Hop Wilson

The chances are you’ve never heard of Hop Wilson, but this Hawaiian steel slide player really is a fabulous exponent of the blues. Born in 1921, Harding Wilson got his nickname from his early prowess on the blues harp. He was influenced by the records of fellow Texan, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and got his first steel guitar in 1939, which allowed him to begin working the Houston clubs.

After serving in the US Army in World War 2 Hop became a fulltime musician during the post war years. He worked with ‘Ivory’ Lee Semien’s band and they recorded for Goldband in 1958 as Hop Wilson & His Two Buddies and Hop Wilson and his Blue Steel Guitar. It was not just Hop’s skilful guitar playing, which he did while having the Hawaiian steel sitting on a stand in a similar manner to some country performers, but also his strong vocals that worked so well.

Besides recording as Hop Wilson he cut records, including A Good Woman is Hard to Find which will be included on the 100 Years of the Blues box set coming out in September, under the name Poppy Hop, probably on account of having reached the venerable age of 40! During this time Hop Wilson could be found playing the clubs of Houston along with Lightnin’ Hopkins and Juke Boy Bonner and like many other blues musicians he was none to keen on being recorded, he made more money from playing live.

When he was approached to record in the latter part of the 1960s Hop refused, and so it’s a relatively small treasure trove of recordings that allow us to hear music that few white people witnessed at the time. Hop Wilson’s health deteriorated during the 1970s and he died in August 1975 never having had the acclaim that his talent deserved.

Koerner, Ray & Glover

In early 1963 the Rolling Stones were wowing London with their blues covers. Ever since the generally held opinion is that Britain exported the blues back to America through the Rolling Stones s in the so-called ‘Sixties Invasion’. While Rolling Stones covers were some of the first blues records that many Americans heard it was not as though there were not plenty of young white Americans high on the blues.

On 24 March 1964, as The Stones were playing The Station Hotel in Richmond, three Americans in their early to mid twenties were recording at the Woman’s Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. John Koerner, Dave Ray and Tony Glover had all met at the University of Minnesota where Koerner and Ray were taking classes; Glover simply hanging out in search of like-minded Blues fans.

They met E.D. Nunn, the heir to the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company fortune who had his own record label, Audiophile, – their previous biggest seller was an album with one side devoted to a thunderstorm. On their album, Koerner, Ray and Glover covered Lead Belly, Muddy Waters and Blind Lemon Jefferson among others. Linin’ Track is a Lead Belly song, one he collected on his travels and dates back to the early days of black workers building America’s railroads.

The album came out in June 1963; just 300 copies were pressed on translucent red vinyl. Nunn wouldn’t give any to the band, although he did sell them at cost. Glover bought three copies, one of which he sent to Jac Holzman at Elektra Records. Holzman flew to Minneapolis and signed them over dinner, purchased the master tape from Nunn and released the album. The band played the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and although they did carry on in various guises they have largely been lost to the mists of time. Theirs is arguably the best ‘white boys playing the blues’ to come out of America.