Bessie Smith Passed Away Today

On 26 September 1937, the day before John Hammond was to leave for Mississippi to take Bessie back to New York to record, she and her lover were driving on Route 61 just north of Clarksdale, Mississippi, when their car had an accident. They ran off the road and down a steep embankment created by the Yazoo flood plain. Bessie broke her ribs in the crash and as she lay by the side of the road a truck ran over her right arm, nearly severing it.

For many years the rumour circulated that her life could have been saved, if she had not been refused treatment at a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale – 14 miles from the crash site.  Much of the blame for this story must be attributed to John Hammond. He wrote an article in Downbeat magazine claiming Bessie died after being denied admission to a hospital because of her colour; Hammond later admitted his article was based on hearsay. Bessie was in fact treated by a white doctor, at the blacks only hospital on Sunflower Avenue in Clarksdale, but her injuries were too severe, and she had lost too much blood, and she died.

Black Ace

Has there ever been a better pseudonym than Black Ace, the nom de record of Babe Kyro Lemon Turner?   Born on a farm in Hughes Springs, Texas sometime around 1907, Turner, like many contemporaries, first performed in church. It was in the late 1920s that he began playing guitar, often at parties and local dances in and around Greenville, Texas.

He worked with bluesman Smokey Hogg and later with Oscar Buddy Woods, who recorded for Vocalion around the same time as Turner recorded for the first time in April 1936. It was Woods that introduced Turner to the lap steel Hawaiian guitar and it is this instrument that Turner used to great effect on the six sides he made for Decca in February 1937.

No one is sure how he got his sobriquet but it would be fair to assume that it’s in recognition of his superb slide guitar playing. On Whiskey and Women he uses a bottle as a slide, as he does on the other Decca recordings that included the self-publicising Black Ace he did at the same session. Turner was popular around the Dallas Forth Worth area, appearing on radio and playing live until he was drafted early in World War 2.

After the war ended he gave up on music and worked in a variety of jobs including picking cotton. He was rediscovered in the 1960s and did record again and had a short-lived resurgence in his career before he passed away in 1972. The Black Ace is an example of how a really good musician could simply not quite make it for reasons that have nothing to do with talent. All too often bluesmen from the pre-war period had careers, or did not, as a matter of pure chance. 

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.

The Late, Great, Jimmy Rogers

“You better look back at The Best Of Muddy Waters with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers. That's where it all came from.” – Muddy Waters

From Ruleville, Mississippi, Jimmy Rogers was born in 1924 taught himself to play guitar while still a teenager. By 1941 he was living and playing in Chicago, he worked in clubs including Tom’s Tavern and the Purple Cat with Sunnyland Slim and then with Muddy Waters band in the late 1940s. He toured with Sonny Boy Williamson through the Southern States and worked with Howlin Wolf in Memphis before returning to Chicago to record with Muddy Waters in 1950. Jimmy Rogers at 25 years old had already paid his dues.

In 1950 his first record for Chess was That’s All Right which had Little Walter on harmonica and Muddy Waters on second guitar, backing bands don’t come any better! A string of fantastic records followed, some featuring Little Walter and others Muddy Waters as well as other frontline Chicago musicians including Otis Spann, Walter Horton and Willie Dixon

Roger’s biggest, and only Billboard chart hit, was Walking By Myself in early 1957. Featuring Walter Horton on harmonica it made No.14. As well as recording some quality singles of his own for Chess Jimmy’s guitar features on some of Muddy Water’s best records including Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy and Rock Me.

In the 1960s Jimmy Roger’s style went out of fashion and after quitting the business he did make a comeback in the 1970s, recording for Leon Russell’s Shelter Records and in 1977 with his old friend Muddy Waters. Jimmy Rogers, who passed away in 1997, is remembered for his great contribution to creating the quintessential ‘Chicago Sound’ – just listen to Chicago Bound to hear why.

“You didn’t go in there too often and make a number right away, you know — Leonard Chess would be turning it around there quite a while trying to get the best."– Jimmy Rogers