Topic: Quillian Brothers - Hokum Blues & Rags

[Flatd7]

I heard "I Got Everything" today on the Juke. Never heard of the Quillian's before so I did some searching on the Forum. The only discussion I've seen was on the slide playing by ?? McCrary on another track. The tune I heard had some great bass lines, almost like Broonzy on "How You Want Your Lovin' Done".

A grreat track and it made me very curious about the Quillian's. If I read all the previous posts correctly, neither of them were a guitarist? So who all did they record with?

[dj]

Rufus Quillian played the piano and sang.  Ben Quillian sang with him, except, apparently, on their first recording session.  James McCrary also sang with them, and probably played guitar on some of their records.  Perry Bechtel, a white artist from Atlanta, may have played guitar on some of their records.  Persons unknown to us now played guitar on some of their records.

[Bunker Hill]

A grreat track and it made me very curious about the Quillian's.

Between 1975 and 1976 Mike Rowe interviewed Ben Quillian following Bruce Bastin and Pete Lowry's tracking down Rufus's widow in 1972. The results of Mike's interview with Ben were published in Blues Unlimited 123 (Jan/Feb 1977, p. 23-25). Here is what Ben had to say to Rowe about the guitarist:

"Well there were just three of us - after we became known as the Blue Harmony Boys there was just three of us - Rufus and Ben Quillian and James McCrary. James strummed the guitar Rufus played the piano. Rufus and another group went to New York and made some recordings and he went to Chicago(1) with a quartet and made some recordings but I wasn't on neither one of those trips. I knew those boys but none of the names come to me now. We made some recordings in Atlanta for Columbia records. I was in on all the Atlanta sessions but some of the recordings we made in Atlanta James McCrary wasn't playing on them. He was singing but he was a pretty good tenor singer and he sang with them but there was a white fella we met down there at the studio - he was playing the guitar. Yeah and he was really good. But I heard him later on the radio, I can't think of his name, they called him 'The Man With A Thousand Fingers'.(2) He was really good on the guitar and he could just pick up anything you start, well he'd get right with it. We had a lot of fun with that . . . it's been so long I can't remember too many of the songs. We did make quite a few."

Notes
1 Lois recalled a Chicago session and assuming that the New York date that Ben remembered was for Paramount (Gennett) then it seems that Rufus made an unknown Chicago session. This could possibly be a Gospel date.
2 Tony Russell first suggested that the fine guitarist who accompanied the 7th December 1930 session was white and plumped for Hoke Rice (who was also from Gainesville) or Perry Bechtel. Ben didn't recognise either name but a Georgia contact of Tony's has identified 'The Man With A Thousand Fingers' who used to play on radio around Atlanta as, definitely, Perry Bechtel. Unfortunately Bechtel denies ever recording with the Quillians!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I think Tony Russell's suggestion that Hoke Rice was the mystery guitarist on the Quillian Brothers recordings may be dead on the money; certainly other recordings on which Hoke Rice appear match up aurally with the style and touch of the the accompanist to the Quillians.  If you would like to hear some of Hoke's playing, he can be found on "Left All Alone Again Blues" by Lowe Stokes and his North Georgians, found on the recent County release "Old Time Mountain Blues", and to even better advantage, with lots of lead playing and fills, on "Take Me To That Land Of Jazz", likewise by the Lowe Stokes group, on an old County LP, "Old-Time Mountain Guitar", which was kind of a precursor to the more recent release, with many of the same cuts.  Hoke Rice was a hell of a guitarist with a really exciting touch.
For those who are interested in such things, Perry Bechtel was responsible for the creation of the Martin OM model.  In addition to being an excellent guitar player, he was a plectrum banjo player, and ordered from Martin a guitar that would meet the body at 14 frets instead of twelve, but with a long scale length.  The guitar Martin made for him was the first guitar to have anything other than twelve frets to the body, I think.
All best,
Johnm

[Stumblin]

Searching for information on this wonderful duo has produced zilch. Even on a Weenie "Entire Forum" search.
What do we actually know about these lads? They were an awesome musical force, that much I do know.
Chip in any snippets, all contributions gratefully accepted.

[uncle bud]

Merged with an existing Quillian Brothers topic.

[Stumblin]

Merged with an existing Quillian Brothers topic.

Appreciated, thanks 

[Stefan Wirz]

... obscure enough to deserve a discography 

[mr mando]

I don't have additional information about them, just wanted to point out that I've mentioned them in my Banjo Ikey Robinson lyrics thread.