ECHO PARK

Skip James and his Stella guitar

2011-07-24T03:09:00.000-07:00

Skip James and a 1920s Stella Jumbo 12-string.
Photos by Vanguard (left) and Elderly Instruments (center/right).

Skip James is said to have played a Stella Jumbo 12-string guitar that was strung with six strings during his legendary 1931 recordings for Paramount. A guitar with "(...) a wall of sound that will knock the filling out of molars, the jumbo Stella 12-string is an iconic vintage guitar for a number of reasons: they were played by Leadbelly, Blind Willie McTell and other bluesmen; they produce a sound that is unparalleled; just holding and playing one produces major-mojo chills. Oscar Schmidt produced the jumbo 12's in a variety of combinations." (source: vintageguitars.com) Oscar Schmidt guitars are still in production today and the current website has a rundown of the company's history: "The Oscar Schmidt Company was founded in 1871 and incorporated in 1911. By the early 1900s, the company had five factories in Europe and a factory on Ferry Street in Jersey City. They made all kinds of stringed instruments, guitars, banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, zithers, and Autoharps®.

The company prospered through the early 1920s. Oscar Schmidt instruments were sold in many rural parts of the country where no music stores existed. Salesmen distributed the products far and wide, making them available in general, small town furniture and dry goods stores. Country guitar pickers and blues musicians living in areas of the South and in Appalachia, far from the city, frequently played Oscar Schmidt instruments because they were both inexpensive and available locally. But equally important, they were often chosen solely on merits of their superior tone and volume."

Oscar Schmidt official website

Son House and his National guitars

2011-07-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

Son House with what appears to be a
National Duolian. Photo by Dick Waterman.

Over the years Paramount artist Son House used a variety of metal body National Reso-Phonic guitars, mainly the Duolian (first built in 1930) and the Style O (also first built in 1930). After his rediscovery in the 1960s Nationals were his main guitars. On his 1930s Paramount recordings he played a different type of guitar, a wooden body Stella, a brand of guitar that was favoured by many bluesmen of that era, because they were reliable, but also affordable guitars.
The National Duolian (under the brand name "Dueco") and the National Style O are still being produced by National Guitars. Faithful to the historic models, the Duolian has a frosted finish, while the Style O has a sandblasted Hawaiian scene on its body.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about resophonic guitars:

"A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden sound board (guitar top/face). Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than conventional acoustic guitars which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion instruments in dance orchestras. They became prized for their distinctive sound, however, and found life with several musical styles (most notably bluegrass and also blues) well after electric amplification solved the issue of inadequate guitar sound levels.

Resonator guitars are of two styles:

Square necked guitars designed to be played in steel guitar style.
Round necked guitars, which may be played in either the conventional classical guitar style or in the lap steel guitar style.

There are three main resonator designs:

The "tricone" ("tri" in reference to the three metal cones/resonators) design of the first National resonator guitars.
The single cone "biscuit" design of other National instruments.
The single inverted-cone design of the Dobro.

Many variations of all of these styles and designs have been produced under many brands. The body of a resonator guitar may be made of wood, metal, or occasionally other materials. Typically there are two main sound holes, positioned on either side of the fingerboard extension. In the case of single cone models, the sound holes are either both circular or both f-shaped, and symmetrical. The older "tricone" design has irregularly shaped sound holes. Cutaway body styles may truncate or omit the lower f-hole."

Son House's preferred models of Nationals were round necked, single cone guitars with bodies made of metal.

National Guitars on the Vintage Guitars site
Vintage Nationals
National Guitars offical site

National Dueco (re-issue of the historic Duolian)
and National Style O as offered by National Guitars today.

Geeshie Wiley, blues master from Mississippi

2011-03-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

Singer and guitarist Geeshie (or Geechie) Wiley came from the south, probably Mississippi and with fellow musician Elvie Thomas recorded a total of six songs for Paramount. Every single one of them a masterpiece of the rural blues. She emerges out of the grooves of her Paramount discs as a very assured singer, guitarist and songwriter. Her arrangements and musicianship are unusual and highly original. Yet she never shows off her musical alibities but delivers her songs in a very controlled, almost laid-back style, projecting a tough personality full of hidden menace. A true master. Archaic, modern, timeles. If it had not been for the efforts of Paramount Records we may never have heard of her.

This is what Don Kent had to say about her and Elvie Thomas in the liner notes for "Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-35" (CD released by Yazoo in 1994): "Although Geeshie Wiley may well have been the rural South's greatest female blues singer and musician, almost nothing is known of her.
Ishmon Bracey, who met her in Jackson in the late '20s, said she was from Natchez, Mississippi. She may have come to town with a medicine show, with which she played during her sojourn, and reportedly took up with Charlie McCoy. Other than a report of Robert Wilkins seeing her in eastern Mississippi around 1930, her name elicited no further response among her contemporaries.
If Geeshie Wiley did not exist, she could not be invented: her scope and creativity dwarfs most blues artists. She seems to represent the moment when black secular music was coalescing into blues. Her repertoire included early raggy songs like Pick Poor Robin Clean and Come On Over To My House, but delivered with more punch; songs such as Last Kind Words that probably predate World War I but handled as befitting a blues sensibility; and state of the art country blues with imaginative arrangements. Her guitar technique is unusual: her use of an A-minor chord in Last Kind Words is rare for a rural blues artist and her adoption of a riff in A normally associated with Texas artists shows a shrewd appreciation for exciting sounds.
Moreover, despite her sensual voice, the persona she presents is as tough as Charley Patton: money before romance and she sweetly says, while extolling her sexual charms, that she's calmy capable of killing you. Wiley apparently came up to record with Elvie Thomas, another guitarist said to be from Palmers Crossing, Mississippi, near Hattiesburg. Her guitar duet with Wiley on Pick Poor Robin Clean shows her to be a less forceful musician but her hauntingly beautiful vocal on Motherless Child Blues reveals a powerful poignancy among the most sublime in American music. Equalling the vocal with exquisite force and imagination is the guitar arrangement in the key of E, probably played by Geeshie Wiley. This shows traces of a northern Mississippi influence, but the B7th section is without parallel in rural blues. A very similar arrangement is used on Skinny Legs Blues. The lyrics are from Boar Hog Blues, but the melody used by Geeshie Wiley bears only a token resemblance to that song. Wiley's masterpiece, Last Kind Words, played in the key of E, is one of the most imaginatively constructed guitar arrangments of its era and possible one of the most archaic. Although the lyrics date it to the late World War I era, its eight-bar verse structure appears to be older. The opening A minor chord that leads directly into the same A riff employed by Texas artists is unique, and the thumb rolls in the B7th part echo Charley Patton's Green River Blues."

Geeshie Wiley/Elvie Thomas discography:

Paramount 12951 Geeshie Wiley
Last Kind Words / Skinny Leg Blues

Paramount 12977 Elvie Thomas (probably with Geeshie Wiley on guitar)
Motherless Child Blues / Over To My House

Paramount 13074 Geeshie Wiley & Elvie Thomas
Eagles On A Half / Pick Poor Robin Clean

All available on the rare Revenant release "American Primitive Vol. 2" (released in 2005).

Skinny Leg Blues

Homer Quincy Smith "I Want Jesus To Talk [Walk] With Me" (1926)

2011-03-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

Photo from Tom Kelly Archives/
ParamountsHome.org

We do not know anything about Homer Quincy Smith. All we have is his name and the music on the only 78 disc he recorded for Paramount. Catalogue No. 12432 – Go Down Moses / I Want Jesus To Talk With Me. Dean Blackwood of Revenant Records played this record at a music conference at Princeton University in November 2002. Greil Marcus was there and described the scene on salon.com: "Blackwood played a 1926 Paramount release by Homer Quincy Smith and mouths dropped open in shock. 'I want Jesus to walk with me' – a man sings in a slow, measured cadence, making it plain he understands how much he's asking for. The performance begins with the tinny sound of a calliope, which as Smith's voice goes down to the bottom of a mine turns into a huge pipe organ. At the end, Smith lets his voice rise, until it seems a thing in itself, on its way to Jesus, leaving the singer behind. Another participant had prepared a response to Blackwood's presentation, but as an instance of the great game of 'Follow that, motherfucker!' I never saw anything like it."
When Little Richard recorded "I Want Jesus To Walk With Me" for his first gospel albums in 1960 ("Pray Along With Little Richard Vol. 1 & 2") he used the arrangement from this rare Homer Quincy Smith Paramount disc, which he probably knew from his childhood in Macon, Georgia and his time spend worshipping at the New Hope Baptist Church.

Both of Smith's Paramount sides are available on the rare Revenant release "American Primitive Vol. 2" (released in 2005).

I Want Jesus To Talk With Me

Blind Willie Davis, phantom artist

2011-03-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

Includes all three of Blind Willie Davis' Paramount discs.

Nothing is known about the biography of Blind Willie Davis. He appeared from out of nowhere, recorded six songs for Paramount in 1928 and 1930 and disappeared again. Yet the gospel blues music that speaks to us from the grooves of his old Paramount discs still inspires wonder.

"Davis' bottleneck guitar arrangements are quite unique. His thumb picking style is considered extremely unorthodox, actually seeming to be something like a backward version of what other Mississippi Delta players do. Davis also seemed to think and move faster than some of his contemporaries, meaning his combination of strumming and picking patterns is dense and packed with detail." Eugene Chadbourne/Rovi

Blind Willie Davis discography:

Paramount 12658 – When The Saints Go Marching In / Rock Of Ages
Paramount 12726 – Key To The Kingdom / Your Enemy Cannot Harm You
Paramount 12979 – Trust In God And Do Right / I Believe I'll Go Back Home

(all released on "Gospel Classics 1927–1931" on Document)

When The Saints Go Marching In

Son House – Library Of Congress sessions (1941/42)

2011-03-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

The best release on CD of Son House's Library Of Congress
recordings from 1941/42.
Released on Travelin' Man TMCD 02.

Mississippi Sheiks – "Complete Recorded Works"

2011-03-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

The Mississippi Sheiks were an important country blues band who influenced many of their contemporaries like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. Their songs were popular with black and white audiences and reached far beyond the blues field. They recorded extensively for several labels. Document Records released their "Complete Recorded Works" (including all of their Paramount sides) on 4 CDs. The core members of the group were Lonnie Chatmon and Walter Vinson. Over the years the line-up also included Bo Carter (real name Armenter Chatmon), Sam Chatmon and Charlie McCoy. All but Lonnie Chatmon also released recordings under their own names. The Mississippi Mud Steppers and the Mississippi Blacksnakes were offshoot projects. Walter Vinson and Sam Chatmon recorded and performed until the early 1970s and early 1980s respectively. In 1972 they even reunited as The New Mississippi Sheiks.

Blind Joe Reynolds

2011-03-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

One of two known photos of
Blind Joe Reynolds

Blind Joe Reynolds (1900 or 1904–1968) personifies everything that is so intriguing about many of the Paramount artists. Blinded by a shotgun blast to his face in the early 1920s, he was discovered by Paramount Records, recorded four sides for the company in 1929 (and four more for Victor in 1930 – as Blind Willie Reynolds) and disappeared again. He wrote great songs, had a unique way of playing slide guitar and an eerie vocal style. He never retired from playing music and continued to work as a travelling musician. A hard-living man, he ran into trouble with the law and kept his enemies of his back by using aliases and by training his pistol on audible targets. In the 1950s or early 1960s he switched to electric guitar, but was never recorded playing electric music. He died – unaware of the renewed interest in his music – shortly before blues researcher Gayle Dean Wardlow found his last place of residence in Lousiana in 1968.

Blind Joe Reynolds discography:

Paramount 12927 – Outside Woman Blues / Nehi Blues*
Paramount 12983 – Ninety Nine Blues / Cold Woman Blues**
Victor 23258 – Third Street Woman Blues / Married Man Blues (as Blind Willie Reynolds)*
unissued Victor recordings – Short Dress / Goose Hill Woman Blues (thought to be lost)

*on CD "Son House And The Great Delta Blues Singers" (Document)
**on CD "Mississippi Blues: Rare Cuts 1926–41" (JSP) and "Trouble Hearted Blues" (Document)

Source:
"Blues Unlimited", No. 146, Autumn/Winter 1984

Alberta Hunter on Document Records

2011-03-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

Blues and jazz singer and songwriter Alberta Hunter
was the first artist on Paramount's 12000/13000 series.
She recorded extensively for the label. All of her
Paramount sides can be found on Document Records'
Alberta Hunter "Complete Recorded Works". The 4 CDs
include the recordings from the first part of her career.
She later worked as a nurse and only returned to recording
and performing in the 1970s.

The US Farm Security Administration photography

2011-02-28T14:18:00.000-08:00

Main street storefronts. Edwards, Mississippi (1936)

Initially created as the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.

The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of sharecroppers, tenants, and very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Critics, including the Farm Bureau strongly opposed the FSA as an experiment in collectivizing agriculture — that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. The program failed because the farmers wanted ownership; after the Conservative coalition took control of Congress it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and continues in operation in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration.

The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program, 1935–44, that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty.

The Paramount recording artists were never photographed in their daily surroundings (all we have are studio portraits). Therefore the FSA photos are an invaluable source of visual information about the world most of these musicians came from and wrote about.

Farm Security Administration photographs at The Library Of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html

Go to "Geographic Location Index" under the link above, where you will find links to photographs sorted geographically.

The photo above was taken in Edwards, Mississippi, Hinds County. Paramount Delta Blues pioneer Charley Patton was born near Edwards and later lived in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta.

Sources:
Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia
The Library Of Congress

Paramount picture labels on the 12000/13000 series!

2011-02-28T10:55:00.001-08:00


Paramount 12098 Ma Rainey – Dream Blues / Lost Wandering Blues Images from the collection of Old Hat Records. Used for research purposes only.

Paramount 12650 Blind Lemon Jefferson –
Piney Woods Money Mama / Low Down Mojo Blues

Alberta Hunter MULTI-COLORED shellac disc!

2011-02-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

Alberta Hunter, Paramount 12013,
Come On Home / Aggravatin' Papa,
rel. 1923 on multi-colored shellac.
Photo from rateyourmusic.com.
Used for research purposes only.

How shellac records were recorded and manufactured

2011-02-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

Interesting documentary movie about record production in the shellac disc era (filmed at the Camden plant of RCA Victor in 1942). Production particulars were cruder at Paramount Records, but the main steps in recording and manufacturing records were the same.

play movie

Charley Patton "Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues" (Revenant)

2011-02-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

"A 7-CD primer on Mississippi Delta blues with Charley Patton as the central, generative figure, this set features 5 CDs with all issued and unissued recordings by Patton and sessionmates Son House, Willie Brown, Louise Johnson, Henry 'Son' Sims, Bertha Lee, Delta Big Four, Buddy Boy Hawkins, Edith North Johnson, and even talent scout HC Speir; a 6th CD of artists in Charley's 'orbit' like Ma Rainey, Howlin' Wolf, Poor Boy Lofton, Kid Bailey, Walter Rhodes, Rube Lacy, Blind Joe Reynolds (newly discovered track!), Tommy Johnson and Pops Staples; and a 7th CD of interviews with Patton associates Staples, Wolf, Speir and Patton protégé Booker Miller. All tracks are fully remastered and pitch-corrected from the best possible sources, resulting in the definitive versions of this material.

Also included are a freestanding reprint of John Fahey's 1970 Patton book, 128 pages of exhaustive new notes by Fahey and blues scholars David Evans, Dick Spottswood, and Ed Komara, complete lyric transcriptions, full-size reproductions of the 6 original 1929 Paramount ads, a full set of 78 record label stickers from all Charley's Paramount, Vocalion and Herwin releases, and dozens of other dazzling visuals. All housed in a deluxe '78 Album' hardcover book and slipcase."

• 7 CDs w/Complete Patton Sessions, plus Tracks and Interviews w/Charley's Orbit
• Deluxe 11" x 13" x 3.5" Hardcover '78 Album' and Slipcase
• Reprint of John Fahey's 1970 Patton Book
• 128 Pages of Exhaustive New Writing on Patton
• Full-Size Repros of 1929 Paramount Ads
• Complete Paramount/Vocalion Record Label Sticker Set

Available from Revenant Records http://www.revenantrecords.com/index.php?section=releases&cd_ident=10

"The Paramount Masters – 4 CDs – 100 Sides" (JSP)

2011-02-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

Important compilation of Paramount "race music" releases
on the 12000/13000 series. Includes many rare sides and
lesser known artists. Highly recommended.

Willie Brown "M & O Blues"/"Future Blues" (1930)

2011-02-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

The only Willie Brown record that has been found:
M & O Blues / Future Blues on Paramount 13090
(three copies are known to exist today)
and on Champion 50023 (10–15 copies have been found).
Willie Brown's other two releases on Paramount remain unfound.

PBS "History Detectives" television documentary about Paramount Records (2007)

2011-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

Documentary about Paramount records and the futile search for the lost Paramount metal masters.

Willie Brown headstone was placed on February 23, 2011

2011-02-26T08:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the efforts of The Delta Blues website, Paramount recording artist Willie Lee Brown (1896 or 1900–1952) finally got a headstone placed on his grave at the Good Shepherd Church Cemetery in Prichard, MS earlier this week. Read all about it on The Delta Blues website: http://www.tdblues.com/?tag=willie-brown

The Delta Blues website also has lots of information about Willie Brown's biography and the confusion surrounding the existence of other blues players also named "Willie/William Brown". The general consensus among researchers now seems to be that there were three different Willie Browns:

a) the Paramount recording artist, who also accompanied Charley Patton and Son House and who is mentioned in Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues" ("my friend-boy Willie Brown")
b) a guitar player who is described as a taller and heavier man than the Paramount Willie Brown, but who also sometimes accompanied Charley Patton (though he was never recorded)
c) a William Brown, who was recorded by Alan Lomax playing four songs in 1942 (released by the Library Of Congress in 1962 on "Negro Blues And Hollers", re-released on CD by Rounder in 1997)

Now, if only those missing Willie Brown discs could finally be located ...

Paramount 13001 Willie Brown – Grandma Blues / Sorry Blues
Paramount 13099 Willie Brown – Window Blues / Kicking In My Sleep Blues

Old Hat Records

2011-02-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

Two great compilations released by Old Hat Records:
"Good For What Ails You – Music Of The Medicine Shows
1926–1937" (2 CDs) and "Down In The Basement" (1 CD).
The latter includes selections from the collection of
record collector Joe Bussard. A nice companion piece to
the Joe Bussard documentary "Desperate Man Blues"
(Dust-to-Digital). These Old Hat Records CDs include
several recordings by Paramount artists.

"Desperate Man Blues" – documentary film about record collector Joe Bussard

2011-02-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

A must-see 2003 movie about Joe Bussard, long-time collector of 78 rpm discs. Great stories about hunting for records in far-flung locations. See him play a Paramount Charley Patton disc in the trailer featured above. DVD available from http://dust-digital.com/dmb.htm

Tommy Johnson available again on Document!

2011-02-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

Just re-relased on Document: the complete recorded works
by Tommy Johnson, including all of his Victor and
Paramount sides. Buy CD

"The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" (Yazoo)

2011-02-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

46 rarities - classic performances of early
blues and old country music from the 1920s
and 1930s, including Clarksdale Moan/
Mississippi County Farm Blues by Son House.
Includes large 20 page illustrated booklet.
Cover art by Robert Crumb. 2 CD Set.

"Mississippi Blues: Rare Cuts 1926-41" (JSP)

2011-02-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

This 4 CD compilation on JSP includes the Son House tracks
that were found in 2005: Paramount 13096 –
Clarksdale Moan/Mississippi County Farm Blues.
Also includes Paramount 13125 by King Solomon Hill –
My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon/Times Has Done Got Hard
and Paramount 12983 by Blind Joe Reynolds –
Ninety Nine Blues/Cold Woman Blues
(found in 2002 and 2000, respectively).
Great compilation.

Rev. J. M. Gates – protagonist of a lost art form

2011-02-25T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Reverend J. M. Gates was the pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Rock Dale Park, Atlanta, Georgia from 1914–1945. Between 1926–1941 he recorded over 200 sermons and gospel songs for Victor, Bluebird, Okeh, Paramount and Gennett. Records of preaching were immensely popular with black audiences in the pre-war era. No less than 25 Reverends recorded for Paramount. The Reverend J. M. Gates became the genre's most prolific and successful protagonist. Today his recordings are considered early prototypes for the burgeoning Rap and Hip Hop scene of the late 1970s. The Reverend's complete recorded works were released by Document Records on a series of 9 CDs.

"American Primitive Vol. 2" (Revenant Records)

2011-02-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Like Volume 1 this 2 CD set also includes several Paramount artists. "Revenants. Phantoms. Biographical ciphers who emerged from their anonymous dark, made 78 rpm recordings, and were promptly swallowed up by darkness again. Yet their recordings have made an indelible place for themselves in our world by dint of their capacity to inspire wonder.

At once a collection of secret blueprints for a raw musics revolution and a testament to the enduring power of great art to shock, confound, inspire and sustain. John Fahey's final curated work for Revenant.

Revenant's long-awaited follow-up to 1997's much-saluted American Primitive Vol. 1." Revenant Records

"American Primitive Vol. 1" (Revenant Records)

2011-02-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

Several Paramount sides can be found on this 77 mins CD "of gut-bucket, early gospel from the collections of Gayle Dean Wardlow and John Fahey, complete with a 24-page booklet of liner notes and photos. Including Charley Patton, Rev. I. B. Ware with Wife & Son, Booker T. Washington, Bukka White, William & Versey Smith, Blind Willie Davis, Frank Palmes, Bo Weavil Jackson, Elder Otis Jones, Blind Roosevelt Graves, Blind Joe Taggart, Blind Mamie Forehand, Jaybird Coleman, and more." Revenant Records "26 tracks of uncut religious fervor, clearly selected for maximum intensity." – "Downbeat" Magazine

Skip James on Vanguard

2011-02-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

After having recorded 18 sides for Paramount in the early 1930s Skip James drifted out of the public eye. He was all but a phantom to the new audience who re-discovered his old recordings in the early 1960s. Blues enthusiasts John Fahey, Bill Barth and Henry Vestine finally found the man in a hospital in Tunica, Mississippi in 1964. In 1966 and 1967 he recorded two new studio albums for Vanguard ("Today!" and "Devil Got My Woman"). The idiosyncracy of his style was as otherworldly then as it had been in the 1930s and as it remains today. If it hadn't been for the talent scouts of Paramount Records who originally discovered him, we might never have heard of Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James.

Son House in the 1960s

2011-02-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

In June 1964 three white men – Nick Perls, Dick Waterman and Phil Spiro – knocked on the door of a house in Rochester, NY. When they asked the elderly black man living there if he was Son House, "the musician", their search for the Delta Blues legend had finally been successful. Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was completely unaware of the international revival of enthusiasm for his early Paramount recordings. He had lived in Rochester since 1943. House had been retired from the music business for many years, working for the New York Central Railroad. His rediscovery led to his return to recording and performing live. In 1965, Son House recorded 21 tracks for Columbia Records. The original LP THE LEGENDARY SON HOUSE included nine of those songs. The 1992 CD FATHER OF THE DELTA BLUES THE COMPLETE 1965 SESSIONS includes an additional 12 alternate takes and previously unissued songs. In 2008 Pure Pleasure released that set on double vinyl. Son House's power on those 1965 tracks is undiminished. This is hypnotic, dark and umcompromising music evoking the ghosts of the Mississippi delta.

"Goodbye, Babylon"

2011-02-24T05:36:00.000-08:00

"I recently got a gift from Bob Dylan, a good old friend of mine. He gave me a gospel collection of great old American music and early country roots from old 78s. It's the original wealth of our recorded music; it's the cream of the crop and has the history of each recording. It's a great old set called Goodbye, Babylon, and it's incredible. It's in a wooden box and everything, and it's just so beautiful." Neil Young, "Weekend Edition" interview, September 2005

"This fantastic box of holy ruckus is the greatest anthology of antique Southern sacred song and oratory ever assembled." "Rolling Stone", January 22, 2004

"The set consists of five CDs featuring 135 Songs (1902-1960) and one CD featuring 25 Sermons (1926-1941). Accompanying the CDs is a 200 page book with Bible verses, complete lyric transcriptions, and notes for each recording. All of the components reverently packed with raw cotton and housed in a deluxe 8" x 11" x 2.5" cedar box." Available from Dust-to-Digital

While not a Paramount compilation per se, this one of a kind set includes recordings by several Paramount artists. It's one of the most thoroughly researched and most beautifully presented sets of music from the shellac disc era.

Essential Paramount recordings on CD

2011-02-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

Charley Patton, "The Definitive",
released on Catfish and Snapper (3CDs).
Includes all of Patton's master takes. If you want more
Patton there is the Revenant box set
"Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues" (7 CDs)
which includes alternate takes,
material by related artists, interviews and a book on Patton!

Son House, "... And The Great Delta Blues Singers",
Document Records (1 CD). Includes 6 of his 8 released
Paramount sides (+ one test pressing).
Also includes the famous sides by Willie Brown and
Kid Bailey (who may well be Willie Brown
under pseudonym).

Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Texas Blues",
on the Complete Blues label (5 CDs).
The only complete set of all of Jefferson's recordings.
Also includes additional material by some of
Jefferson's contemporaries.

Blind Blake, "All The Published Sides", JSP (5 CDs).
Only the recently discovered 1932 tracks
Night And Day/Sun To Sun are missing from this set.
One other Blind Blake record remains unfound.

Skip James, "Hard Time Killin' Floor", Yazoo (1 CD).
His complete 1930s recordings. Has better sound quality
than most other releases. As a bonus this includes
four Son House sides in great sound quality.

Typical Paramount disc from the 12000/13000 series

2011-02-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is what a typical Paramount shellac 10" disc
(or "78 rpm disc") would look like.
The 12000/13000 series were released with
blue or black labels. Shellac discs break easily,
so be careful if you find one. Many old shellac discs
are in pretty bad shape visually,
but still produce surprisingly good sound.

Paramount label designs for the 12000/13000 series

2011-02-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Blue label used for re-releases
of titles formerly available
on Black Swan.

Basic blue label, golden type,
company information at bottom
on two lines.

Blue labels were used for discs that
were recorded acoustically,
black labels for electric recordings.
Some black label releases do not carry
the "Electrically Recorded" text, though.

All images from the
Tom Kelly Archives/
ParamountsHome.org.
Used for research purposes only.

Basic blue label
with added "PRICE 75c".

Basic blue label with added
trademark text in Spanish under
Paramount logo.

Basic black label, golden type,
company information at bottom
on one line.
"ELECTRICALLY RECORDED"
under Paramount logo.

Black label variant:
no "Electrically Recorded" text.

Black label variant:
"Electrically Recorded"
right off center and on two lines.

Rare use of basic "blue label" design
(with Spanish trademark text under
Paramount logo) on a black label.
No "Electrically Recorded" text.

Willie Brown on Paramount – the rarest records in history?

2011-02-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

Blues man Willie Brown was a contemporary of Charley Patton and Son House. At a recording session in Grafton, WI in 1930 Brown recorded 6 songs for Paramount. They were released on three 78 rpm 10" shellac discs of which only one has been found.

Paramount 13001 Grandma Blues / Sorry Blues
(no copy has been found yet)

Paramount 13090 M & O Blues / Future Blues
(only three copies of this disc are known to exist today; 10–15 copies exist of a re-release on Champion Records)

Paramount 13099 Window Blues / Kicking In My Sleep Blues
(no copy has been found yet)

If found, Paramount 13001 and 13099 could well be the most valuable records in history.

Record collector extraordinaire John Tefteller has a standing offer of $25,000 for either of the two missing records.

These missing Paramount discs were found in recent years

2011-02-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

12983 Blind Joe Reynolds – Ninety Nine Blues / Cold Woman Blues
(surfaced in 2000 after having been bought at Nashville Flea Market at a price of $1.00)

13096 Son House – Mississippi County Farm Blues / Clarksdale Moan
(found "in the South" in 2005)

13122 Ben Curry – The Laffing Rag / Hot Dog
(found circa 2007)

13123 Blind Blake – Night And Day Blues / Sun To Sun
(found in Raleigh, NC in 2007)

13125 King Solomon Hill – My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon / Times Has Done Got Hard
(found in Wisconsin in 2002)

Paramount Records – the missing 78 rpm discs

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In the late 1920s and early 1930s Paramount Records – an arm of the Wisconsin Chair Company, a manufacturer of wooden phonograph cabinets in Port Washington, Wisconsin – became an unlikely home for blues legends like Charley Patton, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House and Skip James. Paramount’s blues releases – especially its “race” records with label numbers 12000 to 13156 – are among the most coveted records in the world. The latter issues were pressed in such small numbers that copies of the following releases have not survived or remain unfound:

12984 Smoky Harrison – Blub Blub Blues / Mail Coach Blues
13001 Willie Brown – Grandma Blues / Sorry Blues
13011 Rev. Emmett Dickinson – Dry Cleaning The Skunk / It's Your Time Now
13012 Jaydee Short – Steamboat Rousty / Gettin' Up On The Hill
13027 Anna Belle Coleman & Bill Tomlin – Mean Water Man Blues / Signifying Blues
13029 Roebuck Ray – Sweet Mama / bw ?
13032 Edith North Johnson – Beat You Doing It / Whispering To My Man
13036 Rev. T. T. Rose – This Holy Train / Stay On Board The Ship
13040 Kaydee Short – Drafted Mama / Wake Up Bright Eye Mama
[No. 13040 was used for a C. Patton disc, so maybe the Kaydee Short disc was cancelled]
13045 Clara Burston – Too Bad For You / Ginger Snappin’
13046 Irene Scruggs – Borrowed Love Blues / Back To The Wall
13053 Birmingham Bertha – Gone Away Blues / Maybe It’s The Blues
13068 Mae Belle Lee & George Ramsey – I’m Talkin' ‘Bout You # 1 / Bumble Bee # 1
13083 Dobby Bragg – Sail On Little Girl / Don’t Look Strange At Me
13084 Big Bill Broomsley – How You Want It Done / Station Blues
13091 Jaydee Short – Flaggin’ It To Georgia / Tar Road Blues
13093 Charlie McFadden & Dobby Bragg – You Got That Thing / St Louis Tricks Woman
13099 Willie Brown – Window Blues / Kicking In My Sleep Blues
13105 Black Billy Sunday – Will You Spend Eternity In Hell / The High Cost Of Sin
13115 Blind Blake – Miss Emma Liza / Dissatisfied Blue
13120 Tommy Settles – Jazzin’ The Blues / Blowing The Bugle
13121 Irene Scruggs – You Got What I Want / Charles Taylor – P. C. Railroad Blues
13131 Marshall Owens – Texas Blues Part 2 / 7th Street Alley Strut

Unknown discs:

12051 artist/titles unknown
12062 artist/titles unknown
12068 artist/titles unknown
12269 artist/titles unknown
12270 artist/titles unknown
12271 artist/titles unknown
12280 artist/titles unknown
12522 artist/titles unknown
12730 artist/titles unknown
12763 artist/titles unknown
12908 artist/titles unknown
12962 artist/titles unknown
13073 artist/titles unknown
13079 artist/titles unknown

Unissued discs:

12190–12199 unissued