The Rise and Fall of Paramount - Volume 2, part 2 - our fifth tranche

With our final tranche - coming next - we will have the whole collection of 1600 tracks.

How do we deal with such a random avalanche of unknown treasures?

iTunes works for me – I can order and search by title, by year, or by artist as I choose.  My fondness for Big Bill Broonzy means he was one of the first whose Paramount sides were played in my kitchen.  And I could listen to them vaguely in the order they were recorded and convince myself I was studying an artist’s development. I was curious also about Perry Bradford – the hustler and producer behind Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” and the birth of the race-records industry.  So I checked out his Jazz Phools.  Harry Smith’s anthology had introduced me to the charm of Dock Boggs, so I was happy to find a couple of other titles here.

Other than this purposeful strategy, I have simply resorted to good old lucky dip, and here are a few nuggets that the randomness of iTunes’ “shuffle” control brought to my attention:

Two tracks from The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham turned up at Chitlins already (one on “Great Gospel - People Get Ready”, the other on CD4 of “Goodbye Babylon”). And there are eight more tracks here on Paramount from 1931.  "Clanka-A-Lanka (Sleep on Mother)" has become a favourite.

Blind Blake is a constant wonder.  He recorded "Sun to Sun" in November 1931, but modern ears had no chance to hear it until a copy was found in a North Carolina steamer trunk by the collector Marshall Wyatt in 2007.  It’s included here alongside 42 others.

Geeshie Wiley’s "Last Kind Words Blues" features on some other collections also, and I have always dug it.  There are a three other sides on Rise and Fall: two from 1931 are with Elvie Thomas.  Check this out while we’re at it: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/13/magazine/blues.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=3

Slim Barton & Eddie Mapp – I’d never heard of ‘em, either. Guitar and harmonica duo making music for dancing and drinking (on very bad shellac), their "Wicked Treatin’ Blues" is full of sadness and despair.

Rube Lacy is another unknown to me, but then as far as anyone can tell he only recorded “Ham Hound Crave” and “Mississippi Jail House Groan”. 

There are two Ollies I stumbled into – Ollie Powers and
Ollie Hess – and the latter’s "Mammy’s Lullaby" charmed and disarmed me. 

Just one track from a pianist called George Hamilton - "Chimes Blues" – but it’s a delight; Brother Fullbosom’s "A Sermon on a Silver Dollar" was my introduction to an unexpected genre of preaching; Elder J.J. Hadley on parts 1 & 2 of “Prayer of Death“ is really Charlie Patton. 

Part 2 of Volume 2 - our fifth and penultimate tranche of Paramount

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