Jesse Belvin - The Blues Balladeer

  Jesse Lorenzo Belvin was born on 15 December 1932, in Texarkana, Texas. When he was five, his family moved to Los Angeles. In 1950, he joined the vocal quartet behind saxophonist Big Jay McNeely, Three Dots and a Dash. Two years later he joined Specialty Records. His fourth record, "Dream Girl," by Jesse & Marvin (Marvin Phillips, saxophone) reached #2 on the R&B charts in 1953. Belvin was then drafted into the army. While on leave he wrote "Earth Angel," which became a hit for The Penguins, selling a million copies in 1954-55.

Throughout the following years, Belvin would switch record labels several times and record under a variety of names. His biggest hit was "Goodnight My Love", which reached #7 on the R&B chart. The song was, for years, the closing theme for Alan Freed's rock & roll radio show.

 In 1958 Belvin recorded "You Cheated" with The Shields. The record reached #15 on the US pop charts. Inspired by his manager (and wife), Jo Ann, he signed with RCA Records in 1959, and scored a Top 40 hit with "Guess Who." Belvin acquired the nickname "Mr. Easy", and RCA began making him into a potential crossover star for white audiences, similar to Nat "King" Cole or Sam Cooke.

In 1960, Belvin was set to release Mr. Easy, on which he covered songs like "Blues in the Night", "In the Still of the Night", and "Makin' Whoopee." Belvin would never see its release.

On 6 February 1960, Belvin performed a show in Little Rock, Arkansas on the same bill as Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Marv Johnson. The show was Little Rock's first with an integrated audience; Belvin reportedly received at least six death threats prior to the concert. Belvin rarely called home from the road, and never more than once a month. But he phoned his mother twice in the three days preceeding the concert, each time worried about the hostile receptions he received. The show had to be stopped twice because of whites shouting racial slurs and urging the white teenagers present to leave. It was while leaving Little Rock (less than four hours after the performances) that Belvin and his wife were involved in a head-on automobile crash.

Jesse Belvin and his driver both died at the scene. Belvin was 27. Jo Ann Belvin succumbed to her injuries at Hope Hospital; she was 23. According to Fuller Up: The Dead Musician Directory, one of the first state troopers on the accident scene stated that both of the rear tires on Belvin's black Cadillac had been "obviously tampered with." No other details were offered. The scorched earth on the highway at the accident site in Hope is supposedly still visible.

The Soul Stirrers with R.H. Harris - Shine on Me

Within the realm of Soul and Gospel, Rebert Harris occupies a position slightly analogous to Louis Armstrong in Jazz. Not quite as huge because while Pops wrote the language that Everyone used in both solos and singing, Harris is responsible for creating the archetype that Men sing by for many years after in both Gospel and later Soul. The Women's side had already been pioneered by Mahalia Jackson and Rosetta Tharpe but Rebert was the first man to show them how to solo.

  The Soul Stirrers are an American gospel music group, whose career spans over eighty years. The group was a pioneer in the development of the quartet style of gospel, and a major influence of soul music, doo wop, and motown sound, some of the secular music that owed much to gospel.

The group was formed by Roy Crain, who had launched his first quartet, which sang in a jubilee style, in 1926 in Trinity, Texas. In the early 1930s, after Crain moved to Houston, he joined an existing group on the condition that it change its name to "the Soul Stirrers." The name "Soul Stirrers" yields from the description of one of Roy Crain's earlier quartets as "soul-stirring". Among the members of that group was R. H. Harris, who soon became its musical leader. The Soul Stirrers formed as a Jubilee quartet, transformed their sound, influenced by many hard gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Rebert Harris, also from Trinity, Texas, brought several changes to the Soul Stirrers that affected gospel quartet singing generally. He used a falsetto style that had its antecedents in African music, but which was new to the popular jubilee singing style of the time. He pioneered the "swing lead", in which two singers would share the job of leading the song, allowing virtuoso singers to increase the emotional intensity of the song as the lead passed between them without disturbing the four part harmony. That innovation led the Soul Stirrers, while still called a quartet, to acquire five members; later groups would have as many as seven but still consider themselves "quartets", which referred more to their style than their number.

The Soul Stirrers made other important changes in those years: ad-libbing lyrics, singing in delayed time, and repeating words in the background as both a rhythmic and emotional support for the lead singers. The Soul Stirrers along with other quartet performers, dropped the "flatfooted" style of jubilee quartets before them and expanded their repertoire from spirituals and traditional hymns to the newer gospel compositions. The group also loosened the rigid arrangements that jubilee quartets had favored to permit individual singers within the group more space for individual development.

In 1936 Alan Lomax recorded the Soul Stirrers for the Library of Congress's American music project under the Aladdin Record label. They later moved to Chicago, where they broadcast a weekly radio show (WIND) with other famous groups including Golden Gate Quartet, and The Famous Blue Jay Singers. As the gospel quartet style of singing became more popular, groups would perform in competitions called "song battles" to further increase the genre's popularity.

As World War II began, it became more difficult for many gospel quartet groups to make a living. This resulted in many quartets making a living by doing "live performances at churches, schools and neighborhood centers," (Rubin). Despite the economic situation, throughout the 40's and leading into the 50's, many gospel quartet groups were able to pursue their careers successfully. The Soul Stirrer's nationwide touring gained them an even larger audience, as they delivered the emotional fervor that popular jubilee groups, such as The Golden Gate Quartet, did not.

The Soul Stirrers signed with Specialty Records, where they recorded a number of tracks, including "By and By" and "In that Awful Hour". Harris, the most popular member of the group, soon quit, however, in order to form a new group. He was briefly replaced on lead by Paul Foster, then by the unknown Sam Cooke.

Guitar Slim - Sufferin' Mind

"Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues guitarist, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records, "The Things That I Used to Do". It is a song that is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Slim had a major impact on rock and roll and experimented with distorted overtones on the electric guitar a full decade before Jimi Hendrix.

Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States. His mother died when he was five, and his grandmother raised him, as he spent his teen years in the cotton fields. He spent his free time at the local juke joints and started sitting in as a singer or dancer; he was good enough to be nicknamed "Limber Leg."

After returning from World War II military service, he started playing clubs around New Orleans, Louisiana. Bandleader Willie D. Warren introduced him to the guitar, and he was particularly influenced by T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. About 1950 he adopted the stage name 'Guitar Slim' and started becoming known for his wild stage act. He wore bright-colored suits and dyed his hair to match them, had an assistant follow him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between amplifier and guitar, and would occasionally get up on his assistant's shoulders, or even take his guitar outside the club and bring traffic to a stop. His sound was just as unusual — he was playing with distorted guitar more than a decade before rock guitarists did the same, and his gospel-influenced vocals were easily identifiable.

Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used to Do" (1953) featured an early example of an electric guitar solo with distorted overtones. His first recording session was in 1947, and he had a minor rhythm and blues hit in 1952 with "Feelin' Sad", which Ray Charles covered. His biggest success was "The Things That I Used to Do" (1954). The song, produced by a young Ray Charles, was released on Art Rupe's Specialty Records label. The song spent weeks at number one on the R&B charts and sold over a million copies, soon becoming a blues standard. It also contributed to the development of soul music.

He recorded on a few labels, including Imperial, Bullet, Specialty, and Atco. The recordings made in 1954 and 1955 for Specialty are his best.

His career having faded, Guitar Slim became an alcoholic, and then died of pneumonia in New York City at age 32. Guitar Slim is buried in a small cemetery in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where his manager, Hosea Hill, resided."

Sister Wynona Carr - Dragnet For Jesus

It is Easter Sunday and once again the organ swells in the background signifyin' another Gospel Sunday here on the Chitlin Circuit.

"Wynona Carr (August 23, 1924 – May 12, 1976) was an African-American gospel, R&B and rock and roll singer-songwriter, who recorded as Sister Wynona Carr when performing gospel material.

Wynona Merceris Carr was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where she started out as a gospel singer, forming her own five-piece group The Carr Singers around 1945 and touring the Cleveland/Detroit area. Being tipped by The Pilgrim Travelers, who shared a bill with Carr in the late 1940s, Art Rupe signed her to his Specialty label, giving Carr her new stage name "Sister" Wynona Carr (modelled after pioneering gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and cutting some twenty sides with her from 1949 to 1954, including a couple of duets with Specialty's biggest gospel star at the time, Brother Joe May."

As complete a bio-page as you could want can be found HERE.

Art Neville - The Specialty Recordings

As a founding member of the Meters and Neville Brothers, New Orleans vocalist and keyboardist Art Neville helped immeasurably to shape the contemporary New Orleans funk sound. Neville's first band, the Hawketts, tasted local success in 1954 with the carnival perennial "Mardi Gras Mambo" on Chess. He cut some nice solo singles for Specialty during the late '50s, notably "Cha Dooky-Doo," as well as contributing two choruses of storming piano to Jerry Byrne's 1958 classic "Lights Out." "All These Things," a gentle ballad, also did well locally in 1962 on the Instant logo. He assembled the Meters in the mid-'60s and the instrumental quartet proved the Crescent City's answer to the MG's until their 1977 breakup. That's when Art and his siblings formed the Neville Brothers, who went on to reign as the leading musical export from New Orleans.
AMG

The Soul Stirrers - Heaven Is My Home

A second July rerun this morning...

Just as the Highway Q.C.'s (the minor league club) turned to Johnnie Taylor as their sound alike replacement for Sam Cooke, so The Soul Stirrers (the major league club) were forced to make the same choice when Cooke left for secular music. Taylor later continued to walk the same path when he left the Stirrers for a secular career as a bad boy soul singer.

The first 7 tracks here with just Paul Foster singing leads clearly demonstrate why I used the term 'forced to'; while Foster is a perfectly competent singer, the group lacks the excitement of the Cooke years. Taylor rekindles that feel with an almost eerie imitation of Cooke that restores the two lead feeling of the earlier group.

Wynona Carr - Jump Jack Jump!

...Not having too much success on the charts (except for "The Ball Game" (1952), which became one of Specialty's best selling gospel records and most recently featured in the movie 42), Carr grew increasingly unhappy with the straight gospel direction of her career and pleaded with Rupe to let her record "pops, jumps, ballads, and semi-blues". Rupe relented and from 1955 to 1959 Carr recorded two dozen rock & roll and R&B sides for Specialty, which, like her gospel songs, she mostly wrote herself. Despite scoring an R&B hit with "Should I Ever Love Again?" in 1957, overall the change from spiritual to secular music didn't help Carr much in terms of sales or recognition. Unfortunately she also contracted tuberculosis around this time, which kept her from doing the necessary promotional work and touring for two years, effectively ending her tenure with Specialty in the summer of 1959.

In 1961 Carr signed with Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records and released an unsuccessful pop album. She moved back to Cleveland, sinking into obscurity and suffering from declining health and depression; she died there in 1976.

Jimmy Liggins - Specialty Records

Part two of this important pair from Guitar Gus.

wiki "Jimmy Liggins (October 14, 1922 – July 18, 1983) was an American R&B guitarist and bandleader. Liggins was born in Newby, Oklahoma, United States. He started out as a professional boxer at age 18 under the name of Kid Zulu, then he quit boxing and took up driving his brother Joe's outfit around on tour. Following the success of his brother, Jimmy Liggins started his own recording career as a singer, guitarist, and leader of the 'Drops of Joy', on Art Rupe's Specialty label in 1947. One of his early releases, "Cadillac Boogie" was a direct forerunner of "Rocket 88", itself often called the first rock and roll record.

Recordings such as "Tear Drop Blues" (1948) and, later, "I Ain't Drunk" (1953), featuring leading saxophone players such as Maxwell Davis, made him one of the most successful bandleaders in the jump blues period of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Liggins left Specialty in 1954, recording "I Ain't Drunk" (1954), later covered by Albert Collins, at Aladdin, before fading from the scene. His wild stage presence and manic delivery also had a direct and lasting impact on Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Elvis Presley.

Liggins died in July 1983, at the age of 60, in Durham, North Carolina."

Joe Liggins - Specialty Records

The first of a pair from Guitar Gus, let's go back to the early days of R&B with a look at the Liggins brothers; first up is older brother Joe.


wiki "Joe Liggins (July 9, 1915 – July 26, 1987) was an American R&B, jazz and blues pianist, who was the frontman in the 1940s and 1950s with the band, Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers.

His band was often a staple on the US Billboard R&B chart in those years, with their biggest hit being "The Honeydripper", released in 1945. That single topped the R&B chart, then called the race chart, for 18 weeks. More than 60 years later, "The Honeydripper" remains tied with Louis Jordan's "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" for the longest-ever stay at the top of that chart. It logged a reported two million sales.

Liggins was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, United States, and moved to San Diego, California in 1932. By the time he moved again, to Los Angeles in 1939, he began playing with various groups, including Sammy Franklin's California Rhythm Rascals. When Liggins asked him to record his song "The Honeydripper", Franklin declined, prompting Liggins to start his own band, which created many more hits in the next years, including "Got a Right to Cry" and the widely covered songs, "Tanya" and "Roll 'Em". Earl Hooker is noted for his cover of "Tanya". The original Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers recordings were issued on the Exclusive Records imprint of brothers Leon and Otis Rene. Joe Liggins' Honeydrippers was formed in the basement of the Los Angeles home of the saxophonist Little Willie Jackson, who co-founded the group and who, at the time of his death in 2000, was the last original surviving member of the Honeydrippers.

In March 1954, the band took part in a benefit show held at the Club 5-4 in Los Angeles for the wife of Stan Getz.

Joe joined his brother Jimmy at Specialty Records in 1950, where he gained more hits including: "Rag Mop", "Boom-Chick-A-Boogie", "Pink Champagne", and "Little Joe's Boogie". His songs were mostly a blend of jump blues and basic R&B. With Roy Milton, he was an architect of the small-band jump blues of the first post-war decade. Liggins often toured with such acts as Jimmy Witherspoon, Amos Milburn and the jump blues shouter H-Bomb Ferguson. His 1950 releases, "Pink Champagne" and "I Gotta Right to Cry," both sold over one million copies and were awarded gold discs.

Although Liggins' success stopped in the late 1950s, he led a big band until his death following a stroke, in Lynwood, California, at the age of 72."

Blues From Dolphin's of Hollywood

"The legendary John Dolphin, also known as Lovin’ John, was one of the first and most well respected, black business man who made his way in the music business of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s. An independent record label owner and R&B producer, his contributions to the formative years of Rock & Roll are often overlooked. A minimogul who had almost every facet of the record business covered, was taking storm of this segregated town and bringing people of all colors together through music.

Dolphin first entered the music business as a retailer where in 1948, when he opened Dolphin’s of Hollywood, a record store on Vernon Avenue that would stay open 24 hours a day to cater to the

late-shift workforce. The store featured deejays broadcasting on the local station of KRKD, in front of the huge, glass window Mr. Dolphin had installed on the face of the store so that people on the outside could see in. Some of the most popular deejays found a home for their art in front of this window, playing for late night crowds of Blacks, Whites, and Latinos alike, who would dance and party together well after dark, until the cops came in and shut the parties down.

Party time began with DJ Ray Robinson, followed by DJ Hunter Hancock, and Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg. John would have the deejays play records from his own label, but more than that, he would introduce brilliant recordings also from other record labels and artists whom had not previously received proper publicity. By this technique, John made Billboard hits of many recordings that had been nearly shelved by everyone else. A few of these hits include “Earth Angel” by The Penguins and “Dream Girl” by Jessie Belvin.

Dolphin’s of Hollywood, located in the South Central/Watts area of Los Angeles, on East Vernon Ave, near the corner of Central Ave., was given this name because Mr. John Dolphin initially wanted to open his store in Hollywood. However, Blacks were not allowed to own and operate businesses in Hollywood in the 1940s. So, John Dolphin thought up the next best thing, he would call his South Central store Dolphin’s of Hollywood. This was how he brought Hollywood to the hood and this record shop would soon become the most famous record shop in America, but also, its radio show on KRKD became the most popular black radio show in America. In fact, recording artists from all over would

appear at the store and perform live-on-air interviews, while greeting and signing autographs for the customers. These well-known artists included Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Little Richard, James Brown “the Godfather of Soul”, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Ike and Tina Turner, Fifth Dimension, Solomon Burke just to name a few. Open 24 hours a day, even on Sundays, customers could come at all hours of the day and capitalize on the “Buy One Get One Free” special, while hundreds would dance the Saturday nights away in front of the store, to the deejay’s tunes.

John Dolphin not only brought Hollywood to the hood, but he also brought fame to many underserved, talented, black artists whom had been hidden behind the facade of Crossover music. This Crossover Music concept was essentially taking music originally recorded by African Americans and having white artists re-record it, as during this time, most black music was considered taboo and hard to sell to the masses. So John, hiring one of the most famous white deejay of the time, DJ Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg, drew white teenagers and young adults to Dolphin’s of Hollywood in ever increasing numbers. And these crowds would buy black music, learning the lyrics and tunes, and share them with their friends; bringing fame to musicians whose music had previously been stolen from them without regard.

In 1950, John Dolphin mounted his own label, Recorded In Hollywood, with the motto: “We’ll record you today and have you a hit tonight,” inaugurated by jazz pianist Erroll Garner’s “Lotus Blue.” The imprint scored its first major hit with its sophomore release by R&B singer Percy Mayfield. The song was called “Two Years of Torture” and was followed by the “Dream Girl” record of Jesse Belvin and the “Jacquet Blows the Blues” record of tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet. In mid-1951, Dolphin cut a licensing deal with King Records. This resulted in nearly two-dozen Recorded in Hollywood recordings earning national release on King’s Federal imprint. In 1953, John Dolphin introduced Little Caesar’s “The River”, a record later banned for fear its emotional intensity might have led listeners to contemplate suicide. So in 1954, Lovin’ John sold Recorded in Hollywood and its catalog to Decca, soon after founding a new label: Lucky Records. This new venture proved short-lived, releasing only nine singles, including efforts from the Hollywood Flames, Joe Houston, and Jimmy Wright.

Later on, a pair of additional labels, Money and Cash, soon took Lucky’s place. Money was the more successful of the two, notching local smashes including Ernie Freeman’s “Jivin’ Around,” Johnny Fuller’s “Mean Old World,” and Don Julian & the Meadowlarks’ “The Jerk”, which sold about 2 million records and topped the billboard Pop and R&B charts at #1 in the U.S. and also went on to become a #1 hit in Great Britain.

Now, the commercial impact of most of the records released under Mr. Dolphin’s labels had been nearly impossible to gauge, as he would bypass distributors, delivering boxes of records directly to the front doors of rival retailers. The philosophy he established with his artist was that they should never sell their publishing rights, for the one who owns an artist’s publishing rights owns the artist. When an artist gives up their publishing rights in exchange for a cash advance, the result is that the music publisher then has the ability to exploit an artist’s music however they chose, in exchange for money, which the artist will see little or none of. So this is why John was so adamant about his artists retaining their rights. He felt that black artists had been exploited long enough, so this was his attempt to stop the cycle in its tracks.

After an influential ten years in the music business, on February 2, 1958, Percy Ivy, a disgruntled songwriter whom had recorded with John, went to John Dolphin’s Hollywood office to demand money for his un-noteworthy recordings. John made these recordings as a favor to Ivy but had no intention of ever using any of them. His generosity should have been enough for Percy and no money should have been owed. However, Ivy thought otherwise. With a gun in his pocket and demands on his mind, Percy shot John Dolphin dead behind the desk of his office. Two young people, future session drummer Sandy Nelson and later-day Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston; both of whom traveled to South Central in the hopes of enticing John with their songs, witnessed the murder. This was a devastating day for all those who would come to know and later remember Lovin’ John. After the untimely death of Mr. Dolphin, Dolphin’s of Hollywood was run by Dolphin’s assistant, Rudy Ray Moore, also known as Dolemite, along with John’s widow, Ruth Dolphin. Ruth would later reactivate Money Records, which served as a springboard for the great soul chanteuse Bettye Swann and her 1967 smash hit single, “Make Me Yours” which became a #1 Billboard hit for Money Record."

Percy Mayfield - The Specialty Years

I am pretty much forced to move these forward when I refresh the links just to get enough action on them to make it worth the trouble.

 It has taken me quite awhile to assemble this piece as the information that is out there is sparse, often contradictory, and just as often outright wrong. The most common errors that I've found were elements of the story out of place on the actual discography timeline and thus conclusions are drawn that prove false when the actual sequence of events is considered. Even the liner notes to both of these releases had glaring errors. I have resolved the elements as much as I can against the timeline from the Blues Discography and articles sourced from Minden, LA, but I have been forced to speculate in several areas where more detailed information is needed. Personal memoirs from both Mayfield and Rupe would go a long way to making it possible to tell this story properly.

Percy Mayfield (August 12, 1920 – August 11, 1984) Mayfield was born in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.

Mayfield grew up in the piney forest area of northwest Louisiana near Shreveport. He must have had exceptional gifts from the start because here was a young black man in the 1930's, in an area not known for it's progressive views on race, who is actually recognized as having genuine poetry writing talent and so is encouraged to become a professional songwriter.

Songwriting usually leads to singing as it is awfully hard to sell someone on a song until they hear it, so after high school Percy heads to Houston to start a music career whilst taking odd jobs to keep food in his stomach and a roof over his head. Like many a southern black man during the war years he finds his way to Los Angeles for work in 1942, continuing to take odd jobs while gigging with what ever band he could while also trying to shop his songs to whomever would listen.

During this era of balancing day jobs and music, Mayfield manages to get 4 sides cut up in Oakland at Gru-V-Tone in 1947 (publishing date is 48, likely recorded in 47) including the powerful "Two Years of Torture". It is likely that it is with that record in hand as a demo that he approaches Supreme Records about using the song as a vehicle for Jimmy Witherspoon. The deciders at Supreme like Percy's demo enough that they have him record the song instead, it is released in 1949. It is at that Supreme session that Mayfield begins a fruitful relationship with saxophone player and arranger Maxwell Davis, the architect of the West Coast Blues sound.

'Torture' sells consistently in southern markets for an extended period of time thus attracting the attention of Art Rupe of Specialty Records who signs Mayfield in 1950, reuniting him in the studio with Maxwell Davis. Rupe releases "Please Send Me Someone To Love" in the fall of 1950 to explosive success. The personal and social lament captures the conscious of Korean War America, reaching number 1 on the R&B charts. That same session produced "Strange Things Happening", "Life Is Suicide", and "Praying for Your Return". Two more sessions before the close of 1950 produce 5 more singles (out of 8 possible!) and in early 1951 "Two Years of Torture" is leased and re-released on both Swing Time and King, doing even better this time as it rides the coattails of the first Specialty releases. Percy is on his way at the relatively late age of 29.


Although his vocal style was certainly influenced by Charles Brown, Cecil Gant and the other L.A. Club Blues singers, Mayfield never pursued the white market, much like Bobby Bland he seemed content to be an R&B success. Percy remained true to his bleak fatalist songs and the keen intelligence and penetrating insight of his lyrics. His languid baritone was perfectly suited to his writing but he could perk it up and give some Nat Cole swing to a more up-beat song when it was needed.

Mayfield likely spent the rest of 1950 and the first half of 1951 touring the bars and theaters of the chitlin circuit in support of his opening salvo at Specialty. He quickly became a major female draw with his tortured, emotional songs and matinee idol good looks. Personal appearances were heavily attended by dewy-eyed young ladies but the working parents dug him too. Within the 'race market' Percy is the new, younger, deeper alternative to Wynonie Harris as a chick magnet.

The caption here is even in error as the song mentioned was recorded in 1954

In July of 1951 Rupe finally gets Mayfield and Davis back into the studio for a double session which produces 5 new singles: "Cry Baby", "Nappin' the Nickles (Hopeless)", "I Dare You Baby", the magnificent "Lost Mind" and "How Deep is the Well". One must assume that another torrid round of promotion and touring follows because Mayfield does not return to the studio until January of 1952, but then the magic continues  with "The Hunt is On", "The Big Question", "My Heart" and "The River's Invitation". A March 1952 session adds "Lonesome Highway", "Wasted Dream", and a subtle indicator that the pace may be getting to Percy with his wistful remembrance of home in "Louisiana".

Throughout 1952 Mayfield is riding high, each new single release adds to his success and popularity, every release is his own song so he is getting the big money too and now other artists are beginning to cover his songs, thus fulfilling his original dream of being a successful songwriter and providing an independent stream of income. The future is so bright he must need shades; he even has a successful European tour, he is relatively young, still pretty, and he is getting rich, and then....

In September of 1952 Percy is involved in a horrific auto accident while returning home to L.A. after a show in Las Vegas. Mayfield is critically injured, his face disfigured and his skull cracked and mashed out of shape. Miraculously he lives without brain injury or even much noticeable effect on his singing or diction. Most sources refer here to a long (he may have been unconscious as much as a month) period of recuperation which is certainly what one would expect after so horrible a trauma. (Reports that Mayfield returned to Minden, Louisiana during this period are incorrect.) The period of recuperation, however, is no where near what one would expect  and somehow Mayfield is back in the studio within 5 months of the accident; still penning phenomenal tunes and sounding essentially the same vocally as before the accident, perhaps a scosh deeper in tone.


One of the tracks laid down in that first session back clearly speaks to the trauma of his accident and recovery, his immortal "Memory Pain". A second session follows in April of 1953 with 3 more singles including 'Get Way Back', 'Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye', 'Advice (for Men Only)' and a second version of 'Memory Pain'.

Understandably Mayfield was reluctant to tour or do promotional appearances, the psychological damage of his disfigurement had to be every bit as devastating as the physical damage, particularly given the previous circumstances of his life, but I have yet to read a single author who even discusses it! It is generally stated that his subsequent touring was drastically curtailed after the accident, but we will see that even that is not entirely true either.


Somehow by September of 1953, one year after the accident, Percy found the courage to agree to a short tour in support of the records, culminating in a holiday show in Los Angeles. One can only guess what sort of toll it must have cost the once matinee idol handsome man, his face now mashed and twisted nearly Quasimodo like, to appear in public and sing each night. The strength and courage it must have taken is unimaginable.

In 1954 Mayfield enters the last 17 months of his Specialty contract, at least to some point at odds

Perrcy and the Maytones

with owner Art Rupe and his business model for how the industry works. Percy keeps what would seem to most of us a busy schedule of appearances from Texas to L.A. and up the West Coast but admittedly nothing near the schedule of before the accident. Rupe only sent him into the studio two more times and the last six months of the contract elapse without a session. Rupe is reportedly beginning to lose interest in the record industry around this time, and has some pressures of his own that are leading to some poor choices. (It was around the same time that he fired Sam Cooke and Bumps Blackwell abruptly and allowed them to leave with what turned out to be Sam's first secular hits) For his own part Percy is clearly depressed and drinking heavily, so his behavior may well have become erratic.

The March 1954 session is uncommonly sparse for Percy but it yields an incongruous duet with Joy Hamilton called "Sugar Mama, Peachy Papa" that is somewhat bizarre, and the eerie and magnificent "You Don't Exist No More". The final October session produces "You Were Lying To Me", "My Heart Is Crying", "Baby Your Rich" and his final Specialty triumph, "The Voice Within". Mayfield's contract expires in May of 1955 with no additional recordings.

Given the paucity of decent songwriting talent in relation to the swelling number of artists in the mid-50's it is hard to fathom how it did not occur to Rupe to retain Mayfield in some sort of in-house role. Perhaps the personal relationship had become too complicated by this time. The two maintain a correspondence, at least in part around the mailing of royalty checks and periodically Mayfield sends Rupe new songs that he allows the singer to record in hopes of generating some new money or landing a new contract. 1 and 2 track sessions show up later in the discography in 1956, 57 and 60.

Once he is contractually free in May of 1955, Mayfield shops himself around for a new label and makes a somewhat puzzling choice in Chess Records; puzzling both from his point of view and the label's since Chess had demonstrated no ability whatsoever to deal with anything other than their own style of Chicago Blues. Their only success in the Club Blues area was Lowell Fulson whose success was predicated on staying away from Leonard Chess and Willie Dixon and literally mailing in his finished sessions from Los Angeles. Percy likely only considered the financial aspects at the time. It isn't clear exactly how many sides he laid down for Chess, but only one 45 'Are You Out There/Double Dealing' gets released and the year-long contract expired with nothing more to show.

Through the remainder of the 50's Mayfield gradually slips further and further into obscurity, punctuated by the occasional unsuccessful singles coming out on various independents like Cash and Imperial. It is during this time (circa 1955) that he finally acts on the wistful longing for home expressed in  1952's 'Louisiana' and he builds himself a house repleat with home studio in Minden. Sadly the return to his roots doesn't go so well, old friends and family don't warm up to the long absent, returning native son and neither does the local constabulary. Mayfield is unhappy in Minden, he is busted on pot charges and otherwise harassed. Around this time (1959) that Percy pens a heartbreaking letter to Rupe begging both financial help and help with getting a recording session because he is "too ugly to tour". Rupe sends Percy some money and arranges a session even though he is nearly through with the business and is busy becoming an oil man. Mayfield eventually moves back to Los Angeles in early 1961 bearing at least two important souvenirs of his failed attempt to go home...'Stranger In My Home Town' and  'Hit The Road Jack', a song that would jump start his life and his career.

Clifton Chenier - Bayou Blues

Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 - December 12, 1987), a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983.  He also was recognized with a National Heritage Fellowship, and in 1989 was inducted posthumously into the Blues Hall of Fame.  He was known as the 'King of Zydeco'.



Chenier began his recording career in 1954, when he signed with Elko Records and released Clifton's Blues, a regional success. His first hit record was soon followed by "Ay 'Tite Fille (Hey, Little Girl)" (a cover of Professor Longhair's song).  This received some mainstream success. With the Zydeco Ramblers, Chenier toured extensively. He also toured in the early days with Clarence Garlow, billed as the 'Two Crazy Frenchmen'.  Chenier was signed with Chess Records in Chicago, followed by the Arhoolie label.

In April 1966, Chenier appeared at the Berkeley Blues Festival on the University of California campus and was subsequently described by Ralph J. Gleason, Jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, as "... one of the most surprising musicians I have heard in some time, with a marvelously moving style of playing the accordion .. blues accordion, that's right, blues accordion."

Chenier was the first act to play at Antone's, a blues club on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. Later in 1976, he reached a national audience when he appeared on the premiere season of the PBS music program Austin City Limits. Three years later in 1979 he returned to the show with his Red Hot Louisiana Band.

Chenier's popularity peaked in the 1980s, and he was recognized with a Grammy Award in 1983 for his album I'm Here.  It was the first Grammy for his new label Alligator Records. Chenier followed Queen Ida as the second Louisiana Creole to win a Grammy.

Chenier is credited with redesigning the wood and crimped tin washboard into the frottoir, an instrument that would easily hang from the shoulders. Cleveland Chenier, Clifton's older brother, also played in the Red Hot Louisiana Band. He found popularity for his ability to manipulate the distinctive sound of the frottoir by rubbing several bottle openers (held in each hand) along its ridges.

During their prime, Chenier and his band traveled throughout the world.

___________________________________________________________

Bayou Blues compiles a selection of 12 tracks Clifton Chenier cut for Specialty Records in 1955, including the original versions of "Boppin' the Rock," "Eh, Petite Fille," "I'm On My Way" and "Zodico Stomp." It may not be a definitive retrospective, but it's an entertaining and necessary sampler of Chenier at the beginning of his career.  - Thom Owens/AMG

Here is where the Chenier legend began. This disc contains the 12 Bumps Blackwell-produced tracks Clifton cut in 1955 in Los Angeles for Specialty Records. On tracks like "The Cat's Dreamin'" or his first hit single, "Ay 'Tète Fey" ( which is the Cajun-French form of its better-known title, "Eh, Petite Fille" meaning "Hey, Little Girl" ), Chenier's amalgam of blues, R&B, and rock & roll mixed with traditional French dance tunes is still rough but already has the power and drive that he (and his accordion) would later hone to a fine edge. Instrumental greats and mainstays of Chenier's early road bands like tenor saxman Lionel Prevost and guitarist Lonesome Sundown add their considerable talents to these sessions. The starting point for any comprehensive Chenier collection. ~ Robert Baird

The Swan Silvertones - Heavenly Light

Another good morning on this fine Sunday! The music here has special impact because 10 of these tracks are clearly recorded In Church as opposed to in a studio - the crowd participation adds a whole extra level of magic.

"The Swan Silvertones were an American gospel music group that achieved popularity in the 1940s and 1950s while led by Claude Jeter. Jeter formed the group in 1938 as the "Four Harmony Kings" while he was working as a coal miner in West Virginia. The group changed its name to the "Silvertone Singers" after moving to Knoxville, Tennessee and obtaining their own radio show in order to avoid confusion with another group known as the "Four Kings of Harmony." They added the name Swan shortly thereafter, since Swan Bakeries sponsored their show. Their wide exposure through radio brought them a contract with King Records.

At that point the Silvertones represented an amalgam of two styles: the close barbershop harmonies that they had featured when starting out in West Virginia and virtuoso leads supplied by Jeter and Solomon Womack. The group later lost Womack, but added Paul Owens in 1952 and Louis Johnson in 1955. The three singers with their sharply contrasting styles — Jeter a tenor who could sing falsetto without losing his lyric control, Owens a crooner, and Johnson a hard shouter — played off each other to great effect in songs such as "Mary Don't You Weep."

The group recorded for Specialty Records from 1951 to 1955, when it switched to Vee-Jay Records. They recorded one album with Hob Records after Vee-Jay shut down in 1965, at which point Jeter left the group for the ministry.

When interviewed by Dick Cavet in April 1970, Paul Simon credited the group with inspiring him to write the music for Bridge Over Troubled Water.

The Swan Silvertones were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.

In January 2011, the Swan Silvertones were nominated for The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Gospel category for Need More Love."

"The Swan Silvertones only recorded for Specialty Records from 1952 until 1955, and it's generally not considered a prime period in their tenure. But this set of newly released performances from the early '50s, most of which even the label lacks information about, show that they did turn in some top-flight outings during that period. Ten of the tracks were done live before hollering, celebrating audiences that weren't attending a concert, but participating in a spiritual renewal. The other eight are studio numbers, but they contain the same intensity and spark that make this a memorable Swan Silvertones document."

Sam Cooke - The Complete Specialty Recordings, vols 1-3

Good Morning! Time for some music for The Lord.

Some may wonder why Sam hasn't shown up on the Soul side of things yet; well because a) this is where Sam first comes to stardom and b) It is quite likely that Cooke is at least as influential in his gospel years as he was as a secular artist.

Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He later added an "e" onto the end of his name, though the reason for this is disputed. He was one of eight children of Annie Mae and the Reverend Charles Cook, a Baptist minister. The family moved North to Chicago in 1933 like so many black families from the Deep South  during the Great Depression.

Rev Cook landed a pulpit position at Christ Temple Church in Chicago Heights. His southern-style preaching was one attraction, but the vocal harmonies of his musical offspring also became a draw. Five of the eight were talented vocalists, and the family began performing as a religious act, Rev. Cook and His Singing Children. Sam began his career singing gospel with his siblings in the group.

Young Sam grew to idolize and emulate the Soul Stirrers' tenor, R.H. Harris, whose three-octave range and startling falsetto made him a gospel star. By the time he enrolled at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago, Sam Cooke had been singing professionally with his family for nearly ten years. He and four other teenagers formed a gospel quintet, the Highway QCs. The group covered most of the Soul Stirrers' repertoire, with Sam copying R.H. Harris' vocal gymnastics.

During high school, serendipity had placed Cook in regular contact with R.B. Robinson, a baritone with the Soul Stirrers who had moved to Chicago. Robinson was a relative of one of the QCs, and he began attending their rehearsals when he wasn't touring, acting as coach and polishing the act.

 In 1950, R.H. Harris decided to leave the Soul Stirrers and strike out as a solo act. The group auditioned several replacement tenors before taking R.B. Robinson's advice and inviting in Sam Cooke. At 19, he was nearly a full generation younger than the others in the group, but Sam fit right in as a singer — in part because he already knew most of Harris' vocal lines. The Soul Stirrers hired young Cooke, outfitted him with five new suits, and went on the road just days later. He sang with the busy group for six years, performing more than 1,000 concerts coast to coast and making dozens of records.

 Under Cooke's leadership, the group signed with Specialty Records and recorded the hits "Peace in the Valley", "How Far Am I From Canaan?", "Jesus Paid the Debt", and "One More River", among many other gospel songs some of which he wrote himself. Cooke was often credited for bringing the attention of gospel music to a younger crowd of listeners, mainly girls who would rush to the stage when the Soul Stirrers hit the stage just to get a glimpse of Cooke.

 The fatal flaw that would, at least in some part, lead to Sam's eventual death becomes clear during this time, by age 22 he is already juggling 3 pregnant girlfriends, two in Chicago and one in Cleveland. After all three girls give birth within a span of 5 weeks, Sam gets married...to another woman entirely!

This set has multiple versions of songs so you may enjoy it most on random shuffle. I've changed my mind on splitting this up across 3 weeks and I've added the other two volumes to the post links. see the notes.

Little Richard

Like most of you I have heard the constant 'line' that Little Richard (Richard Penniman) was an early R&B original, the architect of Rock n Roll, and such. The wiki bio echos that take. I have a somewhat different view.

I've been going through the Blues discography and the 8 disk Specialty set and the fact of the matter is that while he is recorded as early as 1951, all the singles prior to his first New Orleans session in September of 1955 are best described as forgettable! Until that first New Orleans session there is nothing that anyone would even bother archiving today where it not for that latter material. To take it a step further, looking forward through the sessions he has 3 more Los Angeles sessions in 1955 that produce nothing of any note then in February thru August 1956 he is back in New Orleans and a large chunk of his best hits are cut at J&M. Yet another lack-luster L.A. session is followed by a pair of N.O. sessions that produce six more singles. So from September 1955 to October 1956 Richard has nine New Orleans sessions resulting in 30 singles plus around 25 or 30 extra takes. During the same period 5 Los Angeles sessions result in 5 singles (0 hits) and a slew of rejects. In 1957 sessions in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles manage to produce 6 more singles with 'Keep a Knockin' (a composite of 4 takes in Wash.)  being the first quality tune he had ever produced outside of New Orleans!

Subsequent to that 1955-1956 golden era in New Orleans, Little Richard doesn't really do much other than to play those same songs endlessly for the next 7 years.  To be fair there is a mid 60's run with some new decent tunes but they correspond to the time he is reunited with the New Orleans guys who have come to L.A.! The rest of his career is spent re-doing his own hits and covering hits of others like Fats Domino and Elvis whilst self promoting himself into Architect of Rock n Roll he is widely considered to be today.

So what happened in New Orleans that worked so well for Richard? How did he leave here a star with giant hair, eye makeup and lipstick (he only had the hair when he got here) and a schtick and piano style that would carry him more than 50 years when he seemingly came here without much going for him? The obvious first answer is Cosimo Matassa, Earl Palmer and the J&M gang who play on all those records, producer Bumps Blackwell get some credit too but a less obvious answer lies in three young gay artists who were his friends while he was here, Esquerita (S.Q. Reeder, he didn't adopt the stage name until 1958) , James Booker and Bobby Marchan. 

Richard and Reeder met cruising for sex in a Macon, GA bus terminal and while I've never seen any documentation that Richard brought Reeder here with him, the fact is he shows up here around the same time and stays until 1963. Reeder taught Richard his piano style, and he and Marchan,( the singer for The Clowns who was also a female impersonator on Bourbon Street), likely influenced Richard on the makeup as well. Youngest of the group was was James Booker (18 or 19 at the time) who was 3 times the piano player of any of them, had been a pro since 12, and couldn't help but teach them all something.

My friend John Parsons, Booker's ex manager, has told me stories that James told him of the four of them cruising Canal street in Richard's new white convertible Cadillac, looking outrageous and hunting for action. (There was certainly no where else in the Deep South, or damn near anywhere else at that time that they could have survived such behavior. New Orleans has always shown great tolerance towards gays even when the rest of the country did not.) The stunning thing to me is that the 'public' seems to have clue that these guys are gay! When seen thru the 'gay-dar' educated eyes of one who has lived most of his life in New Orleans and San Francisco that seems incredible, but folks in the 40's and 50's saw what they wanted to see. My friend Cliff confirms that in his experience of his uber conservative Dad allowing him to see Richard in the late 50's in Chicago, something he would have forbidden had there been any thought of any singer being a homosexual.

There is another obvious important influence on both Richard and Esquerita who predates both by nearly a decade and who was well known to both of them. His name was Billy Wright. In fact Richard began his career openly imitating Billy Wright and Wright apparently used his influence in getting Penniman his first recording sessions at RCA. When I show the pictures of this guy, you won't believe it! He had the hair going in 1948!

So was at the end of the day was Little Richard really all that original, was he all that important? As to original, I'd have to say not really, almost everything about him is borrowed, but important, well clearly yes since he is the one whom everyone remembers and credits. He was the guy who was there in the right place at the right time and while his catalog of 'significant' material is surprisingly small, when it is good, it is really good.

This collection gives you the meat of the Specialty hits (I might have included a couple of the more obscure New Orleans tunes if it were me), some the best from the mid 60's Vee Jay sessions (I Don't Know What You Got is really quite good) and some of his covers of other folks hits. It is quite listenable and really about all the Little Richard one needs. (imo)