Topic: Memphis Country Blues - Help!

[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.