TOO LATE, TOO LATE BLUES — Newly Discovered Titles & Alternate Takes ★ Volume 1 • 1926-1944 | DOCD-5150 (1993) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This CD initiated a logical series for the Document label. The company's goal of reissuing every single prewar recording has resulted in hundreds of valuable CDs being reissued. Inevitably, there were new discoveries of music after the fact, so this series consists of previously unreleased titles, alternate takes, and discoveries. Vol. 1 has selections from Blind Blake ("Early Morning Blues"), Blind Lemon Jefferson ("Lock Step Blues" and "Hangman's Blues"), George "Bullet" Williams, Bessie Tucker, the Memphis Jug Band, Willie Baker, Rev. D.C. Rice, Charlie Spand, Robert Peeples, Charley Patton (an alternate of "I Shall Not Be Moved"), Big Bill Broonzy, Frank Brasswell, Memphis Minnie, the team of Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom Dorsey, Bo Carter, Joe McCoy, Kokomo Arnold (a test pressing of his famous "Milk Cow Blues"), Little Buddy Doyle, and Lonnie Johnson. More general blues collectors should explore the more obvious releases first, but specialists will find these 26 performances (and those in later CDs included in this series) to be quite fascinating. Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Document strives to preserve and present each artist’s oeuvre in a concise, logical format that will make it available for further enjoyment and study for many years to come. Inevitably, however, some items do turn up and become available to Document after (or perhaps even because) the major alcum issue is released. It is only then that some collectors realize what rare and unusual items they already have in their collections, and they make them available for Document to share with the larger community. This issue, then, acts as a clearing house to preserve and expand on what has previously been available, and also can serve as a sampler of artists that have been featured. These additional items fall into several main categories. The Rev. D. C. Rice test pressing was one I had a dub of for some ten years, but I realized only in hindsight that it was not generally known to exist. When I sent it to Document, it turned out that technical limitations (absolute album playing time) precluded its earlier use in any case, but this is a case of better late than never. I think it was Bob Dixon who pointed out this fact of life for the compiler; as soon as the work is completed as much and as well as possible, in come the corrections and additions to keep him humble and constantly on the lookout for more. Some of these are items that have only been found in the last year or so. One of these Big Bill’s is a case in point, having been picked up in a lot that was brought in “off the street” for disposal. Richard Hite sold the 78 to Pete Wielan who made it available. Mike Kirsling has made available items that he found in the great Paramount test lot of several years ago, but which he retained. Now they will be available. Several items have been tracked down via the Rarest 78’s column in 78 Quarterly. Those we’ve been able to contact have been most generous and forthcoming to help make this (and, indeed, the whole series in general) as complete and good sounding as it is. As for the question of alternate takes, Document has been including them when they are aurally different. The Charley Patton -2 included here is an exception – not noticeably different to our ears, but a better copy in any case. Some of these alternates come to our attention aurally, as in the case of Memphis Minnie‘s Reachin’ Pete, of which only one take was thought to exist. So we know for sure that some people at least listen to these issues with intense concentration. No doubt there are interesting stories behind each item presented here, but here are included the newly found, newly recognized, and newly offered items and the background of only a few of them. In conclusion, we dedicate this issue to you, the listener, who makes this task of retrieval, preservation and presentation such a labor of love for us all. DOCD-5150
Tracklist :
1    Blind Blake–    Early Morning Blues (3057-2)    2:57
2    Blind Lemon Jefferson–    Lock Step Blues (20750)    3:05
3    Blind Lemon Jefferson–    Hangman's Blues (20751-2)    3:04
4    George "Bullet" Williams–    Frisco Leaving Birmingham (Take 3)    2:52
5    Bessie Tucker–    My Man Has Quit Me (Take 2) 3:08
Piano – K.D. Johnson
6    Memphis Jug Band–    Stealin' Stealin' (Take 3) 3:07
Vocals [Group Vcl] – Memphis Jug Band
7    Willie Baker–    Weak-Minded Woman (14782 - Test)    3:04
8    Rev. D.C. Rice–    Will They Welcome Me There? (Test) 3:17
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Piano – Unknown Artist
Tambourine – Unknown Artist
Triangle – Unknown Artist
Trombone – Unknown Artist
Trumpet – Unknown Artist
9    Charlie Spand–    Levee Camp Man (Breakdown) (Take 6 - Test)    1:31
10    Charlie Spand–    Mississippi Blues (Take V6 - Test)    2:49
11    Robert Peeples–    Worry Blues (Test)    2:39
12    Charley Patton–    I Shall Not Be Moved (Take 2)    3:02
13    Big Bill–    Bow Leg Baby 2:38
Piano – Georgia Tom Dorsey
14    Frank Brasswell–    Mountain Jack Blues (16575) 2:26
Piano – Unknown Artist
15    Memphis Minnie–    Memphis Minnie-Jitis Blues (Take B) 3:15
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
16    Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom–    Do It Some More    3:11
17    Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom–    Knife Man Blues    3:11
18    Bo Carter–    New Auto Blues    3:02
19    Big Bill–    Worried In Mind Blues    3:00
20    Joe McCoy–    Meat Cutter Blues (Alternate Take) 3:08
Guitar [Possibly] – Charlie McCoy
21    Joe McCoy–    What's The Matter With You? 2:55
Piano – Jimmie Gordon
22    Memphis Minnie–    Reachin' Pete (Take B)    3:10
23    Kokomo Arnold–    Milk Cow Blues – No. 5 (Test)    2:44
24    Memphis Minnie–    Running And Dodging Blues (Take 2 - Test) 2:43
Bass [String Bass, Probably] – Ransom Knowling
Clarinet – Arnett Nelson
Piano – Blind John Davis
25    Little Buddy Doyle–    Slick Capers Blues (Test) 2:35
Harmonica [Probably] – Walter Horton
26    Lonnie Johnson–    The Victim Of Love 3:10
Bass [String Bass] – Ransom Knowling
Piano – Blind John Davis

CHARLIE SPAND – The Complete Paramounts In Chronological Order 1929-1931 | DOCD-5108 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks), lossless

Document's The Complete Paramounts (1929-1931) is an invaluable Charlie Spand anthology, reissuing all of the pianist's early sides for Paramount. Classic performances include "Got to Have My Sweetbread," "Soon This Morning Blues," "Hastings Street," and his seminal duet with Blind Blake on "Moanin' the Blues." Still, it's not an exhilarating, start-to-finish listen -- the long running time, chronological sequencing, and poor fidelity, make it hard to digest. The more serious, intellectual blues listener will find all these factors to be positive, but enthusiasts and casual listeners will find that the collection is of marginal interest for those very reasons. Thom Owens

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Charlie Spand’s recordings have long been recognized by both blues and jazz enthusiasts as a “special vintage” of African-American music. The combination of a blues poet, notable for his carefully thought-out lyrics, with inspired piano playing is indeed irresistible, yet little has been written about him apart from a brief musical study by Bob Hall and Richard Noblett in Blues Unlimited. On Hastings Street, named for a street in Detroit’s black entertainment district and issued originally under Blind Blake’s name, the guitarist teases Spand about his homesickness for Detroit and in particular for his obsession with 169 Brady Street. This address is in the same district of Detroit and may be guessed to have been the residence of a lady in whom the pianist had an interest. His first recording, Soon This Morning, was popular enough to justify the recording of a Soon This Morning No. 2 fifteen months later. His presence on the Hometown Skiffle sampler is a further testimony to Paramount’s sales expectations. Blind Blake is somewhat under-recorded on Soon This Morning but comes into his own on its session mate and on the August session, which immediately preceded the recording of Hastings St. The instrumental passages on Ain’t Gonna Stand For That in particular demonstrate considerable empathy. However, it has been suggested that the prominently featured guitarist on Good Gal is Josh White. The remainder of Charlie Spand‘s Paramount recordings feature him as a solo performer, the guitarist noted by discographers on Soon This Morning No. 2 is wholly inaudible. He addresses standard blues topics like faithless and wrong-doing women and sexual needs:
I like it in the morning, I like it late at night, Now if I don’t get my sweetbread, you know I don’t feel right. (Got To Have My Sweetbread) Financial worries loomed and he twice alludes to the difficulty of surviving without resort to crime, in Hard Time Blues and Room Rent Blues, where he complains: I ain’t got no money, I ain’t got no job, Now if something don’t happen, I’ll have to steal or rob. The jaunty and exuberant She’s Got Good Stuff takes the pianist into hokum territory with a song credited to “Lamoore“, a name which appears on forty-odd Paramounts of the era. It may conceal the identity of a member of the A&R staff, or sharp practice. Spand’s Paramount career ended with the doom-laden Evil Woman Spell. He re-emerged briefly to record for OKeh in 1940. Rumours of subsequent sightings in California appear to be just rumours. DOCD-5108
Tracklist :
1    Charlie Spand–    Soon This Morning Blues 2:55
Guitar – Blind Blake
2    Charlie Spand–    Fetch Your Water 2:27
Guitar – Blind Blake
3    Charlie Spand–    Good Gal 3:17
Guitar [Possibly] – Joshua White
4    Charlie Spand–    Ain't Gonna Stand For That 3:07
Guitar [Possibly] – Joshua White
5    Charlie Spand–    Moanin' The Blues 3:14
Guitar [Possibly] – Blind Blake
6    Charlie Spand–    Back To The Woods Blues 3:20
Guitar [Possibly] – Blind Blake
7    Blind Blake–    Hastings St. 3:12
Piano – Charlie Spand
8    Charlie Spand–    In The Barrel Blues    3:05
9    Charlie Spand–    Levee Camp Man    3:01
10    Charlie Spand–    Breakdown    1:48
11    Charlie Spand–    Mississippi Blues    2:40
12    Charlie Spand–    45th St. Blues    2:35
13    Charlie Spand–    Got To Have My Sweetbread (Take 3)    3:15
14    Charlie Spand–    Got To Have My Sweetbread (Take 4)    2:51
15    Charlie Spand–    Room Rent Blues    3:13
16    Charlie Spand–    Mistreatment Blues    2:59
17    Charlie Spand–    Soon This Morning – No. 2    2:56
18    Charlie Spand–    She's Got Good Stuff    2:58
19    Charlie Spand–    Thirsty Woman Blues    3:00
20    Charlie Spand–    Dreamin' The Blues    2:46
21    Charlie Spand–    Big Fat Mama Blues    2:52
22    Charlie Spand–    Hard Time Blues    2:34
23    Charlie Spand–    Georgia Mule Blues    2:26
24    Charlie Spand–    Tired Woman Blues    2:32
25    Charlie Spand–    Evil Woman Spell    2:42

BLIND BLAKE — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 3 : 1928-1929 | DOCD-5026 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The third volume in the series opens with a pair of mid-1928 tracks featuring Blind Blake in the role of sideman, lending his brilliant guitar leads in support of Elzadie Robinson on "Elzadie's Policy Blues" and "Pay Day Daddy Blues." Blake's next session, from later that same year, returns him to the fore, yielding the mesmerizing "Notoriety Woman," one of the most menacingly violent tracks he ever cut; the same date also produced the comparatively lighthearted "Sweet Papa Low Down," a seeming attempt to cash in on the Charleston dance craze. The real jewel of the set, however, is a 1929 session teaming him with pianist Charlie Spand; "Hastings St." is a lively, swinging guitar and piano duet, while "Police Dog Blues" is among Blake's most vividly lyrical efforts, further galvanized by his haunting instrumental work. Jason Ankeny

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Blind Blake, one of the top blues guitarists and singers of the 1920s, is a mystery figure whose birth and death dates are not definitively known. He recorded 84 selections in six years (1926-1932), and all have been reissued on four Document albums (DOCD-5024, DOCD-5025, DOCD-5026, DOCD-5027). By 1928 Blind Blake had gathered a faithful following, his appeal probably being due to the scope of his material, his popularity rivaling that of Blind Lemon Jefferson. The third volume in the series opens featuring Blake in the role of sideman, lending his brilliant guitar leads in support of Elzadie Robinson on Elzadie’s Policy Blues and Pay Day Daddy Blues. Returning to recording under his own name, a session, or sessions, held during September 1928 seemed to find Blake obsessed by women and the problems they were causing him, at times sounding lachrymal and despondent Search Warrant, Back Door, desperate Walkin’ Across The Country and positively violent as in Notoriety Woman, “To keep her quiet I knocked her teeth out her mouth, that notoriety woman is known all over the south”. The final number recorded that month, Sweet Papa Low Down, with its cornet, piano and xylophone accompaniment, evoke the kind of bouncy tune popular with practitioners of the Charleston dance craze. It was to be a further nine months before Blake recorded again, this time in company with pianist Alex Robinson. The five titles cut were of a far less suicidal nature than previous and on one number in particular, Doin’ A Stretch, his approach owed much to the style of Leroy Carr. There then followed a session in August 1929 which teamed him with Detroit pianist Charlie Spand that was to produce some of Blind Blake’s most vital and memorable recordings of his career. Hastings St., a swinging, boogie based piano and guitar duet, is primarily a showcase for the talents of Spand with the vocal banter between the pair celebrating the good times to be found in Detroit’s Black Bottom, “Out on Hastings Street doing the boogie, umm, umm, very woogie” in much the same manner as John Lee Hooker did in “Boogie Chillun” twenty years later. One of the best known mythical themes in black folklore is that of Diddie Wa Diddie, a kind of heaven on earth, a utopia of no work, no worries and all the food one could wish for. Blind Blake, while playing some mesmerising guitar, pokes fun at the idea, claiming that as far as he’s concerned it’s a “great big mystery”, his Diddie Wa Diddie is one for sexual gratification. The following year he cynically accepted the meaning (see Document DOCD-5027). The theme was taken up by in the 5Os by popular R&B singer, Bo Diddley. The unmistakable resonance of the steel-bodied National guitar introduces Police Dog Blues, one of Blake’s most lyrical songs and is notable for his use of the harmonics during the instrumental breaks, where he makes the guitar sound “most like a piano” (to borrow Leadbelly’s description of the technique). The haunting melody of Georgia Bound is common to the blues having been used by Charlie Patton (“Tom Rushen” – Document DOCD- 5009), Big Bill Broonzy (“Shelby County Blues” – document DOCD-5051) and Robert Johnson (“From Four Till Late”), to name but some, the sentiments of the song bearing an air of weary resignation suggesting that Blind Blake had more than just a passing acquaintance with the State. Despite the onset of the Depression, Blake went on recording, albeit sporadically, until 1932, lasting longer than many others as demonstrated in the final Document album of his work, Volume 4 (DOCD-5027). DOCD-5026
Tracklist :
1    Elzadie Robinson–    Elzadie's Policy Blues 3:12
Clarinet – Johnny Dodds
Guitar, Whistle – Blind Blake
Vocals – Elzadie Robinson
Xylophone – Jimmy Bertrand
2    Elzadie Robinson–    Pay Day Daddy Blues 3:07
Clarinet – Johnny Dodds
Guitar – Blind Blake
Vocals – Elzadie Robinson
Xylophone – Jimmy Bertrand
3    Blind Blake–    Walkin' Across The Country 3:06
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
4    Blind Blake–    Search Warrant Blues 2:59
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
5    Blind Blake–    Ramblin' Mama Blues 2:48
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
6    Blind Blake–    New Style Of Loving 2:37
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
7    Blind Blake–    Back Door Slam Blues 2:45
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
8    Blind Blake–    Notoriety Woman Blues 2:45
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
9    Blind Blake–    Cold Hearted Mama Blues 2:50
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
10    Blind Blake–    Low Down Loving Gal 3:09
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
11    Blind Blake–    Sweet Papa Low Down 3:13
Cornet, Piano – Unknown Artist
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
Xylophone – Jimmy Bertrand
12    Blind Blake–    Poker Woman Blues 2:40
Piano [possibly] – Alex Robinson
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
13    Blind Blake–    Doing A Stretch 2:36
Piano [possibly] – Alex Robinson
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
14    Blind Blake–    Fightin' The Jug 2:53
Piano [possibly] – Alex Robinson
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
15    Blind Blake–    Hookworm Blues 2:54
Piano [possibly] – Alex Robinson
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
16    Blind Blake–    Slippery Rag 2:44
Guitar, Speech [probably] – Blind Blake
Piano [possibly] – Alex Robinson
17    Blind Blake–    Hastings St. 3:12
Guitar, Speech – Blind Blake
Piano – Charlie Spand
18    Blind Blake–    Diddie Wa Diddie 2:56
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
19    Blind Blake–    Too Tight Blues, No. 2 2:54
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
20    Blind Blake–    Chump Man Blues 2:49
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
21    Blind Blake–    Ice Man Blues 3:09
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
22    Blind Blake–    Police Dog Blues 2:50
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
23    The Hokum Boys –    I Was Afraid Of That -- Part 2 3:14
Piano [possibly] – Aletha Dickerson
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
24    Blind Blake–    Georgia Bound 3:20
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake
25    Blind Blake–    Keep It Home
Vocals, Guitar – Blind Blake