MP3 player at all times...

: -)

Dave

[CF]

Hey River I've checked my Penguin Guide To Blues & it seems there are some 'unknown' musicians on the Hokum records. The songs I'm curious about are 'Put Your Mind On It', 'I Was Afraid of That Pt.1', 'Ain't Goin' That Way', 'You Can't Get Enough of That Stuff' & etc . . . some good guitar picking on those tunes.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I don't have personnel matched up with the tunes in question, but I know that Banjo Ikey Robinson, who was mentioned earlier in this thread as appearing on some Hokum Boys recordings, was an excellent and very sophisticated guitarist.
all best,
Johnm

[Rivers]

B&GR sez:

Put Your Mind On It, I Was Afraid of That Pt.1 and You Can't Get Enough of That Stuff: Dan Roberts, v/g; Alex Robinson, v/g; Alex Hill, v/p. All recorded on the same session.

They note that the personnel info is somewhat unreliable.

Ain't Goin' That Way, Bob Robinson, cl; Jimmy Blythe, p/v; Bob Alexander, g/v

They also note that Alex Robinson and Bob Robinson may be the same person.