Topic: What is the most obscure song/artist you're into?

[arg6442]

Just wondering what the most forgotten and obscure artists everyone is into.

[roig]

Charlie Pickett, Big Road Webster Taylor, Tallahassee Tight, Winston Holmes & Charlie Turner... Some of my faves.

[Rivers]

Hard to say, what's obscure to me may be in daily rotation elsewhere. You can find a raft of interesting characters though in the 'We should have heard more from them' thread, http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=245.0;nowap although it focuses on players that lived into the LP era.

I'll throw in Kid Bailey, certainly obscure, hard to hear on the surviving recordings, very interesting music.

[jpeters609]

They don't get much more obscure than Jim Thompkins ("Bedside Blues") and Freezone ("Indian Squaw Blues"), both of whom didn't merely have one record issued -- they only had one SIDE of one record issued! And both tunes happen to be pretty great. They are also complete biographical unknowns, as far as I know:

[Lastfirstface]

He's got four times the recorded output of Freezone, but I'm pretty fond of George Carter and I'd say he's fairly obscure.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
My nominees in this category would be Ollie Rupert--she sang on two titles only, Amelia Johnson, who was accompanied by Big Joe Williams and Shortstuff Macon on three tracks on the Arhoolie CD, "Going Back to Crawford", Papa Eggshell, and Arthur Weston.
All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

They don't get much more obscure than Jim Thompkins ("Bedside Blues") and Freezone ("Indian Squaw Blues"), both of whom didn't merely have one record issued -- they only had one SIDE of one record issued! And both tunes happen to be pretty great. They are also complete biographical unknowns, as far as I know:

Forgive me for hijacking the thread for a moment, but how many one SIDE artists are there in pre-war blues? Those two and Jim Clarke, "Fat Fanny Stomp" come to mind. Any others?
Chris

[Lastfirstface]

Did Ollis Martin just record the one side? I've only heard Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down.

[Stuart]

Not CB, but William Namahoe's "Music For Dreaming."



And he's obscure, but not obscure--only made one record in 1955, but it seems that anybody who knows Hawaiian Slack key, knows about the song.

The album it's on is packed full of top shelf stuff:

http://www.dancingcat.com/recordings/HistoryCord.php

http://www.cordinternational.com/history-slack-key.htm

[Johnm]

I don't know of any other solo recordings by Ollis Martin, but he paired with Jaybird Colman for "I'm Gonna Cross That River of Jordan".

[CF]

Isn't 'Cairo Blues' by Henry Spaulding his sole recording?

[banjochris]

Isn't 'Cairo Blues' by Henry Spaulding his sole recording?

It's his only record, but he plays "Biddle Street Blues" on the flip. It's a good one, too, but no "Cairo" (what is?).

[Mr.OMuck]

Well one must include Willie Walker, but the Prestige /Bluesville stable are all pretty obscure and mostly great, Shirley Griffith, Smoky Babe, Guitar Pete Franklin to name three. I do songs by all three

I guess only having two extant recorded songs qualifies as obscure. The fact that both Josh White and Gary Davis fingered Walker as the greatest guitar player of the era makes his obscurity all the more mysterious.

Willie Walker- South Carolina Rag


Shirley Griffith- River Line Blues


Guitar Pete Franklin- Got to find my Baby


Smoky Babe - Locomotive Blues

[uncle bud]

Belton Reese - The Mackenzie Case

[jrn]

Belton Sutherland.

[StoogeKebab]

Amelia Johnson, who was accompanied by Big Joe Williams and Shortstuff Macon on three tracks on the Arhoolie CD, "Going Back to Crawford"

Agree completely with this. Something about "Don't Stay Long" just hits me and the vocal delivery, whilst not the voice of the greatest blues singer ever (as if I could talk), is still intense, powerful and full of emotion.

[CF]

Isn't 'Cairo Blues' by Henry Spaulding his sole recording?

It's his only record, but he plays "Biddle Street Blues" on the flip. It's a good one, too, but no "Cairo" (what is?).

I don't remember ever having heard this Chris, thanks.
Ok, so Henry Spaulding for me.

[frankie]

The Pratchers (Bob and Miles)

[Mike Brosnan]

Charlie Kyle

[Blind Arthur]

Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater recorded four great timeless titles (and at the same session accompanied Lonnie Johnson on 2 titles):

"Somethin' Doin'":
"Easy Winner":
"Nothin' Doin'" :
and "Prater Blues", which i fail to find on YT, here is a very good modern cover :

[Lastfirstface]

The Pratchers (Bob and Miles)

There are a couple recordings of the Pratchers on the Lomax Cultural Equity archive that I haven't seen elsewhere:

http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-ix.do?ix=recording&id=709&idType=performerId&sortBy=abc

[frankie]

There are a couple recordings of the Pratchers on the Lomax Cultural Equity archive that I haven't seen elsewhere:

http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-ix.do?ix=recording&id=709&idType=performerId&sortBy=abc

That's all they recorded, as far as I know. I could listen to them a lot longer than that!

[waxwing]

This topic cracked me up when I saw it, thinking it was a little tongue-in-cheek, since most topics (cds/sets you're listening to; adventures in...; etc.) seem to have a strong "how obscure can you get" quality already. It's also pretty amazing that you can call someone obscure even though their recordings are all on youtube (not to mention iTunes, etc.).

So I'll go with a guy I met one afternoon about a decade back when I lived in SF and used to frequent Real Guitars and take my most recent guitar purchases (when I had money for that) to Gary Brawer's shop in the back. He was an African American street person, about my age (late 50s at the time, about as old as street people get) and he immediately said "That's Tommy Johnson" when he heard me playing maybe Canned Heat. Then he named a couple other songs/artists I played (I think it was a cool old F-30 (?), the guitar MJH choose over Martins and Gibsons when given a choice). I asked if he could play and he kinda demurred. I did hear him picking a little, tentatively, when I was in the back talking to Gary, but when I came up front again he was gone. Benny told me his name was "Lincoln" something, IIRC, and said he used to come in often but not for a while, said he used to play pretty well, but would usually be pretty drunk and they'd eventually give him 5 bucks to leave. I asked a few times and Benny said he never came in again after that. So, no recordings, afaik, no youtube, but obviously a player in his day. Wish I coulda heard him when.

Another I could go with is a guy named Art Taylor who actually had a taylor shop out 3rd Street in the Bay View, then a pretty exclusively black neighborhood, now gentrifying. He played a big Hammond B3 that he somehow dollied into clubs, with a trombone player, who had at one time been a drummer for Cab Calloway, and a younger drummer, forming a trio called The Blues Fuse. Art would sing mostly old jazz blues standards. A close friend of mine became their manager and for a few years he had them playing a few choice spots (Like happy hour at Pier 23) around the Bay area. Eventually Art, in his 70s developed cancer and was selling out his shop to move back with family in Mississippi. My friend Mike took me down to the shop one day and as we were talking asked Art if he would show me his old guitar, which turned out to be a Custom L-5, that he had gone to Kalamazoo to order, in pristine condition. He had been rhythm guitarist for Ray Charles back in Florida and Georgia when they would drive to gigs on the weekends (And he said the story of Ray driving by feeling the edge of the road with the tire was true, 'cause he was there). The L-5 had the DeArmond pick-up on a stick, and, of course, a plain 3rd string. He let me play it all afternoon and wouldn't play himself. I imagine that guitar made some young nephew or grandson very happy. Now my friend Mike did produce an album of the band, printing CD-Rs in small batches, but that was already a decade ago, and I'll bet you'd be hard pressed to find a copy anywhere.

So, modern day players, perhaps, yet pretty dang obscure.

Wax

[harry]

Cripple Clarence Lofton

[bayrum78]

I second Belton Reese.

[jostber]

Ed Bell. Turner Parrish.

[oddenda]

Big Boy Cleveland. "Quill Blues" Come on!!!

pbl

[Lastfirstface]

I second Belton Reese.

I would love to hear those other Belton Reese recordings. Are McKenzie Case and Bile Them Cabbage Down the only ones that have been released?

[frailer24]

John Byrd for blues, J.P. Nestor for old-time.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Papa Eggshell and Reese Crenshaw.
All best,
Johnm

[jostber]

Tommie Bradley. Tom Dickson. Charlie Kyle. Willie Ezell.

[Marshcat]

Big Boy - "Blues".