Lyin' Joe Holley - So Cold in the U.S.A.

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1982
Time: 40:32
Size: 93,8 MB
Label: JSP Records
Styles: Blues
Art: Front + Back

Tracks Listing:
 1. Big Machine Blues - 3:23
 2. So Cold in the U.S.A. - 2:39
 3. Five More Numbers - 1:12
 4. Drinking Budweiser - 2:15
 5. Moon Is Rising - 2:55
 6. Dope Around Town - 3:52
 7. Old Twister - 3:39
 8. Big Leg Woman - 2:43
 9. Early One Morning - 3:04
10. How Long - 1:46
11. Swanee River Boogie - 1:12
12. Monkey Faced Woman - 3:28
13. Drunken Woman - 2:57
14. Three Kinds of Fool - 2:38
15. Rebate Blues - 2:42

Today's show opens with several songs by Buster Bennett and Sax Mallard I didn't get to on the last show due to the station's coverage of the Rochester Jazz Festival. Both sax men were much in demand in the 30's and 40's. Bennett made his debut in 1938 and his successor Sax Mallard, hit his stride in the mid-to-late 40's. The music they made evolved into the Chicago R&B and jump music scene of the 1940's and '50's that we spotlighted a few weeks back. For the rest of the program we play a wide mix including tracing the history of a classic blues song, we spin several fine blues ladies, spotlight pianists Cow Cow Davenport, Henry Gray and Lyin' Joe Holley and much more.
“Some Cold Rainy Day” was a well known song around Atlanta, recorded by Curley Weaver and The Georgia Cotton Pickers. Barbecue Bob's last sides under his own name were recorded in Dec. 1930 and shortly afterwards he cut four sides with longtime friend Curley Weaver and sixteen year old Buddy Moss under the name The Georgia Cotton Pickers. One of those songs was "She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day." The song was originally recorded by singer Bertha “Chippie” Hill in 1928 with Tampa Red on guitar. The following year Tampa cut "You Got to Reap What You Sow", an instrumental with exactly the same melody. The same year Leroy Carr waxed a version of "You Got to Reap What Sow" with lyrics. We also spin two versions from the post-war era; Buddy Moss was captured in the 60's doing a version of the song for George Mitchell and Pete Lowry recorded Tarheel Slim in his living room which ended up on the Trix album No Time At All. Lowry also recorded versions by by Earnest Scott (Atlanta) in 1973 and J.C. Rush (Manchester, GA) in 1979 which have not been issued. As Pete told me "along with "Tricks" ["Tricks Ain't Walking No More"], it was an Atlanta area marker!"
In addition to “Chippie” Hill, we hear from several fine blues women including Elzadie Robinson, Ora Brown, Sharlie English and Maggie Jones. Robinson hailed from Shreveport, Louisiana, but remained in Chicago, after going there to record. Her recordings span 1926-29, and during that time she worked with several pianists including Bob Call, and her regular accompanist and fellow Shreveport native, Will Ezell. Robinson chiefly recorded for the Paramount label, but also cut several sides for Broadway under the alias Bernice Drake. On our track, “Love Crazy Blues”, she's backed by on banjo by Johnny St Cyr. Cyr was a New Orleans pioneer who was greatly in demand in the 1920's. Self-taught, St. Cyr had his own trio as far back as 1905. After moving to Chicago in 1923, St. Cyr made his place in history by recording with King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong.
There is no information about Ora Brown. She only made four recordings in 1927, working with pianists Tiny Parham who backed her on her first two and Will Ezell on the other two. Parham also backed singer Sharlie English on a four song session from 1928 which yielded one of our featured cuts, "Tuba Lawdy Blues."
Some Cold Rainy DayMaggie Jones was born Fae Barnes in Hillsboro, Texas, around 1900. She moved in the early 1920's to New York City, where she began to perform in local clubs billed as the "Texas Nightingale." On July 26, 1923, she became one of the earliest female Texas singers to record, cutting some three dozen sides for a variety of labels including Black Swan and Columbia through 1926. She recorded with some top flight musicians including Louis Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson and Charlie Green who shines on our track, "Box Car Blues." Sometime in the early 1930's she returned to Texas and was last known to have been performing in Fort Worth area in 1934. While not in the front rank of woman blues singers of the era, she was very fine singer who should be better remembered.
Among the piano men featured today we hear from Lyin' Joe Holley, Cow Cow Davenport and Henry Gray. Holley was recorded by George Paulus in Chicago. He recorded one full-length album for JSP, So Cold In The USA, with four more tracks appearing on the anthology Piano Blues Legends also on JSP and also never issued on CD. Holley played house parties, bars and for friends and at the time of this recording played regularly at the Provident Barber Shop in Chicago where this album was recorded.
Henry Gray was originally born in Alsen, Louisiana, outside of Baton Rouge. Gray became a stalwart of the Chicago blues scene, playing behind Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter before embarking on a twelve year stint with Howlin' Wolf. He cut some sides for Chess in 1953 with harmonica blower Henry Strong, but these were unissued at the time. Strong was to replace Walter Horton in Muddy Waters Band but he was murdered by a jealous girlfriend in June of 1954 before he was able to record anything with Muddy. In 1968 he returned to Alsen to take care of his ailing father. He began playing the with a group called the Cats in local juke joints and made regular appearances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He cut a couple of sides that appeared on the 1970 album, Swamp Blues, but didn't record again until 1977 when he cut an album titled They Call Me Little Henry for Bluebeat.

So Cold In The U.S.A.