Topic: Country Blues Guitarists Who Played Piano (or Vice Versa??)

[banjochris]

Roland plays a couple of instrumental duets with Sonny Scott (hope I'm remembering that right) -- one's called Guitar Stomp and is on a Yazoo release (one of the Before the Blues I think). One of his versions of Red Cross Store is on guitar, and he backs up Lucille Bogan on guitar (along with Bob Campbell) on Tired as I Can Be and I Hate the Train They Call the M&O.

I think there are a few others but those are the ones off the top of my head. Those Bogan tracks in particular are excellent, I wish she had made more with guitar backup. (I wish she had made more records, period!)
Chris

[Johnm]

In addition to the ones Chris mentioned, he did "Railroad Stomp" and "Come On In" with Sonny Scott (with the latter song recorded as by the Jolly Two), as well as "Frisco Blues".
All best,
Johnm

[Lastfirstface]

Thanks Banjochris and John. Turns out I actually had a couple recordings by Walter Roland and Sonny Scott in my collection under the name "The Jolly Two." Those Lucille Bogan sides are great. Is he playing with the same Bob Campbell that did Shotgun Blues?

Pete

[banjochris]

Is he playing with the same Bob Campbell that did Shotgun Blues?

I do believe so.
Chris

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Lesley Riddle played some piano on his album that came out on Rounder in the late '70s or '80s.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
It took me a while to track down this thread, but I knew Prof Scratchy had started one on this topic. Anyway, here is a tune for it, via Pete Franklin, known more for his guitar playing.



All best,
Johnm

[Prof Scratchy]

Great find! And good to see this thread revived!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I went back in the thread and re-did some links that had become inactive and added a couple, too. Here is Scrapper Blackwell playing piano and accompanying Brooks Berry on "Blues Is A Feeling":



All best,
Johnm

[rein]

Does T- bone Walker count ? It may be stretching the definition off country blues, but that may also be said of other city based blues musicians. He played piano behind among others John Lee Hooker on one of the american folk blues festivals in the 1960 s and he recorded acoustic blues in 1929.

[Prof Scratchy]

When I saw T-Bone Walker at AFBF in Frankfurt in 1972 he played piano exclusively- didn’t have a guitar on stage.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I've never heard any of the tracks, but I was surprised to note in DG&R that Tampa Red played piano on a number of tracks in the late'30s or early '40s.
All best,
Johnm

[rein]

i remember reading an interview with Robert Lockwood where he mentions that he played piano at the time he first became acquainted with Robert Johnson, but I dont know whether he played piano on records.

[Blues Vintage]

Hi all,
I've never heard any of the tracks, but I was surprised to note in DG&R that Tampa Red played piano on a number of tracks in the late'30s or early '40s.
All best,
Johnm

.
You did hear them as I posted some lyric transcriptions with Tampa on piano about three years ago.

I read somewhere Tampa was unsure of his piano abilities and said something like that the piano should be reserved only to the specialists (Altheimer, Black Bob, Davis, Maceo).

[Thomas8]

He plays the piano on all the Pete Franklin tracks from that era as well.