Topic: Memphis Country Blues - Help!

[DanceGypsy]

I recently took a weekend job as a tour guide with Backbeat Tours, which puts a guy with a guitar, PA & mic and driver on a bus and thern drives around Memphis past sites that are significant in Memphis music history (Beale Street, Church Park, Cotton Row, Ellis Auditorium, etc.)  Most of the guides focus their spiels, songs and stories around the careers of Elvis, BB King, Johnny Cash, Sun Studios, STAX, etc., and while I will have to cover some of this material as well, I want the main focus of my presentation to be about the "music before the music" that Memphis is now most known for.

To this end, I wish to invite the member of Weenie Campbell to help me formulate a set list and talking points to cover as I show the out-of-towners around this wonderfully rich musical city.  I need to know

1.  Who lived/recorded here in Memphis in the 1920's/30's and before?
2.  What are some interesting/funny anecdotes that relate to happenings with musicians in Memphis in that era?
3.  What are the important songs/artists that I should incorporate in my act?
4.  What books/articles are extant that cover this period (country blues/classic blues/jug bands) specifically in Memphis?
5.  What am I missing/what questions am I not asking that should be considered?

I am not a total novice - I am familiar with Gus Cannon and the Memphis Jug Bands, with Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy.  I know that Bukka White moved up to Memphis, and if I'm not mistaken Mississippi John Hurt did one of his two recording sessions here.  I already know and have planned to play "When the Leveee Breaks" (Memphis Minnie), "Lindyberg Hop" and "E. H. Crump Blues" (Memphis Jug Band), "Jitterbug Swing" (Bukka White), "Minglewood BLues" or "Viola Lee Blues" (Cannon's Jug Stompers), and perhaps a John Hurt song recorded in Memphis ("Sliding Delta?").  But I'm sure I am missing a lot.  I have emailed Dr. David Evans to ask his advice, and will talk about this with Andy Cohen, but I'm sure there are lots of you out there who could offer songs, artists and anecdotes that will really make this tour shine on the country blues.  Please help me turn people on to the fact that there is more to Memphis music than Elvis and B.B. King!

[CF]

You'll want to mention Frank Stokes & his partner Dan Sane (the Beale St. Sheiks) & their tune 'Mr. Crump Don't Like It'.

[lindy]

Good place to start:

http://guitarvideos.com/video/dvd/820dvd.htm

[DanceGypsy]

You'll want to mention Frank Stokes & his partner Dan Sane (the Beale St. Sheiks) & their tune 'Mr. Crump Don't Like It'.

I think this is the same as the song I refer to as "E. H. Crump Blues."  Are these substantially similar lyrics to W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues?"  As part of our tour notes, we are supposed to say that "Handy wrote the song while standing at the cigar counter of Pee Wee's Saloon on Beale Street.  Likely the talk was of mayoral candidate EH Crump, whose principal political promise was to clean up the dance halls and saloons in Memphis, particularly on Beale Street...  The song caught on and Crump decided to make lemons into lemonade.  He hired Handy to re-write the song in support of his campaign and, largely on the popularity of the song, won the election."

Obviously Handy did not write the original.  Anybody know how much of the rest of this story is true or false?

[Pan]

Regarding anecdotes, here's a great article Bunker Hill posted a while ago:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=128&topic=2584.0

Cheers

Pan

[uncle bud]

Too bad Bengt Olsson's Memphis Blues book has still not been published, as far as I know.

You'll want to mention Furry Lewis, who recorded both prewar and postwar in Memphis, and worked as a street cleaner in the city. If you can get your hands on Walking a Blues Road by Samuel Charters, he devotes a number of pages to stories of his postwar dealings and recordings of Furry, as well as time spent with Will Shade, Gus Cannon, and recording Memphis Willie B., Willie Borum, who made a couple sides as a backup musician in the 30s for some Hattie Hart songs, but then was recorded by Charters in the 60s.

I'd also say you'll want to mention the great Robert Wilkins, who, while from Hernando MS, played in Memphis and died there.

Document has four or so compilations devoted to Memphis. A number of relatively obscure artists, and I don't know how obscure you want to get. Some sessions were done in Memphis, others were done elsewhere.

[Stuart]

There are also the three JSP sets:

http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Memphis-Blues-Various-Artists/dp/B0002EQQN4

http://www.amazon.com/Memphis-Jug-Band-Cannons-Stompers/dp/B0007O25CA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1273530943&sr=1-3


And also the Memphis Minnie sets, etc.:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CER8H

[onewent]

Nothing But the Blues by Lawrence Cohn has quite a bit on the Memphis blues scene..Tom

[unezrider]

hello friend,
i believe sleepy john estes was a memphis guy. & jack kelly was a guy i always dug.
also the pre sun records, (memphis recording studio) sides by the likes of roscoe gordon, howlin wolf, joe hill louis, walter horton & pat hare (among others) could be interesting topic & not the usual sun records line up.

[Bunker Hill]

This is one of those times when Bengr Olsson's long out of print 1970 Memphis Blues (Studio Vista Paperbacks, 1970 112 pps) and would come into its own as a basis for such a project.

[hortig78rpm]

hello

Ive been in memphis in 198o and 1981 meeting and recording the last old time musicians. stories: furry lewis is said, that he told everybody, who visited him and wanted to hear him play: " I`d play for you, but my guitar is at pawn, but if you`ve got 1oo bugs you can get it out, and I`ll play for you".  after finished, furry went back to the pawn shop to get his 1oo bugs. It`s also said, that he`d got two, three guitars in various pawn`s around memphis.
willie borum had stopped playing, mose vinson and memphis npiano red kept up playing the old barrelhouse piano, and the biggest surprise had been a visit to grandma dixie, a 85 years old white ragtime pianist, which used to play with w.c.handy on a river boat. thanks to harry goodwin, who did a lot of research into the memphis blues ( sorry, long dead). paul savarin , self declared savior of the blues, let ` em perform in his restaurant " blues alley", pianist booker t.laury as intermission and the "nicest act" was old time jugband lady little laura dukes, dressed in a ballet-like pink
dress, accompanied by an out of "what to do" jazz band.
the widow of legend pianist blind clyde church was still living, but I`d not found her. the "center of southern folklore", fitted with a large amount of donations even did`nt know how much old time blues-people had been around at that time.
sorry bout that, for europeans did the most  work there (axel k?stner, bengt olson, gianni marcucci and....myself)
best regards
mike

 

[DanceGypsy]

The good news is that copies of Bengt Olsson's book abound in Memphis.  I did a quick search online and found one copy in the University of Memphis Music Library and no less than three copies at the main branch of the public library.  The bad news is that none are circulating - all are reference materials, which means I will be spending lots of time (and copy machine dimes) at the library in the near future.

Thanks to everyone who replied for such good leads.  If any of you are in Memphis from June 2010 or after, be sure to catch the Sunday 1:30pm "Memphis Mojo" Tour on the Backbeat Tour bus, where I will be giving the history of Memphis (Country) Blues and Jugband Music in story and song.

www.backbeattours.com

Again, thanks much everyone!  I will continue to check in to see if anybody else chimes in.  I'm particularly interested in anecdotes at this point - I've got a good feel for artist and repertoire, but I still need good, succinct, funny or poignant stories to pepper the tour with.  Love the one about Furry Lewis always needing $100 to get his guitar out of pawn anytime anybody came to get him to play.

Tennessee Tom C (the Tennessee Tom Cat)
http://www.myspace.com/sidestreetsteppers

[Bunker Hill]

The good news is that copies of Bengt Olsson's book abound in Memphis.  I did a quick search online and found one copy in the University of Memphis Music Library and no less than three copies at the main branch of the public library.  The bad news is that none are circulating - all are reference materials, which means I will be spending lots of time (and copy machine dimes) at the library in the near future.

It's reassuring that forty years ago those Memphis institutions had the good sense to invest in them.

Bengt had been working on a vastly expanded update for some years and was hopeful of finding a publisher but unfortunately he died before it could come to fruition. I think there may have been some discussion here as to what the actual status of the manauscript was.

[uncle bud]

Yes, 'twas the expanded edition I was thinking of. And BH is correct, there has been discussion of that here at http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=60&topic=4182.0 and it at least seemed like publication would proceed posthumously, but now still no news.

[hortig78rpm]

when I visited fury in 198o, he agreed to play for me on monday, caUSE  he would`nt play on sunday. I only had to bring a bottle of " 1oo%"proof" with me. for me as an european it took time to find out what`s about that.
he played in a wonderfull out of tune guitar, showed me his false teeth, which he hid under his bad, meanwhile many folks gathered in his house, thinking I`d bee the doctor, for the only white man, who comes to that part of memphis was the doctor. we both drank all the bear and whiskey ending up furry dry and me completly drunk.  he died some months later.
next year, at the end of a long trip through texas and mississippi, I stayed some days in memphis, I met harry goodwin, who drove me up to graqndma dixie`s home. a nice little ( her feet did hardly reach the pedals) old woman in her mid 8o`s, reculant that she did`nt comb her hair played a number of ragtimes and old forgotten minstrel numbers.
she had a light disabled daughter ( must have been around 4o yrs old, but dressed up as a doll of 1o) which could play banjo and uke and together they played some old southern songs. she only showed up on a LP sampler of a memphis blues festival with one or two numbers, and died totally in  obscurity.

mose vonson at that time was a heavy drinker and did`nt perform too much, but we recorded a lot of his wonderfull barrelhouse piano. memphis piano red williams, a big ( and big hearted) albino had been in europe between my two visits, where he first drank milk in his life( he told me), and mixed it up with whiskey, great fun, but for a session with vinson he did`nt show up. 
    regards mike

[Bunker Hill]

Another book well worth seeking out is Beale, Black & Blue:The Life And Music On Black America's Main Street (Margaret McKee & Fred Chisnall, Lousiana State Press, 1981). Mine was an expensive hardback at the time but I think there was a later paperback edition. Here's a scan of the contents page:

Part I - Beale

Preface and Acknowledgments xi
1. New Beale 5
2. Old Beale 13
3. The Beale Street Beat 23
4. The Complexion Complex 33
5. Mr. Crump and the Accommodationists 43
6. Harder Times 61
7. The Decline and Fall 81

Part II - The Blues

8. Furry 103
9. Booker 119
10. Piano Red 131
11. Big Mama 143
12. Sleepy John and Hammie   155
13. The Honeydripper 167
14. The Mississippi Sheik 181
15. Big Joe 193
16. Big Boy 205
17. Upcountry 217
18. B. B., Bobby, and Big Albert 245
Bibliography 257
Index    259

[DanceGypsy]

Thanks to your recommendations and the Amazon used book marketplace, for the paltry sum of $35.43 (shipping included) I will soon be the happy owner of the following volumes:

The Blues Makers (Samuel Charters)
Walking a Blues Road (Samuel Charters)
The Country Blues (Samuel Charters)
Beale Street Black & Blue (Margaret McKee and Fred Chisenhall)

These plus the Memphis Blues & Jug Bands book at the library should keep me plenty busy for a while.  I also ordered John Miller's Memphis Blues Guitar on DVD. 

I'm noticing a trend with this Samuel Charters fellow.  Is he an academic, a professor at some university somewhere?

[Stuart]

I'm noticing a trend with this Samuel Charters fellow.  Is he an academic, a professor at some university somewhere?

Here's the Wiki page on SC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Charters

As for holding a teaching position at the university level, at one point I think that he taught at UC Berkeley, but after that, I'm not sure.

[Johnm]

Hi Dance Gypsy,
For a very interesting personality whose life spanned the Country Blues era into electric blues, R & B, Stax and soul, you should seek out information on Rufus Thomas, who worked as a DJ and was also a popular musician.
All best,
Johnm

[lindy]

Re Sam Charters, I tripped over this web page a few months back:

http://kaminipress.com/2009/09/23/samuel-charters-living-with-music-a-playlist/

Lindy

[Bunker Hill]

Hi Dance Gypsy,
For a very interesting personality whose life spanned the Country Blues era into electric blues, R & B, Stax and soul, you should seek out information on Rufus Thomas, who worked as a DJ and was also a popular musician. All best,
Johnm

Excellent catch Johnm. I don't know if it's still in print but that gifted writer, Peter Guralnick, wrote a worthy 440 page book in 1986 entitled "Sweet Soul Music" which , in essence, was the Stax Story but also covered other soul/R&B music/labels of the city. A very readable, and enlightening, tome. But isn't everything from Guralnick' just that?  

[DanceGypsy]

I spent last evening at the main branch of the Memphis Public Library, reading Bengt Olsson's Memphis Blues and Jug Bands.  It's such a tiny little book!  About 8" x 5", barely 100 pages, but jam-packed with photos and information.  The research librarian said I could come back tonight with a flash drive and scan the entire book, which I plan to do.  I am not sure where this falls in the legal/ethical realm, but since the dang thing is out of print and so hard to find, I would be willing to send a PDF copy to anyone who is interested.

I ordered a couple more books today: Sweet Soul Music and Yonder Comes the Blues.  While I was at the library last night I noticed a copy of W.C. Handy's autobiography, Father of the Blues.  Since that book does circulate, I checked it out so as to have something to read right away.  I was prepared to skim it quickly - to find a few anecdotes and enough info to dismiss him as the "Father of the Blues" in favor of the Delta bluesmen.  But I must say that I am 60 pages in and hooked.  What a fascinating life!  It's good that he has a lot to say about the minstrel show he was with, because I had already planned in my tour to talk about the minstrel and particularly the medicine show connection with Memphis.  As Marshall Wyatt wrote in the liner notes to Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926 - 1937, a veritable "constellation" of Memphis bluesman traveled with medicine shows in the early 20th century.  (This is an amazing CD set and companion booklet, by the way.)

[Stuart]

I can't remember exactly what the law says on this, but there is a provision for "fair use" for both books in print and for out-of-print books, where the copyright is valid. I seem to recall something like 20% of the text at a time is okay, but I could be wrong. As far as the ethics is/are concerned, in some countries anything that is out-of-print (or not marketed domestically in the case of foreign books) is fair game since they hold the view that it is the copyright holder's responsibility for the book to remain in print and be available for purchase by the public. This is not the case in the U.S., but IMHO, it should be.

It sounds like this is turning into a real learning experience and I appreciate you sharing it with us.

[Bunker Hill]

I spent last evening at the main branch of the Memphis Public Library, reading Bengt Olsson's Memphis Blues and Jug Bands.  It's such a tiny little book!  About 8" x 5", barely 100 pages, but jam-packed with photos and information.  

Believe it or not forty years ago that series of twelve "blues paperbacks" gathered together more information - in inexpensive form - than most of us could have ever hoped for. Some were even the basis of today's "standard texts". From little acorns etc etc. 

[uncle bud]

Hi Dance Gypsy,
For a very interesting personality whose life spanned the Country Blues era into electric blues, R & B, Stax and soul, you should seek out information on Rufus Thomas, who worked as a DJ and was also a popular musician.
All best,
Johnm

Just adding a note that the early recordings of Rufus Thomas are part of the current Document sale, going for ?1.99. Cheep!

http://document-records.com/fulldetails.asp?ProdID=DOCD-5683

[DanceGypsy]

I successfully completed my first solo flight as the official Sunday tour guide for Backbeat Tours yesterday, and man, what a blast!  My wife's parents were in town this weekend, and we spent Saturday at the Rock & Soul Museum (located at the FedEx Forum, just off Beale on Third Street) - great museum, never been there before, has a nice room devoted to country blues with some choice 78s on the walls (some Paramounts, Barbecue Bob's "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues," etc.).  The whole family came on the Backbeat Tour yesterday - we had 26 on the bus, including my wife and her parents.  Tips were decent, and I gotta say that I just love this line of work - being on a bus with a captive audience, telling stories and playing music.  What could be better?!?  When I first started learning country blues from Andy Cohen a couple years back, I got a gig with Ground Zero doing a happy hour show on Fridays, and after the first one the manager said to try a little "more platter, less chatter."  I always want to talk too much, to tell the story behind the song and give the history of the artists and put them in the appropriate context.  This tour allows me to do exactly that - a little more chatter, less platter than you get at a regular bar gig.

Thanks again to all the Weenies who offered anecdotes, suggestions, reading lists, etc.  I still have a stack of books to read (just now about halfway through Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music) and I am looking forward to some downtime now that I have learned the tour to focus on John Miller's Memphis Blues DVD.  I have begun to learn "Happy Blues," and am pleased to report that this DVD is very easy to learn from.

If any of you are ever in Memphis on a Sunday from now on, come down to Beale Street and catch the 1:30 pm Backbeat Mojo Tour!  The ticket window is at the Blues City Cafe, corner of Second and Beale.