Deltachord

After Mayo Williams rescued Josh from the ill treatment of Taggert, he had two more years of recording experience in Chicago. After this, he had the funds to go home to Greenville, South Carolina to care for his mother and siblings.

What would become Columbia Records, then ARC Records in the latter part of 1930 sent two talent scouts hunting for Josh White. ARC wanted to signup the young man that as a boy had been an excellent sessions guitarist, and more importantly had guided the main blind street singers of an era across the U.S.A. He had memorized their collection of  Negro music—a grass roots repertoire of spirituals, folk songs, and blues.

The talent scouts probed the country for months and located him at home with his mother and siblings. Josh was still underage and his mother only agreed to sign the contract with the stipulation he didn’t record the blues, but only spirituals. The contract for $100.00 gave ARC the rights to all of the religious music he had learned. When he turned eighteen he signed a contract to record the blues. He used the name Pinewood Tom for these recordings. As 1933 round around he had become a huge success.

A week after he recorded “When the Sun Goes down” in 1936 he was involved in a bar brawl and slammed his fist through a glass door. He developed gangrene in his picking hand and though advised to amputate he wouldn’t, but his hand was useless. He couldn’t move his fingers at all.

Josh didn’t want to sing without playing guitar. He stopped his recording career and starting working mundane jobs: elevator operator, dockworker, and building superintendent. Still, from 1928-1936 he had a phenomenal recording output of race records, which was the legitimate name of these recordings as defined by the black community. During this era he had recorded as a session guitarist with Buddy Moss, The Carver Boys, Lucille Bogan and others.

To be continued…

References:

JoshWhite
JW

CD

Josh at Midnight: Sings Ballads & Blues

Josh White was a protest songwriter before it became more popularized in the sixties. He portrayed a style more along the lines of a workingman’s protester of skinflint businesses. He is like Woody Guthrie in being a workingman’s voice, but playing a country blues and gospel oriented style. His music branched out into other realms like jazz, cabaret, folk, and Tin Pan Alley.

White’s recordings were prolific on labels like Vocalion Records and Emerson Records, which were black record labels doing business in the 1920’s and 30’s. In the McCarthy era White ended up on a list of people believed to be communists because of his protest songs. Many of his songs were anti-segregationists and concerning human rights.

Josh White had a definite influence on future generations of musicians and singers like Eartha Kitt, Bob Dylan, Odetta, Mike Bloomfield, Merle Travis, Pete Seeger, Richie Havens and numerous others. The unique voicings and styling of his guitar playing has captured the imagination of many guitarists.

Josh White came from a Christian home; he was the son of Reverend Dennis White and Daisy White. They lived in Greenville, North Carolina. He was born in 1914. His parents named him after an important figure in the Bible named Joshua. After his father suffered injustices and was put into a mental institution and then died in 1930…young Josh White felt the grave responsibility of stepping into his father’s shoes.

After his father had been deceased for two months, he started roaming the southern musical circuit with Blind Man Arnold a street performer. Josh soon became adept at singing, dancing, playing the tambourine, and then the guitar.

He collected the money for Arnold who sent Joshua’s mother a sum of $2.00 per week and there were four children at home. He worked with Arnold for eight years; during that time Arnold farmed Josh out to sixty-six different performers who were blind. Two of these artists were Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Joe Taggart. Josh and the blind artists walked wherever they went such as Chicago, Dallas, and Miami.

While working in Chicago in 1927, his genius as a guitarist caught the attention of Mayo Williams of Paramount Records. Williams gave him a job as a session’s guitarist. But Taggart and Arnold held him under their thumbs until Williams forced them to free him in 1928 by saying he would report them to the cops for mistreating Josh. They still had him sleeping in a horse stable and not allowed to wear long pants or shoes in the cold. Williams made Arnold buy Josh shoes and a suit and he moved Josh into a hotel. He also had to start paying Josh for his recordings. Josh had already had a hit with Taggart called “Scandalous and Ashamed.”

To be Continued…

References:

JoshWhitePiedmontBlues
JoshWhite

CD’s
Josh White Sings The Blues & Sings Volumes 1 & 2

Sings Ballads - Blues

What is it about the blues that can make a person happy? That’s a contradiction, isn’t it? Actually, not to everyone, many people say the blues are a positive inspiration that lifts you up. They say sharing the feeling with others is the key. You know you’re not alone and you feel connected to other people that relate to your mood, which makes you feel better.

Another reason the blues can make you happy is because of the versatility of the blues. Say what? Well, blues are akin to jazz, gospel, and rock. You see, there’s a concrete link between jazz and blues in the 12 bar blues pattern in songs like “The Sidewinder,” by Lee Morgan, “Blackjack,” by Donald Byrd, or “Cantaloupe Island,” and “Watermelon Man,” by Herbie Hancock.

Many jazz songs have incorporate blues riffs and a blues overtone. Okay, what about the happy thing? Here goes, jazz sounds happy. The rhythms are snappy. There’s a joyful feeling to many jazz tunes, and it was birthed from the blues.

The whole 12 bar blues pattern is also inherent in rock. Rock had the same mother that jazz had. You think of Buddy Holly and bingo, a lot of happy songs in his discography. The bright, cheerful music and lyrics of The Beach Boys comes to mind. Weird Al Yancovich turned many songs inside out with his funny innovations of familiar rock tunes.

Okay. Okay. What next you ask? Gospel, that direct link thing is hot here because the blues came from gospel music. They go hand in hand. Gospel music is inspiring spiritually and that is a great way to feel happiness. It puts a smile on your face.

In defense of a direct attack of the idea that is posited in this article—a look at some blues songs that are comical or have a happy subject is required.

A case-in-point is “Oreo Cookie Blues” by Lonnie Mack and Stevie Ray Vaughn. This is a funny song about where the songs persona keeps Oreo cookies to have them on hand at all times and the glove compartment of his car holds his emergency stash of Oreos.

Another funny blues song is “There Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens.” This song is about how someone is making a lot of noise and the chickens are trying to sleep because they have a lot of work to do the next day. It also talks about the chicken farmers comical point of view—talking about which basket to put your eggs in.

We’ll look further into this subject another time. Until then, Happy Trails…

Listen to Oreo Cookie Blues at: http://www.mystrands.com/

Watch Patti LuPone performing There Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens

At YouTube

Hello Dear Reader,

You’ll remember that one of my first posts was about Mojo Myles. You will find it under blues/Funk/Jazz/Swing, in case you missed it.

Well, Mojo Myles fans here’s a gig update on this multi-instrumentalist. He’s been busy this year and has two gigs coming up soon at Keegan Ales in Kingston, NY.

Friday, 11/30/07, 8:30-11:30pm

Location: 20 Saint James St., Kingston, N.Y.

Phone: 845-331-BREW

Friday, 12/08/07, 8;30-11:30
Location: 20 Saint James St., Kingston, N.Y.
Phone: 845-331-BREW

Mojo

guitar-leads

John “JB” Bigham, the front man for The Soul Of John Black, has amassed an array of credits already. He wrote tunes for Miles Davis and played with Davis at the 10th annual Paris Jazz Festival and appears on Live In Paris, the DVD recorded there.

Bigham played guitar and keyboards for Fishbone, an innovative rock-funk-ska band; he also wrote songs, aided in production, and sang background vocals. Two of the albums he worked on with Fishbone were The Reality Of My Surroundings and Give A Monkey A Brain. He was in the group for eight years.

As a sessions musician he has worked with Eminem, Dr. Dré, Rosey, Joi, Nikka Costa, Bruce Hornsby and Everlast.

Though The Soul Of John Back is basically a duo, bassist Chris Thomas, being the second member, you can find a long list of the other members at:

http://www.myspace.com/thesoulofjohnblack

Thomas has an exciting resume too including working with Harry Connick, Jr, Daniel Lanois, Joshua Redman, Betty Carter, Ellis Marsalis and Macy Gray.

The CD The Good Girl Blues highlights Bigham’s talent as a blues/funk artist. It exhibits his virtuoso abilities on guitar in the blues genre, as he plays all of the guitar parts and this includes acoustic, electric, and slide guitar, plus he plays various styles of blues….from Memphis funk to delta blues to urban blues. You can hear his influences in the songs…Lead Belly, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Boy Fuller, Al Green, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix…and they are a list of great artists.

In Good Girl Bigham plays a hard rocking guitar with call and response backup vocals. Feelin’s has a cool funk sound and slide guitar, even wah-wah. Fire Blues is a slower blues song with spooky electronic sounds and cool tambourine playing. You need to go listen and hear this for yourself. Hey, you’ll also want to listen to the self-titled CD The Soul of John Black, which you can hear at CD Baby.

On the self-titled CD you’ll hear soul, pop-rock, funk, and folk music. This is a Band/Duo that you don’t want to miss!

You can hear The Soul of John Black’s CD The Good Girl Blues at:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/soulofjohnblack2
http://www.myspace.com/thesoulofjohnblack

Website:

http://www.thesoulofjohnblack.com/