Topic: YouTube.com - Interesting Country Blues related video clips

[Slack]

Stewart... too cool!  Thanks for posting those links!

[harriet]

Memphis 1969 Festival Youtube Premiere on Aug 6 - just announced by Fat Possum.
Seems the clip is programmed so you have to see it on youtube (the link at the bottom not the arrow)

[Parlor Picker]

Great to see the Memphis '69 film features my late lamented friend, Jo-Ann Kelly (as well as all the other greats of course).

[jpeters609]

I wish Mike Vernon (or someone) had pulled Robert Wilkins & Family into the studio at this time. Their 3 or 4 songs from the festival are a joy to listen to. Can't wait to see the whole doc!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
This posting of post-war Texas player Manny Nichols came up on my youtube feed this morning. I sure like his rough sound on "Forgive Me".
All best,
Johnm

[dj]

Wow.  I've never heard, or heard of, Manny Nichols.  I see he had one 8 song session at ACA studio in Huston in 1949.  Two of the titles came out on the FBC label, 4 on Imperial, and the other 2, including Forgive Me, were unissued at the time.

It's nice to know that there are gems out there still to be discovered.

[Johnm]

Thanks for that information on Manny Nichols, dj. I had found and posted a song of his, "Tall, Skinny Woman Blues", in the Miller's Breakdown thread a couple of years ago but don't know if I had ever heard another tune by him. I agree with you--it's really neat to hear unfamiliar players who were so strong and distinctive in what they did. So much of what determined how many titles a player ended up recording (or whether he/she was recorded at all) was beyond the player's control, like when and where you lived, whether the record company could do anything to promote your records, whether anyone who could help you get recorded ever heard you, whether what you did was out of step with its era, etc.

Two really expert players who I think got sand-bagged by where they fell in time were Gabriel Brown and Ralph Willis, both really strong East Coast players who arrived at musical maturity at a time when solo blues playing had fallen out of favor in the record business and for the record-buying public. Those two had the misfortune to fall in between the first sort of "golden age" for solo blues players and the '60s rediscovery period. So much of what happens in life is luck and timing.
all best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
This one came up in my youtube feed this morning, and I believe it had just been posted. Howlin' Wolf doing "Saddle Up My Pony". I'd never heard it before--I just wish it was longer.
All best,
Johnm

[Stuart]

Hi John:

Thanks for the post. I have it on Disc Six, "Charley's Orbit," in the Revenant release, "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues."

It was released as Chess 1515 and was recorded at the Memphis Recording Service Studios (later Sun Records) by Sam Phillips on April 17, 1952.

Howlin' Wolf - Voice and Guitar
James Cotton - Harmonica
William Johnson - Piano
Willie Johnson - Guitar
Willie Steele - Drums
Bass - Unknown

I was looking around and ran across this page:

http://www.boija.com/skivor/presun/presun.htm

FYI:

[Lignite]

I am fortunate to own a copy of this very early Wolf release that I acquired back in the early 1970s. It has always been reported to have been a very young James Cotton playing the (not very good) harmonica on this track but I read somewhere else that it is Willie Johnson trying out his harp chops with the Howlin' Wolf playing the guitar. This makes sense to me.

[Stuart]

Hi Lightnin':

I got the session info from the notes to the song in the Revenant set.

It's great that you have an original copy. In a world where all too often the priceless is deemed worthless and the worthless, priceless, it's a good reminder of where real value lies.

[Johnm]

Thanks for that alternate information on the harp playing on the record, Lightnin'. I found it very difficult to believe it was James Cotton playing it, however young he may have been. What you propose seems more likely to me, too. Congratulations on having the record, too!
All best,
Johnm

[dj]

It's possible that James Cotton hadn't developed his harmonica playing very much when he played on Saddle My Pony.  Note that Cotton played no harmonica on the 4 titles he recorded for Sun in 1953/54.

A quick search through the Fancourt/McGrath post-war discography shows that, assuming that really is Cotton playing on Saddle My Pony, his harmonica wouldn't appear again on record until he played on a Little Mack Simmons session inn 1959.

[dj]

Right after recording Saddle My Pony, the same group of musicians recorded Dorothy Mae.  If that is indeed James Cotton on harmonica, you can see why it would be 7 years until he played it on another record.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
This track just came up on my youtube feed, ostensibly of Arthur Crudup doing "Make A Little Love". I would contend that it is not Arthur Crudup, either singing or playing. Anybody have any other plausible candidates for who is actually performing the song?
All best,
Johnm