1896 Ida Cox*
1945 Elkie Brooks*
1962 Rune Nordvik*
1977 Mike Andersen*
1979Vladimir Demyanov*
1994 Roosevelt Holts+
2012 Louisiana Red (Iverson Minter)
Skylar Wolf *
Jakez Rolland*
1945 Elkie Brooks*
1962 Rune Nordvik*
1977 Mike Andersen*
1979Vladimir Demyanov*
1994 Roosevelt Holts+
2012 Louisiana Red (Iverson Minter)
Skylar Wolf *
Jakez Rolland*
Happy Birthday
Ida Cox *25.02.1896
Ida Cox (* 25. Februar 1896 in Toccoa, Georgia als Ida Prather; † 10. November 1967 in Knoxville, Tennessee) war eine US-amerikanische Blues- und Jazzsängerin.
Cox begann als Darstellerin und Sängerin in Minstrel Shows, wechselte dann zum Vaudeville und war zu Beginn der 1920er Jahre der Star der Theater Owners Booking Association. Sie machte makabre Titel mit einprägsamen Namen („Monkey Man Blues“, „Death Letter Blues“, „Graveyard Bound Blues“) bekannt, behauptete aber auch „Wild Woman Don't Have The Blues“. Zwischen 1923 und 1929 nahm Cox regelmäßig für Paramount auf (u.a. mit Lovie Austins Blues Serenaders und der Band von Fletcher Henderson). Ab 1927 wurde sie von Jesse Crump begleitet, den sie später heiratete.
1939 brachte sie John Hammond nach New York, um im Cafe Society aufzutreten, Radiosendungen zu machen und Platten mit Hot Lips Page aufzunehmen. Höhepunkt dieser Marketingstrategie war ihr Auftritt in Hammonds epochemachenden Spirituals To Swing-Konzert am 24. Dezember 1939. Anschließend war sie mit zwei erfolgreichen Shows („Raising Cain!“, „Darktown Scandals“) auf Tournee, bis sie 1944 einen Schlaganfall erlitt. Der ist ihr auf ihrer letzten, 1961 aufgenommenen Schallplatte mit dem Quintett von Coleman Hawkins, dem Roy Eldridge und Milt Hinton angehörten, nicht anzumerken. Cox nahm außerdem mit Charlie Christian, Lionel Hampton, J. C. Higginbotham, Jelly Roll Morton, Elmer Chambers und Tommy Ladnier auf.
Ida Cox (February 26, 1896 – November 10, 1967)[1] was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues".[2]
Childhood and early career
Cox was born February 26, 1896 to sharecropper parents as Ida Prather in Toccoa, Habersham County, Georgia,[3] Georgia, United States, the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight) Prather, and grew up in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia.[4] Her family lived and worked in the shadow of the Riverside Plantation, the private residence of the wealthy Prather family, from which her namesake came.[5] She faced a future of desperate poverty and limited educational and employment opportunities.[6]
Cox joined the local African Methodist Choir at a young age and thus developed a strong interest in gospel music and performance.[6] At the young age of 14, she left her home to tour with the White and Clark's Black & Tan Minstrels.[7] She began her career on stage by playing Topsy, a "pickaninny" role prevalent on the vaudeville stage at the time and often performed in blackface. Cox's early road show experience also included stints with other African American travelling minstrel shows in the Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A) vaudeville circuit, including the Florida Orange Blossom Minstrels, the Silas Green Show, and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.[8] The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, organized by F. S. Wolcott and based after 1918 in Port Gibson, Mississippi, was important not only for the development of Cox’s performing career but was also instrumental in launching the careers of fellow blueswomen and Cox’s idols, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.[9]
The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, known colloquially as “The Foots”, provided a nurturing environment for Cox to develop her career and stage presence, but life on the vaudeville circuit was trying for performers and workers alike. In his book The Story of the Blues, Paul Oliver wrote: "The 'Foots' travelled in two cars and had a 80' x 110' tent which was raised by the roustabouts and canvassmen, while a brass band would parade in town to advertise the coming of the show...The stage would be of boards on a folding frame and Coleman lanterns – gasoline mantle lamps – acted as footlights. There were no microphones; the weaker voiced singers used a megaphone, but most of the featured women blues singers scorned such aids to volume..."[9] When not singing, Cox earned money performing as a sharp-witted comedienne in vaudeville variety shows, gaining valuable stage experience and cultivating her characteristic charismatic stage presence.[6]
Personal life
In 1916, she married Adler Cox, who performed as a trumpeter with the Florida Blossoms Minstrels, a group with which Ida briefly toured. Their marriage was cut short by Adler Cox’s untimely death during World War I, though Ida kept her married name throughout the rest of her performing career. During the early 1920s, Cox remarried to Eugene Williams and the couple gave birth to a daughter, Helen. Few other details are known of this marriage, which ended in divorce. In 1927 Cox married Jesse “Tiny” Crump, a blues piano accompanist active in the Theater Owners’ Booking Association vaudeville circuits. Crump collaborated with Cox in the composition of many of her songs, including “Gypsy Glass Blues” and “Death Letter Blues,” provided piano and organ accompaniment on several of her recordings, and also served as manager of her blossoming career during this time.[6]
Gaining popularity
By 1915, Cox had advanced from the pickaninny roles of her early minstrel years to singing the blues almost exclusively. In 1920, she left the vaudeville circuit briefly to appear as a headline act at the 81 Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia with blues piano great, Jelly Roll Morton.[10] Her commanding stage presence and expressive delivery earned Cox star billing, and by the early 1920s, Cox was regarded as one of the finest solo acts offered by the shows that travelled the Theater Owners’ Booking Association circuit. In March 1922 a performance by Cox at the Beale Street Palace of Memphis, Tennessee, was aired on WMC Radio, leading to positive reviews as well as wider audience exposure to her music.
Recording career
After the success of Mamie Smith's pioneering 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues", record labels realized there was a demand for recordings of race music. The classic female blues era had begun, and would extend through the 1920s. With her popularity in the South rapidly increasing, Cox caught the attention of talent scouts and secured a record contract with Paramount, a label that she shared with her idol Ma Rainey. Paramount touted Cox as the “Uncrowned Queen of Blues,” a title that she proved deserved though her prolific recording career. Between September 1923 and October 1929, Cox recorded a total of 78 titles for Paramount.[8] For her numerous recording sessions, Paramount provided Cox with outstanding back-up musicians including female pianist Lovie Austin and her band the Blues Serenaders, featuring Jimmy O'Bryant (clarinet) and Tommy Ladnier (cornet).[6] During this period, Cox also recorded a number of songs for other labels such as Broadway Records and Silvertone using pseudonyms such as Kate Lewis, Velma Bradley, Julia Powers, and Jane Smith.
Raisin’ Cain
In 1929, Ida Cox and husband Jesse Crump formed their own tent show revue, aptly named Raisin’ Cain (after the biblical story of Cain and Abel and resulting colloquialism).[11] Cox performed as the title act and Crump acted as both accompanist and manager.[8] Through the end of the 1920s and into the early 30s, Raisin’ Cain toured black theaters across the Southeast and westward through Texas, with Cox and Crump managing to book shows in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma as well as a number of performances in Chicago. The Raisin’ Cain tent show proved so popular that in 1929 it became the first show associated with the Theater Owners’ Booking Association circuit to open at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Cox, sometimes billed as the "Sepia Mae West", headlined touring companies into the 1930s.[12] This represented the pinnacle of Cox’s performing career.
By the end of the decade, the Great Depression as well as the waning popularity of women blues singers proved difficult for Cox and her show, and Raisin’ Cain suffered from difficulty maintaining its performers, frequent layoffs as well as gaps in the show's touring schedule.[8] Still, while other blueswomen all but disappeared from public performance, Cox managed to continue her performing career through the 1930s. In 1935, Cox and Crump reorganized Raisin’ Cain, which had by then been renamed as the Darktown Scandals, and continued to tour throughout the South and Midwest until 1939. In the early 1930s, notable American rock & roll and R&B drummer Earl Palmer entered show business as a tap dancer in Cox's Darktown Scandals Review.[13]
Later career and comeback
The year 1939 proved a very industrious and successful year for Cox. That year, Cox was invited to participate in John Hammond's historic Carnegie Hall concert series, From Spirituals to Swing.[10] In the concert, Cox gave a performance of "Four Day Creep", backed by James P. Johnson (piano), Lester Young (tenor saxophone), Buck Clayton (trumpet), and Dicky Wells (trombone), which proved to be a highlight of the concert series and gave her performing career a much needed boost after the Depression-era decline.[6] That same year, Cox also resumed her recording career with a series of sessions for Vocalion Records and, in 1940, Okeh Records, with groups that at various times included guitarist Charlie Christian, trumpeters Hot Lips Page and Henry "Red" Allen, trombonist J. C. Higginbotham, and percussionist Lionel Hampton. She continued to perform until 1945, when a debilitating stroke she suffered during a show at a nightclub in Buffalo, New York, forced her into retirement.[8] Cox retired to Knoxville, Tennessee where she assumed a low profile, became very active in her church, and lived with her daughter, Helen Goode.[6]
Cox had effectively fallen off the map of the music world until 1959 when John Hammond took out an ad in Variety magazine in search of Cox. After successfully locating her, Hammond as well as record producer Chris Albertson urged the blues singer to make one final recording, an album for Riverside Records titled Blues For Rampart Street. In 1961, after a 15-year hiatus, Cox made a successful recording comeback. The album was backed by an all-star group composed of Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, pianist Sammy Price, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Jo Jones.[6] The album featured her revisiting songs from her old repertoire, including "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues", which found a new audience, including such singers as Nancy Harrow and Barbara Dane, who recorded their own versions of the tune. A review in the New York Times said that Cox at the age of 65 had lost quality in both range and intonation, but retained her charismatic and expressive delivery of many of the classic tunes that had launched her into stardom.[14] Cox referred to the album as her "final statement". After recording Blues for Rampart Street, she returned once again to live with her daughter in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cox suffered another stroke in 1965, and in 1967, she entered East Tennessee Baptist Hospital where she died of cancer on November 10, 1967, aged 71. She was buried in Longview Cemetery, Knoxville.
Singing style
Reflective of her early career in the vaudeville circuits, Cox's style leaned more toward vaudeville than pure blues. Although possessing a less powerful and rugged voice than some of her better-known contemporaries such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainy, Cox kept her audiences spellbound with the fiery spirit of her delivery.[6] At the height of the classic female blues era, competition was stiff due to the great number of talented blueswomen performing, and thus Cox's talent constituted only part of her act. As her career developed, Cox assumed and embodied the title bestowed to her as the “Uncrowned Queen of the Blues.” Onstage, she exuded a glamorous sophistication and confidence that captivated her fans. She embellished her stage presence with a stylish and regal wardrobe that often included a tiara, cape and a rhinestone wand.[8]
Independent spirit
The independent spirit that governed Cox's life and career was a characteristic shared by many early blues stars, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Sippie Wallace, and Victoria Spivey. Forced to exercise independence from an early age as a result of her teenage career in the minstrel circuits, Cox further proved herself as an independent and astute businesswoman through her ability to organize and maintain her own troupe, Raisin’ Cain, which lasted for a decade. In this way, Cox was responsible for breaking barriers, as virtually no black females owned and managed their own businesses in the 1920s and 30s.[6] Cox was one of the few female blues singers of the time to write her own songs.
Legacy and cultural significance
Through her raw and sharp lyricism, Cox was able to introduce the complex social realities of poor and working class African Americans in the early twentieth century.[5] Her tunes address topics of female independence, sexual liberation, and the social and political struggles of black Americans from a decidedly female perspective that became her trademark. One of Cox's most famous and enduring tunes, "Wild Women Don't Have The Blues", is remembered as one of the earliest feminist anthems:
“I've got a disposition and a way of my own,
When my man starts to kicking I let him find a new home,
I get full of good liquor, walk the street all night
Go home and put my man out if he don’t act right
Wild women don't worry,
Wild women don't have the blues.
Childhood and early career
Cox was born February 26, 1896 to sharecropper parents as Ida Prather in Toccoa, Habersham County, Georgia,[3] Georgia, United States, the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight) Prather, and grew up in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia.[4] Her family lived and worked in the shadow of the Riverside Plantation, the private residence of the wealthy Prather family, from which her namesake came.[5] She faced a future of desperate poverty and limited educational and employment opportunities.[6]
Cox joined the local African Methodist Choir at a young age and thus developed a strong interest in gospel music and performance.[6] At the young age of 14, she left her home to tour with the White and Clark's Black & Tan Minstrels.[7] She began her career on stage by playing Topsy, a "pickaninny" role prevalent on the vaudeville stage at the time and often performed in blackface. Cox's early road show experience also included stints with other African American travelling minstrel shows in the Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A) vaudeville circuit, including the Florida Orange Blossom Minstrels, the Silas Green Show, and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.[8] The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, organized by F. S. Wolcott and based after 1918 in Port Gibson, Mississippi, was important not only for the development of Cox’s performing career but was also instrumental in launching the careers of fellow blueswomen and Cox’s idols, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.[9]
The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, known colloquially as “The Foots”, provided a nurturing environment for Cox to develop her career and stage presence, but life on the vaudeville circuit was trying for performers and workers alike. In his book The Story of the Blues, Paul Oliver wrote: "The 'Foots' travelled in two cars and had a 80' x 110' tent which was raised by the roustabouts and canvassmen, while a brass band would parade in town to advertise the coming of the show...The stage would be of boards on a folding frame and Coleman lanterns – gasoline mantle lamps – acted as footlights. There were no microphones; the weaker voiced singers used a megaphone, but most of the featured women blues singers scorned such aids to volume..."[9] When not singing, Cox earned money performing as a sharp-witted comedienne in vaudeville variety shows, gaining valuable stage experience and cultivating her characteristic charismatic stage presence.[6]
Personal life
In 1916, she married Adler Cox, who performed as a trumpeter with the Florida Blossoms Minstrels, a group with which Ida briefly toured. Their marriage was cut short by Adler Cox’s untimely death during World War I, though Ida kept her married name throughout the rest of her performing career. During the early 1920s, Cox remarried to Eugene Williams and the couple gave birth to a daughter, Helen. Few other details are known of this marriage, which ended in divorce. In 1927 Cox married Jesse “Tiny” Crump, a blues piano accompanist active in the Theater Owners’ Booking Association vaudeville circuits. Crump collaborated with Cox in the composition of many of her songs, including “Gypsy Glass Blues” and “Death Letter Blues,” provided piano and organ accompaniment on several of her recordings, and also served as manager of her blossoming career during this time.[6]
Gaining popularity
By 1915, Cox had advanced from the pickaninny roles of her early minstrel years to singing the blues almost exclusively. In 1920, she left the vaudeville circuit briefly to appear as a headline act at the 81 Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia with blues piano great, Jelly Roll Morton.[10] Her commanding stage presence and expressive delivery earned Cox star billing, and by the early 1920s, Cox was regarded as one of the finest solo acts offered by the shows that travelled the Theater Owners’ Booking Association circuit. In March 1922 a performance by Cox at the Beale Street Palace of Memphis, Tennessee, was aired on WMC Radio, leading to positive reviews as well as wider audience exposure to her music.
Recording career
After the success of Mamie Smith's pioneering 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues", record labels realized there was a demand for recordings of race music. The classic female blues era had begun, and would extend through the 1920s. With her popularity in the South rapidly increasing, Cox caught the attention of talent scouts and secured a record contract with Paramount, a label that she shared with her idol Ma Rainey. Paramount touted Cox as the “Uncrowned Queen of Blues,” a title that she proved deserved though her prolific recording career. Between September 1923 and October 1929, Cox recorded a total of 78 titles for Paramount.[8] For her numerous recording sessions, Paramount provided Cox with outstanding back-up musicians including female pianist Lovie Austin and her band the Blues Serenaders, featuring Jimmy O'Bryant (clarinet) and Tommy Ladnier (cornet).[6] During this period, Cox also recorded a number of songs for other labels such as Broadway Records and Silvertone using pseudonyms such as Kate Lewis, Velma Bradley, Julia Powers, and Jane Smith.
Raisin’ Cain
In 1929, Ida Cox and husband Jesse Crump formed their own tent show revue, aptly named Raisin’ Cain (after the biblical story of Cain and Abel and resulting colloquialism).[11] Cox performed as the title act and Crump acted as both accompanist and manager.[8] Through the end of the 1920s and into the early 30s, Raisin’ Cain toured black theaters across the Southeast and westward through Texas, with Cox and Crump managing to book shows in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma as well as a number of performances in Chicago. The Raisin’ Cain tent show proved so popular that in 1929 it became the first show associated with the Theater Owners’ Booking Association circuit to open at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Cox, sometimes billed as the "Sepia Mae West", headlined touring companies into the 1930s.[12] This represented the pinnacle of Cox’s performing career.
By the end of the decade, the Great Depression as well as the waning popularity of women blues singers proved difficult for Cox and her show, and Raisin’ Cain suffered from difficulty maintaining its performers, frequent layoffs as well as gaps in the show's touring schedule.[8] Still, while other blueswomen all but disappeared from public performance, Cox managed to continue her performing career through the 1930s. In 1935, Cox and Crump reorganized Raisin’ Cain, which had by then been renamed as the Darktown Scandals, and continued to tour throughout the South and Midwest until 1939. In the early 1930s, notable American rock & roll and R&B drummer Earl Palmer entered show business as a tap dancer in Cox's Darktown Scandals Review.[13]
Later career and comeback
The year 1939 proved a very industrious and successful year for Cox. That year, Cox was invited to participate in John Hammond's historic Carnegie Hall concert series, From Spirituals to Swing.[10] In the concert, Cox gave a performance of "Four Day Creep", backed by James P. Johnson (piano), Lester Young (tenor saxophone), Buck Clayton (trumpet), and Dicky Wells (trombone), which proved to be a highlight of the concert series and gave her performing career a much needed boost after the Depression-era decline.[6] That same year, Cox also resumed her recording career with a series of sessions for Vocalion Records and, in 1940, Okeh Records, with groups that at various times included guitarist Charlie Christian, trumpeters Hot Lips Page and Henry "Red" Allen, trombonist J. C. Higginbotham, and percussionist Lionel Hampton. She continued to perform until 1945, when a debilitating stroke she suffered during a show at a nightclub in Buffalo, New York, forced her into retirement.[8] Cox retired to Knoxville, Tennessee where she assumed a low profile, became very active in her church, and lived with her daughter, Helen Goode.[6]
Cox had effectively fallen off the map of the music world until 1959 when John Hammond took out an ad in Variety magazine in search of Cox. After successfully locating her, Hammond as well as record producer Chris Albertson urged the blues singer to make one final recording, an album for Riverside Records titled Blues For Rampart Street. In 1961, after a 15-year hiatus, Cox made a successful recording comeback. The album was backed by an all-star group composed of Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, pianist Sammy Price, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Jo Jones.[6] The album featured her revisiting songs from her old repertoire, including "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues", which found a new audience, including such singers as Nancy Harrow and Barbara Dane, who recorded their own versions of the tune. A review in the New York Times said that Cox at the age of 65 had lost quality in both range and intonation, but retained her charismatic and expressive delivery of many of the classic tunes that had launched her into stardom.[14] Cox referred to the album as her "final statement". After recording Blues for Rampart Street, she returned once again to live with her daughter in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cox suffered another stroke in 1965, and in 1967, she entered East Tennessee Baptist Hospital where she died of cancer on November 10, 1967, aged 71. She was buried in Longview Cemetery, Knoxville.
Singing style
Reflective of her early career in the vaudeville circuits, Cox's style leaned more toward vaudeville than pure blues. Although possessing a less powerful and rugged voice than some of her better-known contemporaries such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainy, Cox kept her audiences spellbound with the fiery spirit of her delivery.[6] At the height of the classic female blues era, competition was stiff due to the great number of talented blueswomen performing, and thus Cox's talent constituted only part of her act. As her career developed, Cox assumed and embodied the title bestowed to her as the “Uncrowned Queen of the Blues.” Onstage, she exuded a glamorous sophistication and confidence that captivated her fans. She embellished her stage presence with a stylish and regal wardrobe that often included a tiara, cape and a rhinestone wand.[8]
Independent spirit
The independent spirit that governed Cox's life and career was a characteristic shared by many early blues stars, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Sippie Wallace, and Victoria Spivey. Forced to exercise independence from an early age as a result of her teenage career in the minstrel circuits, Cox further proved herself as an independent and astute businesswoman through her ability to organize and maintain her own troupe, Raisin’ Cain, which lasted for a decade. In this way, Cox was responsible for breaking barriers, as virtually no black females owned and managed their own businesses in the 1920s and 30s.[6] Cox was one of the few female blues singers of the time to write her own songs.
Legacy and cultural significance
Through her raw and sharp lyricism, Cox was able to introduce the complex social realities of poor and working class African Americans in the early twentieth century.[5] Her tunes address topics of female independence, sexual liberation, and the social and political struggles of black Americans from a decidedly female perspective that became her trademark. One of Cox's most famous and enduring tunes, "Wild Women Don't Have The Blues", is remembered as one of the earliest feminist anthems:
“I've got a disposition and a way of my own,
When my man starts to kicking I let him find a new home,
I get full of good liquor, walk the street all night
Go home and put my man out if he don’t act right
Wild women don't worry,
Wild women don't have the blues.
Der dänische Sänger und Gitarrist Mike Andersen gehört seit einigen Jahren zu den renommierten Blues- und Soulkünstlern Dänemarks. Der Durchbruch gelang ihm 2010 mit dem Album "Echoes", das hervorragende Kritiken erhielt und in gleich drei Kategorien für den "Danish Music Award" nominiert wurde.
http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/bluesfest-eutin-mike-andersen-duo.1173.de.html?dram:article_id=297895
Dieser sensitive Musiker, 1977 im dänischen Arhus geboren, verleiht mit seiner swingenden, fast jazzigen Stimme zusammen mit seinem subtilen Gitarrenspiel und einer soliden, eingeschworenen, erfahrenen Band dem europäischen Blues eine geradezu verführerische Note. Die Initialzündung für eine internationale Karriere basiert wohl auf der Bekanntschaft mit dem Bluesmeister Otis Grand Ende der Neunziger.
2010 ist Andersens zurecht hochgelobte, dritte CD erschienen. „Echoes“ wurde vom „Grammy“-Gewinner Russell Elevado produziert und zeigt die stilistische Linie einer Bluescombo, die respektvoll mit der Tradition umgeht, diese subtil variiert und zu einer eigenständigen Linie findet. Im Programm finden sich zahlreiche Eigenkompositionen oder akzentuierende Coverversionen, etwa von Songs eines Howlin‘ Wolf oder Bobby Womack.
Andersens Band ist übrigens schon mehrmals im Vorprogramm von B.B. King aufgetreten; auch das zeugt vom Respekt, den man dem Dänen in der Szene zollt.
Mike Andersen (born Mikkel Dybdal Andersen, February 25, 1977, Aarhus, Denmark) is a Danish blues and soul songwriter, guitarist, singer and bandleader of the Mike Andersen Band.
Already at 12 years old blues, rhythm & blues and African-American music had taken a firm grip on Andersen. While everyone around him in Denmark was listening to a mix of Wham, Duran Duran and Madonna, he practiced guitar along with the LPs of Lightning Hopkins, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Otis Rush and many more. Later, as Andersen focused on voices and words he ventured into the soul stars and Al Green, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye were added to his collection of vinyl.
At 20, Andersen met the blues guitarist Otis Grand.[1] Otis and his six piece band perfectly framed the music Mike had listened to his whole life, from raw urban blues to 1960s soul. Grand invited the young Andersen to one of his major shows in England where he participated as a guitarist in The Otis Grand All Star Revue at the 'The Great British R & B Festival in Colne, England.[2] When Andersen returned home to Denmark he had a firm resolve to form a six piece blues and soul band of his own.
Knocking around the blues and soul scene of Aarhus, Andersen soon cranked up his 'Blues Crew' band and quickly caught the attention of older, more established Danish musicians.[1] Soon he formed 'The Mike Andersen Band' whose first album, My Love For The Blues was released in 2002 as one of the last 15 years most striking Danish blues albums. It was imprinted with the relentless uncompromising attitude which has characterized his career since. Another significant studio album, Tomorrow released in 2004 and The Mike Andersen Band EP of 2006 followed along with hundreds of concerts across Europe. These included opening for The Fabulous Thunderbirds and three times for B.B. King.[3]
The 5th Annual Independent Music Awards (2005) winner in the blues songs category was Mike and the band's Stuck With Me.[4]
During the last half of the decade, while honing his skills working with a variety of Danish local and international musicians, Andersen was busy creating a new CD to show off his band's new sound. Two plus years in the making, when echoes was released in early 2010, Andersen was heralded as "an original interpreter of the old qualities" by the music editor of the nation's second largest newspaper, Politiken.[5] GAFFA, a leading publisher of music news in Denmark for almost thirty years wrote that echoes "is so far his best. Perhaps because . . . he dares to mix his interest in and enjoyment of the blues with his interest and pleasure in soul music."[6] Three days later the countries leading pop radio station DR P4 named the new CD their Album of the Week.[7] Then the music journalist Peter Widmer wrote in the Odense Music Library's news about "Mike Andersen's voice that has evolved ... with great range, and is primarily in the center of echoes, with lyrics about love, jealousy and passion as the main themes.[8] In a bluesinthenorthwest.com review, Grahame Rhodes reviewed thusly: "Echoes comes highly recommended for those who like their music soulful and full of good grooves and top notch songs.[9]
In Trumpet Magazine, a Danish Music Union publication, Andersen told how he was able to connect with the Grammy Award winning producer and mixer Russell Elevado who finally mixed echoes.
Mike Andersen Band - More Of You (Official Music Video)
Rune Nordvik *25.02.1962
Papaslide
https://www.facebook.com/rune.nordvik.3
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Papaslide/438684526230302
Rune Nordvik, der bereits 1962 den mütterlichen Katakomben entkrochen war, hört man die musikalische Erfahrung in jeder Note von „What Are We Livin‘ For...?“ an – doch die ersten Projekte des Norwegers wollten sehr lange auf sich warten lassen, und so nahmen diese erst Ende der Neunziger Gestalt an.
Spulen wir vor ins Jahr 2011. Nordvik legt nun sein zweites PAPASLIDE-Album vor, und man hört trotz eindeutiger amerikanischer musikalischer Wurzeln noch immer eine nordische Unterkühltheit aus dem groovigen, die pentatonische Tonleiter auf und ab kletternden Gebräu heraus – ebenso aber seine innige Liebe zu seinem ganz persönlichen, wichtigsten Bluesmusiker, JOHNNY DAWSON WINTER III. Man höre sich bloß mal das programmatisch betitelte Stück „Guitar Mentor“ an, und sämtliche Fragen erübrigen sich.
Gelegentlich wirkt das Trio um Rune etwas überambitioniert, sodass die Lässigkeit hin und wieder auf der Strecke bleibt, und auch an die Stimme des Protagonisten muss man sich erst einmal gewöhnen, ist sie doch fast schon etwas zu brav, zu sauber, ja irgendwie zu unversoffen und unver(b)raucht.
FAZIT: Solide und handwerklich perfekt ist „What Are We Livin‘ For...?“ allemal, doch bei vielen Songs fehlt ein wenig der zündende Funke, der zu mehr animiert als zu Fußwippen.
Spulen wir vor ins Jahr 2011. Nordvik legt nun sein zweites PAPASLIDE-Album vor, und man hört trotz eindeutiger amerikanischer musikalischer Wurzeln noch immer eine nordische Unterkühltheit aus dem groovigen, die pentatonische Tonleiter auf und ab kletternden Gebräu heraus – ebenso aber seine innige Liebe zu seinem ganz persönlichen, wichtigsten Bluesmusiker, JOHNNY DAWSON WINTER III. Man höre sich bloß mal das programmatisch betitelte Stück „Guitar Mentor“ an, und sämtliche Fragen erübrigen sich.
Gelegentlich wirkt das Trio um Rune etwas überambitioniert, sodass die Lässigkeit hin und wieder auf der Strecke bleibt, und auch an die Stimme des Protagonisten muss man sich erst einmal gewöhnen, ist sie doch fast schon etwas zu brav, zu sauber, ja irgendwie zu unversoffen und unver(b)raucht.
FAZIT: Solide und handwerklich perfekt ist „What Are We Livin‘ For...?“ allemal, doch bei vielen Songs fehlt ein wenig der zündende Funke, der zu mehr animiert als zu Fußwippen.
Rune Nordvik akà PAPASLIDE is a well-established blues musician from Norway. He is curelessly infected with the blues virus since his parents gave him his first guitar as a Christmas gift at the age of 14 and at the latest as he discovered his all-time favorite Johnny Winter some little time later.
His third album „The Deepest Pain“ does not only contain a lot of his love for the bluesrock legend Johnny Winter, who sadly passed away in 2014, in form of three cover songs, but also proofs his musically wide range. Next to 7 own compositions you can additionally find a Mark Knopfler and an Albert Collins cover.
Seen as the hottest blues act from Scandinavia PAPASLIDE knows how to combine different shades of music into a harmonic entirety. His blues is colored with rock, folk, swamp, soul, voodoo and psychedelic sounds, which create a unique listening experience in “The Deepest Pain”.
On a long past tour Rune Nordvik met the twofold Grammy winner Roy Rogers. The slide guitarist from California (known for being the producer of John Lee Hooker’s masterpiece „The Healer“) reckoned the Norwegian to be a rough diamond, and during joint sessions he introduced him to the secrets and techniques of the bottleneck.
In 2009 Rune released the first self-produced album by PAPASLIDE. Especially the Scandinavian critics loved it. The Scandinavian rock radio stations played “You Can’t Hide“, and they liked the tune „Blues For Breakfast“ a lot.
“What Are We Livin’ For“, the second album, is being released in 2011. In contrast to their debut PAPASLIDE are sounding more mature, more down to earth and have intensified their rock facet. With the title track they also have a radio hit at hand. The slightly mystic and weird video by Sveim Heimvik has transferred title and atmosphere into impressive pictures.
2015 follows „The Deepest Pain“, which will continue raising even more attention for Runes blues in this tradition.
His third album „The Deepest Pain“ does not only contain a lot of his love for the bluesrock legend Johnny Winter, who sadly passed away in 2014, in form of three cover songs, but also proofs his musically wide range. Next to 7 own compositions you can additionally find a Mark Knopfler and an Albert Collins cover.
Seen as the hottest blues act from Scandinavia PAPASLIDE knows how to combine different shades of music into a harmonic entirety. His blues is colored with rock, folk, swamp, soul, voodoo and psychedelic sounds, which create a unique listening experience in “The Deepest Pain”.
On a long past tour Rune Nordvik met the twofold Grammy winner Roy Rogers. The slide guitarist from California (known for being the producer of John Lee Hooker’s masterpiece „The Healer“) reckoned the Norwegian to be a rough diamond, and during joint sessions he introduced him to the secrets and techniques of the bottleneck.
In 2009 Rune released the first self-produced album by PAPASLIDE. Especially the Scandinavian critics loved it. The Scandinavian rock radio stations played “You Can’t Hide“, and they liked the tune „Blues For Breakfast“ a lot.
“What Are We Livin’ For“, the second album, is being released in 2011. In contrast to their debut PAPASLIDE are sounding more mature, more down to earth and have intensified their rock facet. With the title track they also have a radio hit at hand. The slightly mystic and weird video by Sveim Heimvik has transferred title and atmosphere into impressive pictures.
2015 follows „The Deepest Pain“, which will continue raising even more attention for Runes blues in this tradition.
Papaslide (The deepest pain)
Skylar Wolf *25.02.
Im Netz ist nicht viel über Skylar zu finden.
Reverbnation schreibt: Mr. Wolf wünscht, sein Lebenswerk den Kinder zu widmen und sie zu einem besseren Leben oder einem Neuanfang zu leiten. Seine Botschaft ist die Hoffnung auf Erlösung, ein Leben ohne Sucht und Leiden, ist ein Leben in Schönheit und Harmonie.
Unter http://cherokeewigwam.iphpbb3.com/forum/45302369nx28228/indianermusik-native-american-music-f21/skylar-wolf-t263.html (ein Forum) findet man noch etwas.
- geboren in Denver, Colorado und aufgewachsen auf der Navajo-Reservation.
- seine Kindheit verbrachte er in den indianischen Internaten
- Ausbildung in New York
- nach seiner Rückkehr waren viele seiner Angehörigen verstorben
- er hatte wohl auch Alkoholprobleme
Kommen wir zur Musik zurück.
Auf Reverbnation kann man sich seine Musik anhören
- „Devils Son“ ist ein bluesiger Titel mit einer hervorragenden Slide-Guitar
- „Confuzed“ ist melancholisch, ein typische Singer-Songwritertitel
- „Whiskey Train“ ist der bluesigste Titel auf der CD, hervorragende Slide-Guitar unterstützt durch
ein gutes Harpspiel
- “LA“ melancholisch, melodiös
...,is the accomplished solo Acoustic, Musician, and Harmonica Blues player, with a heartfelt energetic stage performance. Skylar Wolf the "Devils Son" will bring you too your feet everytime, with his Acoustic Rock-Blues and Folk Rock unique style. This Multi-Award winning artitst is from Huerfano, New Mexico. He walks in two worlds and telling his stories from both sides. A hard way of life pushes Skylar Wolf to spread his music sharing it with the world, helping the less fortunate and lost souls living out on the streets. Most importantly, Mr. Wolf wishes to dedicate his life's work of the children, teaching and guiding them towards a better life or a new beginning. His message is one of hope and redemption: a life free from addiction and suffering is a life of beauty and harmony.
Skylar's PASSON resides in many Non-Profit Entertainment Specials, Focusing on Children and Teenage OutReach Programs. Especially, helping our Disable Children. He states, “I can always deal with fame and fortune in the next life. As for now, I spend my music/stage time and money on the children…”
WOLF grew up in the Four Cornner's area of New Mexico. A hard way of life pushes SKYLAR WOLF to spread his music sharing it with the world. His message is one of hope and redemption: a life free from addiction and suffering is a life of beauty and harmony. Skylar's PASSON resides in many Non-Profit Entertainment Specials, Focusing on Children and Teenage OutReach Programs. Especially, helping our Disable Children. He states, “I can always deal with fame and fortune in the next life. As for now, I spend my music/stage time and money on the children…” During the winter holiday seasons, Skylar holds free concerts that benefit Children's Hospitals throughout the US. These concerts are toy and fundraising drives that benefit the children. Visit periodically for Howlin' Updates to see if he will be in your area during the winter holiday season. If he is, you are invited to join in on the fun - bring a toy and enjoy the show!
devils son - Skylar Wolf "Devilsson" -Blues slide guitar
SKYLAR WOLF - WHISKEY TRAIN
Jakez Rolland *25.02.
Vladimir Demyanov *25.02.1979
Nicole Fournier, Daniel Kramer & Blues Doctors - Old Man On A Corner
Blues Doctors - Hoochie Coochie Man
R.I.P
Louisiana Red (Iverson Minter) +25.02.2012
Louisiana Red (gebürtig Iverson Minter; * 23. März 1932 in Bessemer, Alabama; † 25. Februar 2012 in Hannover, Deutschland[1]) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker, der viele Auftritte in Europa absolvierte.
Louisiana Red wurde mit dem Namen Iverson Minter geboren. Seine Mutter starb eine Woche nach seiner Geburt an einer Lungenentzündung. Als er fünf Jahre alt war, wurde sein Vater vom Ku Klux Klan ermordet. Drei Jahre lebte er in Waisenhäusern, dann bei seiner Großmutter in Pennsylvania. Bluesmusiker wollte er werden, seitdem er Muddy Waters kennengelernt hatte. Weitere Stationen seines Lebens waren zunächst allerdings eine Verurteilung zu Zwangsarbeit wegen Einbruchs und seine Teilnahme am Koreakrieg.Bluesaufnahmen existieren von Louisiana Red seit 1949 auf den verschiedensten Labels. Ende der 1950er Jahre war er für ca. zwei Jahre in der Band von John Lee Hooker, machte sich dann aber wieder selbstständig. In Europa wurde Louisiana Red durch einen Auftritt beim Jazz-Festival Montreux 1975, eine Aufzeichnung des WDR Rockpalasts 1976 und durch seine Teilnahme beim American Folk Blues Festival (1980/81 und 1983) einem größeren Publikum bekannt.
Der Künstlername Louisiana Red geht auf Iverson Minters Vorliebe für eine rote Chilisauce dieses Namens zurück. Außerdem hatte Red neben afrikanischem auch indianisches Blut in seinen Adern.
1983 erhielt er den Handy Award der Blues Foundation als bester traditioneller Bluesmusiker.
Im März 2001 übergab die Stadt Woodstock, New York, Louisiana Red den begehrten Stadtschlüssel, was der Ehrenbürgerwürde entspricht.
Im deutschsprachigen Raum tourte er bevorzugt mit der Stormy Monday Bluesband aus Essen, der Reutlinger Bluesgruppe Blueskraft, Al Jones, Tin Pan Alley oder den Fantastic Boogaloo Kings bzw. Dynamite Daze, wie sich die letztgenannte Formation inzwischen nennt.
Seit 1981 lebte er in Deutschland (Hannover). 2005 erschien der Dokumentarfilm Red and Blues über ihn.
Iverson Minter (March 23, 1932 – February 25, 2012), known as "Louisiana Red", was an African American blues guitarist, harmonica player, and singer, who recorded more than 50 albums. He was best known for his song "Sweet Blood Call".[3]
Biography
Born in Bessemer, Alabama,[3] Minter lost his parents early in life; his mother died of pneumonia shortly after his birth, and his father was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in 1937.[1] He was brought up by a series of relatives in various towns and cities. Red recorded for Chess in 1949, before joining the Army. He was initially trained with the 82nd Airborne as a parachutist and he went to Korea in 1951. The 82nd airborne didn't go there as a complete unit, only some of soldiers were dispatched and became rangers in 2nd, 3rd and 7th Infantry Divisions. Red said he was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division.
After leaving the Army, he spent two years in the late 1950s playing with John Lee Hooker in Detroit.[1] He recorded for Checker Records in 1952, billed as Rocky Fuller.[4]
His first album, Lowdown Back Porch Blues, was recorded in New York with Tommy Tucker and released in 1963, with second album Seventh Son released later the same year.[5] Louisiana Red released the single "I'm Too Poor To Die" for the Glover label in 1964. It peaked at number 117 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 30 on the Cashbox chart. Billboard did not print a standard R&B chart during 1964.
He maintained a busy recording and performing schedule through the 1960s and 1970s, having done sessions for Chess, Checker, Atlas, Glover, Roulette, L&R and Tomato amongst others.[1] In 1983 he won a W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Male Artist.[6][7] He lived in Hanover, Germany since 1981.[8]
He has also made film appearances in Rockpalast (1976), Comeback (1982), Ballhaus Barmbek (1988), Red and Blues (2005) and Family Meeting (2008).[9]
In 1994, Louisiana Red fused the blues with the urban Greek music of the bouzouki player, Stelios Vamvakaris, on the album, Blues Meets Rembetika.[4] He continued to tour, including regular returns to the US,[7] until his death. In 2011, Louisiana Red released Memphis Mojo to broad public acclaim.[10]
Death
Michael Messer, from Michael Messer Music, noted on February 25, 2012: "I am very sorry to be bringer of such sad news that my dear friend, Louisiana Red, died this morning. He had a stroke on Monday and had been in a coma."[11] Louisiana Red had died in Hanover, Germany, aged 79.[3]
Awards
1983: W C Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Male Artist
2009: Grand Prix du Disque (Blues) for Back to the Black Bayou
2009: German Record Critics Award (2.Quarter) Best New Release (Blues)
2009: Bluesnews Poll (for Back to the Black Bayou)
2010: Blues Music Award (Acoustic Artist of the Year)
2010: Blues Music Award (Acoustic Album of the Year) for You Got To Move
Biography
Born in Bessemer, Alabama,[3] Minter lost his parents early in life; his mother died of pneumonia shortly after his birth, and his father was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in 1937.[1] He was brought up by a series of relatives in various towns and cities. Red recorded for Chess in 1949, before joining the Army. He was initially trained with the 82nd Airborne as a parachutist and he went to Korea in 1951. The 82nd airborne didn't go there as a complete unit, only some of soldiers were dispatched and became rangers in 2nd, 3rd and 7th Infantry Divisions. Red said he was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division.
After leaving the Army, he spent two years in the late 1950s playing with John Lee Hooker in Detroit.[1] He recorded for Checker Records in 1952, billed as Rocky Fuller.[4]
His first album, Lowdown Back Porch Blues, was recorded in New York with Tommy Tucker and released in 1963, with second album Seventh Son released later the same year.[5] Louisiana Red released the single "I'm Too Poor To Die" for the Glover label in 1964. It peaked at number 117 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 30 on the Cashbox chart. Billboard did not print a standard R&B chart during 1964.
He maintained a busy recording and performing schedule through the 1960s and 1970s, having done sessions for Chess, Checker, Atlas, Glover, Roulette, L&R and Tomato amongst others.[1] In 1983 he won a W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Male Artist.[6][7] He lived in Hanover, Germany since 1981.[8]
He has also made film appearances in Rockpalast (1976), Comeback (1982), Ballhaus Barmbek (1988), Red and Blues (2005) and Family Meeting (2008).[9]
In 1994, Louisiana Red fused the blues with the urban Greek music of the bouzouki player, Stelios Vamvakaris, on the album, Blues Meets Rembetika.[4] He continued to tour, including regular returns to the US,[7] until his death. In 2011, Louisiana Red released Memphis Mojo to broad public acclaim.[10]
Death
Michael Messer, from Michael Messer Music, noted on February 25, 2012: "I am very sorry to be bringer of such sad news that my dear friend, Louisiana Red, died this morning. He had a stroke on Monday and had been in a coma."[11] Louisiana Red had died in Hanover, Germany, aged 79.[3]
Awards
1983: W C Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Male Artist
2009: Grand Prix du Disque (Blues) for Back to the Black Bayou
2009: German Record Critics Award (2.Quarter) Best New Release (Blues)
2009: Bluesnews Poll (for Back to the Black Bayou)
2010: Blues Music Award (Acoustic Artist of the Year)
2010: Blues Music Award (Acoustic Album of the Year) for You Got To Move
Louisiana Red Ronnie Earl & the Bluetones June 2011
Stelios Vamvakaris with Louisiana Red Live @KYTTARO2008
http://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article2207713/Bluesmusiker-Louisiana-Red-in-Hannover-beigesetzt.html
http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=545847
Roosevelt Holts +25.02.1994
http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=545847
Roosevelt
Holts was a country bluesman of considerable skill who in a small way
was caught up in the blues boom of the 1960's, finally getting the
opportunity to record scattered sides and a couple of LP's in the 1960's
and 1970's. Holts, who was born in 1905, likely would have achieved
greater recognition if he had gotten the chance to make records in the
1920's and 1930's as David Evans emphasizes in his liner notes: "If he
had been able to get to a record studio in the 1930's, his records would
now be highly prized collector's items, reissued on albums and talked
about by blues fans everywhere. He might have even been "rediscovered"
and brought north to the cities for concerts and coffee house
engagements before an audience of young whites who were not even born
when he recorded his famous numbers." None of this happened of course
and Holts toiled in relative obscurity while those who did make records
in the early days were rediscovered and achieved adulation among those
"young whites." These were men like Son House, Bukka White, Skip James
and Mississippi John Hurt to name the bigger stars. There were several
artists from the same era who, like Holts, never got that early break
but were swept up in the blues revival net and went on to achieve a
measure of success such as Mississippi Fred McDowell and Robert Pete
Williams.
Why Holts never achieved equitable recognition is unclear but we owe a debt to his patron, folklorist David Evans, who is responsible for just about all of Holts' recordings. It was Evans' investigation into Tommy Johnson in the late 1960’s that brought Holts to light. Evans uncovered and recorded a slew of still active musicians who learned directly from Johnson including Boogie Bill Webb, Arzo Youngblood, Isaac Youngblood, Bubba Brown, Babe Stovall, Houston Stackhouse, Tommy’s brother Mager Johnson and Roosevelt Holts. K.C. Douglas, Shirley Griffith and Jim Brewer were others who learned directly from Johnson but were recorded by others. As Evans recalled in an interview to Rob Hutten "I followed a trail of musicians connected with Tommy Johnson. Babe had known Tommy slightly and Roosevelt knew him a lot better, and that led to two of Tommy's brothers and any number of other singers that had been associated with Tommy Johnson."
Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and he took up the guitar when he was in his mid-twenties. He started to get serious about music in the late 1930's when he encountered Tommy Johnson. Johnson had married Holts' cousin Rosa Youngblood and moved to Tylertown with her. Around 1937 both men moved to Jackson playing all around town and surrounding towns. During this period he also played with Ishmon Bracey, Johnnie Temple, Bubba Brown, and One Legged Sam Norwood. Holts eventually settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana where Evans recorded him.
Evans began recording Holts in 1965 resulting in two LP's (both out of print): Presenting The Country Blues (Blue Horizon,1966) and Roosevelt Holts and Friends (Arhoolie, 1969-1970) plus the collection The Franklinton Muscatel Society featuring his earliest sides through 1969 which is` available on CD. In addition selections recorded by Evans appeared on the following anthologies (all out of print): Goin' Up The Country (Decca, 1968), The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (Matchbox, 1972), South Mississippi Blues (Rounder, 1974 ?), Way Back Yonder …Original Country Blues Volume 3 (Albatros, 1979 ?), Giants Of Country Blues Vol. 3 (Wolf, 199?) and a very scarce 45 ("Down The Big Road" b/w "Blues On Mind") cut for the Bluesman label in 1969.
Roosevelt Holts I've heard most of these recordings and I think Presenting The Country Blues is among his best although I know a couple of folks who prefer Roosevelt Holts and Friends which features him on electric guitar. Holts is a fine singer, possessing a strong burnished voice and a rhythmic, delicate guitar style as Evans describes: "Roosevelt's guitar style is one of the most subtle to be found on records, with its delicate touch and rhythmic shifts. He often extends his guitar lines beyond the expected standard patterns to produce greater variety." Lyrically Holts draws on songs he learned as a younger man as well as the vast storehouse of floating blues verses. Among the covers are Leroy Carr's 1928 classic "Prison Bound Blues" and Memphis Minnie's 1930 number "She Put Me Outdoors" although Holts takes it at a much slower tempo. "Prison Bound Blues" was likely picked up from Tommy Johnson who was known to play the number. As for the latter number he may have picked it up through Minnie's husband Joe McCoy who was active on the Jackson scene before he moved to Memphis. Johnnie Temple was also part of the rich Jackson scene and Holts covers his celebrated "Lead Pencil Blues" which Temple cut at his first session in 1935. Of this song Evans writes "this style of guitar playing with its subtle rhythm shifts between duple and triple patterns, is a splendid example of the type of music then current in Jackson." Holts picked up a number of songs from Tommy Johnson and on this album turns in superb readings of "Big Road Blues" and "Maggie Campbell Blues." Holts also recorded Johnson's "Big Fat Mamma Blues" on a compilation. A couple of Holts' friend appear on this record including Babe Stovall from Tylertown who was the one who introduced Evans to Holts. His second guitar on "Feelin' Sad And Blue" adds some extra rhythmic push to the song with the two complementing each other superbly. Harmonica blower L.H. Lane plays on "The Good Book Teach You" as Holts lays down some fine bottleneck. Apparently the two had known each other for some time and he just popped into the studio for this one song before leaving minutes later. Holts is a good bottleneck player as he also demonstrates on the moving gospel number "I'm Going To Build Right On That Shore" and "Another Mule Kickin' In My Stall."
Why Holts never achieved equitable recognition is unclear but we owe a debt to his patron, folklorist David Evans, who is responsible for just about all of Holts' recordings. It was Evans' investigation into Tommy Johnson in the late 1960’s that brought Holts to light. Evans uncovered and recorded a slew of still active musicians who learned directly from Johnson including Boogie Bill Webb, Arzo Youngblood, Isaac Youngblood, Bubba Brown, Babe Stovall, Houston Stackhouse, Tommy’s brother Mager Johnson and Roosevelt Holts. K.C. Douglas, Shirley Griffith and Jim Brewer were others who learned directly from Johnson but were recorded by others. As Evans recalled in an interview to Rob Hutten "I followed a trail of musicians connected with Tommy Johnson. Babe had known Tommy slightly and Roosevelt knew him a lot better, and that led to two of Tommy's brothers and any number of other singers that had been associated with Tommy Johnson."
Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and he took up the guitar when he was in his mid-twenties. He started to get serious about music in the late 1930's when he encountered Tommy Johnson. Johnson had married Holts' cousin Rosa Youngblood and moved to Tylertown with her. Around 1937 both men moved to Jackson playing all around town and surrounding towns. During this period he also played with Ishmon Bracey, Johnnie Temple, Bubba Brown, and One Legged Sam Norwood. Holts eventually settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana where Evans recorded him.
Evans began recording Holts in 1965 resulting in two LP's (both out of print): Presenting The Country Blues (Blue Horizon,1966) and Roosevelt Holts and Friends (Arhoolie, 1969-1970) plus the collection The Franklinton Muscatel Society featuring his earliest sides through 1969 which is` available on CD. In addition selections recorded by Evans appeared on the following anthologies (all out of print): Goin' Up The Country (Decca, 1968), The Legacy of Tommy Johnson (Matchbox, 1972), South Mississippi Blues (Rounder, 1974 ?), Way Back Yonder …Original Country Blues Volume 3 (Albatros, 1979 ?), Giants Of Country Blues Vol. 3 (Wolf, 199?) and a very scarce 45 ("Down The Big Road" b/w "Blues On Mind") cut for the Bluesman label in 1969.
Roosevelt Holts I've heard most of these recordings and I think Presenting The Country Blues is among his best although I know a couple of folks who prefer Roosevelt Holts and Friends which features him on electric guitar. Holts is a fine singer, possessing a strong burnished voice and a rhythmic, delicate guitar style as Evans describes: "Roosevelt's guitar style is one of the most subtle to be found on records, with its delicate touch and rhythmic shifts. He often extends his guitar lines beyond the expected standard patterns to produce greater variety." Lyrically Holts draws on songs he learned as a younger man as well as the vast storehouse of floating blues verses. Among the covers are Leroy Carr's 1928 classic "Prison Bound Blues" and Memphis Minnie's 1930 number "She Put Me Outdoors" although Holts takes it at a much slower tempo. "Prison Bound Blues" was likely picked up from Tommy Johnson who was known to play the number. As for the latter number he may have picked it up through Minnie's husband Joe McCoy who was active on the Jackson scene before he moved to Memphis. Johnnie Temple was also part of the rich Jackson scene and Holts covers his celebrated "Lead Pencil Blues" which Temple cut at his first session in 1935. Of this song Evans writes "this style of guitar playing with its subtle rhythm shifts between duple and triple patterns, is a splendid example of the type of music then current in Jackson." Holts picked up a number of songs from Tommy Johnson and on this album turns in superb readings of "Big Road Blues" and "Maggie Campbell Blues." Holts also recorded Johnson's "Big Fat Mamma Blues" on a compilation. A couple of Holts' friend appear on this record including Babe Stovall from Tylertown who was the one who introduced Evans to Holts. His second guitar on "Feelin' Sad And Blue" adds some extra rhythmic push to the song with the two complementing each other superbly. Harmonica blower L.H. Lane plays on "The Good Book Teach You" as Holts lays down some fine bottleneck. Apparently the two had known each other for some time and he just popped into the studio for this one song before leaving minutes later. Holts is a good bottleneck player as he also demonstrates on the moving gospel number "I'm Going To Build Right On That Shore" and "Another Mule Kickin' In My Stall."
Encyclopedia of the Blues by Edward Komara
Roosevelt Holts Mean Conductor Blues (1965)
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