THE TWO POOR BOYS — Joe Evans & Arthur McClain (1927-1931) The Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order | DOCD-5044 (1991) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

So deeply ingrained are perceptions of race and ethnicity in North American culture that certain artists who recorded during the 1920s and '30s have since been assigned to a sort of categorical limbo, as questions regarding whether a musician was of African or European ancestry continue to confound critics, discographers, and music historians. Despite the healthy diversity embodied by variably pigmented musicians capable of playing piano blues back to back with hillbilly string band music, a term like "racially ambiguous" has emerged to indicate that someone inadvertently violated preconceptions about who is supposed to have sounded like whom. Such is the case with mandolinist Joe Evans and guitarist Arthur McClain. Billed as the Two Poor Boys, this little-known pair of rural improvisers hailed from the eastern region of Tennessee -- where black and white players seem to have had a way of sharing musical ideas to a greater extent than was common at the time -- and left about 20 recordings for posterity to ponder. Their available works were reissued by Document in the early '90s. Had Gennett issued more than one of the seven sides this duo cut in Birmingham, Alabama during the summer of 1927, their complete works may not have fit onto one compact disc. As it is, "Little Son of a Gun" is a delightful bit of kazoo-driven hokum, good enough to make one wish that the people in charge at Gennett had also released titles like "Midnight Creepers," "I Want to Ride in Your Car," and "They Wanted a Man to Lead the Lions Around." arwulf arwulf

What does survive of the Evans and McClain legacy is a marvelous blend of toe-tapping blues and struts, reflective airs, and full-throttle Appalachian-style breakdowns. It all compares nicely with the works of Chicago-based mandolin handlers Al Miller and Charlie McCoy, as well as legendary backwoods Georgians Peg Leg Howell and Eddie Anthony. Other parallels could be drawn with Kentucky's Kessinger Brothers, Kansas City steel guitarist Casey Bill Weldon, the Dallas String Band, and the Mississippi Sheiks, source of the famous blues standard "Sitting on Top of the World," which the Poor Boys waxed in 1931. (An alternate take of that blues is not included here, nor is a record they chose to title "Boogity Woogity.") Recorded by the Kessingers in 1929 and by Evans and McClain two years later, "Sourwood Mountain" is a traditional fiddle ditty named for a towering land mass that exists northeast of Knoxville. The song would be revisited in 1962 on Frank Proffitt's album Traditional Songs and Ballads of Appalachia. The Two Poor Boys' treatment of "Down in Black Bottom" is closely based upon Bert "Snake Root" Hatton's version of 1927. This blues appears to have originated in St. Louis, for Black Bottom was the name of that city's rough-and-tumble riverfront red-light district. It was also the inspiration for "Don't Go Down in Black Bottom," a cautionary opus recorded by vocalist Black Bottom McPhail with Scrapper Blackwell in 1932 and again in 1938 with backing by Jack Newman and Blind John Davis. Hatton's original may be found on Document's fascinating compilation St. Louis 1927-1933.

Abridged from this album’s booklet notes. Joe Evans and Arthur McClain are reported to have come from Fairmount, in eastern Tennessee, a region where blacks were outnumbered twelve to one by whites, and this goes some way to explaining the evident hillbilly influences on their music. Otherwise, all we know about “The Two Poor Boys” is in the grooves of their 78s. Of six masters cut in Birmingham, Alabama in 1927, only Little Son Of A Gun (Look What You Done) was issued, with Birmingham vocal group the Dunham Jazz Singers harmonizing a blues on the reverse. Little Son Of A Gun is a typical piece of ‘20s pop music, done as lively two guitar, two kazoo novelty. Joe Evans & Arthur McClain played blues, of course: Two White Horses In A Line is from Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Sitting On Top Of The World is the Mississippi Sheiks’ hit from the year before, done with violin in a manner imitative of the original version. The mandolin heard on Two White Horses is played with an impressively even touch on John Henry Blues, a song traversed the colour line. Mill Man Blues and My Baby Got A Yo-Yo raise some intriguing questions, for the former song is verbally almost identical with a 1928 recording by Billy Bird, which itself has a guitar accompaniment virtually the same as that on My Baby Got A Yo-Yo. Evans & McClain’s other issued blues were piano-guitar duets like Mill Man Blues, the playing entirely consistent with contemporary black idiom. Black Bottom was the ghetto in Nashville, Tennessee, but these performances seem influenced by the styles of both Birmingham and St. Louis. Blues was only a part of it, though: they parodied Darby & Tarlton’s hillbilly hit, “Birmingham Jail”; turned a 1927 pop song, “Who Cares What Somebody Said” into Take A Look At That Baby, with guitar, mandolin and two kazoos (but no violin, the standard discography notwithstanding); revived a sentimental coon song in Georgia Rose; and made immaculate transfers to mandolin and guitar of the white fiddle pieces Old Hen Cackle and Sourwood Mountain. The effortless eclecticism of Joe Evans & Arthur McClain continues to challenge our notions of what “black music” was in those days. DOCD-5044
Tracklist :
1    Little Son Of A Gun (Look What You Done Done) 2:50
Guitar, Kazoo – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Kazoo, Guitar – Joe Evans
2    Two White Horses In A Line 2:51
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain, Joe Evans
3    John Henry Blues (Take 1) 3:21
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain, Joe Evans
4    John Henry Blues (Take 3) 2:44
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain, Joe Evans
5    New Huntsville Jail (Take 1) 3:13
Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Joe Evans
6    New Huntsville Jail (Take 2) 2:54
Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Joe Evans
7    Take A Look At That Baby 3:14
Vocals, Kazoo, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain, Joe Evans
8    Mill Man Blues 2:37
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans
9    Oh You Son Of A Gun 3:00
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans
10    Georgia Rose 3:00
Piano [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.] – Joe Evans
11    Early Some Morning Blues 2:38
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans
12    Cream And Sugar Blues 2:37
Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Joe Evans
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
13    Old Hen Cackle 2:42
Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain, Joe Evans
14    Sitting On Top Of The World 3:04
Guitar [Poss.], Violin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Guitar [Poss.], Violin [Poss.] – Joe Evans
15    My Baby Got A Yo-Yo 3:01
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Arthur McClain
16    So Sorry Dear 2:47
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans
17    Sourwood Mountain 2:40
Guitar [Poss.], Mandolin [Poss.] – Arthur McClain, Joe Evans
18    Down In Black Bottom (Take 1) 2:40
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans
19    Down In Black Bottom (Take 2) 2:43
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans
20    Shook It This Morning Blues 3:01
Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Arthur McClain
Vocals, Piano [Poss.], Guitar [Poss.] – Joe Evans