1896 Robert Wilkins*
1914 Buddy Moss*
1942 Barbara Lynn*
1945 Al Blake*
1914 Buddy Moss*
1942 Barbara Lynn*
1945 Al Blake*
Happy Birthday
Buddy Moss *16.01.1914
Eugene „Buddy“ Moss (* 16. Januar 1914 in Jewell, Warren County, Georgia; † 19. Oktober 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia) war ein einflussreicher US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist, Mundharmonikaspieler und Sänger. Er wird dem Atlanta Blues zugerechnet und gilt als das Bindeglied zwischen Blind Blake und Blind Boy Fuller.
Als Kind brachte sich der Sohn eines Kleinbauern das Spielen auf der Mundharmonika bei. In der Gegend von Augusta, wohin seine Familie gezogen war, spielte er auf Partys.
1928 ging Moss nach Atlanta, wo Curley Weaver und Barbecue Bob auf ihn aufmerksam wurden. Im Alter von 16 Jahren machte er 1930 mit den Georgia Cotton Pickers seine ersten Aufnahmen.
Moss brachte sich auch das Gitarrespielen selbst bei und konnte sich darin bald mit den Besten messen. Er trat mit Barbecue Bob und Blind Willie McTell auf. 1933 machte er in New York seine ersten Soloaufnahmen, begleitet von Fred McMullen und Curley Weaver. Mit der Sängerin Ruth Willis machten die drei als die Georgia Browns Aufnahmen.
1934 verkauften sich die Soloaufnahmen von Moss besser als die Platten von Weaver und McTell, darunter Stücke wie Some Lonesome Day, Dough Rollin' Papa und Insane Blues. 1935 machte er mit seinem neuen Partner Josh White Aufnahmen.
Im gleichen Jahr wurde Moss wegen Mordes an seiner Frau verurteilt und kam ins Gefängnis. Nach seiner Entlassung 1941 ging er mit Sonny Terry und Brownie McGhee nach New York. Von ihren gemeinsamen Aufnahmen wurden jedoch nur wenige veröffentlicht, und der erhoffte Erfolg blieb aus.
Obwohl er weiterhin auftrat, musste Moss sich seinen Lebensunterhalt mit Jobs als Farmarbeiter, Liftboy oder LKW-Fahrer verdienen. Als Musiker war er weitestgehend in Vergessenheit geraten.
1964 wurde Moss wieder „entdeckt“, gab wieder Konzerte und machte neue Aufnahmen. Er trat bei bedeutenden Festivals auf, z. B. beim Newport Folk Festival 1969.
Als Buddy Moss 1984 in Atlanta starb, war er erneut in Vergessenheit geraten.
In later years, Moss credited friend and band-mate Barbecue Bob with being a major influence on his playing, which would be understandable given the time they spent together. Scholars also attribute Arthur "Blind" Blake as a major force in his development, with mannerisms and inflections that both share. It is also suggested by Alan Balfour and others that Moss may have been an influence on Blind Boy Fuller, as they never met and Moss' recording career ended before Fuller's began – Moss's first recordings display some inflections and nuances that Fuller had not put down on record until some years later.
Biography
Moss was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper in the Warren County town of Jewell, Georgia, midway between Atlanta and Augusta. There is some disagreement about his date of birth, some sources indicating 1906 and many others of more recent vintage claiming 1914. He began teaching himself the harmonica at a very early age, and he played at local parties around Augusta, where the family moved when he was four and remained for the next 10 years. By 1928, he was busking around the streets of Atlanta. "Nobody was my influence," he told Robert Springer of his harmonica playing, in a 1975 interview. "I just kept hearing people, so I listen and I listen, and listen, and it finally come to me."
By the time he arrived in Atlanta, he was good enough to be noticed by Curley Weaver and Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks, who began working with the younger Moss. It was Weaver and Bob that got him onto his first recording date, at the age of 16, as a member of their group the Georgia Cotton Pickers, on December 7, 1930 at the Campbell Hotel in Atlanta, doing four songs for Columbia: "I'm on My Way Down Home," "Diddle-Da-Diddle," "She Looks So Good," and "She's Comin' Back Some Cold Rainy Day." The group that day consisted of Barbecue Bob and Curley Weaver on guitars and Moss on harmonica. Moss would not record anything more for the next three years.
By 1933, Moss had taught himself the guitar, at which he became so proficient that he was a genuine peer and rival to Weaver. He frequently played with Barbecue Bob until his death of pneumonia on October 21, 1931, he found a new partner and associate in Atlanta blues legend Blind Willie McTell, performing together at local parties in the Atlanta area.
In January 1933, however, he made his debut as a recording artist in his own right for the American Record Company in New York City, accompanied by Fred McMullen and Curley Weaver, easily cutting three songs cut that first day, "Bye Bye Mama," "Daddy Don't Care," and "Red River Blues." Another 8 songs followed over the next three days, and all 11 were released, far more than saw the light of day from McMullen or Weaver at those same sessions.
The debut sessions also featured Moss returning to the mouth harp, as a member of the Georgia Browns – Moss, Weaver, McMullen and singer Ruth Willis – for six songs done at the same sessions. But it was on the guitar that Moss would make his name over the next five years.
Moss's records were released simultaneously on various budget labels associated with ARC, and were so successful that in mid-September 1933, he was back in New York City along with Weaver and Blind Willie McTell. Moss cut another dozen songs for the company, this time accompanied by Curley Weaver, while he accompanied Weaver and McTell on their numbers.
These songs sold well enough, that he was back in New York City in the summer of 1934, this time as a solo guitarist/singer, to do more than a dozen tracks. At this point, Moss's records were outselling those of his colleagues Weaver and McTell, and were widely heard through the Southern and Border states. His "Oh Lordy Mama" from these sessions became well known as "Hey Lawdy Mama", a song interpreted by a variety of artists.[1] This body of recordings also best represents the bridge that Moss provided between Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller – his solo version of "Some Lonesome Day," and also "Dough Rollin' Papa," from 1934 advanced ideas in playing and singing that Blind Boy Fuller picked up and adapted to his own style, while one could listen to "Insane Blues" and pick up the lingering influence of Blind Blake.
By August 1935, Moss saw his per-song fee doubled from $5 to $10 (in a period when many men were surviving on less than that per week), and when he wasn't recording, he was constantly playing around Atlanta alongside McTell and Weaver. When Moss returned to the studio in the summer of 1935, it was with a new partner, Joshua Daniel White, "The Singing Christian". The two recorded a group of 15 songs in August 1935, and it seemed like Moss was destined to outshine his one-time mentors Weaver and McTell, when personal and legal disaster struck.
In an incident that has never been fully recounted or explained, Moss was arrested, tried, and convicted for the shooting murder of his wife and sentenced to a long prison term. (The above photograph was taken of Moss at the prison where he was incarcerated.) With the death of Blind Boy Fuller in 1941, his manager, J.B. Long, made efforts to secure Moss's release as a Fuller replacement, all to no avail until 1941, when a combination of Moss' own good behavior as a prisoner, the bribery of two parole boards, coupled with the entreaties of two outside sponsors (Long and Columbia Records) willing to assure his compliance with parole helped get him out of jail. J.B. Long finally effected his release to his custody with the understanding that Moss stay out of the State of Georgia for a decade. It was while working at Elon College for Long under the parole agreement that he met a group of other blues musicians under Long's management that included Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
In October 1941, Moss, Terry and McGhee, a.o. went to New York City to cut a group of sides for Okeh Records/Columbia, including 13 numbers by Moss featuring his two new colleagues. Only three of the songs were ever released, and then events conspired to cut short Moss's recording comeback. The entry of the United States into World War II in December of the same year forced the government to place a wartime priority on the shellac used in the making of 78-rpm Gramophone records – there was barely enough allocated to the recording industry to keep functioning, and record companies were forced to curtail recordings by all but the most commercially viable artists; a ban on recording work by the Musicians' Union declared soon after further restricted any chance for Moss to record; and the interest in acoustic country blues, even of the caliber that he played, seemed to be waning, further cutting back on record company interest.
Moss continued performing in the area around Richmond, Virginia and Durham, North Carolina during the mid-'40s, and with Curley Weaver in Atlanta during the early 1950s, but music was no longer his profession or his living. His decade ban from Georgia is probably why he missed out on recording for Regal Records in Atlanta in 1949; the likes of Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, and Frank Edwards were recorded then. He went to work on a tobacco farm, drove trucks, and worked as an elevator operator, among other jobs, over the next 20-odd years.
Although he still occasionally played in the area around Atlanta, Moss was largely forgotten. Despite the fact that reference sources even then referred to him as one of the most influential bluesmen of the 1930s, he was overlooked by the blues revival. In a sense, he was cheated by the fact that his recording career had been so short – 1933 to 1935 – and had never recovered from the interruption in his work caused by his stretch in prison. His difficult character made it difficult for many, Black and White, to deal with him.
Fate stepped in, in the form of some coincidences. In 1964, he chanced to hear that his old partner Josh White was giving a concert at Emory University in Atlanta. Moss visited White backstage at the concert, and the fans hanging around established legend White suddenly discovered a blues legend in their midst. Moss was persuaded to resume performing in a series of concerts before college audiences, most notably under the auspices of the Atlanta Folk Music Society and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. He also had new recording sessions for the Columbia label in Nashville, but none of the material was issued during his lifetime.
A June 10, 1966 concert in Washington, D.C. was recorded and portions of it were later released on the Biograph label. Moss played the Newport Folk Festival in 1969, and appeared at such unusual venues as New York's Electric Circus during that same year. During the 1970s, he played the John Henry Memorial Concert in West Virginia for two consecutive years, and the Atlanta Blues Festival and the Atlanta Grass Roots Music Festival in 1976, and later at The National Folk Festival held at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, VA.
Moss died in Atlanta on October 19, 1984, once again largely forgotten by the public. In the years since, his music was once again being heard courtesy of the Biograph label's reissue of the 1966 performance and the Austrian Document label, which has released virtually every side that he released between 1930 and 1941. While there were some who tried to get him to record, his difficult personality made that impossible – once again, he was his own worst enemy – in spite of his immense talent and importance. As a result, his reputation has once again grown, although he is still not nearly as well known among blues enthusiasts as Blind Willie McTell or Blind Boy Fuller.
Robert Wilkins *16.01.1896
Robert (Timothy) Wilkins (* 16. Januar 1896 in Hernando, Mississippi ; † 26. Mai 1987 in Memphis, Tennessee), seit seiner Ordination in den 1930er Jahren auch Reverend Robert Wilkins genannt, war ein Blues- beziehungsweise später Gospel-Gitarrist und -Sänger halb afroamerikanischer, halb Cherokee-Abstammung.
Wilkins trat – ebenso wie Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie und Son House – während der 1920er Jahre in Memphis auf. Er gründete damals unter anderem auch eine Jug-Band, um von dem seinerzeit modischen „jug band craze“ zu profitieren. Obwohl er nie vergleichbaren Erfolg hatte wie beispielsweise die Memphis Jug Band, konnte er doch 1927 seine örtliche Popularität durch einen Auftritt in einer dortigen Radiostation steigern. Wie Sleepy John Estes (und anders als Gus Cannon von den Cannon’s Jug Stompers) machte er Plattenaufnahmen jedoch überwiegend allein oder mit höchstens einem Begleitmusiker. Er trat auch als „Tim Wilkins“ und als „Tim Oliver“ (der Nachname seines Stiefvaters) auf.
Seine bekanntesten Songs sind „That’s No Way To Get Along“ (dessen „weltlichen“ Text er nach seiner Ordination gegen das biblische Thema vom „Verlorenen Sohn“ austauschte und es fortan „The Prodigal Son“ nannte, und das unter diesem Titel 1968 von den Rolling Stones auf ihrem Album Beggars Banquet gecovert wurde), „Rolling Stone“ (nicht identisch mit „Rollin' Stone“ von Muddy Waters aus dem Jahr 1950, dem Lied, das den Rolling Stones zu ihrem Namen verhalf), und „Old Jim Canan’s“.
In den 1930er Jahren wurde Wilkins als Ältester der „Church of God in Christ“ ordiniert und begann, Gospelmusik – allerdings weiterhin mit dem von ihm bekannten „Blues-Feeling“ – zu spielen.
„Reverend“ Robert Wilkins wurde während des Folk- und Blues-Revival der 1960er Jahre von den Blues-Enthusiasten Louisa und Dick Spottswood „wiederentdeckt“, trat seitdem regelmäßig vor neuem, weißem Publikum auf Folk-Festivals auf und spielte eine Vielzahl neuer Schallplatten ein. Seine Besonderheit bestand in seiner Vielseitigkeit; er konnte sowohl Ragtime als auch Blues, Minstrelsongs wie Gospel mit gleicher Virtuosität vortragen.
Robert Timothy Wilkins (January 16, 1896 – May 26, 1987)[2] was an American country blues guitarist and vocalist,[1] of African American and Cherokee descent.[3]
His distinction was his versatility; he could play ragtime, blues, minstrel songs, and gospel with equal facility.[3]
Career
Wilkins was born in Hernando, Mississippi,[2] 21 miles from Memphis. He worked in Memphis during the 1920s at the same time as Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie (whom he claimed to have tutored), and Son House. He also organized a jug band to capitalize on the "jug band craze" then in vogue. Though never attaining success comparable to the Memphis Jug Band, Wilkins reinforced his local popularity with a 1927 appearance on a Memphis radio station. Like Sleepy John Estes (and unlike Gus Cannon of Cannon's Jug Stompers) he recorded alone or with a single accompanist. He sometimes performed as Tom Wilkins or as Tim Oliver (his stepfather's name).
His best known songs are "That's No Way To Get Along" (to which he – an ordained minister since the 1930s – had changed the 'unholy' words to a biblical theme and since titled it "The Prodigal Son", covered under that title by The Rolling Stones), "Rolling Stone", and "Old Jim Canan's". The Stones were forced to credit Wilkins after lawyers had approached the band and asked the credit to be changed. Original pressings of Beggars Banquet had credited only Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as sole composers, not Wilkins.[4]
During the 1960s blues revival, the "Reverend" Robert Wilkins was "rediscovered" by blues enthusiasts Dick and Louisa Spottswood, making appearances at folk festivals and recording his gospel blues for a new audience.[3] These include the 1964 Newport Folk Festival; his performance of "Prodigal Son" there was included on the Vanguard album Blues at Newport, Volume 2.
Wikins died on May 26, 1987 in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 91.[2] His son, Reverend John Wilkins, continues his father's gospel blues legacy.
His distinction was his versatility; he could play ragtime, blues, minstrel songs, and gospel with equal facility.[3]
Career
Wilkins was born in Hernando, Mississippi,[2] 21 miles from Memphis. He worked in Memphis during the 1920s at the same time as Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie (whom he claimed to have tutored), and Son House. He also organized a jug band to capitalize on the "jug band craze" then in vogue. Though never attaining success comparable to the Memphis Jug Band, Wilkins reinforced his local popularity with a 1927 appearance on a Memphis radio station. Like Sleepy John Estes (and unlike Gus Cannon of Cannon's Jug Stompers) he recorded alone or with a single accompanist. He sometimes performed as Tom Wilkins or as Tim Oliver (his stepfather's name).
His best known songs are "That's No Way To Get Along" (to which he – an ordained minister since the 1930s – had changed the 'unholy' words to a biblical theme and since titled it "The Prodigal Son", covered under that title by The Rolling Stones), "Rolling Stone", and "Old Jim Canan's". The Stones were forced to credit Wilkins after lawyers had approached the band and asked the credit to be changed. Original pressings of Beggars Banquet had credited only Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as sole composers, not Wilkins.[4]
During the 1960s blues revival, the "Reverend" Robert Wilkins was "rediscovered" by blues enthusiasts Dick and Louisa Spottswood, making appearances at folk festivals and recording his gospel blues for a new audience.[3] These include the 1964 Newport Folk Festival; his performance of "Prodigal Son" there was included on the Vanguard album Blues at Newport, Volume 2.
Wikins died on May 26, 1987 in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 91.[2] His son, Reverend John Wilkins, continues his father's gospel blues legacy.
Al Blake, born as Alan Blake Eliel, shot into the world January 16, 1945 on a marine corps base near Klamath Falls, Oregon. While later growing up during the early 50s in Oklahoma, the Blues began tugging at his heart under the influence of his black nanny Ruby Anderson. She used to pack him over to the other side of the tracks where her small house sat nestled near Oklahoma City. Down the street from Ruby's house was a small general store where a hi-fi, with a large outdoor speaker, loudly played the Deep Southern Blues while people listened and danced there on a daily basis.
Fascinated by this music, Al Blake began collecting all the great Blues recordings he could find. But finally just listening to all this musical magic was not enough and over time he began seeking out these living artists as mentors and with each personal experience of being able to watch their body language as he listened, both his understanding of them and his empathy blazed his own musical fires to higher and higher levels.
Today Al Blake still walks the paths of those early mentors with a near-sacred need to preserve their tradition and avoid selling out to the aberrations of so many modern Blues-makers. His music is slowly evolving to the status of legend. Blake has said, "If the kind of Blues I'm so passionate about playing was a 4-legged mammal, it would be on the top of the endangered species list. It's that rare."
People now consider Blake with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Blues and its players to be one of the most serious students of this genre. His extraordinary vision and unique talents as a vocalist, harmonica player, guitar player, writer and producer have led him to create some of the deepest and purest Blues of the post-modern era. Along with "Rock This House," the seminal recording by the Hollywood Fats Band, released in 1979, Blake has also recorded these collections with fellow members of the Hollywood Blue Flames: "Mr. Blake's Blues," and "Dr. Blake's Magic Soul Elixir." Since 2004 they have had three releases on the Delta Groove music label. Two of these being nominated for the Prestigious Blues Music Award by the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation.
Soul Sanctuary (2004) – Best Comeback Album of the Year
Road to Rio - 2 CD set, The Hollywood Blue Flames/ Larger Than Life Vol 1 The Hollywood Fats Band Live 1980 (2006) Best Historical Album of the Year which went to #1 on the Living Blues radio charts in the first two weeks of its release.
Their latest, 2 CD set Deep in America, The Hollywood Blue Flames / Larger Than Life Vol 2 The Hollywood Fats Band Live 1980(2010) was on the Living Blues charts for 4 months with a peak position of #1.
Blake's endless list of influences include most importantly, Hollywood Fats along with (in alphabetical order by first name) "Baby Face" Leroy Foster, "Boogie" Bill Webb, Arthur Petties, Baby Boy Warren, Big Bill Broonzy, Big Maceo Merriweater, Big Walter "Shakey" Horton, Billie Holiday, Buddy Moss, Charles Brown, Forest City Joe, Freddie King, George "Harmonica" Smith, Howlin' Wolf, J.B. Lenoir, James Cotton, Jesse "Baby Face" Thomas, Jimmy Rogers, Joe Willie Wilkins,John Lee Williams, Johnny Young,Jordan Webb, Josh White, Junior Wells, Lightnin' Hopkins, Little Son Jackson,Little Walter Jacobs, Louis Meyers, Lowell Fulsom, Maxwell, Davis, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, Othum Brown, Papa Lightfoot, Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck "Rice" Miller), Tampa Red, The McCoy Brothers (Charlie and Joe), The Mississippi Sheiks (Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon),The Moore Brothers (Johnny and Oscar),Willie Johnson...
Fascinated by this music, Al Blake began collecting all the great Blues recordings he could find. But finally just listening to all this musical magic was not enough and over time he began seeking out these living artists as mentors and with each personal experience of being able to watch their body language as he listened, both his understanding of them and his empathy blazed his own musical fires to higher and higher levels.
Today Al Blake still walks the paths of those early mentors with a near-sacred need to preserve their tradition and avoid selling out to the aberrations of so many modern Blues-makers. His music is slowly evolving to the status of legend. Blake has said, "If the kind of Blues I'm so passionate about playing was a 4-legged mammal, it would be on the top of the endangered species list. It's that rare."
People now consider Blake with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Blues and its players to be one of the most serious students of this genre. His extraordinary vision and unique talents as a vocalist, harmonica player, guitar player, writer and producer have led him to create some of the deepest and purest Blues of the post-modern era. Along with "Rock This House," the seminal recording by the Hollywood Fats Band, released in 1979, Blake has also recorded these collections with fellow members of the Hollywood Blue Flames: "Mr. Blake's Blues," and "Dr. Blake's Magic Soul Elixir." Since 2004 they have had three releases on the Delta Groove music label. Two of these being nominated for the Prestigious Blues Music Award by the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation.
Soul Sanctuary (2004) – Best Comeback Album of the Year
Road to Rio - 2 CD set, The Hollywood Blue Flames/ Larger Than Life Vol 1 The Hollywood Fats Band Live 1980 (2006) Best Historical Album of the Year which went to #1 on the Living Blues radio charts in the first two weeks of its release.
Their latest, 2 CD set Deep in America, The Hollywood Blue Flames / Larger Than Life Vol 2 The Hollywood Fats Band Live 1980(2010) was on the Living Blues charts for 4 months with a peak position of #1.
Blake's endless list of influences include most importantly, Hollywood Fats along with (in alphabetical order by first name) "Baby Face" Leroy Foster, "Boogie" Bill Webb, Arthur Petties, Baby Boy Warren, Big Bill Broonzy, Big Maceo Merriweater, Big Walter "Shakey" Horton, Billie Holiday, Buddy Moss, Charles Brown, Forest City Joe, Freddie King, George "Harmonica" Smith, Howlin' Wolf, J.B. Lenoir, James Cotton, Jesse "Baby Face" Thomas, Jimmy Rogers, Joe Willie Wilkins,John Lee Williams, Johnny Young,Jordan Webb, Josh White, Junior Wells, Lightnin' Hopkins, Little Son Jackson,Little Walter Jacobs, Louis Meyers, Lowell Fulsom, Maxwell, Davis, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, Othum Brown, Papa Lightfoot, Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck "Rice" Miller), Tampa Red, The McCoy Brothers (Charlie and Joe), The Mississippi Sheiks (Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon),The Moore Brothers (Johnny and Oscar),Willie Johnson...
Al Blake and the Hollywood Blue Flames - Steady Rollin'
Barbara Lynn - I'd rather go blind
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