WILLIAM HARRIS & BUDDY BOY HAWKINS — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order • 1927-1929 | DOCD-5035 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Two early singer/guitarists have their entire output reissued on this typically definitive release by the European Document label. Actually, William Harris had originally recorded 14 selections but five were unable to be located for this CD; one would later be rediscovered and reissued on a sampler. With the exception of "I'm Leavin' Town," Harris is heard performing solo and, despite his obscurity, he was a fine second-level blues and folksong performer. Among his better numbers (dating from 1927-1928) are "Kansas City Blues," "Early Mornin' Blues," and "Hot Time Blues." Buddy Boy Hawkins' 12 solos from 1927-1929 find him performing in a similar vein and at a slightly higher level. His "Voice Throwin' Blues" (which over "Hesitatin' Blues" finds Hawkins having a call and response between two of his voices, including one allegedly being a ventriloquist's dummy) is a bit odd. Other selections include "Jailhouse Fire Blues," "Raggin' the Blues," "A Rag Blues," and "Snatch It and Grab It." Both Harris and Hawkins deserved more opportunities to record but at least these formerly rare recordings (which are in pretty good shape, except for Harris' "Electric Chair Blues") keep them from being totally lost to history. Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Nothing is known about William Harris and Buddy Boy Hawkins as individuals, and field research has uncovered almost no details of their lives; what we know of them is a fragment of information or two, and the rest has to be deduced from their songs. From the evidence of his guitar style, with its emphasis on rhythmic complexity rather than on single-string work, William Harris may have come from the Mississippi Delta. He was an impressive performer, singing in his firm voice with a marked vibrato. He may have been inspired to make Electric Chair Blues by hearing Blind Lemon Jefferson’s record, and the poor state of the rare 78 suggests that even as gloomy a theme as this had its appeal to some listeners. On Bull Frog Blues and Leavin’ Town he suspends the resolution of the line by repeating a phrase, but in other respects his blues are unsophisticated, with lines that fail to rhyme on for example, Early Mornin’ Blues. Buddy Boy Hawkins was a singer about whom we know even less than Harris. He mentions Jackson, Mississippi several times on A Rag Blues where he says the piece came from, but stated on Snatch It Back that “these my blues I brought ‘em all the way from Birmingham”. It’s possible that, as Workin’ On The Railroad suggests, he had laid track; trains, especially Number Three figure in other blues. Yet Hawkins too, may have worked the shows: How Come Mama is a rural version of a vaudeville song, while Voice Throwin’ Blues is an uncommon example of attempted ventriloquism on record, the singer performing a standard “Hesitating Blues” with an assumed “second voice” set against his normal vocal style. His accomplished guitar work, with more than a hint of Spanish flourishes, reinforce the impression of a travelling performer. Like Harris he was most at home with the blues, of which his masterpiece is Jailhouse Fire on which he entreats the jailer to release his woman and save her from burning. The internal evidence of the few recordings made by William Harris and Walter “Buddy Boy” Hawkins points to an active blues link between Jackson, Mississippi and Birmingham, Alabama, by way of the old Great Southern railroad and the travelling minstrel and medicine shows. Not only do the records reveal two great, if little-known blues singers; they also tell us something of the way in which the blues was circulated in the early years. DOCD-5035
Tracklist :
1    William Harris–    I'm Leavin Town 2:59
Guitar, Voice [Speech] – Joe Robinson
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
2    William Harris –    Kansas City Blues 3:01
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
3    William Harris–    Kitchen Range Blues 3:08
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
4    William Harris–    Keep Your Man Out Of Birmingham 2:52
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
5    William Harris–    Electric Chair Blues 2:58
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
6    William Harris–    Bullfrog Blues 3:06
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
7    William Harris–    Leavin' Here Blues 3:09
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
8    William Harris–    Early Mornin' Blues 2:46
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
9    William Harris–    Hot Time Blues 2:51
Vocals, Guitar – William Harris
10    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Shaggy Dog Blues 2:31
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
11    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Number Three Blues (Take 2) 2:47
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
12    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Jailhouse Fire Blues 2:28
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
13    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Snatch It Back Blues 3:00
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
14    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Workin' On The Railroad 2:41
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
15    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Yellow Woman Blues 2:46
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
16    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Raggin' The Blues 2:26
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
17    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Awful Fix Blues 2:28
Vocals, Guitar – Buddy Boy Hawkins
18    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    A Rag Blues 2:53
Vocals, Guitar, Voice [Speech] – Walter Hawkins
19    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    How Come Mama Blues 3:00
Vocals, Guitar – Walter Hawkins
20    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Snatch It And Grab It 3:04
Vocals [Poss.] – Charlie Patton
Vocals, Guitar – Walter Hawkins
21    Buddy Boy Hawkins–    Voice Throwin' Blues 2:56
Guitar – Walter Hawkins

SAM COLLINS — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order • 1927-1931 | DOCD-5034 (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Every track that Sam Collins recorded at the end of the '20s and early in the '30s is included on Document's Complete Recorded Works (1927-1931). Although the comprehensiveness of the set is a little intimidating for casual listeners -- they should stick with the better-sequenced Jailhouse Blues -- historians will find the collection invaluable. Thom Owens

Abridged from this album’s booklet notes. Sam Collins, “Salty Dog Sam“, was something of an enigma to record collectors in the late fifties and early sixties. The bulk of the known facts regarding Sam Collins‘ life are the results of field work undertaken by American collector Gayle Dean Wardlow. It was discovered that Collins was raised in McComb, Mississippi, birth-place of another, later, innovator, Bo Diddley. Despite its location in the Sunflower state, McComb was just across the line from Louisiana and it was in that state that Sam Collins was born to Sam Sr. and Sophie in August 1887. By the time he had reached maturity he was carrying his music to the barrelhouses in an area that covered both states. This stamping-ground seems to have overlapped one being worked by Joe Holmes, a son of McComb who relocated in Sibley, Louisiana, because the two men formed one of those loose partnerships that we hear of so often in blues history. Maybe they knew each other from McComb, before Holmes moved to Louisiana. Joe was only to record once; for Paramount in 1932, two years after Sam’s last session – and under the name “King Solomon Hill“. The result of all this cross-fertilisation is to be heard on the disc now before you. By accepted standards Sam’s limited slide guitar work is often out of tune. Out of tune to our ears that is but not to Sam’s because it fits perfectly with a voice employing what is often described as an “eerie” falsetto to earn its owner the nom du disque “Crying” Sam Collins.

Sam’s exact relationship with John D. Fox is not clear either. He played guitar in support of this light-voiced singer during one session in 1927 from which, inexplicably, none of the numbers cut under his own name were ever released. Apart from the blues that he cobbled together from traditional verses and personalised so skilfully with own additions, he could sing spirituals and Vaudeville ditties. He even made the first recording of the folk staple Midnight Special.

Once his recording career was over Sam Collins became, once more, the shadowy figure that he had been in his youth. The bare bone of his story is that he moved north to Chicago where he died in 1949. But wherever he finally located, Sam’s music was firmly lodged in the south and it is from there that his “eerie” falsetto and “strange” guitar address us across the years. DOCD-5034
Tracklist :
1        The Jail House Blues 2:29
2        Devil In The Lion's Den 2:40
3        Yellow Dog Blues 2:29
 W.C. Handy
4        Loving Lady Blues 2:40
5        Riverside Blues 2:35
 Tommy Dorsey / Richard M. Jones
6        Dark Cloudy Blues 2:45
7        Hesitation Blues 2:38
8        Pork Chop Blues 2:36
9        Midnight Special Blues 2:38
 Lead Belly
10        I Want To Be Like Jesus In My Heart 2:46
11        Lead Me All The Way 2:40
12        It Won't Be Long 2:38
13        Do That Thing 2:30
14        The Worried Man Blues 2:56
Vocals – John D. Fox
15        The Moanin' Blues 2:51
Vocals – John D. Fox
16        Lonesome Road Blues 3:03
17        New Salty Dog 2:55
 Traditional
18        Slow Mama Slow 3:03
19        Signifying Blues 2:57
20        I'm Still Sitting On Top Of The World 3:13
 Lonnie Chatmon / Walter Vinson
21        Graveyard Digger's Blues 3:12
22        My Road Is Rough And Rocky (How Long, How Long?) 2:53
Credits :
Guitar – Sam Collins (tracks: 1 to 22)
Vocals – Sam Collins (tracks: 1 to 13, 16 to 22)

MEMPHIS MINNIE & KANSAS JOE — 1929-1934 Recordings In Chronological Order ★ Volume 1 • 1929-1930 | DOCD-5028 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is the first of four Document CDs devoted to the musical partnership that existed from 1929-1935 between Memphis Minnie, who was born Lizzie Douglas in Algiers LA, and Kansas Joe McCoy, a native of Raymond, MS. These records were cut between June 1929 and May 1930 for the Columbia, Vocalion, and Victor labels in New York, Memphis, and Chicago, where their brand of entertainment was well-received by the expanding African-American community. Joe McCoy is believed to have been Minnie's second husband, and musically speaking at least, the two were well-matched during their six-year partnership, during which their vocals, verbal exchanges, and combined guitar work enlivened dozens of very enjoyable recordings that still convey the immediacy of the African-American experience. Both individuals sang in a straightforward, bracingly honest manner, usually about human relationships, as discussed openly in "What Fault You Find of Me?," "I'm Talking About You," "Can I Do It for You?," and "She Wouldn't Give Me None." There are three distinctly different treatments of Minnie's "Bumble Bee Blues" (a conflation of human sexuality with the behavior of a member of the Order Hymenoptera later popularized by guitarist Muddy Waters); a sobering original version of "When the Levee Breaks"; a song about the card game known as "Georgia Skin" (described in detail for the Library of Congress a few years later by Jelly Roll Morton), and a dead-serious account of Minnie's personal run-in with spinal meningitis, accompanied by the Memphis Jug Band, a group which included guitarist Charlie Burse and jug-blowing specialist Hambone Lewis. Document's four volumes of Minnie's collaborations with Joe McCoy were released alongside another five volumes devoted exclusively to her own recordings; the rest of Joe's recorded output with his brother Charlie McCoy, various jug and skiffle bands, and the swinging Harlem Hamfats was also compiled by Document during the '90s and reissued the following decade. arwulf arwulf

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes: Recording as Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie at their 1929 debut recording session the couple cut six numbers, three featuring Kansas Joe as a vocalist, two with Minnie taking the vocals and the third found them duetting. These recordings weren’t afforded immediate issue but were released over a period of time. For example, the coupling Bumble Bee / I Want That was not on sale until some fifteen months later. It was to be the suggestive Bumble Bee (“Got the best stinger I’ve ever seen”) that was to make Memphis Minnie. So successful was the song that Victor “borrowed” Minnie to record a version fronting a caucus of the Memphis Jug Band. Vocalion then responded with Bumble Bee No. 2 and New Bumble Bee. The song was such hot property on the race market that in the last six months of 1930, unreleased recordings apart, there were no fewer than five versions, on three different labels, of Bumble Bee — three of which are present on this compilation. The sheer drive of the two guitars, the strength of imagery and intuitive awareness of one another’s musical needs made for a perfect team. Take a song like, When The Levee Breaks, that lyrically mirrors the harsh realities of living near the artificial river banks with lines like, “If it keep on raining, levee’s gonna break an’ all these people have no place to stay” whilst the twin guitar rhythms help create a complete fusion of feeling. On less intense, more hokum based numbers like She Wouldn’t Give Me None or Can I Do It For You a variant on the “Mama Let Me Lay It On You” theme) the duo display astonishing empathy in their guitar playing, most notably by Minnie. To quote guitarist Woody Mann on her technique “she seemed to be able to pick sounds from all around Memphis and integrate them into her playing”. As main vocalist Memphis Minnie can be heard on Mister Tango Blues and I’m Talking About You and give good insight into her ability to modulate her voice to suit the mood of the lyric. Whether it be slow meaningful blues or up-tempo lighter material she judiciously croaks, moans, twists and cracks her voice to achieve a fine sense of the dramatic. DOCD-5028
Tracklist :
1    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    I Want That 3:06
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Guitar, Vocals – Joe McCoy
2    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    That Will Be Alright 3:05
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Guitar, Vocals – Joe McCoy
3    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    Goin' Back To Texas 2:59
Guitar, Vocals – Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie
4    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    'Frisco Town 2:50
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Guitar, Vocals – Memphis Minnie
5    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    When The Levee Breaks 3:08
Guitar, Vocals – Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie
6    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    Bumble Bee 2:45
Guitar – Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie
7    Memphis Minnie–    I'm Gonna Bake My Biscuits 2:50
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Guitar, Vocals – Memphis Minnie
8    Memphis Minnie–    Mister Tango Blues 3:34
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Guitar, Vocals – Memphis Minnie
9    Memphis Minnie–    She Wouldn't Give Me None 2:57
Guitar, Vocals – Kansas Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie
10    Memphis Minnie And Kansas Joe–    What Fault You Find Of Me? - Part 1 2:41
Guitar [duet], Vocals [duet] – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
11    Memphis Minnie And Kansas Joe–    What Fault You Find Of Me? - Part 2 2:48
Guitar [duet], Vocals [duet] – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
12    Memphis Minnie–    I'm Talking About You 2:38
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
13    Memphis Minnie–    Bumble Bee (MEM-773) 2:49
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
14    Memphis Minnie And Kansas Joe–    Can I Do It For You? - Part 1 3:07
Guitar [duet], Vocals [duet] – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
15    Memphis Minnie And Kansas Joe–    Can I Do It For You? - Part 2 3:09
Guitar [duet], Vocals [duet] – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
16    Minnie McCoy And Joe Johnson (12)–    I'm Going Back Home 2:44
Guitar [duet], Vocals [duet] – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
17    Memphis Jug Band Vocal By Memphis Minnie–    Bumble Bee Blues (59993) 2:49
Guitar – Charlie Burse
Harmonica – Will Shade
Jug – Hambone Lewis
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
18    Memphis Jug Band Vocal By Memphis Minnie–    Meningitis Blues 3:14
Guitar – Charlie Burse
Harmonica – Will Shade
Jug – Hambone Lewis
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
19    McCoy And Johnson–    I Never Told A Lie 2:38
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
20    McCoy And Johnson–    Don't Want No Woman 3:11
Vocals [duet], Guitar – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
21    Memphis Minnie–    Georgia Skin 2:59
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
22    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    Don't Want No Woman I Have To Give My Money To (C-5817) 3:22
Vocals [duet], Guitar [duet] – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
23    Kansas Joe–    I'm Wild About My Stuff 2:55
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Guitar, Vocals – Kansas Joe

MEMPHIS MINNIE & KANSAS JOE — 1929-1934 Recordings In Chronological Order ★ Volume 2 • 1930-1931 | DOCD-5029 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Memphis Minnie made an enormous number of recordings during the years 1929-1941, under her own name and in collaboration with her husband Kansas Joe McCoy. When in the '90s Document set out to reissue every known recording by these two artists, Minnie's primary work occupied one series of five chronologically arranged albums, her work with McCoy was presented in another sequence of four CDs under both of their names, and the rest of McCoy's output was trundled out in tandem on multiple discs with his brother Charlie and the Harlem Hamfats. Additionally, Minnie recorded with the Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, Little Son Joe, Bumble Bee Slim, Washington "Bukka" White, Casey Bill Weldon, and Sunnyland Slim. Few blues musicians of their generation left such a large number of recordings fitting into so many different discographies. Volume two in Document's painstaking survey of the Memphis Minnie-Joe McCoy collaborations presents 23 Vocalion records dating from their arrival in Chicago in June 1930 to the end of January 1931. Never one to avoid singing about life's challenges, pains, and pleasures, Minnie deliberately devoted a nearly three-and-one-half-minute record to her experiences as a survivor of spinal meningitis. The "Memphis Minnie-Jitis Blues" was a remake of the "Meningitis Blues" which she recorded only days earlier on May 26 back home in Memphis with accompaniment by the Memphis Jug Band. On September 9, Minnie assembled her own Jug Band including players borrowed from the Jed Davenport Jug Band for the "Grandpa and Grandma Blues" and the "Garage Fire Blues." Everything else on this collection features the Lizzie Douglas (Memphis Minnie) and Joe McCoy (Kansas Joe) duo. These are some of the first records they made after arriving in Chicago fresh from southwestern Tennessee. They strum their guitars, take turns singing, or toss off duets ("She Put Me Outdoors," "What's the Matter with the Mill?"), with Minnie's "New Dirty Dozen" standing out as a strong female interpretation of a tune usually knocked off by salty male pianists. "Bumble Bee No. 2" was actually the fourth version of Minnie's song to be recorded during a fairly short time period. The equestrian "Frankie Jean (That Trottin' Fool)" is packed with inspiring guitar work and a nice bit of whistling by Minnie, while "She Put Me Outdoors" is reminiscent of instrumental duets by Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang (who, when paired with Johnson was billed as "Blind Willie Dunn"). Some listeners may also detect a probable taproot of John Lee Hooker's early technique. arwulf arwulf

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. This compilation represents Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe’s first encounter with the Chicago. Between June 1930 and January l931 the pair recorded on several occasions and cut several dozen titles. However, as a result of America’s slide into depression, most songs took many months to release and with the exception of the coupling, I Don’t Want No Woman I Have To Give My Money To / Cherry Ball Blues, nearly all songs recorded during June were left on the shelf. Subsequently they were issued with items from later sessions. Vocalion’s follow-up release, What’s The Matter With The Mill / North Memphis Blues, didn’t appear until November featuring titles recorded in October, the former ostensibly about a broken down corn mill but in reality sexual innuendo and the latter, apparently in praise of the culinary delights to be found at a Memphis cafe, is thought by some commentators to concern a house of ill repute! For their third offering the company coupled remakes of previous successes, Bumble Bee No. 2 / I’m Talkin’ About You No. 2 from June and July sessions – release date, January 1931! Despite the apparently arbitrary nature of the releases the period witnessed many accomplished recordings most notably, Memphis Minnie-Jitis Blues, which she sings with great passion about meningitis, The fact that she twice recorded this number, once with the Memphis Jug Band (DOCD 5028) and again with Kansas Joe, would tend to suggest personal experience of the illness. In general, however, this phase of their career tended to produce more traditionally based material serving to show the duo’s range of experience and versatility. Songs like the horse-calling Frankie Jean (That Trottin’ Fool) concerning a racehorse that wouldn’t come unless whistled to, whose running motions are mimicked by their guitar interplay, or the old vaudeville number, I Called You This Morning, which employs the same melody as that used for “‘Frisco Town” (DOCD 5028). The time-honoured theme, Preacher’s Blues, about the sexual antics of a woman stealing pastor perhaps harks back to their acquaintance with Frank Stokes while their version of the black toast, New Dirty Dozen, usually the province of male pianists, is sung by Minnie from a female perspective (“I’m pigmeat happy, now who wants me”), the standard piano accompaniment being recreated by the two guitars. With recordings like these Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe established themselves as an integral part of the Chicago blues scene; a scene that was growing with each black relocation from the south. DOCD-5029
Tracklist :
1    Memphis Minnie–    Memphis Minnie-Jitis Blues 3:20
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
2    Memphis Minnie–    Good Girl Blues 2:55
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
3    Kansas Joe McCoy–    My Mary Blues 3:10
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
4    Memphis Minnie–    Plymouth Rock Blues 2:49
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
5    Kansas Joe–    Cherry Ball Blues 3:09
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
6    Kansas Joe–    Botherin' That Thing 3:14
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals – Kansas Joe
7    Memphis Minnie–    Bumble Bee -- No. 2 2:50
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
8    Memphis Minnie–    Georgia Skin Blues 3:24
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
9    Memphis Minnie–    New Dirty Dozen 2:58
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
10    Memphis Minnie–    New Bumble Bee 2:49
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
11    Memphis Minnie–    Frankie Jean (That Trottin' Fool) 2:49
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
12    Memphis Minnie–    I'm Talking 'Bout You -- No. 2 3:13
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
13    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    She Put Me Outdoors 2:46
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
14    Kansas Joe–    Pile Drivin' Blues 2:44
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
15    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    I Called You This Morning 2:57
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
16    Memphis Minnie And Her Jug Band–    Grandpa And Grandma Blues 3:22
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
17    Memphis Minnie And Her Jug Band–    Garage Fire Blues 3:04
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
18    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    What's The Matter With The Mill? 2:48
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
19    Memphis Minnie–    North Memphis Blues 2:32
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
20    Kansas Joe–    Beat It Right 3:24
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
21    Kansas Joe–    Preachers Blues 3:11
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
22    Kansas Joe–    Shake Mattie 2:36
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
23    Kansas Joe–    My Wash Woman's Gone 2:24
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe

MEMPHIS MINNIE & KANSAS JOE — 1929-1934 Recordings In Chronological Order ★ Volume 3 • 1931-1932 | DOCD-5030 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The third volume in Document's series picks up in early 1931, with the Depression era in full swing; although Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe were still actively recording, very little of their material was actually seeing release. Ironically, these were some of the duo's finest sides to date, with Minnie's vocals and guitar work achieving new peaks of poignancy and intensity; with "Shake Mattie" and "My Wash Woman's Gone," she introduces her bottleneck style, while on "Let's Go to Town" she and Joe face off in a fiery instrumental duel. The latter half of the collection, recorded in New York, focuses on more traditional material; their rendition of the minstrel song "Fishin' Blues" is widely assumed to be the inspiration for subsequent versions by Son House, Bumble Bee Slim and many others. Jason Ankeny

From this album’s booklet notes: At the dawn of 1931 sales of race records were in sharp decline. Companies who six months previously had pressed in the region of 2,000 copies per record had cut that almost by half. Industry figures of the time showed that race records only accounted for about one percent of total sales, a very significant drop from the previous year. It was in this climate, and the period covered by this compilation, that Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe continued to record. A measure of the seriousness of the situation as it affected them can probably be gauged by their output; barely thirty titles recorded, at least half a dozen of which never saw release. Despite all this the quality of their recordings didn’t appear to suffer and, if anything, seemed to draw from Minnie a renewed sense of personal intensity both in lyric and playing.

The poignant, Crazy Crying Blues, with its terse lyric, ‘crying’ verse endings and moaned choruses almost echoing the blues of female singers of the twenties. The superb instrumental, Let’s Go To Town, couldn’t be better named with its rhythmic imagination and subtle tempo changes, the sheer drive of the piece creating the motion of an express train — a sort of “Honky Tonk Train” with two guitars. The period also witnessed Memphis Minnie adopt the bottleneck, or slide, guitar technique which she probably learnt from her first husband, Casey Bill Weldon, as can be heard on Kansas Joe‘s Shake Mattie and My Wash Woman’s Gone, the former containing perhaps the first reference in blues to, “Shake, rattle and roll”! For reasons best known to the company they switched Memphis Minnie and Joe McCoy‘s recording location from Chicago to New York where the pair had first recorded three years earlier.

If 1931 had been short on sessions, the following year was worse with only a dozen titles recorded over a two day period during February. The material cut favoured more traditionally based themes as Jailhouse Trouble Blues, Joliet Bound (a blues by Joe concerning the notorious prison) and Fishin’ Blues, the latter a minstrel song long associated with Texas having been collected there in the early twenties by musicologist Walter Prescott Webb and first commercially recorded by songster, Henry ‘Ragtime’ Thomas. DOCD-5030
Tracklist :
1    Memphis Minnie–    I Don't Want That Junk Outa You 2:22
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
2    Memphis Minnie–    Crazy Cryin' Blues 3:26
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
3    Memphis Minnie–    Tricks Ain't Walking No More 2:48
Guitar – Kansas Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
4    Memphis Minnie–    Don't Bother It 3:08
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals – Memphis Minnie
5    Memphis Minnie–    Today Today Blues 2:46
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals – Memphis Minnie
6    Memphis Minnie–    Lay My Money Down (If You Run Around) 2:55
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
7    Memphis Minnie–    Hard Down Lie 2:40
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
8    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    Somebody's Got To Help You 3:08
Guitar, Vocals – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
9    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    Pickin' The Blues 3:02
Guitar – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
10    Kansas Joe And Memphis Minnie–    Let's Go To Town 3:07
Guitar – Kansas Joe, Memphis Minnie
11    Memphis Minnie–    Soo Cow Soo 2:37
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
12    Memphis Minnie–    After While Blues 2:51
Mandolin – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
13    Memphis Minnie–    Fishin' Blues 2:55
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
14    Memphis Minnie–    Jailhouse Trouble Blues 3:12
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
15    Memphis Minnie–    Outdoor Blues 3:00
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
16    Memphis Minnie–    Where Is My Good Man 2:59
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
17    Memphis Minnie–    You Stole My Cake 2:56
Vocals, Guitar – Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie
18    Memphis Minnie–    Kind Treatment Blues 2:46
Guitar – Joe McCoy
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie
19    Kansas Joe–    You Know You Done Me Wrong 3:07
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
20    Kansas Joe–    Joliet Bound 3:06
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
21    Kansas Joe–    Stranger's Blues 2:50
Guitar – Memphis Minnie
Vocals, Guitar – Kansas Joe
22    Memphis Minnie–    Socket Blues 2:55
Guitar – Kansas Joe
Vocals, Guitar – Memphis Minnie