During the Roaring '20s,
Atlanta, Georgia, was home to a thriving community of blues guitarists
whose styles were as distinctive as their counterparts' in Mississippi,
Memphis, and Chicago. Peg Leg Howell and His Gang specialized in countrified
juke music. The more uptown Barbecue Bob/Curley Weaver school of players
favored open-tuned 12-string guitars played with driving bass patterns
and trebly slides. Their associate Eugene "Buddy" Moss, who came to
brief prominence in the 1930s, drew from their sound and what he'd learned
from records. Blind Willie McTell, truly in a class of his own, blended
ragtime and country blues, emerging as one of the greatest bluesmen
of any era.
The first among them to
record was Peg Leg Howell, who performed for a Columbia Records field
unit visiting Atlanta in November 1926. Born Joshua Barnes Howell in
Eatonton, Georgia, in 1888, Howell was older than most of the early
Atlanta bluesmen, and his repertoire extended to country reels, white
mountain music, field hollers, ballads, and other preblues styles. He
moved to Atlanta around 1923 after losing his leg to a shotgun blast
and played with guitarist Henry Williams and violinist Eddie Anthony.
Howell, who accompanied
himself on six-string guitar, was a decent and occasionally adventurous
fingerpicker with a nice, steady roll and a knack for playing extended
bass runs reminiscent of Blind Lemon Jefferson. His first 78, "New Prison
Blues," sold well enough that Howell was back five months later with
Williams and Anthony, recording as Peg Leg Howell and His Gang. With
bracing guitar, mournful vocals, and limber fiddle lines, these exuberant
78s were among Howell's best records. His sales, though, were soon supplanted
by those of Barbecue Bob, and he made his final prewar records in 1929.
He resurrected his career 34 years later, recorded an album for Testament,
and passed away in 1966.
The Hip Crowd
Whereas Peg Leg Howell sounded
old-timey and countrified, Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks), Laughing Charley
Lincoln (Charley Hicks), and Curley Weaver had a decidedly hipper approach.
All three favored open-tuned 12-string guitars played with zesty bass
runs and highly rhythmic bottleneck. The three had grown up together
in the cotton-field country around Walnut Grove, Georgia, and it's likely
that Weaver's mother, Savannah "Dip" Shepard, tutored them on guitar.
By 1918, the Hicks brothers were performing at fish fries and country
balls, playing songs like "John Henry" and "Po' Boy." Witnesses recalled
that Robert was the better guitarist, while Charley had a stronger voice.
Around 1923 Charley moved to Atlanta, found work, and acquired a 12-string
guitar. His younger brother joined him there the following year and
soon had a 12-string as well.
Weaver, several years younger
than the Hicks brothers, moved to Atlanta around 1925 with Eddie Mapp,
a talented young harmonica player. With his easy-going personality and
knack for accompanying others, Weaver became a favorite among local
musicians. As Buddy Moss told Blues Unlimited, "I think people
liked Curley best [of the Atlanta musicians]. Curley was a guy, he could
really raise behind you and he could take up the slack. You didn't have
to wait for him." Moss, born in 1914, grew up in Augusta, Georgia. A
harmonica prodigy who could wail like Eddie Mapp, he took up guitar
after befriending Robert and Charley Hicks soon after arriving in Atlanta
in 1928.
Robert Hicks launched his
recording career in March 1927 after being spotted by a Columbia talent
scout. Columbia identified him as Barbecue Bob on all but two of his
more than 50 78s. His first release, "Barbecue Blues," sold well enough
that Columbia arranged to record him in their main studio in New York
City three months later. Barbecue Bob hit pay dirt with a topical blues
he'd written on the train to New York, "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues,"
about recent catastrophic flooding in the Mississippi Delta. The record
was snapped up by southern blacks, and Hicks was soon Columbia's best-selling
bluesman. For the next three years, he made records every time Columbia
visited Atlanta.
Barbecue Bob's 12-string
playing had plenty of pizzazz, with its thumbed bass parts and speedy
slide, which he apparently played with a ring. He favored one- or two-chord
song structures and was equally adept at fast, clean, highly rhythmic
playing and slow blues. For added effect, he'd occasionally snap the
lower strings, howl and growl, or launch into solos at unexpected times.
He usually tuned to open G and would sometimes capo up four frets to
play in B. His original titles displayed streetwise confidence, wry
humor, and a familiarity with popular blues and vaudeville themes.
On Barbecue Bob's recommendation,
Charley Hicks made his first recordings for Columbia in November 1927.
He proved to be a less facile guitarist than his younger brother, relying
on old-fashioned frailing techniques and rarely using slide. His pseudonym,
Laughing Charley Lincoln (also spelled Charlie on some releases), was
reinforced by the infectious laughter heard on several of his records.
Columbia teamed Laughing Charley with Barbecue Bob on his first release,
"It Won't Be Long Now." Laughing Charley soon had a hit record of his
own with "Hard Luck Blues." Unlike his ebullient brother, though, Laughing
Charley tended to sound melancholy, and his 78s weren't as plentiful
and didn't sell as well.
Barbecue Bob went on the
road in the late '20s, playing with an old-time medicine show that toured
from Georgia to Mississippi. He was in fine form at his final sessions,
held at Atlanta's Campbell Hotel in December 1930. After recording six
new solo blues, he teamed with Weaver and Moss as the Georgia Cotton
Pickers. Weaver slid magnificently through their rollicking tunes, while
Hicks played rhythm and Moss, just 16 and recording for the first time,
wailed on harmonica. Infectious hokum, their "Diddle-Da-Diddle" nodded
to Blind Blake's popular "Diddy Wah Diddy," while "She's Coming Back
Some Cold Rainy Day" borrowed melodically from the Mississippi Sheiks'
"Sittin' on Top of the World." Played with unabashed heart, the Georgia
Cotton Pickers sides are among the best of the pre-war juke band recordings.
Tragically, Barbecue Bob Hicks died of pneumonia in 1931, and his brother
Charley became a mean and dangerous drunk and never recorded again.
Following a series of scrapes with the law, he murdered a man in 1955
and was sentenced to 20 years. He died in prison in September 1963.
Buddy Moss had trouble with
the law as well. Learning guitar from the Hicks brothers and Weaver
and absorbing influences from records by Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell,
Blind Lemon Jefferson, and especially Blind Blake, he developed a superb
fingerpicking style reminiscent of Blake's. By the mid-1930s he was
recording extensively for the ARC company in New York City, as a solo
artist and with Fred McMullen, Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, Josh White,
and others. By 1935 he was poised to become the Southeast's most important
bluesman, but then the 22-year-old Moss was convicted of murdering his
wife and sentenced to six years in prison. He tried to resurrect his
career in 1940 with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, playing as well
as he had a half dozen years earlier, but Moss never regained the momentum
he'd had in the '30s. "Rediscovered" during the '60s folk-blues revival,
he recorded again and worked the blues festival circuit during the '70s,
but he remained a guarded, embittered man until his death in 1984.
Curley Weaver fared better
than his pals. Barbecue Bob had arranged for him to record his first
sides for Columbia in October 1928. Played without a slide, his first
recording, "Sweet Petunia," resembled the work of the enormously popular
white country star Jimmie Rodgers. Its flip side, "No No Blues," was
pure Weaver, with its effective falsettos, driving 12-string strums
(played in open G capoed up a couple of frets), and highly distinctive
slide work. As his slide reached its note, Weaver gave it a short, rapid
shake to create a propulsive, wavering sound. Only a few other '20s
blues guitarists played slide this way on records, and by the mid-'30s
this sound had pretty much vanished from the blues. But Weaver was far
more than a one-lick wonder: He could also bottleneck with dead-on intonation
worthy of Tampa Red, as heard on his 1931 duets with Clarence Moore.
Weaver really hit his stride
during the mid-'30s, playing exceptional slide at his 1933 ARC sessions
with Moss, McMullen, and Atlanta singer Ruth Willis. His falsetto-laced
"Tippin' Tom" and "Birmingham Gambler" revisited the idiosyncratic style
of "No No Blues." He teamed with McMullen and Moss as the Georgia Browns,
a trio modeled after the Georgia Cotton Pickers. Like their predecessors,
on which Weaver had also played, these records are fabulous samples
of string band juke music. The good-time "Tampa Strut" displays the
guitarists' unstoppable rhythmic feel and wall-to-wall bottleneck, as
well as Moss' mournful harmonica solos. "Next Door Man" featured Weaver
in standard tuning while McMullen played bottleneck in open G.
Blind Willie McTell
Among the plethora of Atlanta's
blues guitar stars, none shone brighter than Blind Willie McTell, who
had it all—a shrewd mind, insightful lyrics, astounding nimbleness
on a 12-string guitar, and a sweet, plangent, instantly recognizable
voice. He was sensitive, confident, and hip-talking, a beloved figure
in the various communities in which he moved, and he played sublimely,
a result of both natural talent and constant playing. McTell's records
reveal a phenomenal repertoire of blues, ragtime, hillbilly, spirituals,
ballads, show tunes, and original songs. They seldom sound high-strung
or harrowed, projecting instead an exuberant personality and indomitable
spirit.
Willie Samuel McTell was
born circa 1898 near Thomson, Georgia. He started performing as a teenager
and had acquired his first 12-string guitar, probably a Stella, by 1927.
At first he used a bottleneck for slide and later switched to a metal
ring or thimble. He favored standard and open-G tunings, and many of
his songs had a pronounced ragtime influence.
McTell inaugurated his recording
career in October 1927, cutting two 78s during the Victor label's field
trip to Atlanta. After a pair of slideless blues, McTell recorded the
first of many slide masterpieces, "Mama, T'Aint Long Fo' Day," working
his bass and treble strings in a manner that had more in common with
Texas gospel great Blind Willie Johnson than the Atlanta bluesmen. McTell
signed a contract with Victor and a year later recorded two more 78s,
including his best-known composition "Statesboro Blues" (see transcription,
page 56). While this song is revered today as Duane Allman's signature
bottleneck song with the Allman Brothers Band, the McTell version is
slideless.
All of McTell's initial
Victor 78s were hardcore blues. In October 1929, he moonlighted for
the first time with Columbia Records, which would release many of his
more adventurous sides. McTell was in extraordinary form at his debut
Columbia session, recording the classics "Atlanta Strut" and "Travelin'
Blues." In "Atlanta Strut" he sang of meeting up with a "gang of stags"
and a little girl who looked "like a lump of Lord have mercy," while
his booming 12-string imitated a bass viol, cackling hen, crowing rooster,
piano, slide guitar, even a man walking up the stairs! He fingerpicked
"Travelin' Blues" with extraordinary finesse, using his slide to mimic
a train's engine, bell, and whistle, and then did a note-perfect chorus
of "Poor Boy." Columbia identified him on records as Blind Sammie, but
for anyone who'd heard the Victor 78s, there was no mistaking who this
artist was. Issued in early 1930, "Travelin' Blues" sold more than 4,200
copies, but with the onset of the Depression, blues record sales soon
plummeted. When "Atlanta Blues" came out in May 1932, only 400 copies
were pressed.
Curley Weaver, who'd become
fast friends with McTell around 1930, accompanied him in the studio
for the first time at a 1931 Columbia session. McTell, now moonlighting
as Georgia Bill, played unsurpassed ragtime-influenced 12-string on
his unaccompanied "Georgia Rag," while the 78's flip side, "Low Rider's
Blues," featured Weaver's light-touched bottleneck solo, with McTell
shouting encouragement. The duo also backed Ruth Willis on a pair of
tracks. McTell's unaccompanied "Southern Can Is Mine"/"Broke Down Engine,"
a gem of a performance, sold only 500 copies. McTell's sole session
of 1932 coupled him with another female singer, Ruby Glaze, and renamed
him Hot Shot Willie. Their 78 of "Lonesome Day Blues" sold only 124
copies and is among his rarest records today.
Despite discouraging sales,
McTell's luck at scoring recording sessions held. In September 1933
he accompanied Weaver and Moss to New York City for the marathon ARC
session that, in hindsight, was the swan song of the early Atlanta blues
guitar scene. McTell played second guitar on records credited to Weaver
and Moss, who in turn backed McTell on two dozen gospel and blues selections.
These records are among the best prewar blues guitar collaborations.
McTell and Moss both recorded two versions of "Broke Down Engine" and
covered Bumble Bee Slim's "B and O Blues" at the session, with Weaver
accompanying each of them. Moss remembered that McTell acted as their
leader in New York, both at the session and in navigating the subways.
While McTell kept a home
base in Atlanta during the 1930s, he was an inveterate rambler. During
summers, he played for vacationers in Miami and the Georgia Sea Islands.
When the tobacco crop came in during July and August, he'd head to warehouses
and hotels around Statesboro, Winston-Salem, and Durham, North Carolina.
He refused car rides from strangers and typically journeyed by train
and bus, confident in his ability to support himself by playing for
tips in stations and depots, small clubs, churches, and on the streets.
He acted as his own manager and agent, often arranging bookings by telephone.
In 1934 McTell married Ruthy
Kate Williams, a student he'd heard singing at a high school ceremony
in Augusta. On occasion she sang spirituals with McTell and danced onstage
while he played matinees at the 81 Theater, sometimes with Weaver sitting
in. After seeing one such performance there in 1935, recording executive
Mayo Williams invited the McTells and Weaver to Chicago to record for
Decca.
At these Chicago sessions,
the McTells performed several old-time gospel slide tunes reminiscent
of Blind Willie Johnson, with whom he'd toured a few years earlier.
Weaver joined McTell on "Bell Street Blues" and several other secular
tunes, finessing quick-fingered solos behind McTell's 12-string bass
and rhythm. McTell backed Weaver on several blues as well, playing with
such wonderful subtlety on "Tricks Ain't Walking No More" that his 12-string
almost sounds like a six-string. McTell was paid $100 per side—excellent
pay during the Depression—although few of these records were issued.
None of the records made at his next session, held by Vocalion in Augusta
in July 1936 with Piano Red, were issued or even survive today.
In November 1940, folklorist
John Lomax and his wife found McTell wailing away at the Pig 'n' Whistle
(a drive-in rib joint) and brought him to their hotel to record for
the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Song. (On the drive
to the hotel, the story goes, McTell called out directions and pointed
to landmarks as if he could see them.) The non-commercial session yielded
a breathtaking array of folk ballads and spirituals, as well as a blues,
a rag, a pop song, and insightful monologues on old songs, blues history,
and life itself. McTell laced "Dying Crapshooter's Blues," one of his
most ambitious and picturesque compositions, with hip gambling images
and an unforgettable melody. His lonesome slide during the spirituals
"I Got to Cross the River Jordan," "Old Time Religion," and "Amazing
Grace" resembled Blind Willie Johnson's old 78s, although unlike Johnson,
who played in open D, McTell played his in open G capoed up two frets.
In less than an hour, McTell gave Lomax some of the finest records he'd
ever make.
While amplified jump blues
became the dominant sound on jukeboxes and blues radio broadcasts just
after World War II, by the late 1940s the stripped-down sound of John
Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Lightning Hopkins was attracting an audience.
In May 1949, an executive from New Jersey–based Regal Records advertised
on Atlanta's black radio for country blues guitarists, and McTell and
Weaver answered the call, cutting 20 blues and gospel selections. These
excellent-sounding records reveal a wealth of innovative bass lines
and chords, masterfully fingerpicked solos, and sublime slide. Their
excited "You Can't Get That Stuff No More" revisited a 1932 Tampa Red
hit, while McTell's remakes of "Love Changin' Blues" and "Savannah Women"
featured sweet and low-down slide. Only three of the McTell singles
were issued by Regal, however, two of them religious. On the sole blues
release, McTell was identified as Pig 'n' Whistle Red.
Several months later, Weaver,
43, recorded two solo singles on acoustic guitar for the Sittin' In
With label, including a spirited remake of "Tricks Ain't Walkin' No
More," which he'd recorded for Decca a dozen years earlier. These were
Weaver's last recordings. He formed a trio with Buddy Moss and Johnnie
Guthrie, playing around Georgia in the early '50s, and retired from
music when his eyesight failed later in the decade. He died in 1962
and was buried in a rural churchyard in Almon, Georgia, where "Tricks
Ain't Walking No More" is etched beneath his name on the tombstone.
McTell's next sessions took
place during autumn 1949. Ahmet Ertegun saw him playing on a street
corner and convinced him to record for his fledgling Atlantic Records.
"I had collected many recordings he had made for RCA Victor, and I thought
I recognized his voice, but I wasn't sure," Ertegun explained to filmmaker
David Fulmer in 1992. "I asked him his name and discovered he was the
famous Blind Willie McTell. He spoke of having no interest in recording
anything except religious music and would only play the blues if I would
release it under another name. Therefore, we decided on the pseudonym
Barrelhouse Sammy. He was a charming, ebullient, but soft-mannered person."
For the Atlantic sessions, McTell reprised songs he'd recorded for Lomax—"Kill
It Kid," "Delia," "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"—as well as blues,
a rag, and several spirituals played slide-style in the vein of Blind
Willie Johnson. With its thunderous bass runs and behind-the-bridge
strums, McTell's cover of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" bordered on prescient
rock 'n' roll. On subsequent listening to the acetates, Atlantic executives
apparently deemed McTell's solitary blues a thing of the past, and his
sole Atlantic single, "Kill It Kid" backed with "Broke Down Engine Blues,"
came out credited to Barrelhouse Sammy (The Country Boy).
During the '50s McTell frequented
the Blue Lantern Club, performing tableside as well as in the parking
lot of the all-white restaurant. He broadcasted religious music over
local radio stations and sang tenor for the glee club of the Metropolitan
Atlanta Association for the Blind. In September 1956, McTell made his
final recordings for Ed Rhodes, who owned a record store near the Blue
Lantern. Rhodes supplied him with corn liquor, and while McTell seemed
to get looser as the session progressed, he played with drive and precision.
McTell performed all 18 selections without a slide, covering originals,
pop songs, old blues by Blind Blake and the Hokum Boys, and hillbilly
numbers such as "Wabash Cannonball." Asked about songs, he told Rhodes,
"I jump 'em from other writers, but I arrange 'em my way."
Blind Willie McTell died
in August 1959, and his wish to be buried with his 12-string guitar
was not honored. While McTell, Curley Weaver, the Hicks brothers, Peg
Leg Howell, and their prewar contemporaries created stacks of terrific
blues recordings, precious little of their influence resounds in modern
music. Unlike contemporaries such as Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters
in the Mississippi Delta and Tampa Red in Chicago, their sound did not
become a cornerstone of postwar blues and rock 'n' roll, but rather
a glimpse back to a bygone era. Fortunately, virtually everything they
recorded is now available on CD, and it's just as remarkable and exhilarating
as when it was first recorded.
Excerpted from
Acoustic
Guitar magazine, October 2002,
No. 118.
