Tale #15. Chuck checks in with Chess

Former hairdresser, Charles Edward Anderson Berry (born St. Louis October 1926) asked Muddy Waters after a gig how to get started and was told to take his music to Phil and Leonard Chess. In early 1955 he had a country sounding song called "Ida Red" that was good enough provided the title didn't sound like the name of a chicken, though where the name "Maybellene" came from wasn't clear. The single Maybellene / Wee Wee Hours - Chuck Berry (Chess. recorded May 1955) was a huge hit that had one more suprise for Chuck when he got his cheque for royalties: he found he was sharing the proceeds with Alan Freed, a New York dj he'd never met. The Chess label (like other labels at the time) knew the costs of having radio plays and hit records.

STAR BLUES on 10th april 2011 went to the Chess anthology "Chuck Berry: His Best, Vol.1" issued by MCA as part of their Chess Masters series.

Tale #14. A Songster and a Holler

Chris Strachwitz started to love blues from listening to 78s and did some early recordings of Jesse Fuller in 1954. After a spell in the Services, he heard Lightnin' Hopkins and wanted to record him live in a juke joint. His search took him to Navasota with his friend Mack McCormick where they were directed to enquire of Peg-Leg at the railway station. They came across a 65-year old who played in the songster tradition: Mance Lipscomb [born 9th April 1895] - his simple, graceful playing were stylistically far from Hopkins but both McCormick and Strachwitz knew they'd found the debut recordings for a brand new imprint. So it was in November 1970 that Chris and family gatherred round the kitchen table stcking labels and putting albums into sleeves - the album was "Texas Songster", the first of several Lipscomb did in the next few years for the new Arhoolie label.

The name Arhoolie was a mishearing of the answer a singer gave to a question on his music: the nervous stutter of "arw" slurred into "hoolie" meaning holler. STAR BLUES on 3rd April 2011 took the risque track "'Bout A Spoonful" from a label cd sampler "15 Country Blues Classics".

Tale #13. An Alligator and a Hound Dog

The Chicago live blues scene was blessed in 1971 with the energetic Hound Dog Taylor [rn: Theodore Roosevelt Taylor, born 12th April 1915]. The young Bruce Iglauer was impressed enough with a gig he saw to ask his then boss Bob Koester to sign Taylor to the Delmark label. Bob wasn't interested so Bruce himself raised enough to realise the project himself. With $900 and a two track recorder, the album "Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers" was cut and mixed as they went along. The band brought their low-tech euipment from their club gigs, nothing more was needed to capture their unique gifts. So was the birth of the Alligator label, still based in Chicago today. Within a couple of years Taylor was dead but his oft-quoted epitaph was "he couldn't play shit but he sure made it sound good".

On STAR BLUES on 3rd April 2011 we chose "Ain't Got Nobody" from the cd anthology "Hound Dog Taylor - Deluxe Edition" [Alligator].

Week #12. Cleo's got a smooth movement

In July 1929, the Ford Motor Comany sold its 2,000,000th car, though how many of those were driven by young black women is open to question. The 10,000 mile guarantee must have been a lifetime's use if your longest journey was into the nearest town. I doubt however it was automotive power on Cleo Gibson's mind in her song "I've Got Ford Movement In My Hips", recorded during her only session in Atlanta with her three piece band.

Little is known of her aside from a brief mention about a vaudeville turn in Billboard magazine in 1923. Her imperious vocal led many to think it was just a pseudonym for Bessie Smith - something that added to the mystery for Jazz and Blues collectors of the 50's and 60's like George Melly.

The Document label released two volumes in 2005 called "Territory Singers", the track on STAR BLUES was taken from Vol.2.

Week #11. ZZ Hill goes Downhome

"Downhome Blues" was the title track to a million selling album for the Malaco label in 1982. Arzell Hill [born 30th September 1935, Naples, Tx] was first a gospel singer in the vocal group the Spritual Five but he moved to California to record for his brother and then for the Duke label. His work was critically well received, however commercial success didn't follow until 1977 when signed to the Columbia label. By1980 he was at Malaco doing songs written by George Jackson. One was "Downhome Blues" that spwaned a new genre of soul blues and sparked renewed interest in the music for black America.

The track was taken from "Best of ZZ Hill" on Malaco, but neither it nor the eponymous album is currently in print.

Week #10. Willie Dixon's 29 Ways

Willie Dixon [born 1st July 1915, Vicksburg] refused to serve in the Second World War, he formed a vocal group called the Big Three in ironic tribute to Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. "29 Ways" was a song in their early repertoire, though they never recorded it. The band broke up in 1952 and Dixon joined the Chess label full-time. He was so valuable as session leader, writer and bass-player that Leonard Chess didn't want to let Willie record under his own name (reasoning that any hit would need Willie to go out on tour). Toward the end of Dixon's first stint with Chess, on 27th July 1956, he was joined by Lafayette Leake on piano for a rare chance to record. They chose to cut a version of that early song: "29 Ways". It was released as a single:

"Twenty-Nine Ways" b/w "Pain In My Heart" [Checker 851]

Willie Dixon's next project was over at Cobra Records with a young left hand player that Chess didn't want: Otis Rush. But that's another story. STAR BLUES on 13th March 2011 selected the track from the MCA/Chess anthology "Chess Blues Classics: 1947-1956".

Week #9. Albert King's bad sign

After regional success for labels like Parrot and Bobbin, Albert King [rn: Albert Nelson (Born 25th April 1923)] was newly signed to the Stax label in 1966 when he put out a couple of singles. Those were the core of an album whose title track was written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones to match the vogue for astrology: "Born Under A Bad Sign". The unique combination of King with Booker T and the MGs with the Memphis Horns marked a change in direction for blues at a time the genre was in danger of being centred solely on the white-boy revival. It was also the last time Stax would issue a single with a generic staff production credit, thereafter the actual producer's name was used.

The piece was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985 and has inspired many cover versions. STAR BLUES on 6th March 2011 drew the track from "King of the Blues Guitar" (Rhino) - a survey of Albert King recordings made for Stax and distributed by Atlantic. The cd version of "Born Under A Bad Sign" is still available.