This Week In The Blues: Jan 12 - Jan 18, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of Jan 05 – Jan 11, 2025.

Some of the highlights include hill country slide maestro Mississippi Fred McDowell, Delta blues singer and pianist Louise Johnson, and Chicago blues slide guitarist Earl Hooker.

We just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:
https://bigtrainblues.com
https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Photo credits (if known) and past episodes are posted on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@BigTrainBlues

Here are links to a few of the artists or songs we've referenced in this week's episode:

Mississippi Fred McDowell - "Shake 'Em On Down" - https://youtu.be/64T6ugyWXAA?si=gXFVDKEYbX4m4Es9

Earl Hooker - "Earl's Boogie" - https://youtu.be/34VJzHT9nuk?si=kyOg9pr1CZolK4rt

Join me every weekday from 12:15pm-12:45pm CT to watch a live stream on Facebook of the longest running blues radio show program. https://www.facebook.com/DeltaCulturalCenter

We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!

ARE YOU A FAN OF BLUES HISTORY? US TOO!

If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:

https://bigtrainblues.com

https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Transcript

This Week In The Blues: Jan 12 – Jan 18 2025

hill country slide maestro Mississippi Fred McDowell was born January 12, 1904 in Rossville, Tennessee! He was playing the guitar by the age of 14 with a slide hollowed out of a steer bone. His parents died when he was young and the wandering life of a traveling musician soon took hold. The 1920s saw him playing for tips on the street around Memphis, and settling down in Como, Mississippi, where he lived the rest of his life. For the next 30+ years he split his time between farming and playing music for various local events.

Here’s another Mississippi Ghost story. Louise Johnson was a Delta blues singer and pianist, who was active in the 1920s and 1930s. Johnson lived in Clarksdale, Mississippi. On May 28, 1930 in Grafton, Wisconsin, she sang in a recording session for Paramount Records with Son House, Willie Brown, and her romantic partner Charley Patton. At the session, Johnson recorded four sides.  Despite her small stature, Johnson sang in a lusty voice and some of her material was of the dirty blues variety. Now while returning to Mississippi, Johnson was also a part of a "love triangle" with Patton and House, apparently wooing House on the trip home. That had to be a long ride home for Patton, who in turn referred to the turn of events in his song, "Joe Kirby Blues".

country blues singer Lottie Kimbrough was born on January 14 in either 1893 or 1900. The date of her death is unknown. She was a large woman and was nicknamed "The Kansas City Butterball". Her recording career lasted from 1924 to 1929. One music journalist wrote that Kimbrough's vocal power, and the unique arrangements of several of her best pieces, rank her as one of the sizable talents of the 1920s blues tradition. Little is known of her life beyond her recording career.

Chicago blues slide guitar maestro Earl Hooker, was born January 15, 1930, in Clarksdale Mississippi! Later that same year, his parents moved the family to Chicago. Hooker is considered a "musician's musician", and he performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker and fronted his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was a flamboyant showman and picked the guitar with his teeth or his feet or played it behind his neck or between his legs. 

Gospel blues legend Reverend Robert Wilkins was born on January 16, 1896. He could play ragtime, blues, minstrel songs, and gospel music with equal talent. He performed in Memphis and north Mississippi during the 1920s and early 1930s, the same time as Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie (whom he claimed to have tutored), and Son House. From 1928 to 1936 he recorded for Victor and Brunswick Records, alone or with a single accompanist, like Sleepy John Estes. In 1936, at the age of 40, he quit playing the blues and joined the church after witnessing a murder where he performed.

Chicago blues harmonica player and singer Lester "Mad Dog" Davenport was born January 16, 1932 in Tchula, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago when he was 14. Davenport’s first claims to blues fame was playing harp on the 1955 Bo Diddley Chess session that resulted in the tracks “Pretty Thing” and “Bring It to Jerome”. He also played harmonica slot with the band, the Kinsey Report. In 1992 he had his first solo effort that was followed by several others. Now, about that “Mad Dog” handle: it seems that Davenport liked to prowl the stage while playing a few notes on every instrument on the bandstand during his younger days. The shtick earned him the name; his tenacious playing did the rest.

Chicago blues singer, guitarist and songwriter E.G. Kight was born January 17, 1966 in Dublin, Georgia. She’s worked with a who’s who list of country and blues stars including George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Luther Allison, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, and Koko Taylor. Already a professional musician in her mid-teens, Kight moved away from playing country songs and began her career in Chicago blues after hearing a recording of Koko Taylor. Kight has received several nominations for Blues Music Awards.

Well blues fans, we just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to follow our social media pages or visit our website at Big Train Blues.com. We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!