Message Board Archive: Thread Number 6

Thanks for coming! Welcome to my new acoustic blues message board! I
won't start this thing off by choosing a topic; just post as you like
and enjoy this forum.

Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 13:10:35 -0400
From: steve.levine@grace.com (Steve)
Subject: Ok: Hello from DC!
Message Number: 6.1

Hello Ari and everyone on here. I love the idea of an acoustic
 blues message board. I'm a harp player from the Washington DC
 area. I play with an acoustic trio (two guitars and me) called The Resonators. We do a lot of traditional blues and
 roots music (Delta, Piedmont and Chicago Blues, Ragtime,
 Hokum, Country and Jugband). One of the guitarists I play
 with is a srudent of Ari's. 

To start a new topic, who are your favorite acoustic blues
 players? Mine include Sonny Terry, Phil Wiggins, John Cephas
, John Jackson, The Memphis Jug Band, Charlie Patton, Skip
 James, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Blind Boy Fuller and Blind
 Blake.

-Steve Levine

Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 23:43:53 -0400
From: ari@secondmind.com (Ari Eisinger)
Subject: My favorites
Message Number: 6.1.1

Although I love alot of the players from the 1920s and 1930s, my
out-and-out favorites are Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Rev.
Gary Davis. I would also count among my favorites Willie Walker, except
he recorded only three sides, one of which was an alternate take. What a
shame it is that he wasn't recorded more!

Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 00:28:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: cmartin@navnet.net (chris)
Subject: More: i love willie walker!
Message Number: 6.1.1.1

i recently bought a complilation of old ragtime pickers which included
the complete recorded works of willie walker, whom you mentioned as one
of your favorites. i was blown away that a guitarist so virtuosic never
recorded again. the lp i bought gave precious little information about
him, and i wonder if you have come accross any tidbits about his life or
career. another revelation to me from the same record was a duo named
"tarter and gay", who are also terrific ... are you familiar with them?

Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 09:38:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: minsk@searchtech.com (Brian Minsk)
Subject: Question: compilation with Willie Walker?
Message Number: 6.1.1.1.1

Hi,

What compilation has all of Willie Walker's stuff on it? I've been
eyeing some of the Yazoo compilations, but none of them that I'm aware
of have ALL 3 of his recordings.

Thanks, Brian

Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 22:10:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: ari@secondmind.com (Ari Eisinger)
Subject: Feedback: Re: compilation with Willie Walker?
Message Number: 6.1.1.1.1.1

I'm so glad you and Brian love Willie Walker too. I think he's one of
the best ever, and underrecorded to say the least!

His three sides, two of which are alternate takes of the same song, can
be found on two Yazoo records: East Coast Blues and Mama Let Me Lay It
On You. The former has Betty and Dupree and one of two takes of South
Carolina Rag, while the latter has the other take of South Carolina Rag.
Of the two SCR takes, I much prefer the one on Mama Let Me Lay It On
You, but they're both hair-raisingly great, as is Betty and Dupree. The
sensitivity with which the tunes are played, as well as the rather
extreme stylistic differences between Walker's treatment of the two
songs, make me think there was alot more great stuff where these three
takes came from. Such a shame.

If you want ONE album with all three takes, the only one I know of is
Document #DOCD-5062, "Ragtime Blues Guitar 1927-1930". It has the three
by Walker plus all of William Moore and all of Bayless Rose (and a few
cuts by Blind Blake too, I believe). I haven't heard this album, but I
suspect that, as usual, the sound quality is not as good as it is on the
Yazoos.

Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 11:24:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: ari@secondmind.com (Ari Eisinger)
Subject: Feedback: Re: Tarter & Gay
Message Number: 6.1.1.2

I've heard and liked Tarter and Gay on the Yazoo album "East Coast
Blues", but I don't know much about them. Perhaps someone else can
enlighten us.

Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 18:59:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: zeppa@earthlink.net (Frank Basile)
Subject: More: Re: Tarter & Gay
Message Number: 6.1.1.2.1

I forget how I found this url but here it is:
http://www.io.com/~tbone1/blues/ECblz/targay.html
YMMV. If I get a chance later, I'll check in _Red River Blues_ by Bruce
Bastin. I can't imagine that T&G aren't covered somewhere in there.
Frank Basile

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 12:02:39 -0500
From: chrislun@online.no (christer)
Subject: Note: Kent DuChaine
Message Number: 6.2

I see that you all like boys like Muddy Waters, B.B King, But I suggest
that you listen to Kent DuChaine when you got the time.

His web-adress is http://members.aol.com/kDuChaine/index.html

He plays the delta-blues as it should be played, on his National Duolian
from 1934 (LEADBESSIE).

He plays music from all the great ones. Muddy Waters, Elmor James, Bukka
White, Robert Johnson and many more.

And he has written a lot of great songs himself.