SINNERS AND SAINTS — The Complete Works 1926-1931 of T.C.I. SECTION CREW, FREEMAN STOWER, "BEANS HAMBONE & EL MORROW, "BIG BOY" GEORGE OWENS, WILL BENNETT, LONNIE COLEMAN, NUGRATE TWINS, BLIND ROGER HAYS, PINK ANDERSON & SIMMIE DOOLEY | DOCD-5106 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Document's Sinners and Saints (1926-1931) presents the complete recorded works of nine artists and groups, whose combined repertoires and performance styles serve as a brief but fascinating lesson in the history of black music, expanding common conceptions of the musical continuum that created the blues. The CD presents minstrel and medicine show material, religious songs, two work songs, a few so-called "blues," and a bad man blues ballad, exhibiting a wide scope of black musical traditions dating back to the 19th century and still in circulation during the 1920s and '30s. The performers not only represent a variety of genres, but demonstrate highly individualized styles that reflect their own personal aesthetics as much as any traditional form. The tones of their offerings range from the bizarre and the mirthful to the plaintive and deeply spiritual; the total effect of the album is hilarious, dark, and genuinely moving. Of the artists collected here, only Pink Anderson would record again after the 1930s, producing three albums with his "rediscovery" in the '60s. Most of the performers on this compilation recorded two sides apiece, appearing in a studio for only one day of their lives; Freeman Stowers and the Pink Anderson-Simmie Dooley team have four tracks each, and the miraculous Nugrape Twins are blessed with six. Stowers performs two harmonica blues numbers, infusing one with a knockout, if grating, impersonation of a train, shrieking underneath the strains of his harp to simulate the roaring locomotive's whistle. In two other tracks, he abandons the instrument altogether for vocal imitations of animals, creating a surreal listening experience that is both terrifying and uproarious. If some of his impersonations, including a hog and a wildcat, are dead on the money, others of the inhabitants of his "Sunrise on the Farm" seem to have sprung out of the sideshows of hell. Taken together, Stowers' menagerie probably comprises some of the strangest six minutes ever recorded commercially. "Beans" Hambone, accompanied by guitarist El Morrow, continues the surrealism of Stowers' "Sunrise" with an eerie comic song called "Beans," plunked out on an unusual homemade guitar whose notes hypnotically punctuate the half-sung and half-spoken tale, in which a doctor writes prescriptions for beans, Biblical figures have gardens and arks full of beans, the singer dies from eating beans and is buried in beans, and his funeral is "preached...in beans, beans, beans." The six tracks by the Nugrape Twins (Matthew and Mark) are full of youthful energy, whether the twins are singing about the pleasures of heaven or of Nugrape Soda, or, at their most sublime, combining the two ("Way down yonder in the promised land, a-run and tell your mama, here's the Nugrape Man"). "I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape" is their masterpiece, a simultaneous hymn and jingle that advertises the soda as a cure for any earthly or spiritual ailment; like all of their songs, it pits the two rural voices against a concert piano in a unique synthesis of styles. The twins are succeeded by the New Orleans songster Blind Roger Hays, whose two songs constitute the spiritual climax of the album. Hays' singing and playing are deceptively simple, reflecting a depth of emotion that transforms the sentimentality of his lyrics and tunes into deeply inspiring and soul-shaking work. Following Hays' "I Must Be Blind, I Cannot See" (a beautiful statement with a melody lifted from "Home Sweet Home"), the album concludes with the duets of Anderson and Dooley, whose quick fingerwork, raucous kazoo, and spirited vocals maintain the exuberance if not the spirituality of Hays' performances. The performers assembled here recorded their few minutes of fame with a rich intensity, packing years and decades of experience -- and ultimately disappearing -- into the narrow circumference of a 78 record. Each artist in this well-crafted set presents his own model of rejuvenation and deliverance, whether grounded in the promise of heaven; the sound of a passenger train; the flavor of an ice-cold Nugrape; or the pleasures of stronger drink, sex, and dance -- of "tipping out tonight" and "strutting his stuff." With brief notes by blues writer Paul Oliver, the album is as entertaining and educational as the best of Document's CDs. It is doubly commendable for illustrating the breadth of traditions captured on "race records," while also showcasing the talents of the lesser-known patron saints of the business. Highly recommended. Burgin Mathews

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. The lack of early recordings means that we have no direct contemporary information on the sounds of black music in the formative years from the 1890s to the l920s. So we have to make deductions from what evidence we can obtain. Take work song, for instance. No field recordings were made of the songs of the black section gangs as they physically “lined track” – straightened railroad lines buckled by heat – until Henry Truvillion was recorded in 1939. A dozen years before, a single coupling was made by the T.C.I. Section Crew; the only work song of its type to be recorded on a commercial 78rpm disc. Work songs were unaccompanied. How did instrumental accompaniments enter the blues, which is believed to have been originally a solo form of work song? A harmonica is the easiest instrument to carry, and Freeman Stowers, apparently a Texas field hand from his vocal imitations of animals on the farm, plays – and shrieks – the sounds of passing trains, a ferocious hunt for a Texas wildcat, and a medley of old blues and country dance themes. By later standards his playing may be primitive but it illustrates the origins of blues “vocalised tone”. Then there is the matter of the songs themselves – the precursors of blues and the song traditions that blues slowly replaced. Beans, a comic song half-chanted by James Albert, called “Beans Hambone”, was a song composed by Elmer Bowman and Chris Smith in 1912; all four came from the Carolinas. So did Pink Anderson, the medicine show entertainer, from South Carolina, who made a much more accomplished version of “Tippin’” Out as Gonna Tip Out Tonight. In Beans Hambone and El Morrow we have a rare glimpse of a couple of country musicians trying to learn their craft; in Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley we hear a couple of professional musicians from the travelling “medicine shows”. As I’ve Got Mine, “The Coon Crap Game” was one of Pink Anderson‘s favourite songs when he was recorded in the l950s; “Big Boy” George Owens recorded it many years before, but it was an old song by then, having been written by a white minstrel show entertainer, John Queen, in 1901. George Owens also cut a blues, using a number of standard verses that had been collected soon after Queen wrote his “Coon” song. Kentucky Blues may be a clue to his home state. Will Bennett might have come from Tennessee, where he recorded the song of a rambler who did not want to be burdened with property: “any-old-where I hang my hat is home sweet home to me”. He was another old-time “songster”, the kind of singer who could draw on a wide repertoire to entertain on street corners. His song about Railroad Bill extolled the exploits of a real-life black train robber and Alabama hero, Morris Slater, who was gunned down in 1897. Bennett identifies with the bandit in the ballad. Stack O Lee, Frankie and Albert and Railroad Bill were of this type, which may well have influenced the form of the blues. It was the songsters who adopted the guitar, replacing the 19th Century combination of banjo and fiddle. By the time they were recorded there were few banjoists left, but Lonnie Coleman was one. His rasping voice and ringing banjo give us the flavour of country music at the time when blues was an emergent music. Simply known as Matthew and Mark, the “Nugrape Twins” took their name from a proprietary non-alcoholic drink. Three of their harmonised songs bridged the old spiritual tradition and the emerging gospel songs of the Sanctified churches. Their accents were rural but their pianist was used to concert-styled accompaniments. There’s A City Built of Mansions was based on a traditional spiritual, but I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape made a gospel message out of a contemporary secular theme. The twins may be contrasted with Blind Roger Hays from New Orleans who accompanied his rough and simple songs on harmonica and a briskly strummed guitar. On I Must Be Blind, I Cannot See he sang of his affliction, made all the more touching by the cheerful dance time. Blind Simmie Dooley partnered Pink Anderson, exchanging verses on Every Day in the Week Blues based on a Harry von Tilzer song from 1900, and taking the nasal lead on C. C. And O. Blues, a four-line, sixteen bar blues on the railroad theme. It wasn’t the blues in its mature form, but the singing and playing of these songsters showed that it was on its way. DOCD-5106
Tracklist :
1    T.C.I. Section Crew–    Track Linin    2:40
2    T.C.I. Section Crew–    Section Gang Song    2:25
3    Freeman Stowers–    Railroad Blues     3:07
4    Freeman Stowers–    Texas Wild Cat Chase    2:55
5    Freeman Stowers–    Medley Of Blues (All Out And Down: Old Time Blues: Hog In The Mountain)    2:50
6    Freeman Stowers–    Sunrise On The Farm    2:57
7    "Beans" Hambone-El Morrow–    Beans    2:50
8    "Beans" Hambone-El Morrow–    Tippin' Out    2:41
9    "Big Boy" George Owens*–    Kentucky Blues    2:57
10    "Big Boy" George Owens*–    The Coon Crap Game    2:41
11    Will Bennett–    Railroad Bill    2:57
12    Will Bennett–    Real Estate Blues    2:29
13    Lonnie Coleman–    Old Rock Island Blues    3:12
14    Lonnie Coleman–    Wild About My Loving    3:05
15    The NuGrape Twins–    I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape    2:54
16    The NuGrape Twins–    There's A City Built Of Mansions    2:55
17    The NuGrape Twins–    The Road Is Rough And Rocky    2:42
18    The NuGrape Twins–    Pray Children If You Wan't To Go To Heaven    2:41
19    The NuGrape Twins–    Nugrape - A Flavor You Can't Forget    2:53
20    The NuGrape Twins–    Can't You Watch Me For One Hour    2:34
21    Blind Roger Hays–    On My Way To Heaven    3:08
22    Blind Roger Hays–    I Must Be Blind, I Cannot See     3:01
23    Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley–    Every Day In The Week Blues    2:52
24    Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley–    C.C. & O. Blues    3:09
25    Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley–    Papa's 'Bout To Get Mad    2:54
26    Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley–    Gonna Tip Out Tonight    3:10