#document records

[bestfrozentreats2]

Sonny Burns – “Satan’s A-Waitin’” (1955)

From the new album Hillbilly Halloween – Haunted Country & Honky-Tonk Tales 

Document Records Ltd (DOCD-32-20-32)

[dirtylowdown2]

Going to Your Funeral in a Vee Eight Ford · Buddy Moss

‘For the brief time between 1932 and 1935, Eugene "Buddy" Moss was, in the estimation of many blues scholars, the most influential East Coast guitarist.

A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell and Curley Weaver, Moss was part of a near-legendary group of Atlanta bluesmen, and one of the few of his era lucky enough to work into the blues revival of the '60s and '70s.

  A guitaris’t of uncommon skill and dexterity, he was a musical disciple of Blind Blake, and may well have served as an influence on Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Although his career was halted abruptly in 1935 by a six-year jail term, and then by the Second World War, he lived long enough to be rediscovered in the '60s, when he revealed a talent undamaged by time or adversity.’

[f0restpunk]

[soulmusicsongs]

Happy New Year Blues - The Two Charlies (Charley Jordan ‎– Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 3 (31 October 1935 To 2 November 1937), 1992, original 1936)

[dirtylowdown2]

Murder In The First Degree · Lil Johnson 

https://youtu.be/0dFEIT5XiF

"From 1936, this is Lil Johnson accompanied by Big Bill Broonzy on guitar and possibly Black Bob on piano..."

[dirtylowdown2]

Six Cold Feet In The Ground · Leroy Carr

Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935)

[dirtylowdown2]

Canned Heat Blues · Tommy Johnson

Next to Son House and Charley Patton, no one was more important to the development of pre-Robert Johnson Delta blues than Tommy Johnson. Armed with a powerful voice that could go from a growl to an eerie falsetto range and a guitar style that had all of the early figures and licks of the Delta style clearly delineated, Johnson only recorded for two years -- from 1928 to 1930 -- but left behind a body of work that's hard to ignore.

The stories about his live performances -- where he would play the guitar behind his neck in emulation of Charley Patton's showboating while hollering the blues at a full-throated level for hours without a break -- are part of it. So is his uncontrolled womanizing and alcoholism, both of which constantly got him in trouble. Then there's the crossroads story. Yes, years before the infamous deal with the Devil at a deserted crossroad was being used as an explanation of the otherworldly abilities of young Robert Johnson, the story was first being told repeatedly about Tommy, often by the man himself to reinforce his abilities to doubting audiences.

He was born in 1896 in Hinds County, MS, on the George Miller plantation. Once the family moved to Crystal Springs in 1910, Tommy picked up the guitar, learning from his older brother, LeDell. By age 16, Johnson had run away from home to become a "professional" musician, largely supporting himself by playing on the street for tips. Tommy apparently spent most of the '20s drinking, womanizing, gambling, and playing music in the company of Rubin Lacy, Charley McCoy, Walter Vincent, and Ishmon Bracey when the money got low and, apparently, only when the mood struck him. By all accounts, Tommy felt no particular drive to promote himself relentlessly and -- while he did play music for pay until the very end of his life -- he certainly wasn't as serious about his career as he was about partying.

He cut his first records for the Victor (later RCA Victor, now BMG) label at sessions held in Memphis, TN, in 1928. Johnson's first releases hit the area hard, inspiring up-and-comers such as Howlin' Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Johnnie Temple, and Otis Spann.

He cut one more stack of great records for the Paramount label in 1930, largely through the maneuvering of fellow drinking buddy Charley Patton. Then the slow descent into total alcoholism started taking its toll, reducing his once prodigious talents to small, sporadic flickerings of his former genius. 

He worked on a medicine show with Ishmon Bracey in the '30s, but mostly seemed to be a mainstay of the juke and small-party dance circuit for the rest of his days. He was playing at a local house party in November of 1956 when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Whether the story about the deal with the Devil at the crossroads was something he truly believed, or just something Tommy said to drum up local interest in himself, it seems a bit odd that you'll find him buried at the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs. Maybe he mellowed out toward the end, maybe he found God. Some things about the blues you'll just never know.

[dirtylowdown2]

Son Becky - Mistreated Washboard Blues

‘Texas was as rich in piano blues as Mississippi was in guitar blues, which is not to say that there were no great blues guitarists in Texas, or piano men in Mississippi. A cursory glance through the discographies will emphasize the fact that a remarkable number of blues pianists came from Texas. They can be grouped into schools, characterized by certain similarities of style and approach, that were partly a reflection of the environments in which they worked, of their friendships and associations with other pianists, and by the isolation of Texas from other states. One school was the so-called Santa Fe group who were based in the southwestern part of the state where the cities of Galveston, Houston and Richmond lie. Here was where the music thrived and pianists could be found like Pinetop Burks, Son Becky, Rob Cooper, Black Boy Shine, Andy Boy, Big Boy Knox, Robert Shaw, Buster Pickens and the singers who worked with them like Walter Cowboy Washington and Joe Pullum. The other important school was a cluster of pianists and singers based in Dallas such as Alex Moore, Texas Bill Day, Neal Roberts Willie Tyson, and singer Billiken Johnson.’