MAE GLOVER – Inc. MAY ARMSTRONG, SIDE WHEEL SALLY DUFFIE — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1927-1931 | DOCD-5185 (1993) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Born September 9, 1907 in Columbia, Tennessee, Lillie Mae Glover ran away from home in 1920 when she was only 13 to join the Tom Simpson Traveling Medicine Show. Her father was a preacher and she wanted to sing the blues, so that was that. She worked in several road shows before landing in Memphis, Tennessee in the late '20s, becoming a regular performer on the city's famed Beale Street, where she was known as "the Mother of Beale Street." She recorded and performed under several different names, including Lillian Mae Glover, Mae Glover, and Big Memphis Ma Rainey, the name under which she tracked a few sides for Sun Records in 1953. She died in 1985 at Tishomingo County Hospital in Iuka, Mississippi at the age of 77. Steve Leggett
 
Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Mae Glover was probably one of many professional or semi-professional female singers working the tent shows and vaudeville stages in the 1920s. In order to survive, these entertainers had to be versatile, as they might perform for a rural audience one week and a more sophisticated city crowd the next. Like most of these singers, Glover was reliant upon outside musicians for her backing, and the availability of good accompanists was not guaranteed. In John Byrd she found an ideal partner. Byrd was from rural Jefferson County in south Mississippi and was known to have performed on occasion with Tommy Johnson in Jackson, an active musical centre in the state. He reportedly moved from town to town playing for the sawmill workers in that vicinity (Blues Unlimited No. 142, Summer 1982 interviews with Ishmon Bracey and Johnny Temple). Although Dixon and Godrich (Blues & Gospel Records 1902-1943) are reluctant to identify Walter Taylor as Washboard Walter, John Byrd is listed as having recorded with both entities and an association with Taylor’s small string band from Louisville, Kentucky is probable. As “Walter And Byrd” they recorded a tribute to Blind Lemon Jefferson: Wasn’t It Sad About Lemon for Paramount (Document DOCD-5641 ‘Rare Country Blues Vol 2 1929 – 1943’). Byrd’s only issued solo efforts were the intriguing blues ballads Billy Goat Blues and Old Timbrook Blues (DOCD-5641) which suggest he was a songster from the pre- blues generation. When he recorded his duets with Mae Glover in July 1929 Byrd also cut two religious titles for Gennett which were credited to Rev. George Jones And Congregation (DOCD-5641). It is possible that the Sister Jones appearing on this record is Mae Glover, and this speculation coupled with the genuine rapport on their duets is fuel for a theory that their relationship was more than professional. Byrd’s powerful twelve string guitar playing (an uncommon choice of instrument for a Mississippian) and Glover’s strong vocals appear to be overloading the recording microphone, creating a hot signal on the verge of distortion on the duet titles. All four are outstanding, but of particular interest are the blue yodel Pigmeat Mama, which attests to the enormous popularity of country star Jimmie Rodgers among both white and black audiences, and Gas Man Blues, a hilarious battle of the sexes loaded with double-entendre in the vaudeville style popularized on records by Butterbeans and Susie. It is most unfortunate that Glover didn’t have more inspired accompaniment for her session in February 1931. Pianist Charles O’Neil and trumpet player James Parker never rise above mere competence, and Parker’s lacklustre singing on the vocal duet Grasshopper Papa spoils a potentially good number. Glover’s version of “Forty-Four Blues” is, as Paul Oliver points out in Screening The Blues, the first recording of that theme by a woman and is related to the versions by Lee Green. The last verse: “I got the blues, will last me nine months from today” (presumably a reference to pregnancy) supports Oliver’s theory that “Fourty-Four” (at least the Lee Green version) was originally sung by a woman and that Glover’s version is closer to the original form. It’s just a pity that a pianist the calibre of Roosevelt Sykes or Little Brother Montgomery wasn’t present to help Glover out on her version. Whether May Armstrong and Side Wheel Sally Duffie were pseudonyms for May Glover is a question open for discussion. They were both strong vocalists in the raw and rugged Ma Rainey fashion and Duffie had the benefit of solid piano backing from Will Ezell, a Paramount scout and recording artist who had recently supplied sympathetic accompaniment at sessions with Ora Brown, Lucille Bogan, Elzadie Robinson, and Bertha Henderson. Whatever their true identities may have been, Armstrong and Duffie were fine vocalists and this is a welcomed opportunity to hear their impossibly rare discs. DOCD-5185
Tracklist :
1    May Armstrong–    Joe Boy Blues 3:14
Piano [Poss.] – Lonnie Johnson
Violin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – May Armstrong
2    May Armstrong–    Lonesome Atlanta Blues 2:31
Piano [Poss.] – Lonnie Johnson
Violin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – May Armstrong
3    May Armstrong–    Woodchopping Blues 2:39
Guitar [Erroneous] – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Piano [Poss.] – Lonnie Johnson
Vocals – May Armstrong
4    May Armstrong–    Nobody Can Take His Place 2:57
Guitar [Erroneous] – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Piano [Poss.] – Lonnie Johnson
Vocals – May Armstrong
5    May Armstrong–    Don't Beg Your Man Back 3:09
Guitar [Erroneous] – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Piano [Poss.] – Lonnie Johnson
Vocals – May Armstrong
6    May Armstrong–    Sweetest Man Blues 2:33
Piano [Poss.] – Lonnie Johnson
Vocals – May Armstrong
7    Side Wheel Sally Duffie–    Kind Papa Blues 2:35
Piano – Will Ezell
Vocals – Side Wheel Sally Duffie
8    Side Wheel Sally Duffie–    Treat 'Em Right Blues 2:36
Piano – Will Ezell
Vocals – Side Wheel Sally Duffie
9    Side Wheel Sally Duffie–    Thinking Blues 2:48
Piano – Will Ezell
Vocals – Side Wheel Sally Duffie
10    Side Wheel Sally Duffie–    Kid Man Blues 2:42
Piano – Will Ezell
Vocals – Side Wheel Sally Duffie
11    Mae Glover–    Shake It Daddy 2:50
Guitar, Speech – John Byrd
Vocals – Mae Glover
12    Mae Glover–    Pig Meat Mama 2:46
Guitar – John Byrd
Vocals, Yodeling – Mae Glover
13    Mae Glover–    I Ain't Givin' Nobody None 2:45
Guitar, Speech – John Byrd
Vocals – Mae Glover
14    Mae Glover–    Gas Man Blues 2:45
Guitar, Vocals – John Byrd
Vocals – Mae Glover
15    Mae Glover–    My Man Blues 2:58
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Trumpet – James Parker
Vocals – Mae Glover
16    Mae Glover–    Grasshopper Blues 2:38
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Vocals – James Parker, Mae Glover
17    Mae Glover–    Forty-Four Blues (Big Gun Blues) 2:18
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Trumpet – James Parker
Vocals – Mae Glover
18    Mae Glover–    Skeeter Blues 2:48
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Trumpet – James Parker
Vocals – Mae Glover
19    Mae Glover–    The Country Farm Blues 2:38
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Trumpet – James Parker
Vocals – Mae Glover
20    Mae Glover–    Hoboken Prison Blues 2:29
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Trumpet – James Parker
Vocals – Mae Glover
21    Mae Glover–    Two Timin' Woman (Two Timing Blues) 2:46
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Vocals – Mae Glover
22    Mae Glover–    Good Hearted Woman 2:49
Piano – Charles O'Neil
Vocals – Mae Glover