Topic: who was Tampa Kid?

[cakewalk]

hello all!

I have come across a CD with a song by Tampa Kid. Teh slide guitar work sounds like it is played on a tricone, very similar to Tampa Red but slightly different. The voice sounds a bit like Big Bill--but slightly different. The liner notes are unrewarding. any answers?

cakewalk

[frankie]

Going from memory here, but I think the Tampa Kid was Joe McCoy.

[dj]

The Fourth Edition of Blues & Gospel Records has the Tamps Kid sides as v, acc. own guitar (i.e., the Tampa Kid on vocals accompanied by his own guitar), and at the bottom of the entry states that the Kid "gives a passable imitation of Tampa Red".   

[Bunker Hill]

The first time a Tampa Kid track was reissued was in 1975 by Yazoo on their compilation Voice Of The Blues: Bottleneck Gutar Masterpieces (L1046). Of "Keep On Trying" all note writer Steve Calt could muster was:

Tampa's influence is more prounounced on the like named Tampa Kid who plays Keep On Trying in open E tuning, with capo at the fourth fret.

[blueshome]

There's little doubt that Tampa Kid was Joe McCoy, especially on hearing some of the later slide work Joe did under his own name. The touch and the vocals are a giveaway.

[dj]

There's little doubt that Tampa Kid was Joe McCoy

Johnny Parth obviously agreed with that.  The Tampa Kid sides are on DOCD 6020, Charlie & Joe McCoy Volume 2.

[cakewalk]

thanks kids, I knew I could count on you!!

cakewalk

[uncle bud]

Having just listened to the two Tampa Kid tracks, "Keep On Trying" and "Baby Please Don't Go", I would have to say that I don't think these are played by Joe McCoy at all. The vocals in particular don't sound like him at all. I agree with cakewalk that the voice sounds something like Broonzy but isn't quite him. But I don't buy that this is Joe McCoy. Judge for yourself. Since the songs are pretty obscure, I've attached a file of Keep On Trying, which Tampa Kid recorded September 1936.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[CF]

Yeah Andrew, offhand he doesn't sound like Joe to me altho' I must say Joe's chameleon style often makes him hard for me to recognize.

[Rivers]

Sounds like a white singer to me.

Tampa Kid session was Tues, 22 Sept 1936, Chicago.
Session matrices were 90878-A Keep on Trying and 90879-A Baby Please Don't Go
Released on Decca 7278

B&GR says Joe McCoy did no sessions between 1 Nov 35 (Bluebird) and 17 Dec 1940 (Okeh)

Joe did record for Decca in 1934 (w/Minnie) and 35 (as Georgia Pine Boy and Hallelujah Joe).

I'd like to know who was on either side of those Tampa Kid matrix numbers. I have no idea how to find that out.

[uncle bud]

B&GR must not cross-reference with the Harlem Hamfats sessions, which began in 1936 and went on for at least a couple years after that.

As a point of comparison, one could listen to the Hamfats' "Oh Red", which I believe has Joe singing, recorded in 1936. A very different voice. The smoother voice in the Hamfats (on tunes like "Let's Get Drunk and Truck") seems to be Herb Morand, which actually bears a bit more of a resemblance to the Tampa Kid than Joe McCoy does, IMO, but Morand was a trumpet player.

[Rivers]

Ah, good one. I didn't check the accompanist index.

Harlem Hamfats was Decca, in Chicago,
14 Aug 1936 matrix ending at 90838
2 Oct 1936 matrix starting at 90912

So Tampa Kid is between these. No other adjacent sessions with Joe as accompanist.

Other news:
Red Nelson w/Charlie McCoy, 9 Sep 1936, last matrix is 90859

[edit: don't forget Decca also recorded jazz and classical so there's no guarantee I'll find something in B&GR immediately pre- or post-Kid]

Mmm... it would be really nice to have all this in a sortable database. Data mining is all the rage. Oh Lord, wouldn't that be a project?

[Flatd7]

I seem to remember that this was CHARLIE McCoy not Joe? Is that possible? I know that "Keep On Trying" is on a McCoy Brothers CD.

[Rivers]

Call me crazy but the Tampa Kid I reckon is a pretty hot player. So I flipped through that slim volume B&GR scanning for Decca and matrixes from 908.. to  909... Only took an hour since the book is pretty well laid out. Here's what was going on at Decca Chicago around the time Tampa Kid recorded:

14 Aug	Harlem Hamfats	w/Joe McCoy g.	last matrix 90838
09 Sep	Red Nelson	w/Charlie McCoy	last matrix 90859
10 Sep	Georgia White	unknown g.	last matrix 90865
10 Sep	Stella Johnson	w/Dorothy Scott's Rhythm Boys w/unknown g.	last matrix 90869
15 Sep	Joe Robinson	w/Dorothy Scott's Rhythm Boys w/unknown g.	last matrix 90866**

15 Sep	Justine Lamar	w/Dorothy Scott's Rhythm Boys w/unknown g.	last matrix 90867
?? Sep	Little David	v. acc. own p.	last matrix 90871
22 Sep	Tampa Kid	v. accomp own g.	90878 & 90879
29 Sep	Justine Lamar	w/Dorothy Scott et al	first matrix 90901
02 Oct	Harlem Hamfats	w/Joe McCoy g.	first matrix 90912

** You would think this should be 10 Sep, see Georgia White, though sometimes Decca matrix #s are out of sequence according to B&GR

Also lurking in the vicinity, though a bit further away chronologically, were Kokomo Arnold and Peetie Wheatstraw.

I just lay this out for you to try and draw some conclusions. I'd love to know who was on 90872 to 90877, and 90880 to 90900. I don't think I missed them in B&GR so have to conclude they were off-genre.

[Rivers]

You could well be right Spike. If so they do an incredible, almost supernatural, job of staying out of each other's way.

[uncle bud]

I seem to remember that this was CHARLIE McCoy not Joe? Is that possible? I know that "Keep On Trying" is on a McCoy Brothers CD.

This makes more sense. The voices are closer together, and Charlie was a very nice slide player (see Last Time Blues). I don't have the McCoy Brothers CDs, so the latest I have for a vocal from Charlie is 1932 (although he may have sung with the Hamfats), on "Too Long". Again, on first listen, it's close. Could be.

[Stuart]

I had a few free minutes and was curious, so I listened to the small sample that is on my computer, comparing tracks by Charlie, Joe, and Tampa Kid. I hear one guitar, not two, and it seems pretty clear what he's doing. A lot of nice runs coming off of the slide parts. It doesn't sound like Charlie or Joe to me, but that's based on listening to a limited number of tracks via iTunes. Perhaps a larger body of material to work with--on the stereo and under the headphones--might yield a different conclusion.

[uncle bud]

I hear one guitar as well, very nicely played in a Tampa Red style.

I went and checked the Hamfats disc and it was in fact Charlie McCoy, not Herb Morand, who sang "Let's Get Drunk and Truck" in 1936. The voice is not really the same as the Tampa Kid and I'm therefore with Stuart in voting nay.

Whoever the Tampa Kid was, Keep On Trying is a really good tune, nice slide playing and a good vocal.

[Spatz]

 Tampa Red was pictured with his National Style 4 round neck Tricone, which was supposedly gold-plated. He was referred to as the "Man with the Golden Guitar". Speaking of the "Tampa Kid", maybe the play on names comes about because of the brand of guitars used. Keep in mind National Tricones were very expensive, and the highly engraved models were not commonplace.

I've seen a promotional photograph of Joe McCoy and he's holding a National Tricone, a round neck model. If you look closely you can see the engraving on the  edge of the bout and it looks like a Style 3 "Lily of the Valley" pattern. Actually it could be the same Tricone that Peetie Wheatsraw is holding in his famous promotional photograph, which is also a National Style 3 Tricone. This particular model is fairly rare, Bob Brozman has mentioned there were probably less than twenty round neck variants.

[Pan]

Hi all

I was wondering, since the last post in this thread was from 2007, if any new information about the identity of Tampa Kid has been found?

I noticed that his two recorded songs can be found on YouTube, and there it is claimed that he was Charlie McCoy. Wikipedia also says this, but any evidence from how this conclusion was made are not given.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papa_Charlie_McCoy

Cheers

Pan

[Bunker Hill]

Hi all
I was wondering, since the last post in this thread was from 2007, if any new information about the identity of Tampa Kid has been found?

I noticed that his two recorded songs can be found on YouTube, and there it is claimed that he was Charlie McCoy. Wikipedia also says this, but any evidence from how this conclusion was made are not given.

We have Blues Documents to thank for that when they assigned them to Charlie McCoy in 1992 (BDCD 6020). I don't own the two CDs and can't seem to find any magazine reviews for the period 1992/3. B&GR4 (1997) has a unique Tampa Kid entry. Something or somebody must have prompted Johnny Parth to reassign to CMcC. Maybe the CD booklet notes explain.

[Randy Meadows]

I did a quick search and found two entries only.

One Will Brown- "Alias Tampa Kid-  He died in Charlotte Florida in 1927-



Two- is a " Tampa Kedd. Born in Ms. 1940 census. Line 12 La.

[Bunker Hill]

Thanks, this takes us a bit further. "Our" Tampa Kid was recorded by Decca Tuesday 27 Sept 1936

If I'm understanding what's shown, he's neither. One died in 1927 before the recording , the other born 1940 after it.

[Gumbo]

If I read it right, Bunker Hill that's the 1940 census and Tampa Kedd was age 26. Actually I think that says Kidd rather than Kedd.

Good to know he's not Willie Brown. There's enough of them already