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Oneof the most revealingindications of the continuing MemphisSwamp Jam depth and vitality of the bluestraditions of Memphisand the surroundingcountryside is providedby this two-record set of performancesby a number of the finest traditional It's fitting, of course,that Memphisshould be the site artists presentedduring the courseof the three-day1969 of a maior national blues festival, for the city has an MemphisBlues Festival. Now in its fourth year,this festival importan-cein blueshistory rivalled only by that of Chicago. has as its purposethe presentationof a wide spectrumof Foi decades,perhaps since the music's earliestdays' the traditionalNegro and Negro-derivedfolk and popularmusic citv has been'oneof the importantwaystops of the blues' forms. The particular emphasisis of course upon those th6 sceneof a greatmany significant musical developments artists and stylesassociated over the yearswith Memphis as well as the home-baseof a host of blues innovators and its environs,but the influenceand penetrationof those and iournevmen.Situated on the broad Mississippiat the musicalstyles has beenso pervasivethatmany performers nortliern-mbst extreme of the Delta cotton country, Mem' whose relationshipto the Memphis musical traditions "the Dhis. Gatewavto the South;' long has acted as a might not seem immediatelyapparent have been included hagnet to the blu6smenof the lower Mississippibasin. in its concert programsas well. This year, tor example, Ovei the vears thev literallv have poured into the city' festival performers included a good number of young enrichinsits healthv musicil scene with their own vital Britons, whose espousal of the blues and blues.based rural blu-'estraditions. Inevitablythe interaclionhas been music has accountedfor much of the interestand excite. two-way,for the countryblues singers and instrumentalists ment in recent popularmusic. who st6ppedover in Memphisin the courseof their travels But the backboneof theserecordings and the festivalis took stimulusfrom the major bluesstylists and the diverse provided,fittingly, bytheveteran bluesmen of the Memphis. musicalapproaches they encounteredthere. Mississippi area; their stimulating performanceshere This cvcleof contactbetween rural and urban(or at least revealiust how much persausivevigor and relevancethere less con'spicuouslyrural) musical approacheshas been remain in the older-styledcountry blues traditions. For both prol6ngedahd continuous and has had profound large numbersof southernNegroes the bluesare still very effecti uoonlhe courseof the blues,not the leastof which much alive, still full of truth-sayingpower and hard-won havebeen the maintenanceof high performancestandards wisdom,still a touchstoneof realityand a deep,fulfilling and the interplayof contrastingtendencies toward regular' reservoirof commonvalues, experience and yearnings,the form and morefluid, lessrigidly structured modes distillationof three centuriesof sufferingand oppression izationof "sophisication of organization(i.e., vs.primitivism") which as a desoisednation within a nation. has beena corollaryof the busy professionaland amateur Severalof the Derformersheard here are known to vet- eran blues collectorsthrough their prized, old and often performingactivityihe city has longsupported. Put another "golden way, the rough, unpolished country bluesmen brought very rare 78-rpm records made in the so-called powerand passionto Memphis,taking in return ideasof age" of countryblues recording,the l0-year period 1928- technical expertise and more conventionalizedmusical 38, when a number of magnificentrural blues singer. forms and performancepractices. guitarists were recorded,often in such locations as This play of country and city has long beenone of the Memphisand Atlanta by mobile recordingteams sent out account' by the major recordfirms of the period.Their recordings distinguishingfeatures of the Memphisblues, thus "race ing fo; the great diversityof stylesto be heardthere, and were issued in the record" lists which such firms is perhapsbest typified in the music of Negro composer maintainedas separateseries in their offeringsof popular W.C. Handy,the city's best-knownmusical figure. Thor' music;most of the recordsby countrybluesmen were sold oughlysch6oled in the disciplinesof westernmusic, Handy in the areas lrom which they hailed, and often in small was drawnearly to the rude, spontaneous,vigorous music quantities,thus accountingfor their extreme rarity (and of the blues and folk musicians he met in his travels the high prices they fetch in record auctions) today. 1890's, and thesetwo Furry Lewis,Sleepy John Estesand BookerWashington throughthe Southbeginning in the "Bukka" influences- sophisticatedand primitive-blend fruitfully White, o{ those heard here, were among those in his own compositions,which he began publishing in recorded30-40 yearsago. Followingthe declineof popular l9l2 and which representthe beginningsof the commer' interest in the type of blues they performed so well, they cializationand widedissemination of the blues.Throughout and others of their generationwere forced into musical his long and distinguishedcareer Handy continued to retirement-there simply was no large audiencefor their derive insiprationand vitality from his borrowingsfrom music any longer.'All three continuedto play for friends southernfolk music. and neighbors,which explains the greatvitality and dexter- On a more informal,day-to-day basis this sameprocess ity which they continueto bring to blues playingand sing. of contact and interaction has taken place among the ing, and their largely dormant performing careerswere musicianswho met and playedtogether in Memphis,from resuscitatedby the renewed interest in the blues that made way to the occurred as Dart of the tolk music "revival" of the late the earliestcountry musicianswho their '60's. city in the late 19th centuryon to the reigningrhythm-and. 1950'sand early blues and soul music stars who currently live, work and Though his exuberantmusic is solidlygrounded in the record there. During the last three-quartersof a century old barrelhousepiano traditions of that same golden per- the city has beenthe home-basefor such as FrankStokes, iod, PianoRed's career reflects a slightlylater stageof the Will Batts, Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins, the commercialblues traditions. Dan Sane, "Casey MemphisJug Band,Cannon's Jug Stompers,Will Othersof the companyhere, notably Fred McDowell and Bill" Weldon,Jack Kelly, Will Shade,Allen Shaw, Willie to a lesserdegree Nathan Beauregard,have come to the Borum,Memphis Minnie, Joe McCoy, Willie B. James, Willie attentionof blues collectorsonly recently.McDowell is in Tango,Sonny Boy Williamson(both of them), Willie Nix, fact one of the veryfew significant,greatly original country Howlin'Wolf, Dr. Ross,Elmore James, Jimmy Reed,Eddie bluesmento havebeen unearthed wholly as a resultof the Taylor,Jimmy Cotton,Willie Cobbs,Harmonica Frank, Joe folk music revival, having been discoveredin 1959 by Hill Louis,Walter Horton, Jimmy DeBerry,Willie Love,Levi folklorist Alan Lomax during the course ol a southern Seabury,B.B. Kingand a hostof others,including of course field recordingtrip. And despitehis advancedyears, Beau- the present-dayStax-Volt artist roster. Other bluesmen regard's discoveryis of even more recent vintage; he made have spent varying periodsof time there and in Jact one his first malor public appearanceat the 1968 Memphis could easily compile an impressivelist of blues artists, CountryBlues Festival, where he was most enthusiastically maior and minor, whose visits have enrichedthe city's receivedby fans of traditionalrural-styled blues. music and who havebeen touched, in turn, by its musical The remainingperformers - singer-fifeplayer Napoleon strength and diversity.(lt is of course no mere accident Stricklandand the Como (Miss.) Drum Band,which con- that the so-calledwhite "rockabilly" style of the mid- sists of snare-drummerJohn Tytus and bass-drummer 1950's should have emergedin Memphis;its chief expo- OtherTurner - are lesswell-known to bluesfans, for until nents, Elvis Presley,Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, only very recentlytheir music was heard no farther than were all Memphis residentsand had grown up with the the countrysidein which they live. Like all the other per. soundof the Memphisblues.) formersheard here, they largelyhave played for their family ,6"

and parties,at fish' commercialmusic. First, traditional music is itself con- and friends,at Saturdaynight dances artist picni-cs.For their peers--relativ.esand servativeand changesslowly; then, the traditional iries and c6untry ot hls peers' wno 6wn generation-this music is still alive most often performs for an audience neishborsof their folkways,values and still sbeaksof and to them in language itrare wittr him the same common and'meanineful. and expressions.His music uivarnished,telling of thingsthat are realand resoectfor traditionalforms otjin anO least very much, simply becauseit iitallv imDortant,embodying unquestioned truths of the dodsn't change,or at cdndition,relating and transfiguringshared expe- doesn't haveto. humin what?Well, for one thing, it means riences, deeply-heldbeliefs, aspirationsand, above all' All of which means that for the studentor fan of traditional Negro America.n sorrows. momentit's someof these musiciansmay music,we're living at a fortunatetime. At the Despiteany fleetingfame phaseof that music's down deep they remain unalterablycom- oossibleto sampl6iust about every have attained, -from oldest of country forms and per' mitted to the old truth'saying,plain-speaking blues tradi' ivolution the the way of life formancepractices to the most contemporaryextensions tions of the southerncountryside and to as a they'refolk singers of them. And eveMhing in between.This is simply that -musicians:saverise to them. Pureand simple. like thatof Memphis or other urban centers, iesult of the musicrsrapid developmentwhich, and life in primarilythrough the Chicagoor New York, performancesin iazz. has been acceleratedrapidly, recordingtrips to phonographrecord, radio, television and, biE-citv coffee houses or concert stages, even tours ot inflJenceof the basicfact of life' to a lesserdegree, film. Modernmass communicatlons and Eiroo6an caDitolshave not changedthis pressures givenrise one bit. They and their music still the sreat commercial to whichthey've this iotal commitment, the music, and its to the life experiencesof the people havJhad their inevitableeffects upon address themselves has beenrapid and drastic' and the placeswith whichthey grew up and express-them' development,as a result, the solid.achieve- selves in the vocabularyand musical traditions of those There'sa tendency,however, to disca-rd people places.They know no other way in which to ments of the past in favor of those developmentsof the and and themselves.For them, to utter a thought in song moment.to sdcrificethe durable for the ephemeral' bxoiess Theyjar us is io voice it through the medium of those musicaltradi' tnllj whv collectionslike this are important.. of which they haveproven out of our preoccupationwith the here'and'nowInto a tions to whichthey are heir and present' themselvespast masters;simply, there is no other way for iejlization oi the pist and its influenceon the play do is as naturaland inevit' Such oerformance!as are containedherein allow us to them. To sing and as they present's able--O"o as breathing. stoo. lbok back and take stock,to recognizethe thread tt'" yea;s they and countlessother singers.and badii in the past,to tracethe longcontinuous.human have nourishedthe blues at.their that runs through the centerof the music like a heartline' olaverslike ihemselves to see kept the traditionsalive' provld.lnga oroao It oermits us to discern the larger configurations, iol( roots and particulartree - that is' commonbase from whichall bluesmen-well' or poorly' thd forest insteadof this or that sprungand drawn su.st€nance' to aDoreciateand honorthe great commontraditions that inown, tittte matter-have Without Still- theseDerformances give us pause'l-or all lrs manl- suoidrt and sustain individualtradition-bearers' what those traditions comprise we fest vi6lity, humor,spontaneity, excitement ancl ufler con- a i<;owledseof iust these t'ivb LPs ultimately proves a lannot oroierlv issess the contributionsof the individual ;i;td;. {h'd music ori his experience'In a very real sense'tnese bluesartisi, foi noneof the greatbluesmen has severed sobeririglistening gone'before him. Rather, he's oerformancesare out ot rlme-and at the sametime,. of ties with those who have In all humanactivitv the.onlv.co.nstqnt is reworked,refined and extendeda broad,common-language ;;;;-.;: ii;;lda. been its wide usage. and peopleaccommodate themselves to lts rnrear the sreat strensth of which has chanEe. been enabledto find his i'i'"1?tniJi *iv.. For manv of the voung people.of the Throleh its emfloyment he has area the only responseto cnangeo own vdice,to crdat6his owntradition, as it were,to test his Memphis-Mississippi support.lt has beenbackstop' conditionsthere - the collapseof the old cottoneconomy' creativitvagainst its stable with the-result- common'relerentand point of departurefor all th€ gifted i"i'iO lni-"itott total farm mechanization"corporate".!?rTing per' the rise of large bluesmen.And for the less original, less creative "n[ roil-ot iouj, provided everything'- oDerations.ihproved educationalopportunities wltn tnelr formers it has virtually and expectatlonsyer The sreat c6untry blues tra'ditionsof the Memphis' c6ncomitant uiideningof horizons per- of realizingthem,there at any rate-tne.only Mississi-ppiarea ruf deep and rich through all the little chance performers are solloiy was to leave,to seek a better llfe elsewnere' formancesin this set.All of the here resoonse broadsouth' Joportuniiies wer'ebetter, conditions more favorable' sroundedtraditional artists who havpused the *-n-Jre of the particular This hai senerallymeant a moveto the urban Nortnand ln Ern blues oractices.as well as those this'long'establishedpatteryr- of migrationhas iepions froin which'thev hail, in the creationof original, iil"niv"iit such as Nathan been even more sharply accelerated.The result ls-tnar di;tinctive stvles. In th'e work of some, fbri people left in the Delta Beauresardo'r Napolen Strickland, the traditionalelements io*iaivi tttere are voung han' the brightest, most hopeful€nd best equrppeo assume-greaterorominence than do their individual countryi - notablyFred McDowell, simolv-''i'rt6s"-"trJ'ttive haveup and left. And who can blametnem t dline of tlem. wliileother artists remainedare, like the performers Bukla White, SleepyJohn Estesand Furry Lewis-have .in personalstyles of. those this imDortantalbum, middle'agedor older, representa- achievedstrikingly briginal -out generationthat camealongtoo early.tosnare,ln- common elemenls.While used differently,the traditional tives of'a performers. and opportunities.Now it's too late tor core is oresentin the work of all these these advinces you i;;[ of eauiition and resultantexclusion fro.m lf thi! album succeedsin bringing to an appreciation i'6dir-,t["-i, in blues perform- iii" nb** ei""tlv widenedavenues of advancement,social of the ongoingstrength of tradition all have left their mark' They.are inies. ot-wtraiever p.-eriodor style, it will have achieved inouiiiw 5nO dpportunitv you patiirns im|osed in their youth g.system one oi its maior aims, the other beingthe enioyment ioil"d'into !Y music of these blues which no lorigerexists and in the changingof whlcn tney are sure to receivefrom the striking veteransof the Memphis-Mississippiarea. The twenty selec' had"-itreno hand. performancepractices on these two LPs reflects this' The pe1- tions sDana wide rangeof moods, muiic "out emotional 20, 30, Jometimes40 vears of date" in and individualstvles but all are informedwith the torinl?tii" feeling,the sensethat the musicalpractices they representrerlect oenetration.the-deep rich strain of heartfelt the all, the total conviction those of the time at which the musiciansfirst took up the honestvof utterancdand, above areas.with the exceptionof the that alwayshave characterized the bluesattheir mosttell ing. iiiJdJ iirditi"h of their - of "professional" performers,lew tolK'oaseo Pete Welding most sifted 1969 musiclansever penetratebeyond the stylist'c conventions August, of that Dhaseof a music's evolutionprevalent at tne.rlme thev learnedto perform, usually in youth. The.tradltlonal BTS-6000/B changeslittle over the.years- artist's music normally BLUETHUMB RECORDS,INC. histechnical facility is greatand/or there unlessof course 427 No. CanonDr. are stronq Dressureson him to learn new technlquesano Hills, Calif. 90210 itvfelilh?'latter most often arise from participationin Beverly playerTommy Garry, and by secondguitarist Mike Stewart, FredMcDowell a young student of traditional Negro blues whosesensitive supportindicates handily the depth of his studiesand his It can be statedunqualifiedly that FredMcDowell is one "new" understandingof the traditionsin which Estes'music is of the most significant bluesdiscoveries of the folk based. music revival,a singerand guitaristof such commanding, gripping powerand originalitythat he must be numbered among the leadingexponents of the pure country blues, now or anytime. Fred was born in Rossville,Tenn., near FurryLewis Memphis,in 1904 or 5 and from his earlyteens has been Thougha longtimeresident of Memphis,where he still engagedin farm work.He took up guitarabout 1920, taking makes his home, Walter "Furry" Lewis, one of the most his impetusfrom the playingof a numberof local musi. inventivesinger-guitarists to record during the heydayof cians,among them RaymondPayne and VandyMcKenna. the countryblues, was born in Greenwood,Miss., in 1900. He sharpenedhis growing skills by playing at country This rural background,his years of performingexperience dances,suppers and picnics,but feelsthat he didn't really in the travelingmedicine shows that plied the South,as begin to developsignificantly as a musicianuntil much well as his living in Memphisand havinghad contactwith later (he didn't get a guitar of his own, for example,until the large number of bluesmenthere explain his masteryof 1940, twenty years after he first had taken up the instru- a wide range of the stylistic disciplinesof southern Negro ment).At that time he movedto Mississippi,where he has music, a mastery he has continuedto deepenthroughout since lived,currently making his home in Como,south of his long stay in Memphis,to which he had movedin the Memphison Highway61. He is a masterof the bottleneck late 1920's. He speedilybecame one of the most popular or slide guitartechnique, which he learnedfrom the play- entertainersof the city and participatedin a good number ing of an uncle, and over the years he has elaborateda of recordings,primarily as a soloist,beginning in L927. stunningcommand of the idiom, one that is rhythmically Like manyother countrybluesmen of the period,his record- rich and complex,very powerful, and subtly colored and ing activity ceasedwith the onset of the Depression,which detailed. He was discoveredand recordedin Como in 1959 put an end to extensiverecording in the South. Over the by folklorist Alan Lomax, who was on a southern field years Furry has kept his hand in, however,primarily by recordingtrip, and sincethat time Fredhas becomeone of entertaininghis Memphis friends at parties and other the most popularand highly regardedof traditional artists informal gatherings.He was re.discoveredand re.recorded to have appeared before folk music audiences here and in the late 1950's by blues researcherSam Chartersand abroad (he's been on severalEuropean tours, in fact). On has since been brought to renewed performing activity, the three performanceshere he is seconded by Johnny playingfor the young attentive listenerswho comprisethe Woods, from nearby Senatobia,a magnificent, sensitive folksongand bluesaudience. His slideguitar playingis as harmonicaaccompanist who follows and anticipatesFred's keen and assured as ever, as his two delightful perform. instrumental lines perfectly, adding a rich dimension to ances here attest so handsomely."Judge BoushayBlues" the music. is a revisedand lengthenedversion of a piece Furry origi- nally recorded as "Judge Harsh Blues" in 1928, while "Walking Blues" is typical of his semi-improvisatoryap. PianoRed proach to blues composition,being a looselyconstructed but nonethelesspowerfully focussed piece drawn from a Thepungent, lusty older barrelhouse and bluespiano tra. number of commonplaceverses and motifs, and unified ditionsare rousinglyIaid out hereby singer-pianistJohnny by Furry's musical personality. Williams,better known to his friends and neighborsas "Piano Red" (though he's not to be confused with the popular Atlanta rhythm-and-bluesrecording artist of the same name).In his late forties,Memphis-reared Williams NapoleonStrickland has beena fixture of the local blues scenethere for a long time ("1 been knowinghim for almost a hundredyearsj' andthe ComoDrum Band BukkaWhite noted),though since he's not recordedbefore his contributionshave gone unacknowledged.On the basis Someof the most striking, unusual music to have been "Abel of his two selectionshere-"Mobile Blues" and recorded in the southern countryside in recent years has Street Stomp" - Williams can be seen as a solid, persua. beenthat of singer-fifeplayer NapoleonStrickland and the sive worker in the older keyboardtraditions associatedwith ComoDrum Band,consisting of snare-drummerJohn Tytus the rural and urban South of four fascinating "Mobile three to decadesago. and bass-drummer Other Turner. The eerie, Bluesj' moreover,displays Red's easy singing music produced by Strickland's five-tone fife and the style, his grainy, unforced vocal riding insinuatinglyover polyrhythmicdrumming of Tytusand Turnermay well rep- "Afri- the rock-ribbedrhythms and splashinginventions of his resent,as some researchershave asserted, the most "Abel relaxed piano. The instrumental Street Stomp" is can" of all survivingsouthern music. Certainlytheirs is Red's localizedversion of a set.piecerecorded by a number amongthe most primitivesounds to havebeen captured on of blues pianists who have used the same effective bass tape in the U.S.in a goodlong while. Strickland, 49 or 50, figure as the basis of their extemporizations.As demon- hails from the countryside near Como and learned both strated by these happy performances,Red's command of how to make and to play the five-holefife from the older these idioms is assuredand vigorous,placing him among Turner, who hails from adiacent Senatobiaand who cur- the finer contemporaryexponents of the unfortunately-setfast. rently plays bass drum in the Como group. Now in his disappearing art of barrelhouse blues piano. This is sixties, Turner had learnedthe music in his youth from a both richerand more valuablefor his solid contributions. considerablyolder man lrom the area, thus providing a Playon, Red. link with pre-CivilWar Negromusical practice and making these performancessome of the oldest-styledNegro Ameri- can music currently availableon record. Whether its ties SleepyJohn Estes with West African musical practices are as strong and clearlydefined as has beenclaimed has yet to be validated, in 1904 near Brownsville,Tenn., where he has but it is-interesting to note that the only other similar fife- Born "Sleepy lived for most of his life, Johi Adam John" Estes and-drum music to have been documented recently,that is truly one of the most originalblues singers everto have of Ed and Lonnie Young, was from this same region ot recorded.While it often has beenasserted that the blues is northwesternM ississippi. largely an autobiographicalor at least deeply personal music,the truth isthat few bluesmenhave rdally approached the music in this manner,preferring instead to work and BukkaWhite rework a large body of traditional motifs and common- places. properly who have recordedhave matched the raw The blues is more re-creativethan creative. Fewbluesmen "Bukka" Estesprovides one of the few consistentexceptions to this searing power with which Booker Washington generalpractice: throughout his long performingcareer his White has investedhis singing and playing. Born in 1909 blues,while modeledon traditionallines, have been per- in the small farming communityof Houstonin northern sonalas havefew others. In song after song he has detailed Mississippi,White was drawnwhile still veryyoung to the his life and experiences,as wellas thoseof his Brownsville bluestraditions of the region. His father, a skilled guitarist neighbors, with touching honesty, deep compassionand and fiddler, gave the youngster his first instruction in insight (despite his blindness),and a truly witty economy music, which Bukka deepenedwhen, as a teenager, he of expression. His blues recordings actually have been movedto the Deltaand came into contactwith a numberof deeply-feltand sharply-etchedportraits and slices of life the area's finest blues performers, among them Charlie as it was lived by Negro sharecroppersand tenant farmers Patton.Bukka made his first recordings,at age20, in 1930 in rural Tennesseefrom the 1920s on. Here he acknowl- and, followinga periodof widespreadtraveling through the edgeshis past accomplishmentsin his re-creationof "Need South and Midwest,he recordedagain in 1937 in Chicago. More Bluesj'a piecehe first recordedin 1937, and indi- Returningto the South soon after, he was senterlcedto a cates the continuingfertility of his imaginationin a recent prison term in the notorious ParchmanState Prison Farm "President KennedyStayed Too Longl'which for shooting a man in a brawl. While there, he became composition, "ca feelingly comments on the assassinationof John F. mp musiciani' which entailedcerta in benefits, recorded Kennedyand its aftermath. Estesis assistedby harmonica a pair of performancesfor a visiting Library of Congress field.workerand, thanks to the efforts of severalrecording officials, was releasedafter havingserved but two years oi his fong sentence.He reco.rdedalain in 194O, iiking 12 :Ig,"r_tl?t are among.the.finest,riost powerfuiof country_ styled blues recordedin the waning years of the commer. clal interestin the genre. Followingih-e eventual withdrawal ot popular support for the kind of direct music Bukka pla.yed-so superbly, he worked and tived in a number of cities in the North and South,where he continuedto sing ?ld pla.yfor friends and neighbors. He had returned t6 Memphas,when his rediscoveryin the early 1960's by blues enthusiasts John [ahey and Ed Denioir iJon reac. uvar9d nts pertormingcareer. Thanks to his appearances on.the concertstages and coffee-houseplatforhs of the totk-musicand bluesrevival, he has once-againbecome a well-knownfigure. As his three magnificent-performances nere suggest,he has lost not on.e.bitofthe driving intensity, pungency a-nd imaginative skill which charact-erizedhii recordrngsfrom the very first. NathanBeauregard . _Singgr.guitaristNathan Beauregardis one of the most interestingof the newly discoveredveteran perfoimers of P-l!e.sj.nd,ryeero folksong. The vigor and chaim of his play- lng.bette his advancedage (though he does not know his birthdate, he claims to be nio-retian 100 -oldestyeJrs oiOt; anA proyiggoccasionat gtimpses of some of the styiei oi musicfro.m the D-eepSouth..Hewas born in Ashland,Miss., and.firsttook up five-stringbanjo sometime in the latel9tti century at a time when this instrument apparenilywas as widely used in southern Negro music ai'the eu'itar was later to become. Beauregard recalls having en-countered - severalother Mississippibanjoists around t-he turn of the 9,9ltu,ry,among them G.eorge,Scott-andJohn Scruggs(now there's a name to conjurewith). At this time he-wasnot ptayingblues; the bulk of his performingwas confinedto back-countrydances and.parties, for which he woulOpljy various.piecesfor buck-dancing.He took up guitar-and with it, blues- shortly after. Th-efirst piece'he-remembers ,,Come learning.tgplay on.this instrument was On, Rachel, Go with Mel' a variant of the more widely known southerri blues^"HoneyBabe, lt Ain't.NoLiel' Blin'dsince tne ige oi one, Beauregardhas played music intermittenfly ovei the pr!Jnarily I9af1 for his^friend_s.and neighbori in Holly r.pnngs, tne area near Como (where Fred McDowellanil NapoleonStrickland make their home; like Fred. Beau. regardtoo knewand learnedfrom guitarist Raymond'payne) and M-emphis,where he met and workedwith?rank St;ida; one of the,city's best known and most popular blues per- rormers.the blueshave comprised the maiorportion of his repertoiresince his concentrationon guitai aid, thoughhe has forgotten much of the original m-usicalsetiines o;fthe old.songs, he has retaineda strong memoryof theli lyrils, yvtrjctrl9..dLaw.s upon for the substanceof his performances rooay. wnlte he asserts that he has never had a record player, the influence of recordings is obvious in several songs,tho.ugh.he follows the usual'music.practice of mixingaural and traditional sources in his own On his pe"rform- ances here he is sensitively seconded by guitaiist Mike Stewart. R.L. Watson.Josaih Jones While their names are new to collectors of authentic Negro Americanfolk music, the lineamentsot ine Oeii!.fit. ful instrumentalmusic of guitarists-partners,R.L. Watson and Joiaih Jones., longtime. playing are firmly witnin itre esraDtrsnedmustcal practicesof those reveredtraditions. Lrterattyfound on the streetsof Memphis,to which they had repairedin the hopes.ofearning moneylhiough theii lqew?!l( entertaining and. pantomine (bo{h are mutes), lle p.atrwas brought to the attention of producer Chrii Strachwitz by his close friend, the distinguishedGerman ethnomusicologistProf. Franz-GeorgGoldiasser, who was producing a radio documentary "Blues, on the Memphis festival for.hispopularshow Bobgieund Schwirzermusikl; which is broadcast on the German state radio network Sudwestrundfunk.Strachwitz was immediatelytaken with the.wistful, energeticmusic of the elderly pair'of euitaristi and..arranged that their insi nuating perf'oimances-of th ree traditional pieces-a rag, a blues'and a spiritual_be Inctuded in this set. Unfortunately,litile is khown , of the backroundsof the two performers,bs Stracnwiil was una- bte to conduct an interviewwith them and all attempts at communicationwere forestalled in the face of the pair;i undisguised mistrust of, if not outright hostilitytouiards, blond,blue-eyed Silesians.

8TS.6000/A BLUETHUMB RECORDS, INC. 427 No.Canon Dr. BeverlyHills, Calif. 90210