Topic: Big Bill, Washboard Sam mp3s

[CF]

I found this webpage tonight & on the Big Bill page there are several mp3s . . . in particular there are several tracks that sound like an older Washboard Sam singing & playing washboard . . . also some Big Bill tracks, different versions than what I've heard. Anybody know anything about those W. Sam tracks?

http://hic1.kazserv.com/~khabs/BigBill.htm

[Bunker Hill]

I've only listened to the Washboard Sam and it's one of the 1953 recordings made for Chess which was released as a 78/45 coupled with Bright Eyes on the reverse. The remainder of the session appeared on a late 50s LP entitled Big Bill Broonzy And Washboard Sam, though BBB hardly appears as you can see from the following:

V/wb with Lee Cooper (g) Big Crawford (b).
                                   Chicago, June 1953
U 7511  Never never           Ch LP 1468
U 7512  Bright eyes            Ch 1545, LP 1468
U 7513  Diggin' my potatoes Ch 1545, LP 1468
U 7514  Shirt tail                Ch LP 1468

Omit Cooper. Add Broonzy (v -1/g) Memphis Slim (p):

U 7518 Mindin' my own business Ch LP 1468
U 7519 Horseshoe over my door Ch LP 1468
U 7520 All by myself -1             Ch LP 1468
U 7521 I'm a lonely man           Ch LP 1468

Don't know if the LP has ever appeared as a Chess CD. Very short playing time (30 minutes) so may have been coupled with something else.

[LATER EDIT: I should point out that the above information is from the Chess files but as Chris Smith noted in his BBB discography Sam says "take it Big Bill" before a guitar solo in Never, Never!]

[Bunker Hill]

Now listened to All By Myself. This was from a group of recordings made in Chicago during 1964 by Olle Helander for Swedish Broadcasting. Jefferson Records in Sweden have issued three CDs and the recordings Helander made of Washboard Sam appear on volume two (2000), with a further track on the volume 3 (2004):

V/wb with Blind John Davis (p) Betty Dupree (b).
                                Chicago, 19 May 1964
Mountain blues           Jefferson(Sw) SBACD 12655/6
All by myself             Jefferson(Sw) SBACD 12655/6
Booker T. blues          Jefferson(Sw) SBACD 12655/6
I?m a lonely man         Jefferson(Sw) SBACD 12655/6
I?m gonna hit this
           old highway   unissued
Mama don?t allow (tk 2)   Jefferson(Sw) SBACD 12658/9
I?ve been treated wrong    Jefferson(Sw)  SBACD 12655/6

Photos taken of them by Helander appear in Jefferson 66,  Summer 1984 p. 15 & 16.

[CF]

Thanks Bunker . . . . I did notice Broonzy didn't seem to be present on some of those tracks, thanks for the clarification.
'All By Myself' . . . . from Swedish recordings . . . . is that Big Bill on guitar & backing vocal?

[Bunker Hill]

'All By Myself' . . . . from Swedish recordings . . . . is that Big Bill on guitar & backing vocal?

Argh, that'll teach me to make assumptions. Can't be the Helander recording, BBB not around in 1964.

I've now done what I should have in the first place - listen to the Chess version which is what it is!

BTW The 1964 version is really good, both Sam and John Davis are in top form.