Lord I get myself on the Pardon Board, you know I got denied again. Been on the Board three times, each time I was denied. But I hopes in the good Lord. Lord have mercy on me - Robert Pete Williams, Pardon Denied Again
Weenies probably know him better as MTJ3, I know him as the bloke who seems to have been researching Scrapper and Leroy for an aeon...I wish I possessed such knowledge.
BH, I'm surely not deserving of your kind words; all I can admit to is having spent a lot of time delving into the subject and being hopelessly unproductive. Here are my thoughts on the photo.
I believe that is the photo that Scrapper described as "that long picture" where (to paraphrase) he didn't have his collar right, and he wasn't happy with it, but Leroy looked good in it, so the recording company used it anyway. If so, it was a publicity photo taken in the recording studio, and it was, according to Scrapper, at least at one point hung in a window (presumably of a record shop). I think it was part of a suite of photos taken by the company. (See the cover of Yazoo's "The Virtuoso Guitar of Scrapper Blackwell" for another shot of Scrapper from this "shoot.") I don't know exactly when it was taken. Here's my guess. As Scrapper was holding a wooden guitar in the photo, my bet would be that it's a relatively early photo. Compare, for example, the cover of Yazoo's "Naptown Blues---1929-1934," where he holds a National, which he didn't record with on his earlier sides; of course, he could have played a steel guitar outside the studio but only recorded on a wooden guitar early in his career. I can't substantiate this, but my belief is that it was taken at the Vocalion studio in Chicago about as early on as the company realized that they needed a publicity shot of the duo, which was probably shortly after it was evident that "How Long--How Long Blues" was a massive hit. I would guess that would have been on or about 6-7 November 1928 (their fourth and fifth sessions, at which they recorded "How Long How Long Blues--Part 2" and "How Long How Long Blues No.3," from which sessions, oddly enough, no sides were issued) or 19 December 1928 (their next session, at which they again recorded "How Long How Long Blues--Part 2" and "How Long How Long Blues No.3," as in the 6 November session, which this time were issued). I am fairly certain that the photo was not taken at the radio station in Naptown where they made their first recording. It could be that the photo was taken at the 20 July or 14 August 1928 sessions, but I would be inclined to discount because I don't think Vocalion would have known that they had "stars" on their hands at that juncture, and as noted above, they did snap a several photos of the lads at that "shoot," and I don't think that they would have frivolously incurred the expense.
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly where LoneWolf might have found it, but it's a wonderful reproduction of that photo. Very nice job. I will scratch around, and if I happen upon a likely source, I will dutifully report.
Hell, just pulled it from the shelves. That's obviously where Document lifted it from.
[A note to Stefan: this LP was originally sheduled for release in 1986 along with the Ma Rainey and Skip James. However it didn't appear until the following year. The original advertisement showed a different front cover to that of the eventual release. It depicted a painting of James, House, Patton, Blackwell and Lonnie Johnson in a semi circle (different seating order to that on LP) in a field with the back of somebody (RJ presumably) sitting cross-legged watching them. Ho hum, very strange.]