Topic: King Solomon Hill

[CF]

Hill (Joe Holmes) has 8 surviving recordings from a January 1932 session:

Whoopee Blues Takes 1&2
Down On My Bended Knee Takes 1&2
My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon
Gone Dead Train
Tell Me Baby
Times Has Done Got Hard

I unfortunately do not have the songs with the multiple takes but have the other four from JSP MS Rare Cuts box & some mp3s . . . These are among the most sublime prewar blues recordings. Hill plays a very erratic & expressive slide & sings with a high, almost piercing falsetto. He tends to play in one chord which sounds to me to be in standard tuning down as low as a slightly sharp D up to F & possibly played out of an E position (someone can correct me here)? Hill's picked bass notes have a peculiarly hard sound. My favourite tune would have to be his tribute to Blind Lemon Jefferson, 'My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon'. Hill was definitely influenced by Jefferson & 'My Buddy' seems to be an  idiosyncratic reworking of Lemon's 'Gone Dead on You Blues'.
He achieves a very ominous sound with a deeply 'free-form'-seeming attack. It is highly stimulating music, consciousness-expanding almost. Anyone else a fan of this woefully underrecorded artist? Like I said I do not own & do not remember ever hearing the 2 takes of Whoopee Blues & Down on Bended Knee: I wonder if perhaps they are played in the same way as his other tunes & maybe he was a highly creative but one-trick pony . . . ?

[Mr.OMuck]

Gone Dead Train was on of the first country blues I heard and has remained a high water mark for the mysterious, unnerving and timeless quality that Blues can sometimes have. I rate him right in the first rank of ODBG (old dead blues guys).

[banjochris]

The other take of Down on My Bended Knee is very similar, just a more whupped record. One take of Whoopee Blues is sung in falsetto, the other isn't. Guitar parts are similar. I believe he's playing out of Vestapol on all his sides, with the pitch varying from tune to tune.
Chris

[Cooljack]

King Solomon Hill is in my opinion the most "Mysterious" of all the pre war musicians, I often like to direct the RJ nuts to him that you encounter as an example of what a truley obscure and mysterious blues musician sounds like. The Alternate takes are very poor quality sound wise (even for pre-war recordings) though they are still quite valuable in my opinion. I've always found it interesting to compare his style to Sam Collins (who he is known to have played with, though not recorded which is a shame) aswell as with Blind Lemon (who he also duo'd with I believe)

[Coyote Slim]

What little I've heard I've loved.

[Bricktown Bob]

Hill (Joe Holmes) has 8 surviving recordings from a January 1932 session:

Whoopee Blues Takes 1&2
Down On My Bended Knee Takes 1&2
My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon
Gone Dead Train
Tell Me Baby
Times Has Done Got Hard

I unfortunately do not have the songs with the multiple takes but have the other four from JSP MS Rare Cuts box & some mp3s . . .

MS Rare Cuts has three, as you know; Paramount Masters (JSP7723) has the other three (Whoopee Blues, Down on My Bended Knee, Gone Dead Train).  No alternative takes, though.

Great stuff.  Agreed about Sam Collins.  Hearing out of the corner of my ear: is that Sam Collins?  No, it's King Solomon Hill!

[blueshome]

I'm currently working on "Tell Me Baby" and agree with BChris that he plays in Vestapol (at around E in this case).
This song is quite interesting as it is like a prototype for Sleepy John's "Easing back to Tennessee"  Maybe another weenie has heard an older version as it's clear that Joe was no stranger to recordings given that "Whoopee" is a lift from Lonnie Johnson.

[poymando]

I'll chime in for King Solomon Hill as well. One of my favorite blues artists.

[banjochris]

I'm currently working on "Tell Me Baby" and agree with BChris that he plays in Vestapol (at around E in this case).
This song is quite interesting as it is like a prototype for Sleepy John's "Easing back to Tennessee"  Maybe another weenie has heard an older version as it's clear that Joe was no stranger to recordings given that "Whoopee" is a lift from Lonnie Johnson.

I think "Tell Me Baby" is a cover of Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe's "What Fault You Find Of Me?" Again, Hill lifts the lyrics but not the guitar part.
Chris

[uncle bud]

I know I may sound like a broken record on this lately, but it's still worth pointing out that the versions of The Gone Dead Train and Tell Me Baby on the now deleted Yazoo title "Don't Leave Me Here: the Blues of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana" is waaay better than the versions to be found on JSP or Document. Gone Dead Train is now found on Yazoo's "The Best There Ever Was", Yazoo 3002, and I assume it's the same transfer (or better). 

[Buzz]

KSH ... quite a guy.
What a haunting sound...when I first heard it, I was knocked out!
Great to have all these appreciative listeners. Great to note other sources of good recordings, too, thanks all...

"KNOCK<KNOCK< KNOCK...Who can THAt Be?...must be the Rent Man... mumblemumble" 

Buzz

[banjochris]

There's an excellent transfer of "Down on My Bended Knee" on one of the Yazoo "Rose Grew Around the Briar" sets.
Chris

[MTJ3]

"Mysterious"?  Check out Gayle Dean Wardlow's writing on him in his prololgue in Chasin' That Devil Music.  IMHO, everybody interested in "country blues" should own or read this book.  It is a wonderful resource.

[downthedirtroad]

The transfer of "Gone Dead Train" on "The Best That Ever Was" (Yazoo 3002) is amazing, to my ears.  Any opinions on the alternate version of "Whoopee Blues" on the Yazoo "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" compilation?  Indeed, it is pretty whupped, but refreshing to hear a whole new angle on the song after hearing the falsetto'ed version for so many years.

BTW, is there any versions available of "Tell Me Baby" that can be acquired, besides the version on Document's "Backwoods Blues"?

I know this is somewhat unrelated, but I have been hoping (in vain) that Yazoo will reissue their early 90s Sam Collins comp, remastered, with the 6 King Solomon Hill tracks as a bonus (like the Origin Jazz Library edition), in the vein of the recent Skip James reissue.  I hope that Rich will be able to get that company back up and running, as I felt that their recent releases (those in the last 5-6 years) were superb.

[Stefan Wirz]

may be 'redoubtable'  but there's a King Solomon Hill discography
Stefan