"Smoky Babe--Way Back In The Country Blues--The Lost Dr. Oster Recordings"--Arhoolie CD 548: 1) Boss Man Blues 2) Backyard Boogie 3) Bad Luck And Trouble 4) Diggin' My Potatoes 5) What's Wrong With You 6) Chicago Bound 7) If I Had Listened To What My Mama Say 8 ) On Mr. Walter's Farm 9) I'm Goin' Home On The Morning Train 10) I'm Goin' Away Baby 11) Way Back In The Country Blues 12) Shake Shake Mattie 13) I'm Wild About You, Black Gal 14) Arkansas Blues 15) Terraplane Blues 16) Goin' Home Blues 17) Boogie Gal
This CD was released around 2014--2015, and made a significant addition to the recorded legacy of Robert "Smoky Babe" Brown. The history leading up to its release is interesting, for it sheds some light on the happenstances that can prevent perfectly good recordings from being released in a timely fashion. Dr. Harry Oster first met and heard Smoky Babe at a party in Scotlandville, Louisiana in 1960, and realized that Smoky Babe had a musical style and presence that people outside of his circle needed to hear. The resulting recordings of that meeting were "Louisiana Blues", originally released on Dr. Oster's Folk Lyric label, and eventually sold to Arhoolie, winding up on a CD split between Smoky Babe and Herman E. Johnson, and "Hottest Brand Goin'", which wound up on Prestige-Bluesville. These two records, along with a couple of scattered tracks on "Country Negro Jam Session" on Arhoolie, gained a reputation among serious fans of Country Blues as some of the strongest singing and playing by a present-day player working in the style, with an incredibly infectious rhythm and energy. Smoky Babe's allure was increased by the fact that he never made it onto festival or coffee house stages in the 1960s, and so remained a figure of some mystery.
Dr. Oster sold his recordings to Arhoolie in 1970. In 2001, upon Dr. Oster's death, his widow sent the remaining tapes in his collection to Arhoolie. In the course of putting together a collection of Dr. Oster's recordings in the early 2000 teens, Chris Strachwitz noticed that there were recordings of Smoky Babe listed in Dr. Oster's inventory that he (Chris) did not have in his possession. He contacted Dr. Oster's widow and received another box of tapes, among which were the recordings that ended up comprising this CD. They evidently had been made in between Dr. Oster's "discovery" of Smoky Babe in 1960 and August of 1961, when Dr. Oster and Smoky Babe made a trip to Vance, Mississippi to visit Smoky Babe's mother, Annie. One can see what a slender chain of circumstance led to these recordings being re-discovered and finally issued.
First, the good news: the music on this CD is in no way inferior or a step down from the previously-issued Smoky Babe material on "Louisiana Blues" and "Hottest Brand Goin'". It has, perhaps, a more controlled sound than does the music on "Hottest Brand Goin'", but if that is the case, it may also be said to have more spot-on execution in the playing. All but two of the tracks on the CD were played by Smoky Babe in Spanish tuning, of which he was a major stylist. There are a couple of covers in the program--"Diggin' My Potatoes", "I'm Goin' Home On The Morning Train" and "Terraplane Blues", but for the most part, Smoky Babe was playing his own material and songs. A couple of his songs, "Boss Man Blues" and "On Mr. Walter's Farm", bring to mind Charlie Patton's propensity for peopling his songs with personal acquaintances. A host of the other songs evince a quality that Smoky Babe seems to have shared with Henry Townsend: the ability to make up original blues lyrics speaking to and of his life, if not on the spot, than at least very quickly. There are a couple of dance numbers, "Backyard Boogie" and "Boogie Gal" that testify to Smoky Babe's ability to get people up and moving to his music. And despite that fact that so much of the program is played in Spanish tuning, fifteen out of seventeen tracks, a certain sameness of sound is avoided by the guitar being pitched at Spanish differently throughout the program, careful sequencing of the tracks and changing up of tempos.
On two of the CD tracks, "If I Had Listened To What My Mama Say" and I'm Goin' Away Baby", Smoky Babe strayed away from Spanish tuning, and in a spectacularly exciting way that will be of particular interest to Country Blues guitar fans. Listening to these two tracks the day before yesterday, I realized that Smoky Babe was playing them in a tuning that I have never heard another Country Blues guitarist employ: EADF#BE, while playing in E position (relative to standard pitch tuning). The sound he gets in this tuning and position is remarkable and would not be achievable in any other way. By tuning the third string to the II note of the position he's playing in, he gets a first fret hammer on the third string to the minor third of E, a really eerie sound. What's more, he is able to do that hammer simultaneous with doing a hammer on the open fourth string to the second fret, going from the bVII to I there. Hearing those two hammers done together is a treat for anyone who loves this music. All credit to Smoky Babe for arriving at and figuring out how to make something out of a tuning of which he is the sole practitioner! I'm attaching a link to "If I Had Listened To What My Mama Say", a sort of version of "Catfish" without a catfish, so that those of you who are curious can hear what Smoky Babe made of this tuning (apologies if non-U. S. weenies can not view the video).
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get any better than that!
I'm afraid this CD did not make as big a splash as it should have when it was released, perhaps partly because it was released relatively shortly before Arhoolie was sold to Smithsonian/Folkways. If you've not heard it, you owe it to yourself to give it a listen, and preferably buy it. Companies that put out such strong music need our support to continue doing that. And Smoky Babe was one of those musicians, like Barbecue Bob and Frankie Lee Sims, whose music had such excitement and vitality that it constantly exists in the present. It always seems like it is happening RIGHT NOW!
All best,
Johnm
This CD was released around 2014--2015, and made a significant addition to the recorded legacy of Robert "Smoky Babe" Brown. The history leading up to its release is interesting, for it sheds some light on the happenstances that can prevent perfectly good recordings from being released in a timely fashion. Dr. Harry Oster first met and heard Smoky Babe at a party in Scotlandville, Louisiana in 1960, and realized that Smoky Babe had a musical style and presence that people outside of his circle needed to hear. The resulting recordings of that meeting were "Louisiana Blues", originally released on Dr. Oster's Folk Lyric label, and eventually sold to Arhoolie, winding up on a CD split between Smoky Babe and Herman E. Johnson, and "Hottest Brand Goin'", which wound up on Prestige-Bluesville. These two records, along with a couple of scattered tracks on "Country Negro Jam Session" on Arhoolie, gained a reputation among serious fans of Country Blues as some of the strongest singing and playing by a present-day player working in the style, with an incredibly infectious rhythm and energy. Smoky Babe's allure was increased by the fact that he never made it onto festival or coffee house stages in the 1960s, and so remained a figure of some mystery.
Dr. Oster sold his recordings to Arhoolie in 1970. In 2001, upon Dr. Oster's death, his widow sent the remaining tapes in his collection to Arhoolie. In the course of putting together a collection of Dr. Oster's recordings in the early 2000 teens, Chris Strachwitz noticed that there were recordings of Smoky Babe listed in Dr. Oster's inventory that he (Chris) did not have in his possession. He contacted Dr. Oster's widow and received another box of tapes, among which were the recordings that ended up comprising this CD. They evidently had been made in between Dr. Oster's "discovery" of Smoky Babe in 1960 and August of 1961, when Dr. Oster and Smoky Babe made a trip to Vance, Mississippi to visit Smoky Babe's mother, Annie. One can see what a slender chain of circumstance led to these recordings being re-discovered and finally issued.
First, the good news: the music on this CD is in no way inferior or a step down from the previously-issued Smoky Babe material on "Louisiana Blues" and "Hottest Brand Goin'". It has, perhaps, a more controlled sound than does the music on "Hottest Brand Goin'", but if that is the case, it may also be said to have more spot-on execution in the playing. All but two of the tracks on the CD were played by Smoky Babe in Spanish tuning, of which he was a major stylist. There are a couple of covers in the program--"Diggin' My Potatoes", "I'm Goin' Home On The Morning Train" and "Terraplane Blues", but for the most part, Smoky Babe was playing his own material and songs. A couple of his songs, "Boss Man Blues" and "On Mr. Walter's Farm", bring to mind Charlie Patton's propensity for peopling his songs with personal acquaintances. A host of the other songs evince a quality that Smoky Babe seems to have shared with Henry Townsend: the ability to make up original blues lyrics speaking to and of his life, if not on the spot, than at least very quickly. There are a couple of dance numbers, "Backyard Boogie" and "Boogie Gal" that testify to Smoky Babe's ability to get people up and moving to his music. And despite that fact that so much of the program is played in Spanish tuning, fifteen out of seventeen tracks, a certain sameness of sound is avoided by the guitar being pitched at Spanish differently throughout the program, careful sequencing of the tracks and changing up of tempos.
On two of the CD tracks, "If I Had Listened To What My Mama Say" and I'm Goin' Away Baby", Smoky Babe strayed away from Spanish tuning, and in a spectacularly exciting way that will be of particular interest to Country Blues guitar fans. Listening to these two tracks the day before yesterday, I realized that Smoky Babe was playing them in a tuning that I have never heard another Country Blues guitarist employ: EADF#BE, while playing in E position (relative to standard pitch tuning). The sound he gets in this tuning and position is remarkable and would not be achievable in any other way. By tuning the third string to the II note of the position he's playing in, he gets a first fret hammer on the third string to the minor third of E, a really eerie sound. What's more, he is able to do that hammer simultaneous with doing a hammer on the open fourth string to the second fret, going from the bVII to I there. Hearing those two hammers done together is a treat for anyone who loves this music. All credit to Smoky Babe for arriving at and figuring out how to make something out of a tuning of which he is the sole practitioner! I'm attaching a link to "If I Had Listened To What My Mama Say", a sort of version of "Catfish" without a catfish, so that those of you who are curious can hear what Smoky Babe made of this tuning (apologies if non-U. S. weenies can not view the video).
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get any better than that!
I'm afraid this CD did not make as big a splash as it should have when it was released, perhaps partly because it was released relatively shortly before Arhoolie was sold to Smithsonian/Folkways. If you've not heard it, you owe it to yourself to give it a listen, and preferably buy it. Companies that put out such strong music need our support to continue doing that. And Smoky Babe was one of those musicians, like Barbecue Bob and Frankie Lee Sims, whose music had such excitement and vitality that it constantly exists in the present. It always seems like it is happening RIGHT NOW!
All best,
Johnm