I've been asked by somebody researching 70s specialist blues labels to excavate and scan this, so thought it might find an audeince here (From Blues-Link 3, Jan/Feb 1974, p.31-33):
Trix is walkin? some more
an Interview with the indefatigable Pete Lowry
by Valerie Wilmer
To some blues fanciers, the idea of devoting all one's time to running around the South with a tape-recorder and an ear for the righteous sounds, might well seem like a dream existence. It's hardly a way of making a living, though. To make a viable proposition of such activity, needs determination and stamina, qualities that Pete Lowry has in abundance.
Shortly, the first batch of Lowry's Trix LPs will be on the market. Eddie Kirkland, Peg Leg Sam, Frank Edwards and Henry 'Rufe' Johnson will be featured and, says Lowry, "The advertising accompanying these issues will be aimed to capitalise on the popularity of such as Fahey, Kottke and Taj Mahal. Essentially it'll say, 'If you happen to be listening to these people why don't you buy my records because these are the people they're stealing from'. I reckon that anything's fair in love, war and advertising!"
Lowry's activities in the Carolinas and Georgia have been well publicised in BU and Living Blues, but his special interest in the Piedmont area and style is relatively recent. It started when he was driving Bruce Bastin around the area in 1970 while the latter was collecting material for his Crying For The Carolines. Lowry felt that he ought to do a little more than act as a mere chauffeur and general sightseer.
"I think without realising it, too, I'd been into that region. I'd always liked Willie McTell's stuff, Curley Weaver and Blind Boy Fuller, so I bought a tape-recorder and a couple of microphones and was fortunate in getting a good match."
The first Trix singles appeared just over a year ago and Lowry anticipates his second batch of four albums in six month's time. They will feature Robert Junior Lockwood, Willy Trice, either Guitar Shorty or Tarheel Slim, and the first volume from some extensive taping he did at an after-hours piano joint in Detroit last year.
Lowry, who gave up a secure teaching job in order to pursue his first love, claims he was never surprised at the amount and quality of blues that the South continues to yield with a little exploration. "I never really believed all that stuff about the blues being dead," he said, "As with other celebrities who said 'my death has been greatly exaggerated', so the blues. I think it's been submerged beneath the overlay of modern black pop music, but hell?you go down through Georgia and the Carolinas and there's still country-suppers. Peg Leg Sam still goes around busking in the streets, blowing his harp and collecting quarters and dollars."
One of the Trix singles artists was the little known Roy Dunn, who lives in Atlanta. "Just to show you how the music has been submerged, I've given Roy Dunn 200 copies of his 45 and he's sold damn near all of them, just around Atlanta. And people have said 'gee, that's kind of nice?I always wondered why I couldn't buy records like I used to'. "
Lowry will be back from his third field trip in 12 months at the end of the year. He does all his travelling by Volkswagen bus, accompanied by a faithful hound and no less than eight guitars. One such trip lasted five months and netted enough material for 20 albums, all of which he will be processing himself. "I said, 'Christ, I've got an awful lot of stuff here?there's no sense in farting around with other people, I'll do it myself."
The guitars are needed because often the people he encounters have not played for a while or else their existing instrument may be in bad shape, rattling or buzzing. "I've always tried to keep a clean sound on my recordings unlike most of the so-called field work," said Pete. "I'm sort of in-between. I'm not just an out-and-out field recorder, nor do I use a studio as such. I usually say that the best sound-quality stuff I do is sort of in a Holiday Inn recording studio in whatever town I happen to be staying. You know, if it's not too cool where they're living or something, we go back to the hotel room. There's a beautiful Baby Tate tape I've got that's got a bloody dog barking in the middle for about a minute. It's an exquisite piece, too."
Of all the artists he has recorded, Eddie Kirkland impressed his as the most dynamic on stage. From Frank Edwards, who recorded for Savoy in 1950, he derived enormous satisfaction, because of the rapport they were able to build up. "He believes that I am what I am. The LP I'm going to put out is70-80% new stuff he's written for me. Chris Strachwitz sent him some royalties from the two cuts that were on Blues Classics, he bought a guitar with it and spent three months writing songs for me."
Lowry has the talent for inspiring that kind of respect in Black singers and musicians. He is obviously in their corner and not trying to steal from them. He pays everyone, very fairly for whatever he records and whatever the records sell, and from talking to 'his' artists I have discovered any number of great personal kindnesses.
Baby Tate was one of his closest musician friends and his untimely death last year grieved Lowry considerably. "My plan last Summer was to really record him in depth," he explained. " He was just an incredible person and a wonderful person to deal with. I can't say I'm satisfied with what I've got on tape because I know he could do three times more and a lot better. But just having been around him and dealt with him and lived with him, there's a degree of satisfaction."
Of the other artists he came across in the South-East, Henry 'Rufe' Johnson he describes as providing the biggest surprise. "I feel he's the best finger-picking blues artist I've heard in five or ten years. He's from Union City, S. Carolina. Peg Leg Sam had mentioned him and I figured that if so, he can't be bad because normally he's pretty choosy about who he works with."
And Peg Leg Sam he taped at a medicine-show in Pittsboro, North Carolina, which was also video-taped by the folklore department of the University of North Carolina, courtesy of Bruce Bastin. "Most of the artists we have been recording have been put on video-tape, too, which I think is helpful. And Flyright's going to be putting out my tapes of the medicine show as well as tapes of the concert that Bruce put on in March. " (This concert, incidentally, featured Guitar Shorty, Willy Trice, Henry Johnson, Elester Anderson and Eddie Kirkland amongst others and can be heard on Flyright's "Blues Came to Chapel Hill").
Lowry explained that all his Trix albums will be solo efforts by the artists concerned because anthologies are the worst selling type of LP to put out. "I don't know why this is but it is a reason why I'm not bothered about putting out an album by a relatively unknown artist. It just doesn't make any difference in terms of sales."
Even given the positive flood of blues albums available, he feels that Trix has a better than average chance of succeeding by virtue of the area in which his interest is currently concentrated. "This slightly ragtime-based kind of guitar is what a lot of white people are playing and listening to," he explained. "I'm trying to hook on to that because it is the essence of the Piedmont style."
Lowry described himself as a strange mixture of realism and altruism: "Realism in that I know I'm not going to get rich. I'll be lucky if I break even, but I've met an awful lot of good people, a lot of good musicians, and dammit?they should be heard. It's that simple."
"I'm in a position now where I've got the money to put out material and push it a bit, and hopefully I'll realise enough sales to keep the whole thing going. But it's just criminal that say, Eddie Kirkland is wasting away in Macon, Georgia, and that Baby Tate had to work as a bricklayer?you know?"
So?Trix is walking some more and if you want to support the effort or find out more about what's going on, write to Pete Lowry at P.O. Box 750, New Paltz, N.Y. 12561, USA. Albums are expected to be around $6 (post paid), plus another 50 cents or so for overseas, and you can grab hold of the six introductory singles for a mere 5 bucks.
Trix is walkin? some more
an Interview with the indefatigable Pete Lowry
by Valerie Wilmer
To some blues fanciers, the idea of devoting all one's time to running around the South with a tape-recorder and an ear for the righteous sounds, might well seem like a dream existence. It's hardly a way of making a living, though. To make a viable proposition of such activity, needs determination and stamina, qualities that Pete Lowry has in abundance.
Shortly, the first batch of Lowry's Trix LPs will be on the market. Eddie Kirkland, Peg Leg Sam, Frank Edwards and Henry 'Rufe' Johnson will be featured and, says Lowry, "The advertising accompanying these issues will be aimed to capitalise on the popularity of such as Fahey, Kottke and Taj Mahal. Essentially it'll say, 'If you happen to be listening to these people why don't you buy my records because these are the people they're stealing from'. I reckon that anything's fair in love, war and advertising!"
Lowry's activities in the Carolinas and Georgia have been well publicised in BU and Living Blues, but his special interest in the Piedmont area and style is relatively recent. It started when he was driving Bruce Bastin around the area in 1970 while the latter was collecting material for his Crying For The Carolines. Lowry felt that he ought to do a little more than act as a mere chauffeur and general sightseer.
"I think without realising it, too, I'd been into that region. I'd always liked Willie McTell's stuff, Curley Weaver and Blind Boy Fuller, so I bought a tape-recorder and a couple of microphones and was fortunate in getting a good match."
The first Trix singles appeared just over a year ago and Lowry anticipates his second batch of four albums in six month's time. They will feature Robert Junior Lockwood, Willy Trice, either Guitar Shorty or Tarheel Slim, and the first volume from some extensive taping he did at an after-hours piano joint in Detroit last year.
Lowry, who gave up a secure teaching job in order to pursue his first love, claims he was never surprised at the amount and quality of blues that the South continues to yield with a little exploration. "I never really believed all that stuff about the blues being dead," he said, "As with other celebrities who said 'my death has been greatly exaggerated', so the blues. I think it's been submerged beneath the overlay of modern black pop music, but hell?you go down through Georgia and the Carolinas and there's still country-suppers. Peg Leg Sam still goes around busking in the streets, blowing his harp and collecting quarters and dollars."
One of the Trix singles artists was the little known Roy Dunn, who lives in Atlanta. "Just to show you how the music has been submerged, I've given Roy Dunn 200 copies of his 45 and he's sold damn near all of them, just around Atlanta. And people have said 'gee, that's kind of nice?I always wondered why I couldn't buy records like I used to'. "
Lowry will be back from his third field trip in 12 months at the end of the year. He does all his travelling by Volkswagen bus, accompanied by a faithful hound and no less than eight guitars. One such trip lasted five months and netted enough material for 20 albums, all of which he will be processing himself. "I said, 'Christ, I've got an awful lot of stuff here?there's no sense in farting around with other people, I'll do it myself."
The guitars are needed because often the people he encounters have not played for a while or else their existing instrument may be in bad shape, rattling or buzzing. "I've always tried to keep a clean sound on my recordings unlike most of the so-called field work," said Pete. "I'm sort of in-between. I'm not just an out-and-out field recorder, nor do I use a studio as such. I usually say that the best sound-quality stuff I do is sort of in a Holiday Inn recording studio in whatever town I happen to be staying. You know, if it's not too cool where they're living or something, we go back to the hotel room. There's a beautiful Baby Tate tape I've got that's got a bloody dog barking in the middle for about a minute. It's an exquisite piece, too."
Of all the artists he has recorded, Eddie Kirkland impressed his as the most dynamic on stage. From Frank Edwards, who recorded for Savoy in 1950, he derived enormous satisfaction, because of the rapport they were able to build up. "He believes that I am what I am. The LP I'm going to put out is70-80% new stuff he's written for me. Chris Strachwitz sent him some royalties from the two cuts that were on Blues Classics, he bought a guitar with it and spent three months writing songs for me."
Lowry has the talent for inspiring that kind of respect in Black singers and musicians. He is obviously in their corner and not trying to steal from them. He pays everyone, very fairly for whatever he records and whatever the records sell, and from talking to 'his' artists I have discovered any number of great personal kindnesses.
Baby Tate was one of his closest musician friends and his untimely death last year grieved Lowry considerably. "My plan last Summer was to really record him in depth," he explained. " He was just an incredible person and a wonderful person to deal with. I can't say I'm satisfied with what I've got on tape because I know he could do three times more and a lot better. But just having been around him and dealt with him and lived with him, there's a degree of satisfaction."
Of the other artists he came across in the South-East, Henry 'Rufe' Johnson he describes as providing the biggest surprise. "I feel he's the best finger-picking blues artist I've heard in five or ten years. He's from Union City, S. Carolina. Peg Leg Sam had mentioned him and I figured that if so, he can't be bad because normally he's pretty choosy about who he works with."
And Peg Leg Sam he taped at a medicine-show in Pittsboro, North Carolina, which was also video-taped by the folklore department of the University of North Carolina, courtesy of Bruce Bastin. "Most of the artists we have been recording have been put on video-tape, too, which I think is helpful. And Flyright's going to be putting out my tapes of the medicine show as well as tapes of the concert that Bruce put on in March. " (This concert, incidentally, featured Guitar Shorty, Willy Trice, Henry Johnson, Elester Anderson and Eddie Kirkland amongst others and can be heard on Flyright's "Blues Came to Chapel Hill").
Lowry explained that all his Trix albums will be solo efforts by the artists concerned because anthologies are the worst selling type of LP to put out. "I don't know why this is but it is a reason why I'm not bothered about putting out an album by a relatively unknown artist. It just doesn't make any difference in terms of sales."
Even given the positive flood of blues albums available, he feels that Trix has a better than average chance of succeeding by virtue of the area in which his interest is currently concentrated. "This slightly ragtime-based kind of guitar is what a lot of white people are playing and listening to," he explained. "I'm trying to hook on to that because it is the essence of the Piedmont style."
Lowry described himself as a strange mixture of realism and altruism: "Realism in that I know I'm not going to get rich. I'll be lucky if I break even, but I've met an awful lot of good people, a lot of good musicians, and dammit?they should be heard. It's that simple."
"I'm in a position now where I've got the money to put out material and push it a bit, and hopefully I'll realise enough sales to keep the whole thing going. But it's just criminal that say, Eddie Kirkland is wasting away in Macon, Georgia, and that Baby Tate had to work as a bricklayer?you know?"
So?Trix is walking some more and if you want to support the effort or find out more about what's going on, write to Pete Lowry at P.O. Box 750, New Paltz, N.Y. 12561, USA. Albums are expected to be around $6 (post paid), plus another 50 cents or so for overseas, and you can grab hold of the six introductory singles for a mere 5 bucks.