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

The idea to create software that musicians and vocalists could use to slow down songs that they upload came from a component of the music lessons that many customers had really enjoyed. These customers contacted Todd, Michael, and James to say how much this helped them learn to play guitar. So the guys decided to create new software that utilized this slowed down feature and enabled musicians to upload any song and listen to the slower version, which they control how slow it plays.

This gave birth to Song Surgeon. Vocalist can change the pitch and tempo of the song; a guitarist can us the slowed and looped features, as can other musicians. It can be used to transcribe music. Song Surgeon has a file conversion utility, tempo changer, pitch changer, and loop editor. It has a music file conversion and can slow MP3’s.

SongSurgeon

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