Escaping the Delta (47 page)

Chuck Wagon Gang, 120, 149

church songs, 92.
See also
gospel; religion civil rights movement, 235

Civil War, 38, 48

Clapton, Eric, xxiv, 6, 244–47, 249, 256

Clark, Carroll, 31

Clark, Israel, 107–8

Clarksdale, Miss., xviii–xix, 88, 98, 99, 101, 102

class, audience for blues and, 251

classical music, 44, 46–47

“classic” jazz, 237

Clinton, George, 194

Clovers, 213

Coahoma County, 86, 88

Coasters, 212

cocktail blues, 197–98

Coffee, Willie, 107, 115, 123, 124, 275

coffeehouses, xxiii, 242

Cole, James, 52

Cole, Nat “King,” 36, 66, 187, 195, 197, 200

Coleman, Ornette, 151, 260

Columbia Records, 227, 228, 230, 247

“Come Back Baby,” 100

“Come On in My Kitchen” (RJ), 119, 181, 266

influences on, 142–44, 151, 171

recorded, 142–45, 172

slide guitar on, 142, 143, 144, 162

Como, Perry, 98

Confessions
(St. Augustine), 273

Continental Monthly
, 222

Cooke, Sam, xxiii, 37, 274

“coon” songs, 51–52

Copeland, Martha, 34

“Corinna” (song), 11, 58, 211

“corner loading,” 120

“corn” or “cornfield” songs, 74.
See also
field hollers

Cotten, Elizabeth, 157

Cotton, James, 213

country-and-western music, 31, 69, 73

hits, blacks and, 92, 99, 203 “country blues”

Charters establishes term, 242

rediscovered by whites, 240

Country Blues, The
(Charters), xxiv–xxv, 241–42

country sensibility, 25–26, 29–30, 35, 88, 160.
See also
“down-home” style; ragtime

ragtime-blues genre and, 53

vaudeville style vs., 34–35, 54–55

covers, bluesmen play live, 66–68

cowboy music, 97, 118

yodeling, 54, 56, 69

Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
(John Lomax), 224

Cox, Ida, 10, 23, 28, 196

number of recordings by, 42

popularity of, 26, 202

Craft, Callie (wife of RJ), 110

Crayton, Pee Wee, 198

“Crazy Blues” (Mamie Smith), 17, 21–22

Cream, 245

crooners, 37, 39, 206

Crosby, Bing, xxvi, 37, 39, 53, 65, 96, 118, 235

“Cross Road Blues” (RJ), 167, 172

lyric, 155, 156, 274–75

recorded, 155–56

slide guitar on, 155–56, 159

“crossroads to meet devil” concept, 271, 274–76

Crudup, Arthur “Big Boy,” 138

on blues, 218

hits postwar, 207

Presley covers, 207, 221

“Cruel Heated Woman Blues,” 131

Crumb, R., xvii

Crump, E. H., 16

 

Dallas, 32, 38, 77

“Dallas Blues” (sheet music), 16, 19, 21, 32

dances

changes in, prewar Delta, 87–88, 94–95, 102

interracial bands and, 48–49

lyrics and, 132

musical styles and, 45, 60–61, 67

rhythms, of 1940s, 196

white vs. black tastes in, 68

work songs and, 160

Davis, Rev. Gary, 157, 254

Davis, Jimmie, 96

Davis, Miles, 143

Davis, Sammy, 66

Davis, Tyrone, 219

Davis, Walter, 40, 58–59, 77, 93, 94, 100, 229

covers RJ song, 139

number of recordings by, 41

“Dead Shrimp Blues” (RJ), 154–55

“deep” blues artists, popularity of, in Mississippi, 77–78

Deep Blues
(Palmer), 71, 77

Delta, 86–91

African styles and, 76

blues lovers picture of, 100

Charley Patton and, 35–36

dances, 58–59

day-to-day soundtrack of, 101

field hollers and, 76, 77

ghosts of songs in, xxi–xxii

Handy and, 8

as home to unique strain of blues, 83–84

interviews in, 129

jukebox tunes in prewar, 95, 99–101

life in prewar, xxii, 84–90, 102

magical beliefs in, 268, 270, 271, 273–75

music as only escape from difficult life in, xxii

music styles and tastes in prewar, 83, 87–102

in 1940s, 89–90, 102

non-blues and popular music, 101

R&B of 1950s and, 209

research in, xix–xxii, xxv

RJ and, xv–xvi, 115–16, 263

variety of musical styles and, 45–46

Delta blues

blues artists and, 79–80, 82

classic, vs. wide variety of emergence of, 156–58

defined by Hammond, 229–30

music played in Delta and, 56–59

primitivism and, 177

RJ's first session and, 149, 155–57

RJ's music in context of, 126–27, 180, 187–88

RJ's vocals and, 139

slide style of, 144

special conditions of region and, 83–84

Depression, 39, 83, 121, 202

DeSanto, Sugar Pie, 244

Desdumes, Mamie, 12

Detroit, 38, 219

Devil and supernatural, myths of, 265–76

“Devil Got My Woman” (James), 76, 142, 144, 171, 260

“Devil's Son-in-Law, The” (Wheatstraw), 178

Diddley, Bo, 208, 209, 243, 244

“diddley bow,” 107

disco, 218

Dixon, Floyd, 198

Dixon, Willie, 90, 209, 243, 259

Dockery Plantation, 108, 156, 268

Dodds, Johnny, 63

Dodds, Julia Major (RJ's mother), 106–7

Dodds-Spencer, Charles (RJ's “father”), 106, 107

Dogg, Snoop, 218

Doggett, Bill, 211

Domino, Fats, 211–13

Dominoes, 37

Donegan, Lonnie, 238, 239, 241

“Done Sold My Soul to the Devil,” 178, 265

“Don't Let Your Deal Go Down” (Carson), 160

Dorsey, Thomas “Georgia Tom,” 24, 36–38, 42, 273

Dorsey, Tommy (big band), 99

double-entendre, 35, 38, 54, 146, 14

“Down Hearted Blues” (Bessie Smith), 22–23

“down-home” sound, 210

associated with Delta, 83

Delta prewar jukeboxes and, 100

early, of 1920s, 29–30, 32

impact of, in 1940s, 188

R&B of 1950s and, 206–18

white folk fans and, 229, 242–43

Dre, Dr., 194

Drifters, xxiii

“Drown in My Own Tears,” 211

“Drunken Hearted Man,” (RJ), 175

“Dry Southern Blues,” 183

Duchin, Eddy, 100, 101

Dupree, Champion Jack, 242

Dylan, Bob, xxiv, 170, 188, 227, 245–46

 

Eckstine, Billy, 100, 196

Edison, Thomas, 20

Edwards, David “Honeyboy,” 10, 26, 60, 86, 231, 261

on RJ, 123–24, 166

“Egyptians” or Gypsies, 270, 271

eight-bar blues, 37

electric “down-home” Chicago sound, 198, 212–14, 245–46

electric guitar

early, 62

folk revivalists and, 242–43

Walker and, 200, 201

electronic amplification, 38–39, 51

Ellington, Duke, 29, 45, 51, 54, 60, 64, 67, 80, 88, 97, 99, 100, 176, 193, 196, 260

Elliott, Missy, 194

Eminem, 215, 274

English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians
(Sharp), 224

Ertegun, Ahmet, 205

Estes, Sleepy John, 240, 242, 244

ethnic impersonators, 18

Europe.
See also
British blues boom

folk and blues revival in, 242–44

legend of Devil in, 270–271

Evans, David, 272

Evora, Cesaria, xiv

 

fiddle-and-guitar duos, 52

fiddlers, 47–49, 52, 54, 55, 58, 68, 80, 87, 93, 266

field hollers, 71–81, 206–7

fife-and-drum music, 126, 157

Finn, Julio, 268

Fisk Jubilee Singers, 223

Fisk University–Library of Congress (Jones, Lomax, Adams) field team, 86–102, 231

“floating” couplets, 132, 135, 159

Florida, 83

Foddrell, Turner, 48

folk-blues tradition

disappearance of, in Delta, prewar, 91

Jefferson and, 32–33

folk fans

folk festivals, 242–44

folklorists, 6, 22–24, 223–24

field hollers and, 72–76, 78

Fisk study and, 86–91

hoodoo and, 270

pop material not recorded by, 53

split Southern music along racial lines, 57

folk music, 239

blues reconceived as, by Lomax and Hammond, 230–32

disappearance of, in prewar Delta, 91

“pop” vs., 234–35

in rural prewar South, 70–82

folk revival, 232–34, 238–42

Folkways Records, 241

“44 Blues,” reworked as “22-20 blues,” 67, 149

Foster, Stephen, 224

France, 238, 244

Franklin, Aretha, xxiv, 6, 194, 218, 227, 274

Friars Point, Miss., 88–89, 180 “From Four Until Late” (RJ), 170–71, 174

“From Spirituals to Swing” concert, 186–87, 205, 226–29, 230, 235

Fuller, Blind Boy, 40, 41, 94, 100, 118, 152, 182, 200, 218, 228–30

Fulson, Lowell, 83, 198

funk, 194

 

Gaillard, Slim, 63

Gaither, Bill, 40, 41

Gant, Cecil, 37, 197

Gates, Rev. J.M., 80

Georgia, 83

Georgia Yellowhammers, 48

Geremia, Paul, 257, 263–64

Gibbs, Georgia, 244

Gillespie, Dizzy, 193, 239

Gillum, Jazz, 40

Glenn, Lloyd, 198

Gluck, Alma, 31

“Going to Chicago,” 93, 99, 102, 196

“Going to Move to Kansas City,” 94

Golden Gate Gospel Quartet, 93, 99

Goodman, Benny, 63, 98, 99, 193, 230, 232

“Goodnight Irene,” 239 “good-time jazz,” 63

gospel music, 5, 24–25, 33, 37, 38, 59, 202, 216

Delta, 92, 93, 99

influence of, on RJ, xvii, 160

gospel-soul fusion, 273–74

Grand Ole Opry
, 47, 49, 51, 96

Green, Lil, 63, 93, 100, 202, 227

guitar(ists).
See also
specific musicians

black 19th-century, 46–47

early recordings of, 26, 28–36, 40

early styles, 87, 157

hillbilly influence on, 96

prewar Delta and, 88

RJ and, 108–10, 135

white revivalists favor, 242, 249

Guitar Slim, 6, 211

Guralnick, Peter, xvii, 106, 107, 125, 172

Guthrie, Woody, 231, 233

Guy, Buddy, 252, 259

 

Haley, Bill, 205, 213

Hammond, John, 186, 205, 226–32, 234, 235, 241, 247

Hammond, John, Jr., 245, 276

Hampton, Lionel, 202

Handy, W. C., 3, 6, 7, 16–18, 25, 50, 202

Delta and, 88, 94

as Father of the Blues, 11

covers and, 31

ragged loner myth and, 8, 9, 19

roots of music question and, 33

white singers and, 20–21, 96

Harlem Hamfats, 42, 63, 152–53

Harlem Renaissance, 81, 224–24

Harlem Rides the Range
(film), 97

harmonica, 96, 242

RJ and, 109, 117–18

Harney, Hacksaw, xxi, 59, 136

Harpo, Slim, 217

Harris, Marion, 18, 20, 23, 27

Harris, R. H., 37

Harris, Wynonie, 196, 197, 199

Harrison, Wilbert, 212

Hart, Alvin Youngblood, 263

Harvey, Morton, 18

Hawkins, Erskine, 195

Hawkins, Screamin' Jay, 220

Hayes, Clifford, 27

“Heartbreak Hotel” (Presley), 194

Hee Haw
, 51

Hegamin, Lucille, 21, 42

“Hell Hound on My Trail” (RJ), 267, 274

influences on, 150–51, 171, 172

recorded, 171–72

white romanticism and, 237–38

Hellhounds on My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson
(documentary), 275

Henderson, Fletcher, 62

Henderson, Rosa, 42

Hendrix, Jimi, xxiv, 188, 243, 246, 249

Hill, Miz, xviii–xix, xxv

Hill, Z. Z., 219

hillbilly styles.
See also
country sensibility; country-and-western; hoedown

black musicians and, 27, 28, 33, 44–45, 47–53, 69, 96–98, 118

radio and, 97–98

record companies market, as white, 52–53

RJ and, 160

white prisons and, 73

white rediscovery of, 240

Hines, Earl, 45, 60, 63, 68, 99, 100, 196, 198

hip-hop, 194, 219

Hite, Les, 200–201

Hodges, Johnny, 100

hoedown, 35, 45, 47, 52, 85, 93

Hogan, Carl, 200

Hogg, Smokey, 206, 208

hokum, 28, 37–38, 62, 64, 152, 203

Hokum Boys, 41, 42, 200