What's new
By:

Why aint they no blues thread?

Course, Bessie got that tune (she changed it up quite a bit, but, still....) from good ole Frank Stokes.

"Stokes was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, in South Memphis' largest vicinity Whitehaven, located two miles north of the Mississippi line. He was raised by his stepfather in Tutwiler, Mississippi, after the death of his parents. Stokes learned to play guitar as a youth in Tutwiler...By the turn of the century, at the age of 12, Stokes worked as a blacksmith, traveling the 25 miles to Memphis on the weekends to sing and play guitar with Sane, with whom he developed a long-term musical partnership.

The breadth of his musical knowledge made him the embodiment of the rural black musical tradition up to the early twentieth century, and makes his recorded works a small window into the popular and folk styles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Even before he recorded, he was acknowledged by his peers to have had a considerable influence on local musicians. For this reason, some consider Stokes, and not W. C. Handy, to be the true father of the Memphis blues.

Stokes and Sane joined to play Beale Street together as the Beale Street Sheiks, first recording under that name for Paramount Records in August 1927. Sane rejoined Stokes for the second day of the August 1928 session, and they produced a two-part version of "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do", a song well known in later versions by Bessie Smith...The fluid guitar interplay between Stokes and Sane, combined with a propulsive beat, witty lyrics, and Stokes's stentorian voice, make their recordings irresistible. Their duet style influenced the young Memphis Minnie in her duets with husband Kansas Joe McCoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stokes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzdP5zbe-oQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SImLb5628Kk&feature=related
 
Doncha let...my good girl catch ya here....
She might shoot ya....might cut ya clean half in two....
Aint no tellin just what...she might do


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfAgxMd_LDU

Mississippi John Hurt, he ROCKS, eh!?
 
Edit: If ya think this here Henry Thomas toon sounds kinda familiar, it could be cause ya done heards Canned Heat's "Goin up the country," which they clean stold from Henry, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qo9R5kDZWY
 
Talkin bout Canned Heat rippin off tunes, and all, I spect most everybuddy and his brutha knows they ripped off John Lee Hooker's boogie riff and took credit for writin a tune they called "Refried Boogie."

Probably not so many knows they ripped off this here tune from the incomparable Wilbert Harrison (who done, mong other great tunes, the classic "Kansas City")


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYWiUErA9Kw
 
Last edited:
Long bout time fo another classic Big Bill tune, I figure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0c1c0ZsTLA
 
It seems they really aint but one thang ta do, ya know? Boogie, Chillinz!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpuaCoK_rl4

John Lee, he ROCKS, eh?
 
Here's an 8-9 minute clip with actors playin the roles of Son House, Willie Brown, and Robert Johnson. I dunno the actors, or where it come from, but I found it rather entertainin. You might too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrjzohMjcA&feature=fvsr

If ya likes it, there's a bunch more at Youtube--7-8 parts, I think.
 
Last edited:
"[Wolf's] stage presence was absolutely feral, exaggerated by his physical size—he stood 6' 3" tall, weighed 275 lbs late in life, and wore size 16 shoes. John Shines, who also traveled with Robert Johnson, said, “I was afraid of the Wolf, like you would be of some wild animal....It was the SOUND he was giving off!”

When his father bought him his first guitar in January 1928, he convinced Charley Patton to give him guitar lessons. He later took impromptu harmonica lessons from Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), who was romancing his step-sister, Mary. He learned to sing by listening to records by his idols “Blind” Lemon Jefferson, Tommy Johnson, the Mississippi Sheiks, Jimmie “the Singing Brakeman” Rodgers, Leroy Carr, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, and Blind Blake...when he wasn’t working on his father’s farm, he traveled the Delta with other musicians such as Sonnyboy, Robert Johnson, Patton, Son House, and Willie Brown.

Wolf’s collaborator on many of his greatest songs was guitar wizard Hubert Sumlin, who continues to play today. Hubert plays electric guitar with his bare fingers—an oddity for a Chicago bluesman—and his eccentric, slashing style made him a favorite of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green, and many other guitarists from the 1960s onward.

https://www.howlinwolf.com/articles/bio_3.htm

Here's a classic tune done by Wolf, one he learned as a child listenin to the good ole Mississippi Sheiks:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBYZkBLVFPQ&feature=related
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top