Topic: The Sherlock of Shellac: John Tefteller (YouTube Video)

[Stuart]

Here's the link:

[Blues Vintage]

Thanks Stuart. The blues world really should be thankful to John finding those records.
He must be sitting on fortune too (or should I say he spend a fortune?) 75,000 - King Solomon Hill 78. 75,000 to 100,000 - "Crossroads Blues" 78. Will only go up in value.
A test pressing from Robert Johnson too -I've heard rumors that Mack McCormick had one (test pressing of a unreleased RJ song) or knew it's whereabouts.
Anyway some great stuff here. Good to know he raised the Willie Brown bounty from 25k to 75k or more.

[MarkC]

Thanks Stuart. Very interesting and well done.

Does anyone recognize the song that’s playing during the last 90 seconds, starting around 32:22?

[Blues Vintage]

Does anyone recognize the song that’s playing during the last 90 seconds, starting around 32:22?

I wondered about that too. Sounds a bit like Robert Lockwood Junior style but it ain't him probably.

[MarkC]

Blues Vintage - thanks for the suggestion, it sounds a lot like Lockwood. I was wondering if they stripped the vocal out - 90 seconds or so is a long stretch, IMHO this song doesn’t sound like an instrumental, but I might be wrong. I listened to Lockwood’s four 1941 sides but couldn’t match it (I don’t know if there were any alternative takes). Sounded closest to “Little Boy Blue.”

[MarkC]

Kasino responded to my YouTube comment that it is Little Boy Blue.

[Johnm]

Hi Mark,
It's not Robert Lockwood's '40s recording of "Little Boy Blue", which was played in Spanish tuning with a slide, very much a la Robert Johnson. Nor is it any of the later versions by Lockwood up on YouTube. Did they identify which version it is?

[MarkC]

Hi John -

He didn’t say, I’ll ask if he has more info.

Note that I emailed John Tefteller first. He didn’t remember, and recommended I post a comment on YouTube. I don’t know if anyone here knows Tefteller, but if they do maybe Tefteller can pin it down once he knows what song it is.

[Blues Vintage]

It's Little Boy Blue by Blues Boy Bill.  Vol. 17 from Tefteller's Blues Images.

[Blues Vintage]

Blues Boy Bill recorded one 78. Or they found one? Two songs in the Lockwood style. Same lyrics too.
Even if he's a copycat and messed up the ending on "Little Boy Blue" (or the engineer signaled his time was up as he went over the 3 minutes) I'd say he's an excellent player/singer.

Big Road Blues Show 11/17/19: Restorin’ The Blues – Music & Conversation With John Tefteller

https://sundayblues.org/?tag=blues-boy-bill

[MarkC]

Thanks for the link Blues Vintage. I like his version too.

[BrettZ]

Thanks all, this is great to see.  I have a decent collection of old 78's as well (very few pristine but some great 20's and 30's Country Blues artists).  I was wondering what the masses here thought about the new AI technology and its ability to 'clean up' distortion, background noise, etc...I love the hiss and crackles on my old records but I think I would also be quite intrigued to hear some of those old rare songs with the vocals and guitar bright and clean without any surface or background noise. 

Just curious what everyone's thoughts are.  Thanks!

[Blues Vintage]

Those clean up techniques usuallly suck the life out of the recording. I like those vintage records just as they are.

[Hamhound]

Thanks, I would've missed in the wild I'm sure.

It all ends up sounding a bit grim and obsessive, the absolute total devotion to nothing but trading records for a living - also for a hobby.
And his comment "I don't really have an emotional connection to this music" seems sort of sad.  He goes on to say right after that words to the effect that it's not his culture and he has no right to appropriate it, which is true and maybe is what he meant about lack of emotional connection 

"When The Levee Breaks which originally a song done by Memphis Minnie" - cue male voice [Joe McCoy] singing "If it keeps on raining levee gonna break.."  Grrr.

[Stuart]

For some reason this came up on the YT sidebar when I was looking for something totally unrelated:

RECORDS: THE NEXT BIG COLLECTIBLE presented by John Tefteller



Also as an FYI:

https://www.youtube.com/@arscaudio

[Hamhound]

Thanks Stuart.

It's interesting, but - as I decided at around the 19 min mark - peripherally interesting.
I have a couple of thousand or so records, and I love em - but I don't love them quite enough perhaps, as some do - and on reflection, I would hate to earn my living buying and selling them.

Nevertheless - what John Tefteller has done with his own blues 78s in transcribing them and reissuing with his calendars is just the most awesome achievement and a kind of 'reverse' of the hoarding collector mentality in some ways - it's totally laudable.
Instead of being all like "Ah but my copy of Fence Breakin’ Yellin’ Blues sounds better than than all the others you've ever heard, so lucky me" - instead he's been like, "And.... here it is on the new CD - Enjoy, for only a few bucks".

And that has just been an awesome approach he's taken there
And I think the blues listening world owes him a debt of gratitude.

   
   

[Rivers]

And I think the blues listening world owes him a debt of gratitude.

Absolutely.