Mississippi Delta Blues "BLOW MY BLUES AWAY” Vol. 2 Recorded by GEORGE MITCHELL in the 1960s MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES in the 1960s -V o l. 2

An Introduction - by George Mitchell (1968)

It was our fifth day in Mississippi. for the members of the band, watching My wife and I were whiling away the the headlights as they crept by on the time on a bench in the "downtown" highway, hoping they might turn into section of Como. The town, popula­ the field in front of the house and head tion 789, was strangely quiet to urban toward us. It was past midnight when ears. Interstate 55 streamed past on the outdoor recording session finally one side, while old Highway 51 got underway. And three hours more rambled along the other. Half the store­ before the drums were lying on the fronts along the lifeless business dis­ ground among the lard buckets in trict were boarded up. The only public which Annie Mae McDowell had bathroom was in the one-room city planted sunflowers. Then Othar hall across the street. A hand scrawled Turner, one of the drummers, walked sign in the window of Mrs. M. Perkins' over and propped his leg on the porch store read: "Pay your burial dues here. " where I was sitting. "If you want a So far, we had had no luck in locat­ man who can flat lay down the blues, " ing unrecorded blues singers— the pur­ he said nonchalantly, "I know who pose of our trip. We had been up half that be. " Othar gave us directions to the night before trying to get the Como his house and said to be there at 3 Drum Band down on tape. It was the o'clock and he'd take us to "where first time our recorder had even been R. L. Burnside stayed at if nothing on and we had had to suffer five hours didn't happen. " of headaches to fill half a reel of tape. A little bit before 3, we gathered Most of the evening was spent on Fred ourselves together and headed for McDowell's unlit front porch waiting Othar's. As we bumped along a nar- Joe Callicott row dirt road that ran through the stopped dead when they saw us and middle of a seemingly endless cotton ran into the house. A woman peered field, we wondered whether Burnside through the gaping hole in the screen was going to be another mediocre mu­ door, and we asked her if R. L. was in, sician who could play a couple of John adding that we wanted to hear him Lee Hooker tunes. We waited at play. She stepped out on the sagging Othar's shack while he unhitched his front porch, shooed away the swarm mule, hung up his torn straw hat (re­ of flies, pointed in the direction of a ally), changed his boots, and we were cornfield to our right and replied in a off to R. L. Burnside's. friendly drawl, "No, he's over yonder It was 30 steaming minutes before cuttin' corn. You go back out and down we stopped at the barbed wire gate in the road and then cut over but you front of Burnside's house after a drive better walk cause that old bridge liable through the backwoods near not to hold no car. " Cold water that I thought our little bug I had expected to see Burnside "cut­ would never survive. Burnside's house ting corn" by hand but he was driving sat in back of his "bossman's" barns a tractor which was slashing down the and sheds which appeared consider­ parched stalks like a lawn mower. Two ably more livable than Burnside's laughing little boys, their shirts hang­ crackerbox shanty. My wife got out of ing open on their dark brown chests, the car, unfastened the gate and then were running alongside. Burnside was quickly shut it so as not to let a shaggy at the opposite end of one of the rows old horse escape (although he ap­ and waved when he saw us. We stood peared much too worn out to ever there watching as he guided the trac­ make the effort). About six or seven tor in our direction, shutting it off when raggedy kids darting here and there he reached us and stepping down smil­ on the hard packed dirt yard under ing. Not asking what we wanted, he several clothesless clotheslines wiped his brow and exclaimed, "Whew, it's hot. How y'all doing? " friends who had come over for the After chatting for a few minutes I said affair. But spaces were quickly made we had been told he could play some for us and beer was offered. old-time blues and we would love to We were anxious to hear some blues hear him. Burnside laughed and said but had to wait while R. L. scraped sure, to come back that night after he'd down our wound little-E string—he finished work. said the string has to be slick for "chok­ It was dark when we were again ing. " Any fears I had harbored earlier winding along the roads back to his about Burnside's musical ability were house, the night hushed except for the immediately shed when he sat down chirping of the katydids. Finally, we and began putting out a droning but saw a dim light burning off to the right rhythmic sound on the guitar and and we judged it could be R. L. 's. We chanting: "Goin' down South, goin' were late and about 10 or 12 grins and down South, goin' down South. " Prac­ stares met us when we entered his tically hypnotized, I forgot about the house. Nine of Burnside's ten kids were couch spring poking my back and the sprawled out in the side room on one sweat pouring down my face and of the two clumpy beds that accom­ watched Othar and one of R. L. 's kids modated the whole family. But they snap their fingers and stomp the floor jumped up and scrambled into the hot in an improvised dance to the continu­ and stuffy front room when they heard ous, rolling rhythm. When the song us. They plopped down on the warped, was over, I whipped out my tape re­ dirty floor because the only other corder. And the music that played late pieces of furniture, a sofa with the into that night is what you hear on this springs splitting through the tattered CD. covering and a wooden box covered It was several days later, on a Satur­ by a piece of colored plastic, were oc­ day, when we rolled into the court­ cupied by R. L., his wife, Othar, and house square in Hernando, just north of Coldwater. The small towns which Callicott for years. He said Joe lived in dot the Delta and its fringes seem al­ Nesbit about seven miles north and we most deserted on weekdays. But "go­ could find him just east of the big ing into town" on Saturday is the ma­ highway. Callicott's house could not jor recreation for the men, and the be seen from the road but there was a streets and cafes are filled. Some play mailbox, with "Callicott" scribbled on checkers on the courthouse lawn, some it, beside a deeply rutted driveway on sit on benches outside the barbershop, a steep hill. We parked our car and and others get drunk in the shoddy climbed through the mud to a little cafes which line the streets of the "col­ house enshrouded in kudzu vine and ored section. " On that Saturday in giant sunflowers. We knocked, and Hernando, we pulled up in front of a asked the man who answered if Joe cluster of Black men shooting the bull Callicott lived there. The man grinned in front of the courthouse and spitting a wide smile and invited us in. "How tobacco juice on the sidewalk. Direct­ y'all doing? Have a seat. I'm Joe. " It ing the question toward no one in wasn't long before he was putting out particular, I asked if anyone had ever the old songs that most people have heard of Joe Callicott. A moment heard only on records, the songs you passed and no one said anything. hear on this CD. "Callicott? Joe Callicott? " an elderly Burnside and Callicott were our first man finally piped up. "Ain't never "real finds" of the trip, but there were heard of him. Go ask Eli. He'll tell you. many more to come during the five He knows just about everybody in often frustrating but eventful weeks these parts. " He pointed to an old, we spent combing the Delta for blues stooped-over man wearing a dirty singers in the summer of 1967. And we black derby who was leaning against a discovered that the oft-heard conten­ pair of stand-up penny scales in front tion that every worthwhile blues singer of a hardware store. Eli had known in the '20's and '30's was recorded has no basis in fact. Probably many good sis. Most of the ones we found did not bluesmen of the time never found their own guitars and were a little rusty, way on wax simply because the Ralph although they were able to play a few Peers and the H. C. Spears never ran numbers well. Burnside and Callicott across their paths or because they were were probably the two most consis­ unaware of the market. Several very tently good and in command of the good singers I recorded who would widest repertoires. have been at their best during this Burnside, an intelligent man with a period had heard few or no blues quick smile, supports a wife, 10 chil­ records. The belief that all good Delta dren and a grandchild from his earn­ bluesmen were recorded is usually ings as a farm laborer on a farm out­ based on interviews with "re-discov­ side Coldwater, Miss., in the hill coun­ ered" musicians who cannot recall try. Born near Coldwater 42 years ago, having heard any talented unrecorded he started helping his father farm at singers. But most of the bluesmen 1 the age of 12. When he was grown, he recorded in Mississippi had rarely even left Mississippi for Chicago, where he heard any of these men's records— worked in a chemical plant for four or Blind Lemon Jefferson's being the ones five years. He returned to Mississippi most frequently mentioned—much when his mother became ill, married a less met them. girl there, and decided to stay on and Also contrary to popular belief, farm. His experiences in both the North country blues has not yet died in Mis­ and South, coupled with his own natu­ sissippi, though it probably will within ral intelligence, have given him an un­ the next 20 years. Most of the older usual perception of the social prob­ musicians no longer play, but there lems in Mississippi, and he will readily seems to be a substantial number of discuss them. Burnside did not begin bluesmen, usually in their 50's, who playing guitar until he was 29 and says are still active on a very part-time ba­ he taught himself by listening to oth­ ers. He was one of the very few taking interest in him and his music, bluesmen we recorded with a guitar of and he seems to get as big a kick out of his own, and he was very popular in performing as his audience does out the Como-Coldwater-Senatobia area. of listening. Before the last note of a Callicott, 67, lives with his wife and song fades away, Joe often chuckles sister in his birthplace of Nesbit, Mis­ and proclaims, "That sound pretty sissippi, about 14 miles from good, don't it? " Last time we were Coldwater. He learned how to play there, in April of 1968, he had a stu­ guitar when he was 15. "I'd stand dent to brag about, a 10-year-old white around and look, you know, " he re­ boy from down the road who brought calls. "Just look at 'em and listen and his guitar to Joe's almost every day to go ahead on like I'm not paying 'em no learn from one of the best of the living attention. I'd catch it. I'd come home masters of a dying musical form. to my box and play it. " Callicott was discovered by Jim Jackson, who was Notes adapted from Blow My Blues playing at the Peabody Hotel in Mem­ Away by George Mitchell (Originally phis. He later cut his only record, published by Louisiana State University ("Traveling Mama Blues" and "Fare Press-Baton Rouge, La. (1971); and now Thee Well Blues, " included here as available from DeCapo Press - New York #10 & 11) in February of 1930. Two of (1984)) in which many of the performers his best friends were Garfield Akers heard on these two CDs relate their stones and Frank Stokes, the influence of the and feelings in greater detail. latter coming through very strong in Callicott's own style. Callicott stopped T h e M u sic playing eight or nine years ago when (Comments by David Evans - 1968) Akers died but took it back up a little Joe Callicott and R. L. Burnside, less than two years ago. He is pleased who have both lived almost their en­ and proud that someone is once again tire lives only a few miles apart on Highway 51, represent two nearly op­ Garfield Akers, a musician who seems posite ends of the varied spectrum of to have been fond of nonstandard Mississippi blues. This is not merely blues. Only on "Love Me Baby Blues" the generation gap reflected in music. does he play the sort of song that Akers Rather, these two men have devel­ might have performed. But while he oped quite different approaches to generally limits himself to standard blues. musical structures, Calicott can at the Callicott, the older man, shows a same time draw from a wide variety of close musical affinity to his old friend musical ideas and melodies known in Frank Stokes. Both have a kind of qua­ many parts of the South which happen vering vocal delivery, which combined to fit these structures. On this record with clear diction and a good feeling he plays in three different keys of stan­ for lyrics can be very effective in put­ dard guitar tuning and in one open ting across the meaning of a song. tuning, while he sings melodies which Callicott, like Stokes, plays a metro­ are known by bluesmen as far away as nomic duple strum on the guitar with Texas and Georgia. Akers, on the other rather little finger picking on the treble hand, played all his recorded songs in strings. Stokes, however, had a second the same key. guitar or violin on most of his records Burnside represents a number of to fill in the spaces when he wasn't different tendencies. The most strik­ singing with an interesting instrumen­ ing fact about his songs is that none of tal line. Most of Calicott's and Stokes' them falls into any standard blues pat­ songs fall into the standard twelve- tern. He makes very few chord changes bar AAB blues pattern with the usual in his accompaniments, preferring to three chords and standard chord set up a drone throughout his songs. changes in the accompaniment. In the Both his melodies, which often remind case of Callicott this is a bit surprising one of field hollers, and his guitar parts considering his long association with tend to be pentatonic. His guitar play­ ing is much more percussive than Burnside's songs is his compression of Callicott's, and he picks rather than the vocal line. Even when he takes his strums, playing only one note or chord material from commercially recorded at a time. (In contrast, Callicott will blues, which he frequently does, he sometimes overlay his strumming with usually chooses songs which have this simultaneous finger picking. ) On same characteristic. Generally these "Skinny Woman" Burnside adds to songs are well known in Northern Mis­ the percussiveness of the guitar by sissippi, and Burnside may have al­ tapping on its body with his fingers. ready been familiar with versions of Another interesting feature of them before he heard them on records.

Houston Stackhouse For our complete 100-page illustrated catalog of CDs, Cassettes, Videos and LPs, send $2. 00 to: ARHOOLIE CATALOG, 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA 94530 1993 update: R. L. Burnside has become an active blues performer since these, his first recordings were made. He can be seen in the film Deep Blues and may be con­ tacted at PO Box 5021, Holly Springs, MS 38635. Joe Callicott died in 1970 or 1971. Since the end of 1971 Tra­ dition Music Co., the publisher of his songs, paid royalties to his widow, Mrs. Dore Callicott, espe­ cially for “Love Me Baby Blues” which Ry Cooder had by then recorded as "France Chance. " The last correspondence we had from her was in 1983. All letters since 1989 have been returned as “unknown. " Houston Stackhouse, Rob­ ert Nighthawk, and James “Peck” Curtis of the Blues Rhythm Boys have all died since these recordings were made. Readers of these notes are urged to contact Arhoolie Records in case they know of the where­ abouts of any of the performers on these two CDs of Mississippi Delta Blues. (Chris Strachwitz— 1993) i© Right: R. L Burnside MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES in the 1960s -Vol. 2

JOE CALLICOTT (vocal & guitar) HOUSTON STACKHOUSE (vocal & 1. Lonesome Katy Blues (3:04) guitar) and The Blues Rhythm 2. Come Home to Me Baby (3:49) Boys: (Robert Nighthawk - bass; 3. Fare You Well Baby Blues (3:18) James "Peck" Curtis - drums 4. Country Blues (3:21) (& vocal on #24). 5. Laughing to Keep From Crying (3: 40) 22. Cool Water Blues (2:54) (*) 6. Love Me Baby Blues (3: 16) 23. Big Road Blues (2:51) (’) (France Chance) 24. Right Around the Comer (j. 14) (*) 7 . 1 Rolled and I Tumbled (2: 50) (*) 25. Canned Heat (3:30) 8. Old Bo W eevil (3:09) (*) Total Time: 77:26 9. Up Town Blues (4:01) (*) (*) = previously unreleased on Arhoolie. 10. Traveling Mama Blues (3:16) (**) (**) = recorded in 1930 and originally issued on 11. Fare Thee Well Blues (3: 18) (**) Br. 7166 (78rpm). All others first appeared on Arhoolie 1041 or R. L. BURNSIDE (vocal & guitar) 1042. All selections written or arranged by the 12. Poor Black Mattie (2: 04) performing artists and © by Tradition Music 13. Long Haired Doney (3:33) Co. (BMI). 14. G oing Dow n South (2:33) 15. Skinny Woman (2:43) Note: #13: "Doney" is a common expression in the 16. I's Be Troubled (2:54) South among both blacks and whites for "girl friend. " 17. Catfish Blues (3: 16) 18. See My Jumper Hangin' Recorded by George Mitchell in 1967 & 1968. Out on the Line (2: 35) (*) Edited and produced by Chris Strachwitz 1 9 . 1 Rolled and I Tumbled (3:11)(*) Cover: Wayne Pope 20. Walking Blues (2:29) (*) All photographs by George Mitchell 21. Nightmare Blues (3:18) (*) Copyright © & ® 1967 & 1994 by Arhoolie Productions, Inc.