Escaping the Delta (50 page)

Sharp, Cecil, 224

Shaw, Arnold, 37

Shaw, Artie, 92, 99, 100

Shindig!
(TV show), 245

Shines, Johnny, 261, 276

on jukeboxes of 1930s, 99

on RJ, 111–19, 121–24, 142, 154, 155, 174, 266

on styles of live performers, 45–46, 60

on Wolf, 214

Shining Trumpets
(Blesh), 237–38

Sinatra, Frank, 62, 66, 206, 235

singer-guitarists

early recordings of, 27–36

Rainey paves way for, 25–26

replaced in black pop music, 194–95

“Sissy Man Blues,” 135

“Sitting on Top of the World,” xxi, 94, 144

Skiffle Bands
(album), 241

slaves and slave musicians, 9–10, 46–47, 72, 86

Slave Songs of the United States
(book, 1867), 223

slide guitar, 62, 142–44, 155–56, 158, 159, 162, 228

small combos, 197–98, 199

Smith, Bessie, xxiii, xxv, 5, 7, 10, 16, 20, 196, 206, 215, 254, 257, 260, 273

death of, xviii

early popularity of, 22–27, 30–31, 41

Hammond and, 227, 230

influence of, 78, 80, 204

influences on, 25, 76

radio and, 96

Van Vechten and, 225–26

variety of music sung by, 61

Smith, Clara, 23, 26, 40, 41, 76, 162, 265

influence on RJ, 178

Smith, Funny Paper, 274

Smith, Harry, 240

Smith, Lucius, 88

Smith, Mamie, 17, 20–21, 23, 26, 27, 42, 196, 253

Smoky Mountain Boys, 99

smooth balladeers, 206

smooth trios, 197

Snow, Hank, 98, 203

songs, favorite, Fisk study, 91–95, 102

“songsters” label, 55–56

Sor, 46

soul, 6, 187, 202, 217, 218

as category, vs. blues, 194, 212

soul shout, 37

Soul Stirrers, 37

Sousa, John Phillip, 46

South

black and white music overlap in, 46–49

“chitlin' circuit” in, 219

country guitarists and, 35

record company field trips to, 30–31, 33, 39

white vs. blacks and nostalgia for Old, 31–32

South Carolina, 83

Southwest, 198

“Spanish Fandango,” 47, 157

Speir, H. C., 66, 119–20

Spencer, Charles.
See also
Dodds-Spencer, Charles

Spencer, Robert (RJ's name on early documents), 107

Spirits of Rhythm, 152

spirituals, 92, 93, 223

Spivey, Victoria, xxv, 29, 34, 42, 76, 94

revivalists and, 244

Springsteen, Bruce, 227

square dances, 53, 87, 88

“Stagolee” (song), xxiii, 10, 212, 224, 268

“Stardust,” 35, 54, 92, 201

Stein, Gertrude, 172

stereotypes, white audience for black music and, 221–23, 225, 257

Stokes, Frank, 161

“Stones in My Passway” (RJ), 167–70

“Stop Breakin' Down Blues” (RJ), 179–81

Strachwitz, Chris, 97

street singers, 27–28, 30–33

“Street Walkin'” (Powell), xxi

string bands, 10, 46, 48, 50, 52–54, 77, 96

Stuart, Gen. J. E. B., 48

Sun Records, 214

“Sweet Home Chicago” (RJ), 93, 102, 119, 135, 140

becomes standard, 138, 139, 188

recorded, 138–39

swing, 61, 88, 92, 93, 193, 198

swing jive, 152, 153

Sykes, Roosevelt, xx, 41, 67, 79, 94, 149, 197, 237, 242

 

“Tain't Nobody's Business if I Do,” 22

“Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle” (Autry), 58, 97

Tampa Red, 41, 61, 94, 119, 129, 195, 198, 200, 204, 218

influence of, 36, 37–38

influence of, on RJ, 131, 144

variety of music played by, 63–64

Tangle Eye (black convict), 75, 77

“Tangle Eye Blues” (field holler), 75

Tarriers, 239

Tartini, 271

Taylor, Eva, 22, 42, 95–96

Taylor, Koko, 259

Taylor, Little Johnny, 217

Taylor, Montana, 237

Taylor's Kentucky Boys, 48

Tedeschi, Susan, 256

Temple, Johnnie, 137, 144, 152, 274

tenant farms, 101

Tennessee, 48, 83

Tennessee Chocolate Drops, 53

tent shows, 11, 13, 25, 199

“Terraplane Blues” (RJ), xvii, 121, 155, 162, 180, 185

as hit, 145, 166

recorded, 145–47

“Stones in My Passway” and, 167–69

Terry, Sonny, 227, 233, 234, 238, 239, 243

Texas, 76–77, 83, 98, 174, 195, 198

Texas Playboys, 134

Tharpe, Sister Rosetta, 93, 99, 227

“That's All Right” (Crudup), 207

“That's All Right” (Rogers), 261

“They're Red Hot” (RJ), 152–54

“Things 'Bout Coming My Way” (Tampa Red), 119, 144

32-20 Blues” (RJ), 149–52

Skip James and, 149–51

“This Old Hammer” (work song), 81

Thomas, Henry “Ragtime Texas,” 55

Thomas, Jesse, 56

Thornton, Big Mama, 206

Thorogood, George, 6

Three Blazers, 188, 197, 198

Tin Pan Alley, 7, 21, 52–53, 60–62, 64–65, 202

“Tin Pan Alley Blues,” 94

“Tomorrow Night” (Lonnie Johnson), xxiii, 204, 205

Toure, Ali Farka, 76

Townsend, Henry, 59, 112, 116–19

“trad jazz” crowd, 237–39, 240, 242

“Traveling Riverside Blues” (RJ), 180–82

Travis, Merle, 48

Travis, Virginia (first wife of RJ), 108

Tucker, Bessie, 76

Turner, Big Joe, xxiii, 66, 194, 195, 196, 199, 204–6, 208, 227

Turner, Ike, xix

Tutwiler, Mississippi, 8, 16

twelve-bar blues, 6, 32, 45, 96, 194, 198, 200, 211–12, 218

defined, 4

Tympany Five, 199, 200

 

urban studio blues players, 61, 77

revivalists exclude, 242

urban styles, RJ and, 132–33

 

Vallee, Rudy, 96, 129

Van Gogh, 241

Van Ronk, Dave, 177, 240, 241, 257

Van Vechten, Carl, 225–26, 234

vaudeville, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20–22, 34–35, 38, 60–61, 76, 81, 139

“country” vs., 54–55

supernatural and, 273–74

work songs and, 81

Vaughan, Sarah, 213

Vaughan, Stevie Ray, 6, 219, 249, 252, 257

Victor Military Band, 17

Villon, François, 264

Vinson, Eddie “Cleanhead,” 197, 198

Vocalion Records, 52, 182

Von Schmidt, Eric, 240

 

Waits, Tom, xiv

Walker, Ernest, 116

Walker, T-Bone, xiv, 66, 83, 188, 195, 196, 198, 219, 258, 264

folk revivalists and, 243, 253

influence of, 200–201, 208, 210, 215

“Walkin' Blues” (RJ), 94

recorded, 158–59

“Spirituals to Swing” concert and, 229

Wallace, Sippie, 23, 80–81

Waller, Fats, xxvi, 59, 72, 100

Wardlow, Gayle Dean, 150, 274

Washboard Band, 63

Washboard Rhythm Kings, 62

Washboard Sam, 40, 41, 94

Washington, Dinah (Ruth Jones), 6, 37, 188, 198, 201–3, 208, 210, 215, 258, 264

“Water Boy” (work song), 81, 93

Waters, Ethel, 21, 23, 41–42, 202, 204

Waters, Muddy, xxiii, 83, 128, 208, 217, 261, 264, 268

Delta world and style of, 90, 91, 102, 156–57

early Chess hits, 260

homemade vs. professional blues and, 79

“Hoochie Coochie Man” and, 177, 178, 204

on House, 158

influences on, 72, 79, 158

Lomax and, 57–59, 86, 231

musical categories and, 59, 97, 212

as R&B star, 209–13, 215, 216

on RJ, 261

rock and, 208, 221, 244–45

white revivalists and, 213, 238, 241, 244–45, 247, 248, 252–55, 258, 259

Watts, Charlie, 239

Weaver, Sylvester, 26, 27

Weavers, 239, 241, 248

Webb, Chick, 199 “Weed Smoker's Dream” (McCoy), 63

Weldon, Casey Bill, 62, 178, 195

Welk, Lawrence, 97

Wells, Junior, 252, 259

West Africa, 49

West Coast, 83, 197–98, 200

Western hits, 127

Wheatstraw, Peetie (William Bunch), 40, 41, 59, 63, 66, 94, 100, 116, 127, 140, 206, 262, 267

Devil's Son-In-Law and, 267

influence of, on RJ, 146, 170, 173, 175, 178

“When the Sun Goes Down” (Carr), 196

“Love in Vain” and, 183–84

“When You Got a Good Friend” (RJ), 140–42

Whitburn, Joel, 216

White, Booker, 80, 242

White, Georgia, 40, 42, 62

White, Josh, 81, 134, 148, 205, 219

Lomax and, 230

number of recordings by, 42

RJ and, 131, 263

white audience and, 233–34, 238, 239, 241, 248

white audience, 81–82, 97, 213–14, 221–54

artists play non-blues to “please,” 68–69

black artists rediscovered by, 242–47

blues as folk form and, 226–34

blues introduced to, 205

categories and, 208

demonic concept and, 266–67, 276

down-home singers and, 211

effect of, on music, 252–54

guitar vs. singing and, 217

Jordan hits of 1940s and, 199–200

primitiveness and, 177–78, 220–21

Reed and, 218

RJ as bridge for, xvi, 138, 188–89

rock fans and, 244–46

in rural Mississippi, 11

takes over blues stars from blacks, 219

tastes of, vs. original audience, 27

“trad jazz” fans, 236–39

Wallace work song aimed at, 81

white blues musicians, 6, 245

early, 17–22, 27, 31

modern, 253–56

white blues researchers, 68

white country music, 27, 28, 31–32, 47, 80, 97–98

white musicians, 47, 51–52, 57

white pop music, 96

Whitter, Henry, 31

“Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On,” 211–12

“Why Don't You Do Right” (McCoy), 63, 202

Wilkins, Robert, 246, 272

Williams, Big Joe, 55, 244

Williams, blues composer, 25

Williams, Clarence, 34, 63

Williams, Cootie, 197

Williams, Hank, xxiv, 98, 188, 203, 255

Williams, J. Mayo “Ink,” 29, 66

Williams, Mary Lou, 99

Williams, Robert Pete, 78, 242, 261

Williamson, John Lee “Sonny Boy,” 39–40, 42, 58, 59, 63, 94, 179, 244.
See also
Miller, Aleck

Willis, Chuck, 211

Willis, Dusty (RJ's stepfather), 107

Wills, Bob, 134

Wilson, Edith, 21

Wilson, Jackie, 6

Wilson, Teddy, 99, 226

Witherspoon, Jimmy, 183, 199, 258

W.J. (jazz piano player), 60

Wolfman Jack, 213

women.
See also
blues queens

blues as market of, 213, 215–16

as blues stars, 201–2

folk traditions of black, 73

male stars vs., 26–28

shift to white male audience from, 251

Wooding, Sam, 23

Work, John, 11, 57, 58, 86

work songs, 5, 71, 73–74, 80–81, 92, 93, 160, 239

World War I, 38

World War II, 102, 196–98, 204

Wright, Richard, 257, 265

Wyman, Bill, 239

 

Yardbirds, 244

Yas Yas Girl.
See
Johnson, Merline

Yazoo Records, 64–65

“Yellow Dog Blues” (Handy), 17 “You Gonna Need Somebody When You Die” (Patton), 160

Young, Lester, xiv

 

Zinnerman, Ike, 110

H
AVING SPENT MOST OF MY LIFE LISTENING TO, READING ABOUT,
and playing blues, I cannot begin to list all the people to whom I owe debts for what is in this book. However, some specific names must be cited:

For access to his collection of recordings, I must thank Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records, and also John Tefteller for playing me his unissued test pressing of Tommy Johnson. For the chapter on musical tastes in Mississippi, I am particularly indebted to the pioneering research of Samuel Adams, and to those who made that work available to me: Evelyn Adams, the staff at Fisk University, and Robert Gordon, who alerted me to Dr. Adams's scholarship. For that chapter and others, I was greatly helped by the staff at Alan Lomax's Association for Cultural Equity, and also at the Folklife Archive of the Library of Congress.

For the chapters on Robert Johnson's recordings, I was alerted to many of his potential sources by Edward Komara's list in Gayle Dean Wardlow's
Chasin' That Devil Music
, and by Bob Groom's three articles in
Blues Unlimited
. Even where I have diverged from their suggestions, I could do so only after following the trails they blazed.

As I wrote this book I tried to seek the advice of knowledgeable critics who would catch my errors as a researcher and a historian. For reading the entire manuscript, I must thank Matthew Barton, Cheryl Devall, Peter Guralnick, and Peter Keane. For reading selected sec
tions, often in meticulous detail, I thank Lynn Abbott, David Evans, Reebee Garofalo, Paul Rishell, and Tony Russell. All of these readers saved me from embarrassing mistakes or misjudgments, but of course must not be held responsible for any that remain. There were also various people with whom I had lengthy conversations that were indispensable at many stages of the writing. Among them, I must single out Scott Barretta, Andy Cohen, Paul Geremia, Steve James, Richard Nevins, and all the guys at Stereo Jack's record store.

Jeff McLaughlin once again stepped in as my personal editor, and once again provided his unique combination of encouragement, criticism, and close reading. Richard McDonough again found my work a good home with Dawn Davis and Amistad, and it is a pleasure to have worked again with Rene Alegria, editor of HarperCollins's Rayo imprint, who slid over to Amistad to provide appropriate advice and criticism. And many thanks to Andrea Montejo, for cheerfully fielding all my phone calls.