Baza ~ Blues & Roots

Blind Willie McTell was born William Samuel McTier in Thomson, Georgia.  He was an American Piedmont blues, ragtime and hokum singer, songwriter and guitarist, who seemed to favor playing 12 string guitars.  William came from a musical family, learning guitar from his mother, relatives and neighbors.  His family moved from Thomson to Statesboro GA in his teens.  He became a very popular street singer in several Georgia cities, including Augusta and Atlanta.  In 1927 he made his first recording for Victor Records.  Eight songs were recorded including, “Statesboro Blues,”  which would become one of his most recorded songs by artists such as, Taj Mahal, David Bromberg, Paul Geremia, John Hammond Jr. and Roy Bookbinder, to name a few.

Mr. McTell, his stage name had a prolific recording career, recording for several labels under different names from the 1920s-30s, like, “Blind Sammie” for Columbia, “Georgia Bill” for Okeh, “Hot Shot Willie” for Victor and “Blind Willie” for Vocalion and Bluebird Records. He remained and active performer during the 1940s-50s playing house rent parties, fish fries, medicine and tent shows and on the streets.  From 1957 until his death in 1959, McTell was a preacher at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Blind Willie was born sightlees in one eye and lost his vision in his other eye during his childhood.  He attended schools for the blind and learned to read and write music in Braille.

McTell married Ruth Kate Williams in 1934, although for most of their marriage from 1942 until 1959 they lived apart.  He died of a stroke in 1959 and is buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson GA.

McTell's influence on generations of musicians can still be heard today in the recordings of, The Allman Brothers, Chris Smither, Ry Cooder, The Devil Makes Three, Willie Nelson, Jack White and Bob Dylan.

Annually, since 1992 the city of Thomson GA has held The Blind Willie McTell music festival.  He was inducted into The Blues Foundations Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990.

My hope is that my brief and humble story of this artist will encourage you to dig deeper into his music and life story.

Doug Philbrook

I'm sitting on my couch in my living room, it's 7:20am and I'm writing a blog with absolutely nothing on my mind!  Maybe that's where the best stuff comes from?  Starting from nowhere and just hitting the keys, waiting for inspiration.  I've read books on songwriting and listened to successful songwriters talk about their process for writing.  Some say it's a job and you just have to sit down and do it everyday until you come up with something worth recording and publishing.  Keith Richards would go into a studio with Charlie Watts and just endlessly workout ideas until something clicked.  I can't verify this, I've never met Keith, but I will say I've always been a fan.

A particular songwriter's thoughts on the subject said, there are ideas floating through the cosmos and if they happen to come your way you reach up and grab it.  He went on to say that some of those ideas he failed to follow through on would later show up in other songwriters work, therefore giving some credence to his belief.

When you consider that there are songwriters with vast catalogs John and Paul, Keith and Mick and authors, John Grisham, Stephen King to name but a few.  Then those ideas floating around the cosmos must fly over their heads quite often.  So maybe it's geography?  You have to be standing in the right place at the right time, in the right frame of mind and have a pencil and pad of paper handy or your instrument at the ready.

Does any of this make sense to any of you who will read this blog?  I started writing this morning saying I had absolutely nothing on my mind, but look what I came up with!  Not worthy of a grammy or other accolade, but I just sat down and started writing.  So maybe that's it just do it.  Whatever that is, songwriting, stories, poetry, the art of jewlery making, painting, card making, acting, cooking!  

The art of self-expression has been with us since the beginning of time, (cave drawings), it is healthy for the individual and society as a whole.  So just do it, without any thought of who might see it, like it, wear it or taste it.

Please, if you have any thoughts on what I've written today, then express yourselves and let me read it.

Doug Philbrook, husband, father, musician, abstract artist, nurse, builder of unique furniture and blogger!

I can never seem to get enough of Robert Johnson. Either his music or the story of his life.  So, hats off to Bruce M. Conforth & Gayle Dean Wardlow for writing "Up Jumped the Devil" The Real Life of Robert Johnson.

Through painstaking research and interviews the two authors have uncovered and cleared up questions about RJ's life, death, marriages, music and recordings.  I finished this book with a deeper understanding of the man and the musician.  His struggles, disappointments, loses, choices and his demons are brought too light.  Uncovered is the myth of the deal with the Devil at the crossroads.  His lust for wandering, women and alcohol that all eventually led to his early demise is written as a search for truth and with deep appreciation for one of music's most important figures.

I've read many books over the years about the blues and several about Mr. Johnson.  I couldn't wait to finish this read and uncover the truth.  I was left with a sadness for the man and his untimely death/murder and the loss to the world and to the world of music.  Who knows, what might have been if he had lived?  Would he have given us more great music, become the father that he wanted to be and, enjoy the celebrity that he has become?

We can only speculate, but given what he left us, (listen to "The complete recordings of Robert Johnson") I'd like to believe it would have been worth a deal with Devil!  Just kidding

Doug

I recently started working on a song from Mance Lipscomb's repertoire, a little number called "Ella Speed."  It's a classic blues song with a familiar blues theme about murder, and in this case the murder of a prostitute, named Ella Speed.  In my never ending research into the origin and background of songs, I discovered the story that follows; 

Ella Speed was the 28 year old wife of Willie Speed and a mother of two children.  Ella was a prostitute referred to as an "octoroon" (a person who is one-eighth black by descent) by her "landlady" and sent to Louis "Bull" Martin, a 28 year old bachelor of Italian descent who worked as a bartender at the Dryades Street Market in New Orleans.

Ella and Louis quickly formed a "special relationship" - in fact it appeared Louis became obsessed  with her.  When he discovered that Ella had special relationships with other men he was enraged.  Miss Lou Prout, Ella's "landlady at the time asked Ella to leave because of Louis' frequent threats and behavior.

On August  14th, 1894 Louis had severely beaten an "old colored man" named Sam Johnson at the Dryades Street Market.  He was awaiting trial for his heinous crime, when on the morning of Sept 3rd at about 9:30 a.m. he shot Ella Speed with a Harrington and Richardson 0.38 caliber pistol in her upstairs room in the house kept by Miss Pauline Jones at 137 Customhouse Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  Ella died shortly afterwards, sprawled on the floor near the door to her room.

An unsuccessful manhunt for Louis was mounted, who turned himself into the authorities the next morning.  At his trial, Louis claimed the shooting was an accident.  He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20years hard labor at the state penitentiary by Judge John H. Ferguson.  By 1901, Louis was back at his old bartender's job.

for more reading about the death of Ella Speed go to; WeenieCampbell.com

Doug

Reverend (Blind) Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – died May 5, 1972) was a gospel and blues singer and masterful  acoustic guitarist.  He was a beloved mentor to many folk and blues legends including Dave Van Ronk, Roy Book Binder, Stefan Grossman, Ernie Hawkins, Rory Block, David Bromberg and Woody Mann to name a few.  His finger picking style was a major influence on other regional musicians of his time, most notably Blind Boy Fuller, a prime exponent of the Piedmont guitar style in the 1930s.  

Davis produced a polyphonic style of playing on six and twelve string guitar with the use of his thumb and index finger of his picking hand.  His repertoire was comprised of military marches, country instrumentals, Piedmont blues guitar style songs, church hymns, Gospel songs, popular tunes and original compositions.  "Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From", "She's Funny That Way" and "Hesitation Blues are a few of my personal favorites.

Born in Laurens County, South Carolina, he was the only child of eight born to his mother that survived to adulthood. Poorly treated by his mother, his father placed him in the care of his paternal grandmother.  His father was later shot and killed when Gary was 10 years old. His blindness, from early childhood from what he described as "sore eyes" did not seem to impede his ability to play.  

At 18, Davis applied and was granted a scholarship at the South Carolina Institution for the Education for the Deaf and Blind at Cedar Springs, Spartanburg, where he learned to read Braille. In the early 1920s he busked and played in a string band in Greenville.  Sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s, Davis migrated to "Bull City" alternate name for Durham, North Carolina, a major center of black culture. There he collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene, including Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red.  In 1935, Davis, Fuller, and Red were introduced to the American Record Company by a local supporter and store keeper, J.B. Long. The subsequent recording sessions marked the real beginning of Davis's career. Following his ordination to a Baptist minister in 1937, Davis began to prefer inspirational gospel music but would play Gospel-Blues like "Death Don't Have No Mercy" and Samson and Delilah."

Davis married Annie Bell Wright in 1937, a deeply spiritual woman who was devoted to him until his death.  By the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline, so Davis  and Annie Bell moved to Mamaroneck, New York.  Later that year they would relocate to 169th Street in Harlem, where he became a minister of the Missionary Baptist Connection Church.  His busking and preaching on the streets of New York earned him the appellation "Harlem Street Singer."

His guitar lessons and those who studied with him are legendary.  A single lesson could last all day and into the night.  Roy Book Binder who studied with Davis and became his driver to and from gigs for a period of time, recalls that lessons could last all day, include a meal or two and cost as little as five dollars.  During the folk and blues revival of the 1960s, Davis toured Europe and played several folk festivals including the Cambridge and Newport Folk Festivals.

In 1968, Davis bought a house in Jamaica, Queens and continued to perform in the New York and New Jersey area.  On May 5th, 1972, he suffered a heart attack on the way to a gig and died at William Kessler Memorial Hospital in Hammonton, New Jersey and was buried in Rockville Cemetery in Lynnbrook, New York.

His widow Anne survived Davis by twenty five years, living to 101.  She remained active in the church, took in boarders and kept in touch with some of Davis' former pupils.

A partial discography includes: "Blues & Ragtime"  "Live at Newport"  "Little More Faith"  "Say No to the Devil"  "Pure Religion & Bad Company"  "Harlem Street Singer"