Willie "61" Blackwell in Pre War Blues Forum

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Willie "61" Blackwell

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mississippijohnhurt1928

Willie "61" Blackwell

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 25 07 2:30 AM

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I'm a huge fan of Willie Blackwell's voice and guitar-playing, it's so smooth, and what makes it even better is the great sound quality (at least on most of his recordings.)

Do we have any other fans here?

user posted image

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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Artie the Cat

#1

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 890

Aug 25 07 1:53 PM

Calvin,
I remember we talked about Blackwell about 2 years ago or so...It was about "Junior is a Jap Girl's Christmas for His Santa Claus"...That's only Blackwell number I've ever heard and it was on an old Flyright album called "Walkin' Blues" that featured a bunch of Alan Lomax 'discoveries' for the Library of Congress like; Son House, Willie Brown, and Honeyboy Edwards....As I recall there was a Willie Brown who backed Blackwell on that tune...NOT the Willie Brown who played with Charley Patton and Son House....Lomax recorded 3 different Willie Browns...The one who played with Patton and House, one who played guitar in a style similar to Memphis Minnie in G (standard tuning, G chord forms), and finally the one I'm talking about here who also recorded a number called "Mississippi Blues" in standard tuning A chord forms with rather complex fingerpicking in a style very similar to 1920's piano style (at least to these ears it sounds like the same cat)....I realize this is all a little off the thread but it is very relevant to it and pre-war blues in general....I really dug "Junior" and the complex guitar interplay on it....Where are there other Blackwell numbers?
Artie the Cat

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#2

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 25 07 2:14 PM

QUOTE (Artie the Cat @ Aug 25 2007, 01:53 PM)

Calvin,
I remember we talked about Blackwell about 2 years ago or so...It was about "Junior is a Jap Girl's Christmas for His Santa Claus"...That's only Blackwell number I've ever heard and it was on an old Flyright album called "Walkin' Blues" that featured a bunch of Alan Lomax 'discoveries' for the Library of Congress like; Son House, Willie Brown, and Honeyboy Edwards....As I recall there was a Willie Brown who backed Blackwell on that tune...NOT the Willie Brown who played with Charley Patton and Son House....Lomax recorded 3 different Willie Browns...The one who played with Patton and House, one who played guitar in a style similar to Memphis Minnie in G (standard tuning, G chord forms), and finally the one I'm talking about here who also recorded a number called "Mississippi Blues" in standard tuning A chord forms with rather complex fingerpicking in a style very similar to 1920's piano style (at least to these ears it sounds like the same cat)....I realize this is all a little off the thread but it is very relevant to it and pre-war blues in general....I really dug "Junior" and the complex guitar interplay on it....Where are there other Blackwell numbers?
Artie the Cat

Many, if not all of Willie's 1941 sessions can be found on JSP's 4-disc set "Mississippi Blues, Rare Cuts: 1926-1941"

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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StefanWirz

#3

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 750

Aug 25 07 5:27 PM

Willie '61' Blackwell discography - that's where the pic above comes from (originally on back cover of Flyright FLY 541 ;-)
Stefan

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#4

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 25 07 5:34 PM

QUOTE (StefanWirz @ Aug 25 2007, 05:27 PM)

Willie '61' Blackwell discography - that's where the pic above comes from (originally on back cover of Flyright FLY 541 ;-)
Stefan

Yep, and thanks for posting that picture on there, I didn't know any photographs of Willie existed.

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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zvez

#5

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 339

Aug 26 07 2:20 AM

Couple of his songs on the "when the levee breaks" cd set. Good stuff!

Four O'clock flower blues
Noiseless Motor BLues
Bald Eagle Blues (love this one!!)
She's Young and Wild
Don't Misuse Me Baby
Machine Gun Blues
Chalk My Toy
Rampaw Street Blues

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Artie the Cat

#6

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 890

Aug 27 07 3:01 PM

Calvin,
There is another photo of Willie "61" Blackwell in a book of photo postcards that was published in 1989 by Steve LaVere....It was taken in Memphis in 1971....Willie is wearing a completely non-matching suit, playing an electric guitar, and drinking an orange Nehi....I tried for two hours to download this photo to a reply on Saturday but it kept coming up that it wouldn't download files of this type from my scanner....I don't understand this because I've downloaded other files of this type here and elsewhere and got frustrated....Maybe somebody else has a copy of this photo?
Artie the Cat

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#7

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 27 07 3:04 PM

QUOTE (zvez @ Aug 26 2007, 02:20 AM)

Couple of his songs on the "when the levee breaks" cd set. Good stuff!

Four O'clock flower blues
Noiseless Motor BLues
Bald Eagle Blues (love this one!!)
She's Young and Wild
Don't Misuse Me Baby
Machine Gun Blues
Chalk My Toy
Rampaw Street Blues

Yep as I said earlier.

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#8

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 27 07 3:05 PM

QUOTE (Artie the Cat @ Aug 27 2007, 03:01 PM)

Calvin,
There is another photo of Willie "61" Blackwell in a book of photo postcards that was published in 1989 by Steve LaVere....It was taken in Memphis in 1971....Willie is wearing a completely non-matching suit, playing an electric guitar, and drinking an orange Nehi....I tried for two hours to download this photo to a reply on Saturday but it kept coming up that it wouldn't download files of this type from my scanner....I don't understand this because I've downloaded other files of this type here and elsewhere and got frustrated....Maybe somebody else has a copy of this photo?
Artie the Cat

Ah, that sounds like a wonderful photograph. I'd love to see it whenever anyone can get it up here.

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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Artie the Cat

#9

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 890

Aug 27 07 3:25 PM

The photo I'm speaking of was in a complete book of postcards produced by Pomegranate publishers...They also produce a yearly blues calendar that my wife gets me every year for Christmas....That same photo was in a 1993 Pomegranate calendar, but I can't recall what month...Why won't my computer allow me to download this to Blindman? arghhhhhh! Maybe it's just to large, but....Oh, well, maybe somebody else can come up with it...
Artie the Cat

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#10

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 27 07 10:30 PM

QUOTE (Artie the Cat @ Aug 27 2007, 03:25 PM)

The photo I'm speaking of was in a complete book of postcards produced by Pomegranate publishers...They also produce a yearly blues calendar that my wife gets me every year for Christmas....That same photo was in a 1993 Pomegranate calendar, but I can't recall what month...Why won't my computer allow me to download this to Blindman? arghhhhhh! Maybe it's just to large, but....Oh, well, maybe somebody else can come up with it...
Artie the Cat

You could upload it to photobucket.com and then post the iamge code here.

If ya don't have a photobucket account you could send it to me and I'll upload it on mine.

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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Artie the Cat

#11

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 890

Aug 28 07 8:43 PM

Hey, Calvin,
I e-mailed that Willie Blackwell photo to this address:
thebluesarchives@yahoo.com
Maybe you can get it to download to Blindman...Thanks!
Artie the Cat

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#12

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 28 07 11:55 PM

QUOTE (Artie the Cat @ Aug 28 2007, 08:43 PM)

Hey, Calvin,
I e-mailed that Willie Blackwell photo to this address:
thebluesarchives@yahoo.com
Maybe you can get it to download to Blindman...Thanks!
Artie the Cat

Allllrighty.

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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zvez

#13

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 339

Aug 29 07 12:18 AM

QUOTE (mississippijohnhurt1928 @ Aug 27 2007, 10:04 AM)

QUOTE (zvez @ Aug 26 2007, 02:20 AM)

Couple of his songs on the "when the levee breaks" cd set. Good stuff!

Four O'clock flower blues
Noiseless Motor BLues
Bald Eagle Blues (love this one!!)
She's Young and Wild
Don't Misuse Me Baby
Machine Gun Blues
Chalk My Toy
Rampaw Street Blues

Yep as I said earlier.

My bad, should pay more attention, I was thinking the MS Blues set you mentioned was diff. from "when the levee breaks"

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#14

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 29 07 12:27 AM

QUOTE (zvez @ Aug 29 2007, 12:18 AM)

QUOTE (mississippijohnhurt1928 @ Aug 27 2007, 10:04 AM)

QUOTE (zvez @ Aug 26 2007, 02:20 AM)

Couple of his songs on the "when the levee breaks" cd set. Good stuff!

Four O'clock flower blues
Noiseless Motor BLues
Bald Eagle Blues (love this one!!)
She's Young and Wild
Don't Misuse Me Baby
Machine Gun Blues
Chalk My Toy
Rampaw Street Blues

Yep as I said earlier.

My bad, should pay more attention, I was thinking the MS Blues set you mentioned was diff. from "when the levee breaks"

Oh, yeah I should have put the real title of the set.

'tis my bad

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#15

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Aug 30 07 7:40 PM

Sorry, I couldn't get the picture up here either.

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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mississippijohnhurt1928

#16

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3638

Sep 6 07 1:47 AM

So, no luck yet, I'm assuming...

Calvin, The Hoy Hoy Boy

Currently The Proud Owner Of 230 Different Piano Red Recordings (Plus Over 1.5 Hours Of Unreleased Live Recordings Made In 1978).

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Artie the Cat

#17

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 890

Sep 6 07 3:17 PM

Yeah Calvin, 'Fraid not....I dunno why my scanner won't make things I can download to e-mails, 'cause they download to my photo files just fine---I've been really busy these past days and haven't really had time to experiment with it anew--I'll try and get on it again though...Thanks for askin'...
Artie the Cat

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cih

#18

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 1283

Sep 7 07 12:52 PM

QUOTE (Artie the Cat @ Aug 25 2007, 01:53 PM)

Calvin,
I remember we talked about Blackwell about 2 years ago or so...It was about "Junior is a Jap Girl's Christmas for His Santa Claus"...That's only Blackwell number I've ever heard and it was on an old Flyright album called "Walkin' Blues" that featured a bunch of Alan Lomax 'discoveries' for the Library of Congress like; Son House, Willie Brown, and Honeyboy Edwards....As I recall there was a Willie Brown who backed Blackwell on that tune...NOT the Willie Brown who played with Charley Patton and Son House....Lomax recorded 3 different Willie Browns...The one who played with Patton and House, one who played guitar in a style similar to Memphis Minnie in G (standard tuning, G chord forms), and finally the one I'm talking about here who also recorded a number called "Mississippi Blues" in standard tuning A chord forms with rather complex fingerpicking in a style very similar to 1920's piano style (at least to these ears it sounds like the same cat)....I realize this is all a little off the thread but it is very relevant to it and pre-war blues in general....I really dug "Junior" and the complex guitar interplay on it....Where are there other Blackwell numbers?
Artie the Cat

in Guido Van Rijn's book 'Roosevelt's Blues' he talks about "Junior, a Jap's skull Christmas for His Santa Claus" (apparently what it should be called). Before he recorded it Blackwell was concerned that Lomax would jeopardize his standing with his record company by recording him, and he warned Lomax that he would come looking for him "like the police" if he put it out commercially!

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