BOOGIE WOOGIE & BARRELHOUSE ★ Piano Volume 2 • 1928-1930 — The Complete Recorded Works of BOB CALL, RAYMOND BARROW, BLIND LEROY GARNETT, JAMES "BOODLE-IT" WIGGINS, ROMEO NELSON, RUDY FOSTER, PIANO KID EDWARDS | DOCD-5103 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Document's second volume of early blues, boogie-woogie, and barrelhouse piano dishes out 24 recordings made in Chicago, Richmond, IN, and Grafton, WI during the years 1928-1930 and originally issued on Paramount, Brunswick, and Vocalion, beginning with what is probably the best single recording that James "Boodle It" Wiggins ever made. "Keep A-Knockin' an' You Can't Get In" rolls and rocks, and is bolstered with charismatic kazoo passages of terrific warmth. The man playing piano behind Wiggins is believed to have been Bob Call, executor of a very solid "31 Blues" and future cohort of Big Bill Broonzy, Jazz Gillum, Robert Nighthawk, and Arbee Stidham. Recorded for Paramount in June 1929, "Walking Blues" is one of the few surviving examples of Raymond Barrow's performance technique; the only other readily locatable title by this artist, "State Street Jive," is not included on this collection. Tracks 5-12 appear to comprise the complete recorded works of Blind Leroy Garnett, a fine boogie man ("Chain 'Em Down," "Louisiana Glide"), a solid accompanist for Wiggins, who blows into a harmonica during the "Weary Heart Blues," and firm support for Marie Griffin, whose "Blue and Disgusted" b/w "What Do You Think This Is?" convey the kind of salty attitude that's regularly encountered in early blues while seldom surfacing in pop music of similar vintage. Wiggins returns with an unidentified pianist for a gritty take of "Corinne Corinna" and his own treatment of "Shave 'Em Dry," a song that had been popularized by Ma Rainey and was soon to be transformed into a sexually explicit underground classic by Lucille Bogan under the name Bessie Jackson. The one pianist on this collection who comes with biographical data is Romeo Nelson (1902-1974) a native of Springfield, TN who in 1915 studied with a pianist named Window in East St. Louis and recorded his relatively famous "Head Rag Hop" at a session he shared with guitarist Tampa Red in September 1929. This little item has been reissued on no less than 16 different blues and boogie-woogie collections; it appears here alongside the "11:29 Blues," subtitled "The Midnight Special"; a moody "Dyin' Rider Blues," and the feisty "Getting' Dirty Just Shakin' That Thing," which features spoken interjections by Tampa Red and female impersonator Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon. As for Rudy Foster and Piano Kid Edwards, we're damned lucky to have access to their few surviving recorded works, which constitute a high-carbohydrate conclusion to this very enjoyable anthology of historic blues and boogie from the Great Lakes region. arwulf arwulf
 
Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. As a result of his friendship with Tampa Red, Romeo Nelson recorded at a Tampa Red session in 1929. He probably accompanied Tampa on DYING MERCY BLUES and then performed his exciting HEAD RAG HOP, with its rent-party atmosphere, complete with scintillating treble runs over an insistent boogie bass. GETTIN’ DIRTY was a marvelous close cousin to the DOZENS and another obvious rent-party piece.

DYIN’ RIDER, by contrast, was a macabre Blues and 11.29, a jaunty version, oddly, of THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL. Romeo supported himself by playing piano and gambling until the rent-parties died out; then he settled to a regular job as a janitor and elevator operator for a publisher and even featured in their house journal in 1959!. Rudy Foster is unknown – arguments abound whether he accompanied himself (which seems likely) or whether Charlie Spand played piano for him (most unlikely) or some unknown pianist (not unlikely).

Heavy and inventive, Foster’s are boogies typical of the Northern triangle – Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis – so could the invitation to “four-five oh-six” on CORN TRIMMER possibly refer to Chicago’s 45th & State or is it too fanciful? Probably. The extremely rare Piano Kid Edwards’s sides could hardly provide a bigger contrast; this explosion of ragtime and stride piano indicates a much earlier style but betrays not the slightest trace of his origins.

In much the same way Blind Leroy Garnett, James Wiggins accompanist on 12th October 1929 at least, belongs to that older school and whilst a brilliant ragtime pianist could hardly be considered a bluesman. Circumstantial evidence, a “Blind Leroy” remembered from Fort Worth or the title LOUISIANA GLIDE, suggests a Texas or Louisiana background. The heavy-voiced Wiggins (thought to be from Dallas) is of interest for the confusion surrounding his accompanists. In a pioneering article (BU 114, 1975) Hall & Noblett analysed his recordings and cast doubts on the accepted identifications. They accept Garnett’s presence on MY LOVIN’ and WEARY HEART but doubt he plays on FORTY-FOUR BLUES.
 
Similarly they agree Bob Call as pianist on EVIL WOMAN but not necessarily KEEP A-KNOCKIN’. For Wiggins’s last coupling CORINNE CORINNA and GOTTA SHAVE ‘EM DRY, Charlie Spand had been suggested but no firm conclusions were drawn. Bob Call, identified on two unissued Wiggins’s sessions, raises other questions; can the pianist of 31 BLUES be the same Bob Call who after a gap of eighteen years crops up as a band pianist on records by Arbee Stidham, Big Bill Broonzy, Jazz Gillum, Robert Nighthawk and who under his own name made a couple of jump blues? It would seem so.

Call was known to have gone to school to learn to read music, presumably to expand his musical potential and moreover, the age seems right; his photograph from 1958 shows a man well into his fifties. Bob Call was shrewd enough to realise a change in style was necessary – those that wouldn’t change retired or disappeared, and left as few traces as when they arrived. DOCD-5103
Tracklist :
1    "Boodle It" Wiggins–    Keep A-Knockin' An' You Can't Get In 3:09
2    "Boodle It" Wiggins–    Evil Woman Blues 3:10
3    Bob Call–    31 Blues 2:42
4    Raymond Barrow–    Walking Blues 3:08
5    James Wiggins–    My Lovin' Blues 2:47
6    James Wiggins–    Weary-Heart Blues 2:43
7    Blind Leroy Garnett–    Chain 'Em Down 3:05
8    Blind Leroy Garnett–    Louisiana Glide 3:11
9    James Wiggins–    Forty-Four Blues 3:09
10    James Wiggins–    Frisco Bound 3:20
11    Marie Griffin–    What Do You Think This Is? 2:37
12    Marie Griffin–    Blue And Disgusted 3:00
13    James Wiggins–    Corinne Corinna Blues 3:12
14    James Wiggins–    Gotta Shave 'Em Dry 3:05
15    Romeo Nelson–    Head Rag Hop 3:02
16    Romeo Nelson–    Gettin' Dirty Just Shakin' That Thing 2:57
17    Romeo Nelson–    Dyin' Rider Blues 3:09
18    Romeo Nelson–    1129 Blues (The Midnight Special) 2:53
19    Rudy Foster–    Black Gal Makes Thunder 2:51
20    Rudy Foster–    Corn Trimmer Blues 3:00
21    Piano Kid Edwards–    Gamblin' Man's Prayer Blues 2:52
22    Piano Kid Edwards–    Hard Luck Gamblin' Man 3:05
23    Piano Kid Edwards–    Piano Kid Special 2:45
24    Piano Kid Edwards–    Give Us Another Jug 2:45