Kokomo Arnold

[Deleted]

Good one Phil
Can I ask what guitar and slide / hardware you are using?
TT

[blueshome]

The piano was played by the late Pete "Sonny" Nash. Pete had great feel for the blues and had played with many of the major US guys touring here.

The guitar is a German Silver Fine Resophonic Triplate tuned to open D, capoed up if I remember. Nickel MM strings and a glass bottleneck.

[Michael Messer]

Sounding great Phil.


......and now back to KA himself



A Real Bootlegger.....
Born James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, on February 15, 1901, Kokomo Arnold received his nickname in 1934 after releasing Old Original Kokomo Blues for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the "Kokomo" brand of coffee. A left-handed slide-guitarist, his intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style set him apart from his contemporaries. Having learned the basics of the guitar from his cousin John Wiggs, Kokomo Arnold began playing in the early 1920s as a sideline while he worked as a farmhand in Buffalo, New York, and as a steelworker in Pittsburgh. In 1929 he moved to Chicago and set up a bootlegging business, an activity he continued throughout Prohibition. In 1930 Kokomo Arnold moved south briefly, and made his first recordings, Rainy Night Blues and Paddlin' Blues, under the name Gitfiddle Jim for the Victor label in Memphis, Tennessee. Kokomo Arnold soon moved back to the bootlegging center of Chicago, though he was forced to make as living as a musician after the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution ending Prohibition in 1933. From his first recording for Decca on 10 September 1934 until his last on 12 May 1938, Arnold made eighty-eight sides, seven of which remain lost. Along with Peetie Wheatstraw and Amos Eaton, he was a dominant figure in Chicago blues circles. His major influence upon modern music is, along with Peetie Wheatstraw, upon the seminal Delta blues artist Robert Johnson, a musical contemporary. Robert Johnson turned Old Original Kokomo Blues into Sweet Home Chicago, while another Kokomo Arnold song, Milk Cow Blues, became Milkcow Blues Boogie, performed by Elvis Presley. In 1938 Kokomo Arnold left the music business and began to work in a Chicago factory. Rediscovered by blues researchers in 1962, he showed no enthusiasm for returning to music to take advantage of the new explosion of interest in the blues among young white audiences. On November 8, 1968, Kokomo Arnold died of a heart attack in Chicago at the age of sixty-seven, and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois



Shine On
Michael

[Michael Messer]

....Picking up on this thread a year later......

I have recently been back into studying Kokomo Arnold's playing, and putting a lot of time into copying his runs and style.

I 'think' I am now convinced he played guitar in the regular Spanish position and that he 'never' played lap style. I know this is the opposite to what I said a year ago, but with recent study I can only replicate and get close to playing his tunes in regular Spanish position. I am now fairly sure of this because apart from flying up to the 15th and 16th frets for occasional licks, he doesn't go beyond the 12th fret with the slide. I am now also fairly sure that the fretted-sounding chords and turnarounds are played with the fingers and not with the slide.

I do not see the Spanish tuned pieces any different to the Vastapol tuned pieces, they are both approached in the same way and both use a limited, but very effective small palette of licks. The licks definitely fall into tune families and all the G tuned (Spanish tuning) songs use the same licks, even the folky ones that Blueshome mentioned. For example - Mister Charlie, Salty Dog, I'll Be Up Someday, all use exactly the same runs and patterns, but just accented differently. Salty Dog also uses a different chord progression, but still uses the same lead licks as in the blues songs.

The Vastapol (Open D tuning) songs fall into two or three groups where in each group of songs the same palette of licks are re-used and slightly changed to fit the song. This appears to be determined by the tempo of the song. For example, the turnaround in one song becomes a fill between vocals in another song.

His playing was unbelievably fast and accurate and while I do believe I am getting closer to understanding his playing, I still have a few very important unanswered questions that we can only ever guess at the answers. Did he play a right handed guitar upside down? >Well I still believe there is a distinct possibility that he did. It would account for many aspects of his playing style that are so unique and 'off the wall'. For example ...The incredibly loud, powerful and fast lead runs accompanied by such weird rhythm patterns, and the fact that many of his strums across the strings are from high to low. There are other aspects of his playing that could be upside down guitar, for example the 'crashing' of the slide against the B string when he plays fast, is one consideration. The other thing that is currently puzzling me is whether he fingerpicked all his tunes, or whether he used some kind of plectrum/flat pick? I don't think he flatpicked, but there are moments where it really does sound as if it is played in that way.

None of these thoughts are cast in stone, but in recent weeks I have put MANY hours into studying Kokomo Arnold's playing style.

......to be continued.....

Shine On
Michael

[profscratchy]

I agree he's playing upright guitar in both open G and D. Whether he played 'upside down' left handed or whether he strung the guitar for a left handed player is hard to tell. Also whether he used finger picks or a flat pick plus fingers is not easy to tell from the recordings. One thing is certain, it is very hard to replicate the tone he produced with the slide. Is there a photo of him anywhere, holding a guitar? Where does the information come from that he played left-handed?

[Michael Messer]

The fact that Kokomo played left-handed is the only aspect of his playing that is mentioned in many articles. Paul Oliver, among others, met KA and interviewed him, but sadly because Paul is more of a historian than a muso, he never discussed the guitar playing beyond 'where did you learn and who from...'

I do think you can hear that he is not using bare fingers or fingernails. It would not be easy to create the power and speed of the licks in ....for example...The Twelves, Back To The Woods, Feels So Good, without picks or a flatpick. There are moments where you can hear the sound of a steel pick (flatpick or fingerpick).

I will be stringing a guitar upside down sometime soon, to see if I can make any sense of that theory......

Shine On
Michael.

[blueshome]

Allan, I think we mentioned earlier that there is a facsimile of a poster for a KA gig in Chicago from the late 30's/early40's showing a drawing of him playing a Style O left handed. It's a good likeness and likely based on a photo I think.

I cannot see how he could have achieved the speed, power and clarity he did without picks of some kind.

[profscratchy]

Have never seen the poster drawing, but would like to. My guess would be that he used picks. He certainly didn't use bare fingers to produce that tone. Pity there aren't more attempts at his playing on youtube.

[Michael Messer]

The only person that I know of who ever got close to playing in Kokomo Arnold's inimitable style, was Sam Mitchell. Not the obvious song that everyone mentions when this subject is discussed, Paddlin Madeline, recorded in the 1970s, in which Sam actually plays a different melody to KA's. But on Sam's last record, Resonating, on Taxim Records, he plays a self-penned song called 'Monkey In The Head' in which he quite clearly demonstrates the point I am making. While rhythmically it sits very much in Sam's own style (and so it should as it is his own song), but the slide playing and approach to the song, are very close in character to Kokomo Arnold's style.

Shine On
Michael

[Quarterquay]

Wow! I just listened to Kokomo Arnold for the first time!
There's a whole lot of technical stuff in this particular thread that I cannot even begin to understand so can anyone simplify for me what it is about his playing,amazing as it is that tells you that he is left handed? Can you tell from simply listening to him play, and if so what gives it away? Or is it that he is cited as being a left-handed player from historical accounts.Or both,ie does something about his playing verify the original account/accounts?

I have a passing interest,as I'm left handed (although I play right-handed) but it's not unknown for historical figures to be mislabeled as left-handed when they were in fact right-handed. Billy the Kid was one such, Picasso another. Both actually right-handed. . There's only one (as far as we know) undisputed photograph of Billy the Kid taken in 1880,copies abound showing him as left handed but the original which didn't surface for a long time was a tintype or ferrotype and tintypes are reversed as part of the process. It made him look like a southpaw!
A single photograph is not conclusive evidence of handed-ness as such on it's own hence my question as to what is it that gives him away as a lefty?

Michael, you say this ,-' Secondly, that by playing upside down he is using his thumb and first finger to play melody and his other fingers to play the rhythms, and that could account for two things >(1) his extraordinary flailing abstract rhythm style which is hard to define, and (2) his amazing power and clarity on the top strings and his runs across the strings from high to low when playing melody.
Is that essentially the give away? Forgive my ignorance, I just don't have the ears or experience to tell myself.

Are there first hand accounts of him playing left-handed too?
Either way I'm blown away by his playing,and his singing come to that.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Quarterquay,

Since my last post on the subject of Kokomo Arnold, I have made some advances in 'decoding' how he played.

We will never know for sure because there are no photos or recollections by people who saw him play, so all of this is basically guesswork.

As with all learning, there are periods of frustration and confusion, and there are breakthroughs that suddenly open everything up. Well after many hours, days, weeks, months....and years of studying Kokomo Arnold's playing, earlier this year in June I had a breakthrough moment where all my blood, sweat and tears became worthwhile and much of KA's playing opened up in front my eyes like watching a film. I am still not convinced about which way up he played the guitar, but I am now able to listen to his music and get a pretty close copy coming from my guitar. The one missing link is still the flailing rhythm approach and extraordinarily powerful melody notes, but as I cannot play a guitar upside down I don't think I can get past that problem. So while I can get pretty close, there is still an area of rhythmic approach that I am not able to copy.

Kokomo Arnold was one of the greatest slide guitarists and solo blues performers ever and nobody can convince me that he was not accurate, controlled, musical and very calculated about his playing and singing. His ability to pick fast melodic runs on the treble strings and play wild flailing house rockin' rhythms on the bass strings, is in my opinion....unsurpassed.

Like so many artists of his time, he was over-recorded and you have to sift through the many volumes of his work to find the essence of his music.

Shine On
Michael.

[Quarterquay]

Those moments when study pays off like that and you get a break through and everything suddenly comes together are priceless whatever the discipline,be it music or visual arts or crafts or writing say. There's almost always blood sweat and tears involved with the occasional lucky break thrown in if you're lucky! Those Ah ha! Moments!

Michael, is there any particular collection of Kokomo Arnold's recordings that you'd recommend to put on a list of ' "must get hold ofs" ?

[Michael Messer]

Hi Quarterquay,

The problem with the compilation albums that I know of, is that each one misses out chunks of really good stuff. The best of the compilations that I know of is the one Catfish records released in 1997 called 'Old Original Kokomo Blues'. In addition to that you could get the Yazoo Records 'Kokomo Arnold & Casey Bill Weldon - Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters of the 1930s', and that would set you up pretty well. Or....you could go to Document Records and just get the complete works of Kokomo Arnold, which I think is on 4 CDs.

Have fun,

Shine On
Michael.

[Quarterquay]

Thanks Michael, much appreciated! I'll go and investigate...

[blueshome1]

Since we started this discussion some 10 years ago, a photo of Kokomo has emerged with him playing a wooden guitar. He is holding it upright and appears to be fingering a 1st position G chord if in Vasterpol. Also he is wearing a tube or bottleneck of his pinky with it projecting well clear of the finger end, must be jammed on. I believe this answers some of the questions we raised all those years ago.