A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Mississippi Music Museum in Hazlehurst, MS with my friend and fellow retiree Michael. The museum, located at the town's old railroad depot, had actually been around for a while, but closed sometime in the last year or two and the depot was remodeled. It was reopened around the first of September. I had not been able to visit previously because it was not always open during the week and was closed on the weekends. The new hours for the museum are Wednesday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm.
If you're a blues fan living in the Jackson, MS area, or traveling I-55 toward New Orleans or Baton Rouge, this is a great stop. There are lots of cool displays that track not just the blues genre, but every other genre of music and it's really impressive when you see how many Mississippi natives were involved in the development of blues, rock n' roll, country, jazz, and gospel music. It's also the location for the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame as many award plaques are here and there's also a list of members to view.
A walk-through takes about an hour, and the museum is still a work in progress....we were told that there are other displays in the works. Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, so there are a couple of nice displays about him, as well as another local resident - Crystal Springs native Tommy Johnson. There are also a couple of guitars made by Super Chikan, plus a display of cigar box guitars and sections on Elvis Presley and Jimmie Rodgers. The museum is free admission, but donations are welcome. It's a great place for any music fan, but especially blues fans.
The museum also has a collection of used albums, cassettes, and CDs for sale that have been donated. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for checking out a bin of used CDs, so I had to thumb through them. I found two B.B. King CDs, one that I'd previously owned in cassette form and one that I'd never actually seen before. They were basically a steal, and in great condition, so I picked them up and wanted to share them with fellow blues fans in case you missed them....after all, he just turned 100.
The first one was a set I picked up in the late 80's on cassette. In the pre-internet days, I was wondering what would be a great B.B. King album to pick up. I had picked up a couple of his latter-day releases up to that point and they were not particularly memorable to me in that they didn't really sound like the B.B. King I had heard on TV on numerous shows. I saw Great Moments With B.B. King (MCA Records) at a record store and noticed it had a lot of music (23 tracks) at a very nice price, so I picked it up.
I was familiar with a few of the songs on the set, which was released originally in 1981.....probably about a third of them. There was also a mix of live and studio recordings, which was pretty cool. I found out much later that this was a compilation of some of King's "Great Moments" taken from some of his mid to late 60's recordings with ABC and BluesWay.
I have to agree with the "Great Moments" assessment because it's an excellent summation of B.B. King' musical career up until around 1970. That was actually a portion of his career that I was not as familiar with. The live tracks are particularly good, and you may remember some of them from other great King albums (such as Blues Is King), but it's a great capsule summary of B.B. King's music at a great period in his career.
The other CD I grabbed was a unique album in the B.B. King catalog. Spotlight on Lucille (Flair Records) was released in 1991, and it collects twelve instrumentals recorded between late 1960 and late 1961 with the focus completely on Lucille in a variety of settings. Four of the tracks had never been released prior to this collection and the other eight tracks had only been recently heard on the UK label Ace Records.
Lucille sounds fantastic on these tracks, which drift from downhome gritty blues to classy soul and jazz. I had never even heard of this release, not sure how it slipped through my fingers the first time around, but I'm glad I happened to run across it in this used CD collection. This is a great set to just plug into your stereo and just go about your day. Anytime you get a chance to put the spotlight on B.B. King's guitar is an opportunity you need to seize upon.
As
long as I've been listening to the blues, I've rarely listened to any
Tampa Red recordings. In retrospect, I'm kind of surprised that I
haven't. Granted, I've only recently gone back into the pre-war
recordings, and when I did, I focused on the Mississippi Delta
variety. I don't think I avoided him intentionally....his music just
didn't happen to fall in my particular choices.
Now
that doesn't mean that I wasn't familiar with Tampa Red....I've heard
his songs from numerous other blues artists over the years. It's
safe to say that nearly all blues fans are familiar with Tampa Red's
songs - "New Stranger Blues," "Black Angel Blues,"
"Crying Won't Help You," "It Hurts Me Too," "Love
Her With A Feeling," "Things 'Bout Coming My Way,"
"Anna Lou Blues," "Let Me Play WIth Your Poodle,"
and "Early In the Morning" were among his hits, and were
also recorded by many other blues artists. I just didn't realize
when I first heard them that they were written by Tampa Red.
I've
always been a huge fan of slide guitar, particularly the work of
Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters. Well,
Tampa Red was a major influence on all of these guitarists and many
more (B.B. King was a huge fan), and these artists' versions of Red's
songs might be the versions that you are familiar with. Upon
listening to Tampa Red, his influence made complete sense. I can
only imagine the impact his single-string slide guitar technique had
upon both artists and listeners when his first recordings hit the
streets in the late 20's, when it would have been considered a new
concept.
Tampa Red with Leroy Carr
Though
I hadn't listened to a lot of Tampa Red's music, I had read about
him...mainly because I wondered, given his body of work that has been
covered by so many blues stars who followed him, why he is not
mentioned as much as other blues pioneers. One of the things you
read about is that he sort of mixed genres, recording songs that were
considered to more pop songs or R&B songs or even hokum. Hokum
music is suggestive, or “dirty” blues, which were popular at the
time, but are sort of disregarded by some blues scholars as
lightweight these days.
Another
factor was his use of the kazoo, which he began incorporating into
his songs from the mid 30's onward. At the time, with the various
styles of music played in the pre-electric era, it made sense to Red
to use the kazoo, and it was popular to his listeners as well, but it
was often used in lieu of Red's amazing guitar work. Listeners at
the time were probably fine with it because, to them, it was fun and
entertaining, but for modern listeners, it can be somewhat jarring.
That
being said, listening to Tampa Red's sides, recorded from the late
20's through the mid 50's with only a couple of pauses in-between,
can be a rewarding experience and for blues fans, it's definitely
worth your time. The story of his life is interesting as well.
Tampa
Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia....the actual
date is a bit of a question mark because he gave varying dates from
1900 to 1908. The date usually recognized is January 8, 1904 because
that's what's listed on his death certificate. His parents died when
he was very young and he was moved to Tampa, Florida to live with an
aunt and grandmother, whose last name was Whittaker, so he adopted
their name, Hudson Whittaker.
Whittaker's
older brother played the guitar around the Tampa area, so he learned
a bit from him, but his primary inspiration was an old street
musician named Piccolo Pete, who taught him his first blues licks.
He had also heard Hawaiian guitar played and he learned to play it in
standard position instead of lap style, using a thumb pick to strike
the springs and a bottleneck, which helped him develop his unique
slide sound. He also learned from listening to recordings from many
of the female blues singers at the time.
Whittaker
started playing the vaudeville circuit in the 20's, eventually
settling in the Chicago area around 1925, where he adopted the “Tampa
Red” moniker referring to his childhood home and his light skin.
His playing style was a combination of his country blues roots and a
newer, more polished style that would work better in an urban setting
and his guitar work was a mix of Mississippi and Hawaii with his
precise bottleneck work which sounded like no one else at the time.
In
1928, Red found his ideal partner in “Georgia” Tom Dorsey, a
singer/piano man who eventually left the blues and became known as
the “Father of Gospel Music.” That career change for Dorsey was
several years down the road when the pair recorded “It's Tight Like
That” on Vocalion Records in late 1928. The hokum number was a
huge smash and eventually sold over seven million copies, which
launched Red and Dorsey's recording careers in a big way. He also
managed to insert some recordings that highlighted his guitar playing
along the way.
Red
also formed a Hokum Jug Band, a mix of guitars, piano, bass,
washboard, and jug players), but once Dorsey left and the novelty of
the hokum craze subsided, he formed Tampa Red's Hot Five, which
included clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone, and occasionally the
aforementioned kazoo (check out "Anna Lou Blues" below). The audiences apparently like the kazoo, it
was a fun sound, and Red must have liked it too, because it became a
regular part of his repertoire from 1936 onward.
The
mid 30's through early 40's were the period that generated most of
Red's greatest songs, such as “Black Angel Blues,” which became
“Sweet Black Angel” in B.B. King's hands. Another King, Freddy,
covered “Love With A Feeling,” while slide master Robert
Nighthawk transformed Red's “Anna Lou” into “Anna Lee”
(Nighthawk also covered “Sweet Black Angel”), and Elmore James,
another slide master, covered “It Hurts Me Too” and “New
Stranger Blues.”
Red
cut these sides during his tenure with RCA's Bluebird Records,
signing on with the label in 1934. His recordings were so successful
that he eventually was responsible for the overall sound of most of
the label's releases, dubbed “The Bluebird Beat.” He played on
his own sides and appeared on other Bluebird artists recordings as
well, notably Big Maceo Merriweather, Sonny Boy Williamson I, and
Memphis Minnie. He also began incorporating electric guitar into his
music as well. Other notable tracks from this period included “She
Wants To Sell My Monkey,” “Let Me Play With Your Poodle,” and
“Don't You Lie To Me.”
In
1947, Red moved from Bluebird to RCA's main label, Victor, where he
remained until 1953, recording new songs and reworking some of his
previous hits for a new audience, even moonlighting for a small
independent label, Sabre, using the name Jimmy Eager for several
tracks in the fall of 1953.
Red
enjoyed much success and prosperity during the 30's and 40's and his
house became a center for the blues community in Chicago. Many
musicians rehearsed there, set up their gigs, even stayed there when
making their way up north. His wife, Frances Whittaker helped him do
all of this, offering new arrivals a place to stay and a meal.
Sadly, she passed away in late 1953 and her loss devastated Red. He
became an alcoholic and developed mental problems, which curtailed
his music career and eventually left him destitute.
Red
recorded a couple of albums for Bluesville Records in 1960, in hopes
of capitalizing on the blues revival, the new interest in blues from
a white audience, but returned to obscurity soon afterward. His
mental problems worsened. Blues expert Jim O'Neal found him in 1974
on Chicago's South Side, living in poverty with an older lady serving as caregiver (who passed away
near the end of the same year), and he ended up in a nursing home,
where he died from a heart attack on March 19, 1981 in his late
seventies.
Tampa
Red recorded over 300 78's during his career, making him one of the
most prolific blues artists of his era. He only recorded two albums,
the two on Bluesville Records, but there have been numerous albums
released that collect his early sides and they're all worth
listening. My two choices cover most of his career from beginning to
end. It Hurts Me Too – The Essential Recordings, on Indigo
Records, covers the period from 1928 to 1942, and I'll Find My Way
– Hot Chicago Blues 1947 – 1953 takes in most of the rest of
his career.
Dear readers, it's time once again for Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. This makes our 23nd edition. For a long time, this was one of our favorite themes and it dates back to FBF's early days as a weekly email sent to co-workers. It serves as a great way to introduce new and old tunes to new and old blues fans.
For those unfamiliar with the format, we offer a song from the early days of the blues (Something Old), a song from a recent blues artist (Something New), a blues artist covering a rock song or vice versa (Something Borrowed), and finally, someone who epitomizes the blues.....usually a legendary artist (Something Blue). Here we go......
For Something Old, let's go way back to 1929, with one of T-Bone Walker's first recordings. Recorded for Columbia Records, "Trinity River Blues" was the B-side of his recording debut ("Wichita Falls Blues" was the A-side). The 19-year old Walker was billed as "Oak Cliff T-Bone" on this record, Oak Cliff being the community in Dallas where he lived and T-Bone was a variation of his middle name (Aaron Thibeaux Walker). Walker, playing acoustic guitar, is backed by Douglas Fernell on piano. The youngster had already been a working performer on the blues circuit since the age of 15. Of course, he went on to become one of the most influential blues guitarists and performers with incredible recordings in the 40's and 50's with Black & Blue Records, Imperial Records, and Atlantic Records.
For Something New, meet Kirk Fletcher, guitarist extraordinaire. Fletcher has been recording since the late 90's as a solo artist, but he also spent four years with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and also appeared on T-Bird front man Kim Wilson's album Smokin' Joint. he also collaborated with Charlie Musselwhite, the Mannish Boys, Joe Bonamassa, and many others (including an appearance on William Shatner's blues album in 2020). He returned to his own recordings around 2010. He also developed into a very good singer and his recordings show he's a fine guitarist who's not afraid to branch out from the blues, mixing in funk, soul, rock, and jazz. Fletcher recovered from a stroke he suffered a couple of years ago, but his latest release, the dynamic Keep On Pushing (on the VizzTone Label Group), shows that he's still a wonderful guitarist. FBF recommends that blues fans track down this excellent release as soon as you can.
For Something Borrowed, we go to K.C. Douglas, born in 1913 in Sharon, MS. He played around the Jackson, MS area in the early 40's with Tommy Johnson and others, but migrated to Vellejo, California in his late 20's to work in the navy shipyards and was soon playing the blues around the San Francisco/Oakland area. He was strongly influenced by Johnson, recording several of his songs when he had the opportunity. His first recording, in 1948 as the K.C. Douglas Trio, was "Mercury Boogie," which was later renamed "Mercury Blues." Most music fans have heard this song played in one genre or another....David Lindley recorded a great version in the early 80's on his El-Rayo-X album. Others recording it were Steve Miller, Ry Cooder, and Alan Jackson, whose version hit #2 on the country charts in 1992. Even today, the Ford Motor Company bought the rights to the song and used it in their TV spots. Douglas, sadly, didn't get to see much success of royalties in his lifetime...he passed away in October of 1975 at the age of 61.
Finally, for Something Blue, we salute the King of the Blues, who was born 100 years ago on September 16. There's not much that we can say about B.B. King that hasn't already been said. He was the first blues artist I ever heard and over the years, I've come to appreciate him more and more. His incredible, distinctive guitar work and his powerful, gospel-influence vocals have inspired countless musicians since his earliest days. Every blues fan should visit his museum at Indianola, MS (where he's also buried) if you make a trip to the Mississippi delta. It's well worth your time. Happy Heavenly Birthday to B.B. King and thank you for all the great music!
Around 25 years ago, I was visiting a record store in search of some inspiring new blues. The store that I visited was one that usually included a few surprises on the blues aisle....the manager was a blues fan himself and we had many conversations while I was in the store. On this particular visit, I ran across a CD from The Daddy Mack Blues Band called Fix It When I Can.
On the cover was this burly middle-aged guy sitting in a chair playing his guitar (the original cover). The back cover showed ten tracks and a picture of three musician around their cars. It was from a Memphis label (Inside Memphis/Inside Sounds via High Water Recording Company), and I'm always interested in the Memphis brand of blues, so I picked it up. When I was checking out, the manager just said, "You'll love that one. It's great!!"
It was great, a whole album's worth of gritty, gutbucket blues with a healthy dose of Memphis grease in the terrific rhythm section work. Daddy Mack was a strong vocalist and guitarist and he wrote eight of the ten tracks. It was familiar and fresh at the same time. I listened to it all the time for a long time and I still listen to it frequently, several of the tunes remain among my favorite blues tracks.
As I usually do when I hear a new (to me) artist, I dug into his background. I discovered that Daddy Mack was Mack Orr, born in Como, Mississippi in 1945. He spent his early years working in the cotton fields until he was 18. He grew up listening to many of the blues greats at the time like B.B. King, Albert King, and Little Milton. He hung out around the local juke joints around Como listening to whoever happened to be playing.
Eventually, Orr moved north to Memphis, got married and worked as a heavy machine operator until he opened his own business, Mack's Auto Repair, where he settled in as a mechanic and helped raise his four kids.
In his mid 40's, he heard Albert King's "I'll Play The Blues For You" on the radio and decided to start playing music himself. He went to a pawn shop after work one day and bought a guitar and amplifier on layaway and, determined to practice and make a name for himself, he was able to listen to the styles of his favorites and develop his own unique style that combined his favorites' sound with his own.
Several of those favorites played in Memphis' premier blues band at the time - the Fieldstones. Though there are only a couple of recordings by the Fieldstones, they are regarded as one of the best, if not the best, blues bands in Memphis......many of the city's best blues musicians played in the band at one time or another.
The Fieldstones at Green's Lounge (Eric Lindahl)
The Fieldstones played regularly at the South Memphis nightclub Green's Lounge and it was there, in the early 90's, that Fieldstones guitarist Earl "The Pearl" Banks invited Orr to play with the band. He soon became part of the Fieldstones family, and a few years later, he was invited to take over residency at Green's. At that time, Orr formed the Daddy Mack Blues Band with two Fieldstones vets - Harold Bonner on bass and James Bonner on guitar, with Wilroy "Wolf" Sanders Jr. on drums.
In 1999, the band released Fix It When I Can. By that time, William Faulkner had replaced Sanders as drummer. Later that year, the band played a party for the Rolling Stones at the Rendezvous, during the Stones tour stop in Memphis and Keith Richards and Ron Wood joined them onstage. The Daddy Mack Blues Band was drawing attention almost immediately from the right people.
Daddy Mack with a couple of rock n' rollers from Britain.
Before he started playing the blues, Orr had only visited four places - Wisconsin, Chicago, Kansas City, and Jackson, MS. The blues enabled him to travel all over the world. Despite the extensive travel, he still spent a lot of time in Memphis, playing locally on Beale Street and at the Center of Southern Folklore, plus he still worked on cars in his spare time.
The Daddy Mack Blues Band released seven other albums over the years. There was about a six year gap between his first and second releases, but the band released two albums in 2006, the first being Slow Ride, an interesting concept in which the group covered a number of blues rock classics from Foghat, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Santana, the Rolling Stones, and others (I remember reading, maybe in the liner notes, that Orr wasn't even familiar with most of the songs prior to recording them).
The second 2006 release was Bluestones, which added keyboardist Charlie Wood and was a great mix of originals and soul/soul blues covers. Subsequent releases included Bluesfinger (2010), Pay The Piper (2012), Blues Central (2014), and A Bluesman Looks At Seventy (2015). Over time, there were some personnel changes....the Bonner brothers remained stalwarts, but Faulkner passed away in 2011. He was replaced by Fast Eddie Lester (Brian Wells played drums on Pay The Piper).
Other major contributors on the music end and the songwriting end included Matt Isbell, Wally Ford, and Inside Sounds chief Eddie Dattel. Ford and Dattel had spent a lot of time with Orr and their songwriting captured the essence of the man as well as if Orr had written the songs himself. Of course, Orr and the Bonners continued to contribute songs as well. I bought each of these albums upon release and it amazed me that the quality of each subsequent release topped its predecessors. There are usually a few misfires on most blues artists’ albums from time to time, trying to do something new or different, but that was not the case with the Daddy Mack Blues Band. They knew what they did well and they did it
Around 2008, Dattel and Inside Sounds released a documentary about Orr's life, Plain Man Blues - Daddy Mack Orr's Inspiring Story of Struggle and Triumph. The DVD featured scenes of Orr visiting his hometown and remembering his working in the cotton fields and listening to the blues in the local clubs (now vacant lots), working in his garage, playing local clubs, and a deep dive into the recording process during the making of Bluestones. It was very enjoyable and certainly presented Orr in a positive light - as a man that everyone would want to meet and talk to.
After his 2015 release, I assumed that Daddy Mack was not going to record any more albums, really just basing it on the A Bluesman Looks At Seventy title more than anything. However, I heard via the internet that the Daddy Mack Blues Band had returned for a recording in late 2024, called Doctor's Orders.
Of course, it's difficult to find information on some releases now and that was the case with this album when I started looking, so I went to Inside Sounds website and managed to connect with Dattel. I ordered the new disc and a copy of the DVD, which I had been meaning to get for years. The new CD was very good and included songs from his longtime bandmates (the Bonners and Lester), songs from his current band (Charles and John Gage, drums and organ respective), plus contributions from Brad Isbell (guitar) and Andrew McNeil (drums) from Ghost Town Blues Band, Brad Webb (bass) and longtime contributor, harmonica player Billy Gibson.
The additional musicians give Doctor's Orders a slightly more modern feel, but most of them have been guesting on Orr's previous albums, so it's been a gradual move toward the contemporary. However, it doesn't diminish the power of Daddy Mack Orr by any means. That greasy, gutsy Memphis guitar is still present, as are Orr's good-natured vocals and that funky backbeat.
I can't describe how excited I was to see a new Daddy Mack Blues Band release hit the racks, especially one that's so good and includes so many other Memphis artists that I admire taking part. Doctor's Orders was just what the doctor ordered for this blues fan.
Sadly, this will be the last Daddy Mack Blues Band release. A couple of months ago, Orr was in the hospital with some issues for a few days, was discharged but had to return for some medication adjustments. He suffered a heart attack unexpectedly while in the hospital on June 16. He was 80 years old.
Despite the fact that he didn't pick up guitar until he was 45 years old, Daddy Mack Orr ended up being a Memphis mainstay for the next 35 years, as well as one of the best of the current blues scene worldwide. If you're not familiar with his music and you are a blues fan, I highly recommend any of his recordings. They are all excellent, downhome blues.
