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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Sunday Morning Blues - Willie Dixon, Floyd Dixon, Snooks Eaglin, Sleepy John Estes

Onwards through the ABC Of The Blues...

Volume 9 and 10

Willie Dixon
Bo Diddley (last week) wasn't the only influence as Rock N Roll formed out of the Blues. Willi Dixon, another important post-WWII musician worked with Diddley, and Chuck Berry. But his more heavily felt influence is in Chicago Blues after the war, along with Muddy Waters, he helped cement the sound. A little rock, some doo wop can be heard in his music, and a lot of blues. Willie was born in Mississippi, left for Chicago in 1936, and took up boxing. He formed a music group, but that was cut short when he resisted the draft in WWII and spent ten months in jail. Willie worked mostly as a session musician, producer, and song writer, but he had output of his own.

A lot of his early music was by and from early musicians, and since he played mostly the double bass, a lot of the recordings here seem to come from various sources and groups, especially the early ones from the forties and fifties. All of it is pure Chicago Blues from the faster rock sounding songs to the slower deeper blues. If you want to start getting more Chicago sound, look for Willie Dixon's name on it somewhere.

Floyd Dixon
Born in Texas, Floyd moved to Los Angeles in the forties, where he met Charles Brown and became part of the jump and west coast blues movements. While not a ground breaking artist, he was an important fixture in the sound, keeping it grounded in country and gospel styles from Texas. He also had a stint with Modern Records, which specialized in jump blues with more sexualized undertones, before he left to become the pianist in Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in 1950.

Another good classic set of songs, another grouping of songs I'll recognize a tune from when it comes over a blues station or in a blues set. It's listening to a group of songs like this that one realizes just how much influence some musicians can have without ever becoming huge names themselves. Music that musicians listen to, in a sense.

Snooks Eaglin
Moving over to New Orleans, Snooks, or Blind Snooks Eaglin, is one of the unpredictable blues artists. He has a wide range of songs he plays from, including rock and latin influences as well as classic blues. He was also sporadic in recording, and doesn't have as large a discography as others who performed for the past fifty years, boasting maybe only a dozen albums of his own. He dropped out of he school for the blind a few years after winning a radio contest (at age 11) for musicians. He also didn't tour extensively, preferring to stay in his hometown of New Orleans.

His recordings here come from a pretty wide range, there's a bit of crackle and hiss in the songs here, indicating they might have been take from vinyl originally, though he was late enough that analog masters may still exist. The classic One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer appears here in its original blues format, than the more well known hard rock rhythm it's usually heard in.

Sleepy John Estes
 Moving back in time to before WWII, John Estes birthdate is unknown, given as either 1899 or 1904, it is known he died in 1977 in his native Tennessee. He recorded from the twenties to the forties, with little acclaim. Even in his younger days his singing was marked by a 'crying' style that made many think he was older than he was. By the sixties he had faded completely into obscurity and poverty, and stopped recording. He was rediscovered in 1962, and recorded and toured some more from that point onward. His songs were deeply rooted in his life, usually about people he knew, or agriculture, or just events.

The songs are very clean recordings, clear with little background noise. He's usually accompanied by at least one other musician, though his voice comes out over the instruments. This is classic country blues, without any other influences. This is the deep roots of the blues that everything else eventually came from. Guitar, voice, and harmonica are the only instruments that make any real appearance. This is exactly where some of the 'old blues standards' come from.

Next Week: Lowell Fulson, The Four Blazes, Buddy Guy, Arthur Gunter, and Slim Gaillard.

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