the magazine for independent music makers - The Music Maker Guide

lack field hand picking cotton from dawn ‘til
dusk was cause for concern and a reason to
sing the blues, then think of the equally downtrodden
white boys (and girls) employed in the
notorious weave-rooms. It must be remembered
that at the turn of the 20 th century children
as young as eight were employed as spinners,
earning eight cents a day! Black workers
probably earned even less.
Coal-mining and railroad construction were
equally demanding occupations with high mortality
rates but, where the railroad was concerned,
it represented a slender potential for
escape. The lure of the iron road and sheer
romance of those mighty Shay and Baldwin
steam locomotives have inspired songwriters
from the earliest days of recording. Jimmie
Rodgers, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Sonny
Terry were all influenced by the rhythm and
mysticism of the train. A po’ boy could hitch a
ride in a swaying boxcar from the Chicago
freight yards and steam all the way down to the
sweet sunny South and beyond – but the coal
mines were another matter. As Merle Travis
wrote, they were “as dark as a dungeon and
dank as the dew; where the dangers were double
an’ pleasures were few”.
HARD TIMES
The blues were about hard times, trouble and
strife. The blues are laments and dirges and
chronicles of times past. An excellent case in
point is ‘Frankie And Johnnie’ (performed by the
great blind white guitarist and singer Riley
Puckett), which relates to the historical event s
Blind guitarist Riley Puckett had been blinded
when a sugar of lead solution was accident ally
used to treat a minor eye ailment when he was
a child. His soulful and resonant singing sold
many records and he additionally was one of
the earliest guitarist to employ walking bass
runs, usually made by up-picking with his index
and middle fingers.
of October 15, 1899, when Frankie Baker shot
and killed Al Britt in St. Louis. Earlier versions
of the song were called ‘Frankie And Albert’ or
‘Frankie Baker’ but Charlie Poole & His North
16
Carolina Ramblers recorded it as ‘Leavin’
Home’. It was also recorded by other hillbilly
performers as ‘You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone’
and in 1929 by Jimmie Rodgers as ‘Frankie
And Johnny’.
Our collection also includes an interesting version
of the time-honoured ‘Stack O’Lee’, sometimes
known as ‘Stagger Lee’, by Cliff ‘Ukelele
Ike’ Edwards. Edwards, who was born in 1895,
was once described as a ‘jazz-age Peter Pan’
and a ‘one-man Mills Brothers’.
‘Black & White Blues’ combines the Mississippi
Delta blues of Bukka White (‘Drunk Man Blues’)
and Robert Johnson (‘Ramblin’ On My Mind’),
the Memphis blues of Memphis Minnie (‘What’ s
The Matter With The Mill?’) and the Memphis
Jug Band (‘Kansas City Blues’), through to the
country blues of white hillbilly artists like Frank
Hutchison (‘K.C. Blues’) and Bill Cox (‘Long
Chain Charlie Blues’). But there’s much more
besides, including the powerful ‘Unemployment
Stomp’ by Big Bill Broonzy, Woody Guthrie’s
‘Dust Bowl Blues’ and ‘Texas Hambone Blues’
by Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies.
The smoothest vocal performance comes from
Canada’s Hank Snow with his interpretation of
‘Trouble In Mind’, a Negro blues st andard which
found favour with many white country performers.
Hank Snow rose to become a country
Following his 1954 Opry appearance, 1955 saw
Elvis join Hank Snow's tour orchestrated by his
then manager, Colonel Tom Parker, giving Elvis
his first wide exposure beyond the Louisiana
Hayride.
superstar but he knew hard times during the
1930s and frequently delved into the blues
repertoire for inspiration and solace. Gene
Autry was another early white artist who knew
what it was to go hungry before he achieved
global success and his ‘Rheumatism Blues’
sounds remarkably authentic from a blues
standpoint, even to the extent of Autry sounding
‘black’, whilst Allen Shaw on ‘Moanin’ The
Blues’ adopted a white delivery.
William Lee Conley (‘Big Bill’) Broonzy
summed it up best when he wrote: “When you
work twelve months of the year as a farmer and
don’t come out of debt, and the boss has to
give you food on credit ‘til the crop is sold, you
can’t do nothin’ but get the blues”. That was
saying it for the black man. W oody Guthrie
spoke for black and white and Millard Lampell
brought it all into focus when he said, “It’ s a
relief to know that those depression days are
long gone now. Nobody starving and desperate
in this country anymore.
“Except maybe some blacks in the ghettos.
Except maybe some shiftless Indians, Puerto
Ricans and Chicanos.
“Oh sure, there are the bums and p anhandlers
drifting the skid rows of several hundred of our
cities. There are out-of-work millhands, the
miners with Black Lung. And those bothersome
mountain folks in Appalachia. There are the
cotton-field hands in Alabama and Mississippi,
the sharecroppers in back-country Georgia.
And the migrant workers penned up in rotting
shacks across California, Florida, New Jersey
and Connecticut.
“Nobody you see very often. Nobody who
counts”.
Listen well to the lyrics contained within these
twenty-four songs but heed equally the quality
of instrumental prowess displayed by many of
these great old-time musicians. Black or white,
it mattered not, because they sang and played
as one.
Gene Autry Bryan Chalker
MUSIC
MAKER