August 2009

Thanks to Mississippi Records, there’s been a renewed interest in George Washington Phillips. And while that imprint’s retrospective on the singer is surely depleted to the point where Ebay might be the only place to cop What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?, a few other collections exist in greater numbers. None carry such a cover as the Mississippi disc, but Yazoo released Key to the Kingdom isn’t too shabby. The one oddity – apart from Phillips himself – is the fact that tacked on to the end of this performer’s sixteen tracks are four stray shots of blues from Mamie and A.C. Forehand. Read more

Growing up with his brother, Barbecue Bob (bka Robert Hicks) got into music to pas the time, but eventually ran into Savannah "Dip" Weaver and her son from whom they learned guitar. It’s not an inauspicious beginning, but it’s also not too dissimilar from a vast many other stories floating around about blues players. After obtaining a decent songbook from playing around other folks, Barbecue Bob eventually pursued work in an Atlanta suburb where he was a chef – you guessed it – at a BBQ joint. It wasn’t the beginning or the end of Bob’s day jobs, but it would eventually serve as a good way by which to market the performer. Read more

Performers are necessitated to find a shtick that separates them from the field. Some choose to adapt some public persona that, while detached from reality, eventually becomes reality in more than just a few ways. Early on in the development of the blues, performers were given over to concocting stories as to how they attained a musical acumen unmatched by others. Most frequently, it seems to have come as a result of making a deal with the devil. Peetie Wheatstraw is generally considered one of the first bluesmen to make use of the tale, but if he wasn’t, Tommy Johnson might be a good candidate for that tag. Read more