Sunday Morning Blues - Kokomo Arnold, Billy Boy Arnold, Richard Berry, Barbecue Bob

Over the holidays I was given a massive 52-Disc Box Set of Blues music, the ABC Of The Blues. Each disc is arranged with two artists, ten songs each, alphabetically. Given this is over 100 artists and 1000 songs to listen through I decided to focus on two discs a month for the first half of the year.

The box set is as comprehensive as you can really get without becoming unwieldy, varying far and wide in blues styles. Any style that relates to the blues is here, Delta, Chicago, Detroit, Jump, Boogie, Kansas City, Rhythm & Blues, etc... It goes pretty deep into the genre.

The downside to such a huge collection is that it doesn't have the space to really go into the history of each recording, and the musicians working with the primary listed artist. Blues artists are a tight nit group, especially from the 1930s to the 1950s where they primarily recorded "race records" and weren't considered appropriate musicians a lot of the time for the 'music buying public' (mostly white consumers.) Still, they were recognized and often covered after that. It does have a booklet with some very brief histories of each musician included. The box set is perfect for anyone looking to explore a wider range of blues and expand their collections. (as an added fun bonus, the box set also comes with an authentic Puck Harmonica.)

The first two discs promise that this will not only be an excellent listening experience, but a really fun trip through the history of American Music as seen through the Blues.

Volume One and Two;

Kokomo Arnold
Born in Georgia in 1901, James Arnold has a very brief Blues career. He started out playing on the side while bootlegging during Prohibition, under the name Gitfiddle Joe for Victor. After that ended he was 'forced' to make a living as a musician. Kansas Joe McCoy introduced him to Decca Records where he recorded from 1934 to 1938. After that he left the music industry altogether and never returned to music, though he was approached in 1962. While he was largely known in the Chicago Blues scene of the time, he also influenced Delta Blues artist Robert Johnson. Robert would turn his song Old Kokomo Blues into Sweet Home Chicago. (The song itself has possible roots going back even further, but the history is muddy waters to wade through.) His other very famous song is Milk Cow Blues, which has been covered by Elvis, George Strait, and Aerosmith, among others.

Neither of these two tracks appear here on his ten song selection, these cuts go a little deeper in. The recordings themselves are nice and clean as well. It's all Kokomo and his guitar, no band, and also no stomp box which wasn't uncommon among blues guitarists. They're a little soft, but whatever masters or records they lifted them from are clear.


Bill Boy Arnold
Another Chicago Blues artist, but jumping ahead to the 1950s. Billy Boy learned harmonica from his neighbor Sonny Boy Williamson, even then a legend in blues. His first recording was with another neighbor, Bo Diddley.  In 1955 he played harmonica on the hit I'm A Man. Instead of signing on with Checker Records he ended up recording for Vee-Jay Records. His first recording there, I Wish You Would and I Ain't Got You were later made famous by the Yardbirds. Both of these recordings appear here on this collection. Billy Boy continues to record today, enjoying some moderate success with the 1990s revival in the Blues.

Like most artists in the 1950s, there's a full band here, including piano, drums, bass, but no brass. Billy Boy is both singer and harmonica player, so it's one or the other through this set. It does include his first two recordings for Vee-Jay. As well as some very early Rock'n'Roll style beats in the form of Rockinitis and No, No, No, No, No. Rock'n'Roll is just starting to come out about the time Billy Boy is starting his career and there's a lot of cross over into the faster blues around this time that Billy Boy plays a lot, now a classic Chicago Blues sound.

Richard Berry
Staying in the 1950s, but moving out west to Los Angeles. We get to R&B artist, and the some real beginnings of modern Rock'n'Roll, with Richard Berry. Richard was the original recorder and writer of Louie Louie, made famous by the Kingsmen in 1963, investigated by the FBI, and probably one of the most covered songs in the history of rock, also Richard had sold the rights in 1959 and didn't see any money from it until the 80s. The song has its own website: www.louielouie.net - in case you wanted to know more about this song. Beyond that, Richard's career didn't really take off until the 1960s, a lackluster recording career in the 50s is what prompted him to sell Louie Louie. He continued to play and record with various Doo Wop and R&B artists through the 1990s before his death in 1997.

His collection here starts with the original recording of Louie Louie, and moves onto a solid collection of early Rhythm & Blues songs, some with heavy rock leanings, such as Mess Around, with a faster rhythm and tangy guitar sound. His backing band, The Pharaohs, is on most of the songs (possibly all of them, but I don't have exact information on when all these recordings were made).

Barbecue Bob
Moving back to the 1920s and to Georgia, Robert Hicks was a cook and entertainer at Tidwell's Barbecue Place. He would occasionally record a side, but was not a full time musician. He played a 12-string guitar that is similar to the clawhammer banjo, as well as bottleneck blues. His style is Piedmont Blues (or East Coast), which has more ragtime in it that traditional Delta Blues. Robert died at age 29 in 1931, with only 68 sides recorded. One of which was Barbecue Blues, which was one of the highest selling records of the time. Eric Clapton has recorded his Motherless Child Blues for his From The Cradle album.

Unfortunately the some of the recordings here are taken from the original 78s, as such there is a lot of hiss behind the sound. Luckily, they did a good job of removing the pops, leaving only background needle hiss, and even that's not prominent on all the songs. These recordings are also hard to find, but not impossible. He's a solo artist on these songs, so it's mostly just him and his guitar, occasionally a harmonica joins him.

Next Sunday - Bobby "Blue" Bland, Charles Brown, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and Blue Lu Barker.