01. My God don't like it I & II

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. december 1955

02. The Alabama Bus I & II
03. Mighty wind
04. The Bible is right
05. Seems like a dream
06. He comes rushing like a mighty wind

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
Louis Jackson - piano
Washboard Willie - washboardd
Detroit, Mi. 1956

07. Shout school children
08. Jesus had a hard time

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
The Dixie Aires - vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. november 1957

09. The Story of President Kennedy
10. Holy Ghost don't leave me
11. Shout Brother Shout

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1964

12. Here comes the Lord

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
Rev. Henry - vocals, guitar, drums
Detroit, Mi. 1964

13. March on to Montgomery
14. Angels watching over me

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
Louis Jackson - piano
Washboard Willie - washboardd
Detroit, Mi. 1965

15. St John
16. Reverend King had a time
17. That's alright
18. The War in Wietnam
19. When I'm gone

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
Louis Jackson or Magnolia Tillman - piano
Washboard Willie - washboardd
Detroit, Mi. 1968

20. This may be the last time
21. Minny, your dress too short
22. Death knocked at my door, Jesus got the key

Brother Will Hairston - vocals
The Greater Love of Tabernacle - vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1972

23. God's going to ring those freedom bells

Reverend Reuben L. Henry - vocals
The Dixie Aires - vocals
Detroit, Mi. november 1957

This 11th Volume of our Detroit blues series is entirely dedicated to the great Gospel singer and composer Brother Will Hairston.

Will Hairston was born 22 November 1919 at Brookfield (Ms) in a very poor faming family. At an early age, he sings in his parents' church, goes to Saint Louis for better job opportunity during the 1930's, is drafted and after the war, settles in Detroit, having a secure job at the big Chrysler's plant and marrying the young Willie with whom he'd have ten children.

A very religious man, Brother Will Hairston gains the nickname of "The Hurricane of the Motor City" for his capacity to spark enthusiasm among the faithful of his church with a strong voice and his sermons that very often reflect his own views about the situation of African-Americans.

To cope with strong requests, Mr Hairston records himself his first session with the striking My God don't like it about the slaughter of the young Black teenager Emmet Till in his hometown of Money (Ms) after he had shouted a "Bye baby" to a white girl. The photos of the mutilated corpse published in several magazines had raised a wave of indignation throughout the USA. Two other titles were recorded the same day (Let him come in; Ain't nobody there but Brother Will) that I unfortunately wasn't able to get a copy.

Brother Will Hairston sells his records from his own truck while a sound system he had hooked on the roof of his vehicle blasts the music when he is driving around!

Such is the success of Brother Will that the record producer and dealer Joe Von Battle (who of course played a major role in the Detroit blues scene) brings Hairston in his studios for an historical and magnificent 1956 session with the powerful hit Alabama Bus, the very first song about the Montgomery (Al) bus strike after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, like she should have done according to the segregation laws. Alabama bus is also the very first song mentioning Martin Luther King Jr.

The following decade, Hairston will continue to record in this Gospel/ protest song vein, notably Shout, school children about Little Rock Central High events, forcing the integration of some black school children in a only white school; The Story of President Kennedy about the murder of JFK; Reverend King had a hard time just after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Brother Will is himself the victim of a shooting and retires from Chrysler in 1970, focusing entirely to his family and his Greater Love Tabernacle Church with which he records a last session in 1972.

Brother Will Hairston dies in Detroit 7 March 1988, leaving a vibrant, powerful and largely remarkable recording works that are unfortunately - and apart a couple of tracks - very hard to get. We have herein also included the sole 1957 record by Rev. Reuben Henry, a close friend to Hairston.

Our big thanks to Pierre Monnery and Justin Brummer for their invaluable help. And a great thank to Guido Van Rijn whose article in the very good British magazine Blues & Rhythm #167 has largely been used to write this article! ---Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. My God don't like it I & II

Brother Will Hairston -  vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. december 1955

02. The Alabama Bus I & II
03. Mighty wind
04. The Bible is right
05. Seems like a dream

Brother Will Hairston -  vocals
Louis Jackson – piano
Washboard Willie – washboard
Detroit, Mi. 1956

06. Shout school children

Brother Will Hairston -  vocals
The Dixie Aires – vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. november 1957

07. The Story of President Kennedy
08. Holy Ghost don't leave me

Brother Will Hairston -  vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. november 1964

09. March on to Montgomery

Brother Will Hairston -  vocals
Louis Jackson – piano
Washboard Willie – washboard
Detroit, Mi. 1965

10. This may be the last time

Brother Will Hairston -  vocals
The Greater Love of Tabernacle – vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1968

11. When the sun is shining
12. When the sun was shining n°2
13. Remember way back
14. Little machine
15. Little schoolgirl
16. Come back sugar mama
17. Hold me in your arms

L.C. Green – vocals, guitar
Walter Mitchell – harmonica, vocals
Gallatin, Tn. 1952

18. Going to the river
19. Going down to the river

L.C. Green – vocals, guitar
Walter Mitchell – harmonica, vocals
Robert Richard – harmonica
Detroit, Mi. 1953

20. Pistol blues
21. Mary Ann blues
22. Hastings street boogie
23. Things is going so tough today
24. Shine my light

L.C. Green – vocals, guitar
Walter Mitchell – harmonica, piano
Detroit, Mi. 1954

25. Hoffa's blues

Anonymous – vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1966

Let's start this Detroit blues: Volume 10 with the powerful Gospel and protest song shouter and composer Brother Will Hairston, well known for his striking Alabama bus (about the Montgomery racial bus incident) which is the very first song to mention the Reverend Martin Luther King. Thanks to blues writer and researcher Guido Van Rijn, who interviewed Hairston's widow and daughter, we know the life of this great singer. Will Hairston was born on 22nd November 1919 at Brookfield, Ms and went to Detroit in 1945 to work on the Chrysler Plant. But he also preached in his local Baptist Church and recorded (mostly on his own labels, with the exception of one session for Joe Von Battle) 27 extraordinary and passionate topical blues/Gospels, mostly about the struggle of the African-Americans against segregation in the Southern States. We have been able to gather 10 of those titles. If anyone has the very elusive other tracks and would be willing to share, any .mp3 copy would be most welcomed. Brother Will died in his Detroit home on March, 7th 1988.

If the best known records of singer-guitarist L.C. Green (born 23 October 1921 at Minter City, Ms - † 24 August 1985 at Pontiac, Mi) have been often reissued, we have here gathered the complete known recordings of this excellent very down-home bluesman who made all of his musical career in Detroit, most often backed by his cousin Walter Mitchell, a blues singer and harp player himself.

At last we have Hoffa's blues, an odd blues made as a tribute to International Brotherhood of Teamsters'leader (and Mafia member) Jimmy Hoffa. It was recorded in 1966 for the Convention of the Truck Drivers' Union that was based in Miami this very year and pressed only for this event. Hoffa who was very popular among workers (and among African Americans for his stand for equal rights) was banned from AFL-CIO before being send in jail for his Mafia's connections and finally probably murdered by the hired killer Richard Kuklinsky in 1975! Anyway this Hoffa's blues swinging on the John Henry tune is sung by an "anonymous" excellent laid-back R&B singer who is still a mystery. Any more clue?

Thanks to all who contributed to this article: Pierre Monnery and Marc for their generosity in sharing rare tracks; Guido van Rijn for his first rate research about Brother Will Hairston (cf: Blues & Rhyhtm Magazine n° 167), Mr Mightygroove and D.J. Lucien for their expertise on Hoffa's blues. --- Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. Trying for a future

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
+ The Organics
Detroit, Mi. 1968

02. Christmas time baby

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
Roman Griswold – organ, bass, drums

03. Good thing going
04. Foot stumping

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
Roman Griswold – organ, bass, drums
Detroit, Mi. 1969

05. Pretty mama blues
06. Trying for a future
07. Daddy Daddy I & II

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
Roman Griswold – organ, bass, drums
Detroit, Mi. 1970

08. Daddy daddy (LaVal)
09. I just got to know (LaVal)

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
Roman Griswold – organ, vocals
+ band
Kalamazoo, Mi. 1972

10. I Just Got to Know/ Look what the fool made me do
11. Look what the fool made me do

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
+ band
Toledo, Oh. 1974

12. Main Street beat
13. The big game hunter

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
+ band
Toldeo, Oh. 1980

14. What the Judge did to me
15. There is something on your mind

Arthur Griswold – vocals, guitar
+ band
Toldeo, Oh. 1986

16. If you don’t believe I’m leaving
17. Eva Lee

James Walton – vocals, piano
Walter Mitchell – harmonica
Howard Richard – guitar
Robert Richard – guitar, drums
Detroit, Mi. 28 january 1954

18. Papa Doo

James Walton – vocals, harmonica
+ band
Detroit, Mi. c. 1958

19. Leaving blues
20. Miss Jessie James

James Walton – vocals, harmonica
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1963

21. Tell me what you got/ Shade grove

James Walton – vocals, harmonica, horns
Clarence Walton – guitar
Marc Walton – bass
Melvin Walton – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1965

17. Spend my money
18. Highway blues
19. I’m to blame
20. I’m leaving
21. Gittin’ it with Soul
22. Quit pussyfooling around
23. I’ve got a broken heart

James Walton (as Little Daddy Walton) - vocals, harmonica, organ
Clarence Walton – guitar
Marc Walton – bass
Melvin Walton – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1966-67

25. Shame shame shame
26. Snap your fingers
27. If you need me

Barbara Lewis – vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1962-63

Arthur Griswold (1939-2003) hails from a large Arkansas sharecropping family and didn't learn guitar before he had a bad motorcycle accident at 17. After moving to Toledo for better job opportunities with his elder brother, keyboardist and singer Roman Griswold (1936-2012), he launched his own blues band, The Griswolds who played mainly in the local taverns, recording some very down home blues 45s from 1969 for tiny labels. The Griswolds enjoyed some larger success after touring Europe and recording several excellent CD's.

Singer and harp player James Douglas "Little Daddy" Walton (1922-2000) was also a very popular figure of the blues clubs of Detroit where he was playing for years during the week ends (he always had to make a living outside music) with his sons (Clarence, Melvin, Myron and bassist Larry who is now a staunch member of the renowned Motor City Beat Orchestra). He also recorded a handful of very low down blues 45s between 1954 to 1969 for small local labels that are today highly praised by blues fans all over the world.

At the other end of the Detroit musical spectrum, sweet soul singer Barbara Lewis (born in 1943) has nevertheless waxed some blues that are not very known by blues buffs. I particularly like her rendition of Frisco blues (I left my heart in San Francisco) which draws its main inspiration from the John Lee Hooker's title he recorded for Vee Jay some time before. ---Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. This old world is in a tangle
02. I'm in the Highway man
03. Lilly Mae blues
04. Welfare blues

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
Sampson Pittman – guitar
Detroit, Mi. 15-16 october 1938

05. She's a double crossin' woman
06. The Dirty dozens
07. Boogie woogie
08. Lilly Mae n°2
09. Blues
10. Highway 51

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
Sampson Pittman – guitar
Detroit, Mi. 1 november 1938

11. Sweet Lucy (Drinking woman)
12. Bebop boogie

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1949

13. Got nobody to tell my troubles to
14. Rock house
15. Lillie Mae n°3
16. I need love

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
Barbara Brown – vocals (16)
Toledo, Oh. 1951

17. Got nobody to tell my troubles to n°2
18. Little baby child

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
T.J. Fowler – piano
Elliot Escoe – trumpet
Walter Cox – tenor saxophone
Lee Gross – alto saxophone
John Murphy – bass
Clarence Stamps – drums
Detroit, Mi. 25 july 1952

19. Sweet bread baby - Lilly Mae n°4

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
Jimmy Millner's Blue Rhythm
Detroit, Mi. 1952

20. We'll meet again
21. Lilly Mae n°5
22. Track down
23. Rockhouse

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
Washboard Willie – washboard, drums
Detroit, Mi. 1956

24. Have blues, must travel

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1958

25. 2-2-5 Special I & II

Calvin Frazier – vocals, guitar
Washboard Willie – washboard
Detroit, Mi. 1960

Among the handful of those who "really" lived and played with Robert Johnson, Calvin Frazier is altogether the less known and maybe the closest to Robert.

Calvin is born on February, 16th, 1915 at Osceola (Arkansas), one of five children of Van and Belle Frazier, a family of sharecroppers. As early as 1923, the Fraziers come to Memphis for better jobs, the father working on a furniture factory and the mother in a laundry. The Fraziers are very religious and also good musicians and they form a Gospel band with Van singing and playing fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass, Belle singing and playing the piano while Johnny, the elder son, is already a fluent guitar player who strongly influences his little brother Calvin. Quite often, one of their cousin, Johnny Shines, comes to live and also plays with them.

But the Frazier brothers - with quite often Johnny Shines - play also the blues for extra money on the Memphis Streets. Around 1930-31, the trio has enough reputation to play outside Memphis, in Tennessee as well as in the Delta juke joints and in Helena (Ark) where they meet Robert Johnson, playing there in the streets, backed by the drums of Peck Curtis (!). The young men become quickly friends and Robert will very often play with the Fraziers and Johnny Shines at juke joints, parties, picnics and such... In Memphis, Calvin accompanies also the famous pianist Speckled Red who teaches him many of his favorite songs like Dirty dozens.

In 1935, a family brawl between Johnny Frazier and his father in law turns into tragedy. Johnny is shot dead by his father in law while Calvin, wounded, has just the time to catch a rifle in his car and kill his brother's murderer. After a short stint at Memphis hospital, Calvin chooses not to trust the local justice and, alongside his old partners Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines, takes the road up to Saint Louis. Although those "rural" musicians are not very well greeted by the local accomplished bluesmen they nevertheless play here and there with Roosevelt Sykes, Peetie Whetastraw and Blind Teddy Darby (whose vocals will strongly influence Shines).

After Saint Louis, the three friends want to go to Chicago seeking better opportunities but while playing in Decatur they are hired by the Elder Moten Show, a Gospel caravan which needs them for a series of well paid Detroit dates during the fall of 1935.

While in Detroit, they live at the home of Johnny Shines' cousin Frances Dunlap who some weeks later marry Calvin. Getting a good steady job in a motor plant, Frazier decides to settle in Detroit. For Calvin, it is the end of the road shared with his old friends, Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines who then leave Detroit to return to the South for the winter.

Calvin who has already a long musical experience becomes easily a favorite of the burgeoning Detroit blues scene, mostly around Hastings Street and Paradise Valley.

In October 1938, Alan Lomax who was on a recording hunt for local musical traditions from Wisconsin and Michigan (essentially people coming from the Balkans and Eastern Europe) hears about this Detroit bluesman who knew very well Robert Johnson. Lomax then records Frazier accompanied by Sampson Pittman, an old buddy from the South who also now lives in Detroit. Among the musical examples and spoken interviews made by Lomax we have only kept the ten "complete" (or almost) titles recorded during two days in October and November 1938. They are undoubtedly strong examples of a style very close to Robert Johnson's.

The following years, Calvin plays very often with almost every blues or R&B act in Detroit and his guitar playing is more and more "modern", very influenced by the rising Californian guitar stars like T-Bone Walker. While associated with Big Maceo, Calvin should have recorded in Chicago for the Bluebird label but quite ill this very day he is unable to do the trip! Maybe it would have changed the course of his career?

During 1946-47, Calvin tours with the Jungle Five Revue and plays his guitar licks up to New York and Montreal. He is also the lead guitarist of Baby Boy Warren, the T.J. Fowler's R&B band, the Jimmy Millner's Rhythm Band, teaches the guitar to Bobo Jenkins.... Early in 1954, he buys himself a Stratocaster, being certainly one of the very first bluesman to play this type of guitar.

Despite all this, Calvin records only sporadically under his own name and only for very small local Detroit or Toledo labels with poor distribution (Fortune, Alben, JVB...).

He dies at the young age of 57 from a massive heart attack on September 23d, 1972, a well respected musician, with a strong reputation among his peers but largely unknown outside a small group of blues buffs around the world.

We have been able to gather here and for the first time everything Calvin Frazier has recorded (two tracks waxed for Fortune with the Jimmy Milner's band have been now unearthed, see below and on my YouTube channel.). Thus we are able to appreciate fully the considerable talent of this very underrated guitarist, how he (like all of the few real Robert Johnson's close associates like Robert Jr Lockwood and Johnny Shines) has evolved from the "new" Delta blues of his Southern years to the jazzy and modern sounds of the late 40's and 1950's. Calvin and Johnson were so close musically that we only can imagine that Robert himself would certainly have followed the same path, if only he could have lived enough. --- Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. My special friend blues
02. Nervy woman blues
03. Lonesome cabin blues
04. Don't want no skinny woman
05. Forgive me darling
06. Please don't think I'm nosey

Robert Henry Warren (Baby Boy) – vocals, guitar
Charley Mills – piano
Milt Larkin – bass
Detroit, Mi. 1949

07. I got lucky
08. Let's renew our love
09. Taxi driver
10. Bad lover blues

Robert Henry Warren – vocals, guitar
Boogie Woogie Red – piano
Calvin Frazier – guitar
Curtis Foster – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1950

11. Sanafee
12. Not welcome anymore
13. Hello stranger
14. Bring me my machine gun
15. Chicken
16. Chuck a luck
17. Baby boy blues

Robert Henry Warren – vocals, guitar
Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) – harmonica
Washboard Willie -  washboard
Detroit, Mi. 10 january 1954

18. Mattie Mae
19. Santa Fe

Robert Henry Warren – vocals, guitar
Boogie Woogie Red – piano
Calvin Frazier – guitar
Detroit, Mi. march 1954

20. Somebody put bad luck on me
21. Stop breaking down

Robert Henry Warren – vocals, guitar
Johnny Hooks – tenor saxophone
Boogie Woogie Red – piano
Little George Jackson – guitar
Jimmy Tarrant – drums
Detroit, Mi. july 1954

22. Too many drivers
23. She's fine

Robert Henry Warren – vocals, guitar
Boogie Woogie Red – piano
+ band
Ann Arbor, Mi. 1973

Baby Boy Warren is another major name of the post-war Detroit blues scene and his recording output (between 1949 and 1954) has gained some kind of a "classical" status.

Born on August, 13th, 1919 at Lake Providence (La), Robert Henry Warren has in fact been raised in Memphis, learning the guitar with his elder brother with whom he formed a duo, Big Boy Warren and Baby Boy Warren, a nickname that would stick to him forever. During the late 1930's he plays regularly with local bluesmen Little Buddy Doyle and Willie Borum while being strongly influenced by the recordings of John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. He is rumoured to have recorded two titles at that time but no evidence of this has never surfaced. In 1941, he is for a few months a featured member (alongside the other Sonny Boy (Rice Miller) and Robert Lockwood) of the popular radio programme King Biscuit Time broadcasted from Helena (Arkansas).

1942 finds him in Detroit trying to make a better living at General Motors and playing the blues in the clubs. He finally makes his first known recordings in 1949, visiting sporadically the Detroit studios for the next six years, issuing records on small local labels, some of it stirring enough interest to be also issued by labels with national distribution like Federal or Excello. Baby Boy is backed by the best Detroit bluesmen (Calvin Frazier, Boogie Woogie Red) but this is his January, 1954 session that generally is better known because he is in the company of his old mate Rice Miller who, coming from the South to Chicago, made a stopover in Detroit, living for some months at Baby Boy's place and playing with him at some Hastings Street's clubs. In fact, Chicken/ Chuck a luck is mostly a Rice Miller instrumental. The other titles are of the same high standard, particularly Sanafee and Hello Stranger/ Mattie Mae, a reworking of a John Lee Williamson's hit.

But, despite an essay to modernize his sound with the add of Johnny Hooks' saxophone on a last 1954 session, the very downhome blues of Baby Boy with a strong late 1940's flavor seems already out-fashioned and Warren won't record anymore, playing less and less outside private parties.

He was making a modest comeback in the 1970's with appearances at the 1971 Detroit blues festival, the 1973 Ann Arbor festival (where he recorded two "live" titles) and a European tour alongside Boogie Woogie Red (he may have recorded an album during this tour but nothing has been issued insofar) when he died of a massive heart attack on July, 1st 1977. --- Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. You better cut that out
02. You say that you're leaving
03. I'm leaving
04. Wig wearing woman

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar
Joe Weaver – piano
J.W. King – bass
Jimmy Ponder – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1963

05. Jingling baby

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar
Lafayette Leake – piano
Dave Myers – bass
Fred Below – drums
Chicago, Ill. may 1966

06. She's in L.A.
07. Cross your heart
08. Bad bad whiskey
09. Kansas City
10. Your daddy ain't fooling
11. I call it love

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar, harmonica
Pat Grover - guitar
Bob Hall – piano
Jim Jewell – tenor saxophone
Dave Gelly – tenor saxophone
Bob Brunning – bass
John Hunt – drums
London, GB. February 1972

12. Bottle up and go
13. Detroit woman
14. Whiskey headed woman
15. Vicksburg blues

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar
London, GB. February 1972

16. Biscuit bakin' mama
17. Bury me back in the U.S.A.

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica
John Lord – piano
Martin Stone – guitar
Harvey Weston – bass
Pete York – drums
London, GB. 5 May 1975

Detroit boasted a vibrant blues scene during the postwar era, headed by John Lee Hooker and prominently featuring Eddie Burns, who hit the Motor City in 1948 and musically flourished there. While still in Mississippi, Burns picked up his early blues training from the 78s of Sonny Boy Williamson, Tommy McClennan, and Big Bill Broonzy. When he hit Detroit, Burns was exclusively a harp player. He cut "Notoriety Woman," his first single for Holiday in 1948, with partner John T. Smith on guitar. Burns added guitar to his personal arsenal the next year, cutting sessions with Hooker. Burns' own discography was slim but select -- he cut singles for DeLuxe in 1952 ("Hello Miss Jessie Lee"), Checker in 1954 ("Biscuit Baking Mama"), JVB, and Chess in 1957 ("Treat Me Like I Treat You"). In 1961, Burns waxed the slashing "Orange Driver" and several more R&B-slanted sides for Harvey Fuqua's Harvey Records.

Later, Burns made a fine album for Blue Suit Records, Detroit, that showed his versatility on two instruments to good advantage. Incidentally, blues talent runs in the Burns family: brother Jimmy is a blues-soul performer based in Chicago, with his own impressive discography stretching back to the '60s. ---Bill Dahl, Rovi

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01. Papa's boogie
02. Bad woman blues (Notoriety woman)

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica
John T. Smith – guitar
Detroit, Mi. 1948

03. Making a fool out of me
04. Where did you stay last night?
05. Squeeze me baby

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica
John Lee Hooker – guitar
John T. Smith – guitar
Tom Whitehead – drums
Detroit, Mi. june 1951

06. Gangster blues
07. Grieving blues
08. Decoration day

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica
John T. Smith – guitar
John Lee Hooker – guitar
Tom Whitehead – drums
Detroit, Mi. November 1952

09. Hello Miss Jessie Lee
10. Dealing with the Devil

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica
Chuck Smith – piano
Percy Lee Brown – guitar
Washboard Willie - washboard
Detroit, Mi. december 1952

11. She keeps me guessing
12. Sittin' here wondering
13. I love to jump the boogie

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica, guitar
George Jackson – guitar
Charlie Mills – piano
Tom Whitehead – drums
Detroit, Mi. march 1953

14. I ain't cheatin'
15. Sunnyland blues

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar
+ band
Detroit, Mi. september 1953

16. Superstition
17. Biscuit baking mama

Eddie Burns – vocals, harmonica
Percy Lee Brown – guitar
Bob Thurman – piano
Tom Whitehead – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1954

18. Treat me like I treat you
19. Don't cha leave me baby

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar
Bob Thurman – piano
George Deloach - bass
Melvin Sims – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1957

20. Orange driver
21. Hard hearted woman

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar
Aaron Willis – guitar
Robert White – guitar
Shorty Long – trumpet
Marvin Gaye – drums
Detroit, Mi. january 1961

22. The thing to do
23. Mean and evil baby
24. Messing with my bread

Eddie Burns – vocals, guitar, harmonica, horns
Joe Hunter or Harvey Fuqua – piano
Robert White – guitar, bass, drums
Detroit, Mi. may 1961

Born in Belzoni (Ms) on February 8th, 1928, Eddie Burns has been raised by his sharecropping grandparents. But he learned anyway from his father who was an itinerant singer and musician in several Southern medicine shows and who came to visit him regularly. Young Eddie fell under the spell of John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's records - a lasting influence - and followed and learned also from several Mississippi bluesmen like Tommy Mc Clennan, Robert Petway and Tony Hollins.

At the end of the war, looking for a better life, Eddie moved North, first in Iowa and then in Detroit where he found a job as a mechanic. Very quickly, he became a favorite of the ebullient and burgeoning Detroit Blackbottom blues scene and his many clubs along Hastings Street. A very reliable musician and a fine gentleman, Eddie took a pivotal part in the local blues, befriended with most of the other Detroit bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, Baby Boy Warren, Bobo Jenkins, giving to all clubs and recordings opportunities. Eddie was also a wise adviser to promoters, clubs and labels owners like the famous Joe Von Battle.

Eddie recorded excellent tracks quite regularly in Detroit from 1948 to 1963 for several labels unfortunately without much commercial success. His music developed from a strict Williamson's carbon copy to much more modern blues sounds that featured more and more his lead guitar playing. There has even been a session for Harvey Fuqua's label that featured a young Marvin Gaye as a drummer!

He was hired to play lead guitar on John Lee Hooker's 1966 Chess album (The Real Folk Blues), recording two tracks under his name (one is still unissued!). But the late 1960's were very musical lean years for Eddie, the blues being then vastly ignored by young African Americans and the Detroit blues scene almost disappearing after the dramatic 1967 racial riots that literally burned down the Black Bottom. Anyway, after a significant appearance at the 1970 Detroit Blues festival where he even played a moving solo number a la Mc Clennan, Eddie Burns went to tour England in 1972, gaining more fame from appreciative audiences and recording in London his first album, Bottle up and go for the short-lived Action label. He would come back several times in Europe, waxing more albums for Big Bear or Black & Blue. At last, from 1989, he recorded albums in his home Country for Blue Suit and for Delmark (maybe his best with brother Jimmy Burns).

Eddie Burns, enjoying a strong local status, appeared regularly in Detroit until his death on December, 12th 2012. --- Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. I tried
02. Man of stone
03. Train done gone
04. I'm going to keep lovin' you
05. Something's gone wrong in my life
06. Baby you know it's true

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar, harmonica
King Curtis – tenor saxophone
Oliver Nelson – tenor saxophone
Herman Foster – piano
Billy Butler – guitar
Jimmy Lewis – bass
Ray Lucas – drums
Englefield Cliffs, NJ. 8 december 1961

07. Saturday night stomp
08. I'm gonna forget you
09. Down on my knees
10. Don't take my heart
11. Daddy please don't cry
12. Have mercy on me baby

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar
George Stubbs – piano
Elise Shoulder – vocals (11)
Englefield Cliffs, NJ. 9 march 1962

13. Let me walk with you
14. Monkey tonight

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, harmonica
Bobby Cash – piano, guitar
Sonny Galse – tenor saxophone
Sam Stokes – tenor  saxophone
Wayne Cochran – bass, drums
The Angelos – vocals (13)
Macon, Ga. 17 march 1964

15. Hog killing time
16. Treat me the way you want me

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, harmonica
+ band
Macon, Ga. 9 september 1964

17. The Hawg I
18. The Hawg II
19. Them bones
20. I found a brand new love

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, harmonica
Steve Cropper – guitar
Donald Dunn – bass
Al Jackson – drums
The Memphis Horns
Memphis, Tn. 1965

21. Every hour every minute (I wanna be with you)
22. The grunt

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, harmonica
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1968

How many Jamaican-born bluesmen recorded with John Lee Hooker and toured with Otis Redding? It's a safe bet there was only one: Eddie Kirkland, who engaged in some astonishing on-stage acrobatics over the decades (like standing on his head while playing guitar on TV's Don Kirshner's Rock Concert). But you would never find any ersatz reggae grooves cluttering Kirkland's work. He was brought up around Dothan, Alabama before heading north to Detroit in 1943. There he hooked up with Hooker five years later, recording with him for several labels as well as under his own name for RPM in 1952, King in 1953, and Fortune in 1959. Tru-Sound Records, a Prestige subsidiary, invited Kirkland to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in 1961-1962 to wax his first album, It's the Blues Man! The polished R&B band of saxophonist King Curtis intersected with Kirkland's intense vocals, raucous guitar, and harmonica throughout the exciting set. Exiting the Motor City for Macon, Georgia in 1962, Kirkland signed on with Otis Redding as a sideman and show opener not long thereafter. Redding introduced Kirkland to Stax/Volt co-owner Jim Stewart, who flipped over Eddie's primal dance workout "The Hawg." It was issued on Volt in 1963, billed to Eddie Kirk. By the dawn of the '70s, Kirkland was recording for Pete Lowry's Trix label; he also waxed several CDs for Deluge in the '90s. Kirkland remained active into the 21st century, and was in Florida to perform at a show in the Gulf Coast community of Dunedin when he died from injuries sustained when the automobile he was driving collided with a Greyhound bus in Crystal River on February 27, 2011. Eddie Kirkland was 87 years old. ---Bill Dahl, Rovi

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01. It's time for lovin' to be done
02. That's all right

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar
John Lee Hooker – guitar, vocals
Detroit, Mi. 1952

03. Please don't think I'm nosey
04. No shoes I & II
05. I mistreated a woman
06. Time for my lovin to be done

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar
Roy Brown – drums
Cincinnati, Oh. 23 July 1953

07. I need you baby
08. I must have done somebody wrong

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar
Johnny Hooks – tenor saxophone
Joe Dooms – piano
Jimmy Parner – drums
Detroit, Mi. 1959

09. Train done gone
10. You know I love you
11. Blood on your hands
12. Love you 'til the day I die

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar, harmonica
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1960

13. So pretty baby
14. I tried
15. I am so tired (Oh baby please)
16. Back bone

Eddie Kirkland – vocals, guitar
The Falcons – vocals
+ band
Detroit, Mi. Marc 1961

Although he has always said that he was born August, 16th 1923 (or 1928) in Kingston (Jamaica), Eddie Kirkland, according to his relatives, would be in fact born in Dothan (Alabama) from a very young girl (of 12 years) that Eddie had not really ever known. He was raised by a foster grandmother who was always listening to Gospel and Country Music through the Grand Ole Opry radio programme, infusing love of the music to the boy.

At a very early age, Eddie works full time in the Sugar Girls Medicine Show first as a handyman and, thanks to the other members of the show who taught him several instruments, more and more as a singer, entertainer and musician. Eddie often told that his striking showmanship came from those medicine show's years. Unfortunately the show (like many others) doesn't survive to the War and Eddie has to work in the industry, first in Indiana and then in Detroit, Michigan. With his show business experience, Kirkland is soon very active in the thriving Detroit blues and R&B scene. In the early 50's, he meets John Lee Hooker who is becoming the blues star of Motor City. Hooker who admired very much the twin guitars of Memphis Minnie and Little Son Joe took Eddie with him and the subsequent years saw Eddie playing second guitar with Hooker and recording some incredible tight guitar duos with his leader and some of the best tracks waxed by Hooker at that time. He has also the opportunity to record sporadically for some local labels, his music much more "modern" than Hooker's with a voice strongly influenced by Gospel singers.

This partnership with John Lee, although very successful musically, didn't entirely satisfy Kirkland who said he suffered to stay in the shadow of the bigger name. It also seems that at the end of the 50's, Eddie was involved in a murder case and was in jail for three years.

Anyway, the early 60's find our man in New York City, trying his luck in the R&B clubs, adding a lot of new sounds (like Soul) to his music. This is how he happens to record in 1961 a first-rate album for the Prestige label (in fact its subsidiary Tru Sound) backed by the powerful King Curtis and Billy Butler band. Even if Eddie would later record several excellent albums for labels like Trix, JSP, Evidence or Deluge, this particular LP stands like a true masterpiece. Unfortunately, the music is then judged too soul-oriented for the public of the blues revival whose the Prestige label is chiefly aimed at and the album doesn't sell at all.

Eddie leaves then New York and settles in Macon (Georgia) where, as usual, he plays in the local clubs. One night, Otis Redding, a then rising star, catches his show and takes him in his band. Eddie plays guitar and harmonica with Otis, sings a couple of songs in his shows and has the opportunity to record for the Volt label some commercially successful 45s, The Hawg even making its way into the R&B Top 100 in 1965.

After the untimely death of Redding, the 70's are very lean years for Eddie. The producer and researcher Pete Lowry finds Eddie, persuades him to try his luck as a solo country bluesman, finds him some good gigs and festival appearances and brings him in the studios for two excellent albums for his own label Trix, Front and Center, a very good acoustic solo effort and The Devil and other blues Demons with a small band. Those two are well worth listening to.

Despite all this, Eddie will have to wait until the 1990's to gain his due recognition as a major artist, taking by storm audiences in the USA and Europe, recording several CDs and even becoming some kind of an aged rock star with his association with the group Foghat!

Despite his age and faltering health, Eddie Kirkland was still musically active when he died from a car accident on February, 27th, 2011 near Tampa in Florida. ---Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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01. Stop messing around
02. Pet milk blues
03. Broke and hungry

Walter Mitchell – vocals, harmonica
Robert Richard – harmonica
Boogie Woogie Red – piano
Little George – bass
Detroit, Mi. 1948

04. Watercoast blues
05. Low down dirty shame
06. Shady land blues

Walter Mitchell – vocals, harmonica
+ band
Detroit, Mi. 1954

07. Rambling around blues

Sam Kelly – vocals, harmonica
Robert Richard – harmonica
L.C. Green – guitar
Detroit, Mi. 1953

08. Cadillac woman
09. Wig wearing woman
10. Wigwam woman
11. New York Central
12. Root hog
13. Baby please don't go

Robert Richard – vocals, harmonica
Walter Mitchell - harmonica
Boogie Woogie Red – piano
Little George – bass
Detroit, Mi. 1948

14. Drunk driver's coming
15. Stolen property

Robert Richard – vocals, guitar
Howard Richard - vocals, guitar
Detroit, Mi. 1959

Robert Richard (born in Cartersville, Ga. on octobre 4th, 1924) learned the guitar and the harmonica with his uncle, a quite famous bootlegger who had troubles with the Chicago Mafia! Robert, like a lot of other southerners, came to work in the automobile industry in 1942. With his brother Howard (himself a good singer and guitarist), Robert is quite quickly a steady member of the blues fraternity who play in the numerous Hastings Street clubs. Robert acquires a strong reputation with his powerful harmonica style largely derived from John lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's. He records with Walter Mitchell and pianist Boogie Woogie Red in 1948, then is featured as a sideman on many Detroit recording sessions, particularly with Bobo Jenkins (whose band he is a permanent member). He waxes some sides under his name for Chess in Chicago but those titles unfortunately are still unissued! After the blues becomes outfashioned among the young black public in the 60's and the once thrieving Hastings Street bluescene diseppears completely, Robert Richard gives up the music. But he is rediscovered by George Paulus who records him in 1975 and 1977 for an excellent all acoustic LP. But this album sells very poorly and Richard drifts in obscurity. We don't even know the date and place of his probable death.

Walter Mitchell (born in Pickens, Ark on march 19th, 1919) comes to Detroit with his mother in 1926 already playing the harmonica! He hoboes everywhere in the Southern States during the 1930's, playing and singing the blues under the name Little Walter according to his diminutive stature (before Walter Jacobs). Drafted in 1942, Walter is badly wounded in the leg on the Pacific front and discharged in 1944, he settles permanently in Detroit, making a living from his music, frequently in company of his cousin, the singer and guitariste L.C. Green. Although he has been quite often in the Detroit studios as a sideman, Walter made only two sessions under his name, first in 1948 with Robert Richard and another in 1954. He relocates in Toledo during the 60's where he is interviewed by some British researchers for the Blues Unlimited magazine. That allows him to make some great appearances in Toledo. He dies there on january 10th 1990.

Last but not least, harp player and singer Sam Kelly waxed only one title, the stupendous Rambling around blues. Sam is a complete unknown but it has been strongly suggested that Sam Kelly was in fact a nom de disque for none other than Walter Mitchell. --- Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com

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