r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 16h ago
r/PreWarBlues • u/end_gang_stalking • May 18 '22
Recommend books about blues history
Post some of your favourite books about blues history! Are there any titles you consider essential? I'm looking for recommendations spanning from the early history of records and the recording industry, the early history of the blues, anything blues guitar related, or any suggested biographies of blues artists.
To start things off, I can recommend this biography of Blind Willie Mctell, which got a decent amount of press coverage when released a number of years ago.
https://www.amazon.ca/Hand-Me-My-Travelin-Shoes/dp/1556529759
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 1d ago
Memphis & MS Monday - 'Canned Heat Blues' [31st August 1928] by Tommy Johnson, backed by Charlie McCoy. Classics don't get much more classic than this.
Ishman Bracey recorded at the same session.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 2d ago
Gospel and Sacred Gospel Sunday - 'Collection Time' [29th August 1935] by Rev Nathan Smith assisted by His Burning Bush Sunday School pupils.
Some fairly deep voices for Sunday School pupils, but there you are,
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 5d ago
Lucky Dip Thursday - 'Salty Dog' [27th August 1927] by the Booker Orchestra
Per B&GR, "This is an African-American group, but the Gennett files state "made for Hillbilly', indicating that the issued record was to be promoted to Southern white purchasers".
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 6d ago
Women on Wednesday - 'Me And My Gin' [25th August 1928] by Bessie Smith. Trumpet and piano backing. One of her finest, IMO.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 7d ago
Trains, planes and automobiles. Transport Tuesday - 'Chickasaw Train (Low Down Dirty Thing)' [24th August 1934] by Memphis Minnie
I hear the refrain as 'low down dirty dog' so the parantheses in the title are a bit odd.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 7d ago
Article From the archives - Storyville #5 reviews OJL 11 (The Mississippi Blues #2 - The Delta) and Georgia White.
I'm guessing the reviewer was unaware the Louise Johnson cuts were from /that/ session.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 8d ago
Memphis & Mississippi Memphis & MS Monday - 'Memphis Fives' [24th August 1934] by Lee Green, guitar backing possibly by Charlie Jordan.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 9d ago
Gospel Sunday - 'Smoking Woman On The Street' [23rd August 1939] by the Rev J.M Gates. Curious even by his standards
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 10d ago
Suggestive Saturday - 'That New Kind Of Stuff' [22nd August 1935] by Carl Martin.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 12d ago
Article From the archives - Blind Lemon and Barbecue Bob vinyl reviewed in Storyville #2 (1965). Mixed, one might say.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 12d ago
Lucky Dip Thursday - 'Hottest Gal In Town' [20th August 1936] by Lil Johnson. Small combo backing.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 13d ago
Women Women on Wednesday - 'Can't Be Bothered With No Sheik' [19th August 1931] by Rosa Henderson, backed by James Johnson on piano.
For anyone not aware, all of the 'Sheik' references in blues stem from the blockbuster success of Rudolph Valentino as the title character in 'The Sheik' [1921]
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 14d ago
Trains, planes and automobiles. Transport Tuesday - 'Georgia Bound' [17th August 1929] by Blind Blake.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 15d ago
Memphis & Mississippi Memphis & MS Monday - 'Baltimore Blues' [16th August 1934] by the Mississippi Mudder (Papa Charlie); Charlie McCoy to his family. Highly, highly derivative, but still worth a listen.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 16d ago
Gospel and Sacred Gospel Sunday - 'Goin' on to Heaven in the Sanctified Way' [15th August 1929] by Sister Cally Fancy. Piano and tambourine backing.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 17d ago
Suggestive Saturday - 'When You Go Huntin', I'm Goin' Fishin'' by George Williams And Bessie Brown, backed by cornet, trombone and piano.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 18d ago
Friday Blues Beasts - Bantam Rooster Blues' [1928] by Texas Alexander, backed by Lonnie J.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 19d ago
Lucky Dip Thursday - 'I'm Going Back To Tennessee' [13th August 1929] by Leroy Carr, backed by Scrapper.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 20d ago
Women Women on Wednesday - 'I've Got The Yes! We Have No Bananas Blues' [11th August 1923] by Eve Taylor, backed by Clarence Williams' Blue Five
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 21d ago
From the archives - the Columbia Race Series and Black Patti. From Storyville #1
A few familiar names show in the listing - Jaxon, Gates, Clara, Cleeve and Mozelle. The one that rather arrested me was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Sage of Concord having died in 1882. This RWE was an organist, and judging by the one photo I've seen, not a natural for a black owned and black promoting label.
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 21d ago
Trains, planes and automobiles. [Wildly contrived] Transport Tuesday - 'Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama' [11th August 1930] by Butterbeans & Susie
r/PreWarBlues • u/BlackJackKetchum • 22d ago