mississipi john hurt + skip james

[Deleted]

I was talking to a very good blues player last night who recounted a story he'd heard from someone in the know that the aforementioned two, when on the same bill, would often do yodeling backstage. He doesn't think anyone would have recorded it. They both liked doing stuff other than blues at times apparently.
He also said that skip james would go into a studio and ask to record stuff other than blues material (unsure if he said 'pop songs'), but was basically told to just get on and do what he was best known doing.
Any meat for these pub-talk bones?
Cheers
TT

[Deleted]

I thought it was pretty well known that the classic blues men and women had pretty wide ranging repertoires when gigging...

[Deleted]

Yes, but is the two of them yodeling, with no recordings of it run of the mill?
And being told 'just record blues' is a shame too.
TT

[Deleted]

I don't see much value (other than sentimental) in a recording of Skip James singing "it's a wonderful world" as done by Louis Armstrong. It would diminish their legacy in my mind.... We always have the "Muddy Waters Twist" if you want crossover...

[Deleted]

I'd agree that mr james singing that might not be great, but someone of his talent should be able to produce something well worth recording and hearing in other styles. There's plenty of artists who have reacted strongly because record companies direct them away from what they want to do - its not a good thing at all IMO. As per a previous thread, my thoughts are that his voice became more soul-like in later years - perhaps he could have done a great funk / soul record, but wasn't allowed to.
I don't know about you, but blues is one of a number of genres of music I'm into. Who knows, I might even get into yodeling...
TT

[Michael Messer]

Jimmie Rodgers 'The Blue Yodeler' - 'The Singing Brakeman' was a big star in the 20s and 30s and his music would have definitely been part of both Skip James and Miss' John Hurt's lives. I don't think they would have been aware of Swiss yodelling, but certainly Jimmie's. It sounds perfectly reasonable to me that they could have been overheard singing Jimmie Rodgers songs and yodelling.

I have been around quite a few olde-time blues musicians and all of them listened to other music, especially what was known then as country & western. The Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast on a Saturday night, especially in the South, was a big BIG thing. I have heard first-hand from somebody who stayed with Muddy Waters at his home in Chicago, that he loved country music.

What we call 'blues' and what old time African-Americans called 'blues' are different. Time has put a whole pile of African-American 'race' music into the pot that we call 'the blues'. They would have called their songs...Hoedowns, Dance Tunes, Breakdowns, Blues.... etc.

While it is true that record companies like artists to stay in the genre that sells well, Skip's recorded repertoire in the early 30s was not all blues. I'm So Glad, for example, is not a blues.

It's a big subject!

Shine On
Michael

[slide496]

Here's a couple of examples of Jimmy Rogers.

[Michael Messer]

I love Jimmie's music. I used to listen to his records a lot. He covered all American styles of the time and recorded with the greats of those different styles. Blues, jazz, country, Hawaiian, all kinds of music

Shine On
Michael

[Deleted]

The breadth of the music coming from the black community in the USA was quite wide and way beyond the blues.. By simply looking at the tunes that the Stones and Beatles covered, it was getting deep into Motown and Stax, and soul. But it was the blues numbers from the core of great blues artists that had the raw elements that made it predominant.

[izzydunne]

Blues and old school country music sprang from the same source: poor and often rural blacks and whites living in the South. It is a music of hardship, despair, and sometimes hope for a better day.

Jimmy Rogers once said that: "Country music is the white man's blues" ,and he lived in an era where blues and country music enjoyed cross influences.

[AlanB]

I'm rather "off topic" with this but for the record Tony Russell authored a trail breaking Blacks Whites And Blues (Studio Vista, Blues Paperbacks 1970) - one in a series of 12 blues topics. For many years it was the book on subject.

Attached is a scan of Russell's foreword - click on image to zoom.

Attachments:

[rickS]

In terms of crossover, isn't it thought that Tommy Johnson's falsetto 'near-yodels' were likely derived from the likes of Rodgers? I know that we tend to compartmentalise the different genres today, but it's interesting to speculate whether eg Charlie Patton's 'Some of These Days' was maybe pinched from Sophie Tucker!? & the Mississippi Sheiks were known for playing anything & everything..

[slide496]

Feb 8, 2016 10:58:23 GMT rickS said:

In terms of crossover, isn't it thought that Tommy Johnson's falsetto 'near-yodels' were likely derived from the likes of Rodgers? I know that we tend to compartmentalise the different genres today, but it's interesting to speculate whether eg Charlie Patton's 'Some of These Days' was maybe pinched from Sophie Tucker!? & the Mississippi Sheiks were known for playing anything & everything..

I've read that as well about Tommy Johnson being influenced by Rogers, and The Mississippi Sheiks did a "Yodelling Fiddling Blues" Scott Dunbar did Jimmy Roger's "Blue Yodel":

[Michael Messer]

Jimmie Rodgers was a very important musician. He was a big star and his records went all over the world.

As well as many Americans being influenced by him, he also sold records in West Africa. My friend, the late S.E.Rogie, from Sierra Leone (known as the King of Palm Wine Guitar) told me that he and friends loved Jimmie Rodgers records. Rogie was so taken with the sound that he wrote and recorded a few Rodgers style songs.

This is a live recording of a very beautiful song.... his introduction tells it all



....and this is the original recording from the 1960s.



We used spend quite a bit of time together and as well as Jimmie Rodgers, Rogie loved and played a bit of Hawaiian steel guitar. Oops I'm wandering off topic....

Shine On
Michael

[Brad Bechtel]

My friend Barry Mazor wrote a great book about Jimmie Rodgers - "Meeting Jimmie Rodgers: How America's Original Roots Music Hero Changed the Pop Sounds of a Century":

www.amazon.com/Meeting-Jimmie-Rodgers-Americas-Original/dp/0199891869

Here's a National Public Radio story about "chemirocha":

www.npr.org/2015/06/28/417462792/in-a-kenyan-village-a-65-year-old-recording-comes-home

I think it's entirely possible that Messrs Hurt and James could be found yodeling backstage. It would have been interesting to hear that.