I love whistling. Even though I’m unable to whistle in a proper manner (i suck in, rather than blow out) I lover the sound of a proper whistle. It doesn’t seem that whistling was all that popular int pre-war blues music, although country and jazz music of the era featured whistling promtely. It seems when the moment arises to whistle in blues music the kazoo is always pulled out - and I mean I love the kazoo - Tampa Red’s especially, it’s no substitute for the whistle.

Marie Grinter published three songs for Okeh in her recording career and is unknown for good reason - she wasn’t spectacular, although I place the blame on her backing musicians rather than her voice, because while unrefined it’s better a lot of female blues singers who recorded 20 or 30 sides. This song, M.C. Blues features a great whistling chorus, though you know your career isn’t going to take off when the get the name of your signature song wrong (it should be M.G. Blues). She used whistling on another song East and West blues recored in the same session, it’s not nearly as good as M.C. Blues , but I’ve included it for thematic sake.

Marie Grinter - East and West Blues (1926)
Marie Grinter - M.C. Blues (1926)

I moved the logo over to the left side of the page last night, hopefully that will help those with lower resolution monitors - and those with higher resolution monitors get a nice wave of bees. We’ll mess around with color shades with the type tonight and see if we can get to a more readable shade for everyone.

Fannie May Goosby has stolen my heart. I don’t normally go for the higher, dramatic voices. She nails it. She’s sweet and succinct and doesn’t drag her vaudeville career into many of her recorded songs (and the few vaudeville style duets she did do aren’t so bad either). Fannie also wrote most of her own songs, a rarity in female blues and they show her to be a clever and smart writer along with her solid singing its a shame she did not become as popular as Lucille Bogan who was recorded at the same session in Atlanta in 1923.

Fannie May Goosby - All Alone Blues (1923)
Fannie May Goosby - Stormy Night Blues (1928)

Big thanks! to Jeff for solving the blues mystery - you guys are the best readers a boy could hope for. If anyone else has a song mystery on their hands - send it into pkpatnaik at prewarblues.org and the bees will jump right on it.

Virginia Liston was a well traveled singer by the time she recorded these sides for Okeh in the early 20s. Liston had fallen ill and forced to stop touring as much and so she started to record pretty standard female blues numbers, though I doubt these were the same songs she was singing in New York and Chicago blues bars at the time. She does bring an intersting perspective to these songs though, she’s not docile or angry - but consistently blue. The first track here, You Thought I Was Blind But Now I See, she keeps her temper and stands up strong to her man, in this well written third person narrative. The second track presented today is a pretty rough transfer, but it’s so so blue. Liston has given up on men - she prefers to be alone - and if IF she’s with a man, it’s just for money and show. Right On Virginia.

Virginia Liston - You Thought I Was Blind But Now I See (1923)
Virginia Liston - I Don’t Love Nobody (1924)

Sorry for the lack of blues postings this week - it has been crazy busy around Honey H.Q. and in my blogging time I’ve been trying to fix some annoying CSS errors with the new redesign and Internet Explorer. I did get everything working so all it needs is a coat of paint and it will be ready to go live. Also a big thanks to everyone who donated this week - I’m working on getting some more downloads up for the loyal Honey Bees.

Long-Time followers of the blog will know that I’m obsessed with this song and the sound. Martha Copeland recorded her take on it in 1927 and it is an interesting take eschewing the typical dirge for a more traditional blues sound which is a shame, but I absolutely love her spoken work part towards the end. The little hints of the traditional dying crapshooter blues dirge sound are nice though I would have preferred if they had used it throughout.

Martha Copeland - The Dying Crap-Shooter’s Blues (1927)

The new movie Black Snake Moan does not come out until March 2nd (Friday!!), but here at Honey H.Q. we’ve gotten our hands on the soundtrack which features Samuel L. Jackson doing a few classic blues numbers. Jackson plays an aging bluesman in the movie - and I’m guessing sings these songs during the course - as there is a lot of ambient nosies and dialog in the background of these tracks, especially before Black Snake Moan where he tells a story about his own personal blues and how his wife the did him wrong. Jackson learned how to play guitar for the role and it comes off well, but the star of course his his voice which is perfectly suited for the blues.

Black Snake Moan is left more or less the same as when Blind Lemon Jefferson first sang it in 1927 but his take on Stagolee is a very loose take on the tale that doesn’t feature a gambling match, Stetson hat or any real reason for the murder. It’s sort of a mix between Snatch and the Poontangs and a R.L. Burnside telling of the song which isn’t my favorite by any stretch of imagination, but Jackson sells it a lot better than Burnside. For those keeping up with our ongoing Stagolee project, this Burnside number is new to the list. I’ve also posted a bunch of other takes on the classic Black Snake Moan, my favorites are either Lemon’s original or Rosa Henderson’s female take on the song.

R.L Burnside - Staggolee (2001)
Samuel L. Jackson - Stackolee (2007)

Samuel L. Jackson - Black Snake Moan (2007)
Blind Lemon Jefferson - That Black Snake Moan (1927)
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Black Snake Moan
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Black Snake Moan No. 2
Brownie McGhee - Black Snake Moan (1951)
Lead Belly - Black Snake Moan (1935)
Rosa Henderson - Black Snake Moan (1927)
Martha Copeland - Black Snake Moan (1927)
Cobb and Underwood - Black Snake Moan (1930)

Hannah Sylvester recorded a handful of songs for Fletcher Henderson’s Band in 1923 and unlike the majority of his female blues singers she was able to pull off the blues style and not just vaudeville style over singer that a lot of his works are mired with. Her voice is sweet, but solid and Henderson and a very young Coleman Hawkins back her well on this great blues song “Down South Blues.”

Hannah Sylvester - Down South Blues (1923)

I’m not always the best at responding to comments, but I like challenges. And I really want to be P&G’s reason to wake up in the morning, so here is some Gladys Bentley per their request.

Gladys Bentley was a major star among the Gay and Lesbian community in New York , preforming elaborate stage shows with drag queens and backing bands, Bentley would also dress up in a full tux and preform songs from both male and female points of few, much like Frankie Jaxon. Unfortunately this side of her work was never recorded and her released numbers don’t display much of her transgressive musical act. They do display her incredible talent, both as a vocalist/scat singer and piano player and are good fun, though they are surprisingly clean considering her other project, but also compared to people like Lil’ Johnson.

Gladys Bentley - Red Beans and Rice (1929)

Gladys Bentley - Worried Blues (1929)

Bonus Video - Gladys Bentley on You Bet Your Life preforming Them There Eyes. I wish we had the game show part of the show, but she kills it on piano.

Unfortunately i can’t embedded the video, so head over to youtube and check it out.

If You haven’t check them out already - download a few of those Arizona Dranes tracks - they are all fantastic. Up next is a long lost classic from Trix Records. Before that I have a whole mess of new records and requests for single songs that I’m going to try to take care of first.

Priscilla Stewart is one of these female blues singers that appear out of the mist to recorded a batch of songs and then disappeared from which she came. She didn’t seem to be part of the vaudeville circuit - her singing style is refrained and modest and she does not appear in any newspaper advertisements or theater reviews. She recorded all of her songs with the great Jimmy Blythe (Lewis) who most likely also discovered her and got Paramount to record her. Her recorded sales were modest at best - she did record at 14 sessions, but each session only contained two issued sides at the most.

Priscilla Stewart - I Was Born A Brownskin And You Can’t Make Me Blue (1925) Link Fixed

Happy New Year, blues seekers.  I have lots of back burner projects I’m going really try finally get out of the door this year, such as Honey’s Intro to Blues that’s been half written for like 6 months now. This May will be Honey’s fourth year as the premier pre-war blues mp3 blog, and hopefully our best year yet.

To start off the year I picked Lil’ Johnson’s raunchy classic “Press My Button, Ring My Bell” one of her best dirty blues songs - and while the subject matter is pretty obvious it is still one of the better written songs she preformed.  She is backed on piano by the wonderful Black Bob which also help to raise this performance above normal dirty blues dreck.

Lil’ Johnson - Press My Button, Ring My Bell (1936)

Thanks for all the well wishes over the holidays, and all the requests for out of print blues songs, I’m busy searching the depths of Honey H.Q. for some of these numbers, but it should be a fun few weeks as I start posting my findings. Also thanks to the poster who let me know that there are a few more Sam Collins tracks not on the Yazoo record I posted, I’ll get those songs up this week sometime.

This track is a request for one of Trixie Smith’s last recordings, and it’s a good one. My Daddy Rocks Me is a sexy and assured number from Trixie and doesn’t fall into the violent or minstrel styling of some of her work. Trixie is back by Sidney Bechet on clarinet and Sammy Price on piano. Unfortunately, she would only release one more song after this session, and would die without the body of work she deserved.

Trixie Smith - My Daddy Rocks Me (1938)
Trixie Smith - My Daddy Rocks Me No. 2  (1938)