MUSIC LOG for GROUP 3
“RACE MUSIC”
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“Crazy Blues,” 10 August 1920; Perry Bradford; performed by Mamie Smith.
This song had been performed as part of a musical production by Bradford, Made in Harlem (originally called “Harlem Blues”). Its recording here, as performed by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds, is not only an example of classic blues, it was the first recording released by an African-American blues singer and band. Born in Cincinnati around 1890, Smith had been a stage and vaudeville performer when Perry Bradford convinced executives at Okeh Records to record her. This record was released in October 1920 and sold more than 75,000 copies in its first four weeks. It inspired record industry executives to pursue other “grassroots” African-American music.
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“My Sportin’ Man,” 1929; Mamie Smith with Billy Fowler and his orchestra.
This classic blues was recorded at the end of the decade and represents a tradition in blues (both urban and rural) of “double entendre” songs. Mamie Smith appeared in films during the 1930s and 40s before her death in 1946.
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“Downhearted Blues,” 16 Feb 1923; Alberta Hunter; performed by Bessie Smith.
Bessie Smith (no relation to Mamie) was the best known and highest paid classic blues singer of her era. Born in 1894 in Chattanooga, TN, she began singing as a street performer with her brother at the age of 10. Her first recording, on Columbia Records in February 1923, sold 780,000 in its first six months and made Smith a sensation. The tune had already been recorded once by its composer, Alberta Hunter, with less success; here Smith is accompanied on piano by Clarence Williams.
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“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” 15 May 1929; Bessie Smith.
This classic blues was recorded with a fuller accompaniment (including cornet, alto and tenor sax, tuba, and piano). The tune anticipates the hard times of the Great Depression, which hurt Smith’s career along with many others as theater owners began booking motion pictures as less expensive forms of entertainment. The blues also lost some popularity during the era; thus, Smith recorded some repertoire from Tin Pan Alley. She died in an automobile accident in 1937.
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“I Will Turn Your Money Green,” 1928; Furry Lewis.
This is an example of country blues. Furry Lewis (later immortalized in a song by Joni Mitchell) plays a style known as the “Memphis blues.” Lewis was adept at ballads, rags, and the “slide” guitar associated more with the Delta blues style. Country blues did not conform to the classic notion of “12-bar blues form”; rather, it was a flexible style that performers used idiomatically.
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“Blind Pig Blues,” 1928; Robert “Barbecue Bob” Hicks.
This recording of country blues was made in Atlanta. Hicks acquired his nickname when he was a chef at Atlanta’s Tidwell Barbecue. Barbecue Bob played 12-string guitar and sang in a style dubbed “Atlanta blues.” During part of his life he worked with a traveling medicine show. Born in 1902, Barbecue Bob died in 1931 of pneumonia (liner notes).
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“I Don’t Want That Junk Outta You,” 1931; Memphis Minnie.
This is an example of a female performer of country blues. The contrast is striking between her style and that of the classic blues performers (exx. #1-4).
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“The Jazz Fiddler,” 17 Feb 1930; Mississippi Sheiks.
This tune was recorded in Shreveport, Louisiana, and represents the tradition of country stringband music among African-American musicians. The Sheiks personnel consisted of family—brothers and cousins; instruments featured in this recording include guitar, violin, and vocals. This is one of many recordings that demonstrate the broad tradition of music and styles shared between black and white musicians throughout the South in the early twentieth century and before.
“HILLBILLY MUSIC”
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“Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane,” 1923; performed by Fiddlin’ John Carson.
Just as Mamie Smith’s first release surprised record companies by selling thousands of copies, Carson’s 1923 recording proved that there was a large audience for “hillbilly music,” the term given the musical traditions of rural Southern whites. “Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” was originally a minstrel song from the late nineteenth century (composed by W. Hayes/J. Randolph; see Malone, liner notes); the flip side was a fiddle instrumental called “The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster’s Going to Crow.”
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“Soldier’s Joy,” 1929; Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett.
Tanner was a chicken farmer and well-known fiddler from Georgia. This recording of country stringband music from a white group is a corollary to the Mississippi Sheiks cut (ex. #8). Both groups would have provided the music for rural dance parties of the era. This cut features two fiddles, guitar, banjo, and vocals; its spoken introduction captures some of the spirit of showmanship that made the group so popular.
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“Chattanooga Blues,” 4 November 1927; Austin and Lee Allen.
This recording of country blues was one of two sides by the Allens released on Columbia’s “race series” instead of its “hillbilly series”; in reaction, the brothers threatened a lawsuit, citing the effect the mixup might have on their bookings at medicine shows, theaters, and dances (see Wolfe reading). Historically, the recording is a testament to much of what was wrong for race relations during the era; musically, it is another example of the constant exchange of traditions between the South’s black and white residents.
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“The Last Scene of the Titanic,” 29 April 1927; Frank Hutchinson.
Of the white country blues players, Hutchinson (b. 1897) was most renown for his skill at slide guitar, as well as the harmonica. He made his living as a full-time musician during the 1920s, playing and recording blues, broadsides, topical, and novelty songs (Cohn, liner notes). His act also included a blackface routine. After the Depression, he opened a grocery story in West Virginia; when the store burned down, Hutchinson moved to Ohio where he died in 1945. (Also see Wolfe, pp. 40-41.)
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“Blue Yodel No. 11,” 27 November 1929; Jimmie Rodgers.
The most famous country blues performer of the era was Jimmie Rodgers, the first “hillbilly” superstar, whose large body of influential recordings sold millions even during the throes of the Great Depression. Rodgers recorded between 1928 and 1933, when he succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of 33. Radio also played a large part in his success, carrying his charisma to audiences over the ether. (While he often recorded as a soloist, this recording features a second guitar played by Billy Burke; another Rodgers recording from 1929 features Louis Armstrong on trumpet.) Rodgers’ “blue yodel” influenced country singers (white and black) for decades to come.
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“The Gospel Ship,” 6 May 1935; The Carter Family.
This famous country family act included A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and her cousin Maybelle. They began recording in 1927, but their music became popular via broadcasts of radio show transcriptions over the 100,000-watt Mexican border stations. This recording, made in New York, represents the importance of religious songs/hymns in the repertoire of old-time hillbilly music. It also demonstrates Maybelle’s influential guitar technique: she picked the melody on the lower strings with her thumb and strummed the upper strings with her index finger (Green, liner notes).
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“Fifteen Miles from Birmingham,” 29 September 1938; The Delmore Brothers.
The Delmore Brothers recorded from 1938-52 and were popular on radio broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry as well as on disc. They fall into the tradition of the “brother duet” in country music of the 1930s, accompanying themselves on two guitars. Besides this example of Depression-era country (still catalogued as “hillbilly”), Alton and Rabon Delmore included sentimental, traditional, and dance tunes in their repertoire.
[#1 is from Mamie Smith: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, volume 1, Document Records DODC-5357, 1995.]
[#2, 6, 8, 11-12 are from Roots n’ Blues: The Retrospective, 1925-1950, Columbia Legacy CD 47911, 1992.]
[#3-4 are recorded from Bessie Smith: The Collection, CBS Records, Inc. (/Columbia) CK 44441, 1989.]
[# 5, 7 are recorded from Frank Stokes’ Dream: The Memphis Blues, 1927-1931, Yazoo L 1008, 1991.]
[#9-10 are recorded from Country: The American Tradition, Sony DIDP 098776, 1999.]
[#13-14 are recorded from Country Music: South and West, New World Records 287, 1977.]
[#15 is recorded from Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? American Song During the Great Depression, NWR 270, 1977.]