Topic: Mystery Blues Photo

[Johnm]

Let's have corroboration of Clyde Stewart's existence from a living collector, say Joe Bussard, or scholar, say David Evans or Gayle Dean Wardlow, citing Clyde's recorded titles, the company, date of release, et al.  Pending receipt of same, I'd say Clyde is a fictional creation concocted for a practical joke on the Weenie site.  

[lkn2myis]

All I can tell you is what I remember, and that is from years ago.   

Unless those people were putting me on, I always believed that he existed.  Can't show you a book he's in or show
you a record he produced, I can only tell you what my memory tells me.

Either way, we still don't know for sure who's in the photo.  I'm guessing it could be anyone.

[TonyGilroy]

No one seems prepared to say it so I will.

There is no Clyde Stewart.

Actually of course there are probably lots of Clyde Stewarts. Some may even play guitar and conceivably look like the gent in the photo but there is no Clyde Stewart who recorded for Vocalion or any other company pre war.

Being completely ungullible I sussed this instantly and have had this confirmed by hours of tedious googling.

[lkn2myis]

I can only go by what I remembered when I was young.

I'm sure there are many players who didn't have a 'formal' record of their existence, but they did indeed
live and play and contribute. Not famous enough, probably. Doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Believe what you want. Doesn't matter.

Back to the OP - who's the leaders for being in the photo?

[Lyle Stewart]

No one seems prepared to say it so I will.

There is no Clyde Stewart.

Actually of course there are probably lots of Clyde Stewarts. Some may even play guitar and conceivably look like the gent in the photo but there is no Clyde Stewart who recorded for Vocalion or any other company pre war.

Being completely ungullible I sussed this instantly and have had this confirmed by hours of tedious googling.

Maybe during your hours of tedious googling you should have spent a few minutes over at Toby Walker's website.  I did just that yesterday.  He is a seriously accomplished acoustic blues musician who has collected accolades from, and played alongside some very heavy hitters.  It is impossible for me to believe that he concocted some BS story just for entertainment purposes.  He has a reputation and a career in blues music, as well as over 30 years of traveling throughout the southern US and living the blues music life.  I don't know too many folks who would risk that for a hoax.

As for the original photo, heaven forbid it's someone Tony Gilroy never heard of.  It had better be someone really googleable or this poor guys head might explode.

[TonyGilroy]

You seem more angry than you need.

I'm sure the photo is genuine and it is more than likely of people who never recorded.

I do not believe that a Clyde Stewart recorded pre war.

[Slack]

Lyle (or whatever your real name is),

As I said, I'd love to be proven wrong - but so far it looks like a hoax, or an attempted one anyway. Several problems with this Clyde Stewart diversion... the biggest, IMO, being a claim that a 78 was in possession of Bernie.  The other being that the "lkn2myyis" - the email used by this account is a known friend of Tobys.  I imagine you are too.  Brand new IDs confirming unknown bluesman -- hmmm?

I don't think it is unfair for a forum, whose knowledge runs wide and deep, to ask for proof of a bluesman, a fantastic guitar player, who was recorded, and whose recording is in possession of a blues researcher/historian.... and that no one has ever heard before.  Imagine that?

Bottom line is that folks don't like their time being wasted and you all have done nothing to provide any credibility.  Not good. 

[dj]

Let's have corroboration of Clyde Stewart's existence from a living collector, say Joe Bussard...

Interesting thought:  Could Joe Bussard be responsible for "Clyde Stewart"?  In other words, did Fonotone ever release a 78 of John Fahey or Mike Stewart or some other young guy under the pseudonym of "Clyde Stewart"?  I doubt that the world will ever see a complete Fonotone discography, since Joe was pressing them up in his basement.  But that whole crew certainly did like to make up phony artists complete with biographical details and photos.  See Fahey as Blind Joe Death, illustrated with a photo of Joe Taggart, as the most famous example.  Klatzko certainly could have had some Fonotones and enjoyed the odd joke.

Who knows? 

I'd be interested in any further discussion of the photograph that started this thread, but I'm done with Clyde Stewart.   

[Lyle Stewart]

Slack,

I jumped on to this forum for exactly that reason you stated.  The folks on here are extremely knowledgeable.  My hope was they could help me get info I was looking for because of this breadth of knowledge.  As dj said in a later post, maybe it was an odd joked hatched many years ago.  I have no idea.  If Stewart is a hoax, then I have surely been played as well.  I am not here to waste anyone's time.  If anyone feels that I did, than I apologize.  I was just hoping that folks with much greater knowledge and much greater resources than I have, could shed some light for me.

As dj said, I'd certainly be interested in some additional discussion of the original photo that started this thread, and I too am done with Clyde Stewart.

[Slack]

Thanks Lyle, appreciate it.

[Parlor Picker]

I like the stories about John Fahey pressing up recordings of himself on 78 records, scratching and distressing them and then slipping them into the bins in a thrift shop for some unsuspecting collector to find.

Oh, well who cares about Clyde Stewart? I'm off to listen to my 78s by Deaf Boy Smedley and Caught Short Williamson...

[lkn2myis]

Sorry, but I'm done.

I do know Toby, which is what drew me to this sight.  He is an encyclopedia of the blues in my mind, and when I saw his post, I felt someone was coming up with something that I had only thought I had heard of.  No ill intent meant by any means.  I'll eMail him privately and talk about it, not a problem.

If this caused people to 'waste their time', you have my apologies. That was certainly not my intent. 

I'm always interested in finding out more information about the blues, and if there is none about this topic her, so be it.  Not a problem.

[Stuart]

Absence of evidence isn't necessarily evidence of absence, as the old saying goes. There are musicians on some of the reissue compilations about who nothing is known. And there were musicians who only cut a few sides or never were recorded, as well as records that remained undiscovered, such as the Blind Blake 78 that turned up a couple of years ago. So it's possible that Clyde Stewart recorded a couple of sides, but never had a high enough profile so that his records and his name were in wide circulation, regardless of his talents.

We've all seen spoofs, so it's pretty much a case of buyer beware in situations like this around here. We're predisposed to be skeptical. But sometimes the unlikely and unsupported turns out to be true. I'm willing to give Toby (as well as the others) the benefit of the doubt on this one as I don't think he would be foolish enough to waste his own time. There are more important things to do.

It's possible that someone on the PWBG list has some info on Clyde Stewart, so it might be worth a post.

[oddenda]

It's probably a photo of The Big Sunflower of fame and legend.

pbl

[Stefan Wirz]

didn't Clyde Stewart do the "answer" song "Drop Up Mama" to the 1935 Sleepy John Estes song "Drop Down Mama" ?
I regrettably only have a label pic of the British Brunswick 03565, not of the original record on Champion ...