Josh White Two
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
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…
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