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Post by rickS on Jan 27, 2008 21:17:49 GMT
I've always found Lemuel Turner's 2 slide pieces, 'Jake Bottle Blues' & 'Way Down Yonder Blues' to be quite extraordinary & haunting, both for tone & technique, but can't find out anything about him; anyone know anything? Lot of sustain on his guitar, but it doesn't sound particularly resophonic, to my ears..
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Post by Michael Messer on Jan 29, 2008 10:04:07 GMT
Hi Rick,
I don't know any more than you about Lemuel Turner. I have read something recently in a Hawaiian guitar history, but not much is known.
I love his playing - those two sides are amazing. Especially Jake Bottle Blues.
Shine On,
Michael
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Post by rickS on Jan 29, 2008 17:19:59 GMT
Hi Michael, thanks for replying - I guess maybe our Mr Turner gets overlooked thru scarcity of output (assuming these are the only two tracks he recorded? Seem to be the only ones that ever crop up); not that minimal output is any indicator of quality - Blind Willie Walker only made 3 sides, but what a talent! I dare say there could be an interesting & lengthy thread about artists who should have recorded more..
be well,
Rick
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Post by blueshome on Jan 29, 2008 22:53:00 GMT
RickS If you go over to www.weeniecampbell.com and register you can do a search and find a discussion on this very topic. |
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Post by basilh on Feb 3, 2008 23:37:44 GMT
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Post by rickS on Feb 4, 2008 9:02:59 GMT
thanx gents - Basil, very interesting article, much obliged..
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Post by Michael Messer on Feb 4, 2008 10:26:14 GMT
We still don't know any more about Lemuel Turner.
Shine On,
Michael
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Post by basilh on Feb 4, 2008 11:58:10 GMT
I thought the paragraph :-
The white southerner Lemuel Turner recorded four steel-guitar instrumentals in Memphis in February 1928, including “Way Down Yonder Blues” (which Evans describes as being “[close] to typical black ‘bottleneck’ style”) and “Jake Bottle Blues”.16 The latter title refers to Jamaican Ginger Extract (“Jake”), a patent medicine containing 75-90% alcohol used as a booze substitute by low-income, working-class southerners during Prohibition until two amateur chemists/bootleggers began adulterating the extract with a paralysis-causing plasticizer. Turner recorded “Jake Bottle Blues” nearly two full years before the paralysis epidemic hit (in early 1930), so—presumably—the tune refers only to the intoxicating (and addictive?) qualities of the extract (and was perhaps recorded—one might hypothesize—using a Jamaican Ginger bottle as a slide?).17
ENDNOTES
16 Evans 618.
17 Cecil Munsey, “Paralysis In a Bottle (The ‘Jake Walk’ Story),” Bottles and Extras Winter 2006:
7-12.
and the reference end notes provided SOME information not previously well know..?
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Post by Michael Messer on Feb 4, 2008 12:14:06 GMT
Hi Basil,
That information about Mr Turner is of interest, but has been floating around for years and doesn't really tell us much about who he was. We don't know anything about his life or music, other than those four sides that he is reputed to have recorded. I have only ever heard the two recordings 'Way Down Yonder' & 'Jake Bottle'.
Rick - have you heard the other sides he recorded?
Thanks,
Shine On,
Michael
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Post by rickS on Feb 4, 2008 14:52:23 GMT
Alas, no Michael - wish I could, it's clear from these 2 tunes he was a pretty unique & formidable talent & knew what he was doing with a slide...so, the mystery continues..
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