Vocalion 02614 – Sonny Scott – 1933
When the Great Depression rolled in, along with it came the blues. People had been singing the blues since times untold, yes, but the hard times surely gave them something to sing ’em about....
View ArticleBrunswick 7043 – Ben Norsingle – 1928
Yet another casualty to the march of time, Dallas singer Ben Norsingle cut two records for the Brunswick company in 1928, yet today he resides among the countless practitioners of the early blues now...
View ArticleColumbia 14333-D – Washington Phillips – 1927
While now regarded alongside the nigh-legendary Blind Willie Johnson as a pioneer of the gospel music genre, snuff-dipping jack-leg preacher from Texas Washington Phillips was once largely forgotten...
View ArticleColumbia 14624-D – Blind Willie Johnson – 1929
Against odds stacked against him, the guitar evangelist and musical visionary Blind Willie Johnson rightly secured his place as a gospel music pioneer and veritable legend in the annals of American...
View ArticleRoyalty RR-906 –“Stick-Horse” Hammond – 1950
Another one of those hidden figures of the blues who made a few records at one session and promptly disappeared into obscurity, few details are concretely known about the life of Texas-Louisiana...
View ArticleParamount 12389 – Bo Weavil Jackson – 1926
The life and times of the musician known as Bo Weavil Jackson are shrouded beneath a veil of mystery and obscurity; even his true identity remains an uncertainty. In fact, it would be difficult to...
View Article☙ No. 1/2 – Euday Bowman – 1948
A foremost figure of Texas ragtime, Euday L. Bowman is best known as the composer of one of the most widely performed rags in history: “12th Street Rag”. Yet despite his renown as a composer, Bowman...
View ArticleOkeh 8455 – Blind Lemon Jefferson – 1927
In his all-too-brief four year recording career, Blind Lemon Jefferson produced nearly one-hundred songs that helped to define the country blues and open the door for future guitar-slinging blues...
View ArticleGlobe 122 – Jesse Lockett with Earl Sims’ Sextette – 1946
Performing and recording alongside more famous contemporaries like Lightnin’ Hopkins, L.C. Williams, and Melvin “Little Son” Jackson, blues shouter Jesse Lockett was a big figure on the 1940s Houston...
View ArticleParamount 12650 – Blind Lemon Jefferson – 1928
Back in the days of 78 RPM, it was not an altogether uncommon sight to find records bearing elaborate and often colorful “picture labels” (not to be confused with picture discs), individuating special...
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