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"Gatemouth Moore - Yazoo City

Arnold Dwight “Gatemouth” Moore was one of America’s most popular blues singers in the 1940s before becoming a renowned religious leader, radio announcer, and gospel singer. He served as pastor of several churches in Mississippi and Louisiana, including the Bethel A. M. E. Church and Lintonia A. M. E. Church in Yazoo City. Moore, who was born in Topeka, Kansas, on November 8, 1913, spent much of his career in Memphis, Kansas City, and Chicago. He died in Yazoo City on May 19, 2004.

Moore was the tuxedoed toast of the blues world when he strode from the gambling table to the stage of Chicago’s Club DeLisa one December night in 1948. But when he tried to sing, nothing came out, until, finally, he broke into the old spiritual, “Shine On Me.” According to a columnist for Chicago’s African American newspaper the Defender, Moore “ran off the stage and about seven blocks in the snow screaming and yelling ‘I’m saved.’” This was but one of many dramatic and colorful moments in the career of Moore, who entered the ministry and remained a newsworthy national personality in all his varied fields of endeavor.

A descendant of emancipated slaves who emigrated to Kansas from Tennessee during the historic “Exoduster” resettlement movement of the late 1870s, Moore sang ballads and spirituals as a youngster in Topeka. In his teens he left with a traveling show, joined the Port Gibson-based Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and ended up in Clarksdale around 1934. A year or so later he caught a ride to Memphis and launched a new career as a blues shouter. At a show in Atlanta an intoxicated woman gave him his nickname, he recalled: “I opened my mouth and she looked up and hollered, ‘Ah, sing it, you gatemouth S.O.B.!” Moving between Memphis, Kansas City, and Chicago, he toured with some of the country’s top bands and wrote and recorded hits such as “I Ain’t Mad at You Pretty Baby,” “Did You Ever Love a Woman,” and “Somebody’s Got to Go.” Both B.B. King and Rufus Thomas considered Moore a major influence; they not only recorded his songs but remained close friends with him through the years.

Moore was ranked in the top rung of vocalists in national polls by the Defender when he felt the calling to preach. He carried his flair for showmanship with him into the ministry, as a gospel singer and recording artist, as the host of radio and television programs, and as a raconteur whose tales could stretch the limits of belief. His elegance and exuberance enabled him to easily cross social, racial, and religious lines, and though he devoted himself to the church, community work, charities, and education, he still enjoyed singing the blues on occasion. A pastor of both Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal churches, a leader of the “black Elks” (IBPOEW), president of the Birmingham Black Barons baseball team, and an emcee at both blues festivals and religious conventions, Moore once delivered a eulogy for the closing of the Club DeLisa and preached one famous sermon from a casket and another from a cross. In 1974 the A.M.E. Church assigned him to Yazoo City, where he married high school counselor Walterine Coleman. Moore, who attained the rank of bishop, received a brass note on the Beale Street Walk of Fame in 1996, and his widow was presented with a resolution in his honor by the Mississippi Senate in 2004.

Other noted singers who have called Yazoo City home include Jo Armstead, Kenzie Moore, and Robert Covington. Jo Armstead (b. 1944) left Yazoo City in 1961 to become an Ikette with the Ike and Tina Turner revue. She later co-wrote several R&B hits, including "Let’s Go Get Stoned," "Jealous Kind of Fella," and "Sock It To Me." Kenzie Moore (1929-1987) was a football star and WAZF deejay who sang with the Joe Dyson band in Jackson and recorded “Let It Lay” and other songs for the Specialty label in 1953-54. Covington (1941-1996) played drums with a number of Chicago blues artists, most notably Sunnyland Slim, and was featured as a singer on the 1988 album The Golden Voice of Robert Covington. content © Mississippi Blues Commission"

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"Holmes County Blues - Lexington

Holmes County has been a significant contributor to the legacy of African American blues and gospel music in Mississippi. Heralded blues artists born or raised in the Lexington area include Elmore James (a native of Richland, about eleven miles south of town), Lee "Shot" Williams, Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers, and Lonnie Pitchford. B. B. King also lived briefly in Lexington as a teenager.

Lexington can claim a rich musical heritage as the onetime home of Blues Hall of Famers B. B. King and Elmore James along with an array of accomplished blues, soul, jazz, and gospel performers. King, born in 1925, was a budding guitarist and gospel singer when he moved to Lexington to live with his father Albert in 1940 for two years. James (1918-1963), a key figure in Mississippi and Chicago blues history, lived on various farms in Holmes County in his early years. His headstone in Ebenezer bears the inscription "King of the Slide Guitar."

Several local families were responsible for much of Lexington's blues legacy. Soul and blues singer Lee "Shot" Williams (1938-2011), whose recording career lasted almost fifty years, was a cousin of brothers Otis "Big Smokey" (1929-1993) and Albert (aka Abe) "Little Smokey" Smothers (1939-2010) and of Lester Davenport (1932-2009), all of whom were longtime figures on the Chicago blues scene. Williams and Otis Smothers were from Lexington; Albert Smothers, Davenport, and Chicago vocalist Arelean Brown (1924-1981), who claimed Williams as a brother, were from Tchula. In his later years Williams enjoyed renewed popularity on the Southern soul circuit by recording a series of risque songs. Otis Smothers performed in a more downhome vein and recorded some classic blues of his own in addition to doing sessions with Howlin' Wolf and writing songs for Muddy Waters. Willie Douglas "W. D." Pitchford, his wife Rosie, and their sons Willie Douglas, Jr., Charles Edward, Lonnie Lee, Andrew James ("A. J."), and Rosby Pitchford from Lexington all played blues or gospel guitar. Lonnie (1955-1998), a critically acclaimed performer who toured several countries, carried on the music of Elmore James and Robert Johnson and also brought the homemade one-string "diddley bow" to prominence. Lexington's Roseby brothers Ras ("Butch") (1904-1970) and Edgar (a banjoist, 1921-1993) and their cousin, saxophonist John "Brick" Roseby (1910-1987), performed in various jazz and dance bands. Ras (Rasberry), a trombonist, later played drums for Elmore James and recorded as a sideman for Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 on Trumpet Records in Jackson.

Guitarist Lee Cooper (1925-1966), a prolific studio musician from Lexington who was skilled in both jazz and blues, recorded with Howlin' Wolf, Memphis Slim, Eddie Boyd, and many others in Chicago. Another Chicago bluesman with Lexington roots, James Scott, Jr. (c. 1913-1983), recorded in Memphis for Sun Records in 1952 and led the Scott Jr. Band in Mississippi and Chicago. Geneva Morganfield (1915-1973), who was immortalized in her husband Muddy Waters' 1949 recording "Little Geneva," was a native of Lexington, as was noted jazz bassist Malachi Favors (1927-2004), a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

content © Mississippi Blues Commission"

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"Holmes County Blues: Tchula

Many blues performers who gained fame in the Delta, Jackson, and Chicago and on the southern soul circuit have lived in or near Tchula, including Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy Dawkins, Jesse Robinson, Lewis "Love Doctor" Clark, Little Smokey Smothers, Arelean Brown and Lester Davenport. Even long after most of its famous sons and daughters had departed, Tchula remained a center of juke joint revelry along Highway 49.

Tchula developed a thriving blues culture during the segregation era as a freewheeling home base and gathering spot for musicians throughout the area. “It was very energetic,” recalled guitarist Jesse Robinson, who lived in nearby Mileston and later became a leading blues figure in Jackson. “Musicians would just be playing all over the place.” The area's most famous performer, slide guitar master Elmore James (1918-1963), was inspired, according to local lore, by guitarist Henry “Nub” Craft. James, who recorded the classic “Dust My Broom,” gave a rural Tchula address when he registered for the Navy in 1943. Fellow slide guitarist Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor, known locally as "Nitter" or "Niller," was influenced by Willie Collins and in turn taught guitarist Wylie (or Wiley) Gatlin (c. 1916-1983) when he lived here in the 1930s and '40s. In Chicago Taylor was the first artist to record for Alligator Records, and his “genuine houserocking music” provided the label with its theme. Tchula natives Gatlin and Woodrow Adams both moved to Tunica County and recorded in Memphis in the 1950s.

The Chicago blues scene once included a sizable contingent of Holmes County cousins. Albert “Little Smokey” Smothers played with cousin Lee “Shot” Williams and others, and when he was a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Little Smokey mentored blues-rock guitarist Elvin Bishop. He and his brother Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers (1929-1993) from Lexington recorded albums of their own, as did their cousin, multi-instrumentalist Lester Davenport, who also played harmonica with Bo Diddley. Davenport was the son of slide guitarist Neely Davenport. Cousins from the Brown family included vocalist Arelean and her brothers China (later a bandleader in St. Louis), George and King. Arelean was famed for her topical 1970s records “I Am a Streaker Baby” and “Impeach Me Baby.” Lee “Shot” Williams recorded prolifically as a soul-blues singer for many labels –including his own Tchula Records–and sometimes returned to this area to live and perform.

Jimmy Dawkins became one of Chicago's most critically acclaimed blues guitarists after recording his debut LP "Fast Fingers" in 1969. Dawkins, an advocate for blues artists' rights, later started his own publishing, recording and management companies. Guitarists Emmett “Maestro” Sanders and his cousin James “Quick” Smith played blues in Peoria, Illinois, and Sanders was also featured in Koko Taylor's Chicago band. Singer Bobby Foster (b. Tchula, 1941) recorded soul and blues in St. Louis and Memphis, while guitarist Matt Nickson (1924-2000), a Mileston native, was a veteran of the Buffalo, New York, blues scene. Lewis Clark, at one time known as the “Blues Doctor,” made a name recording southern soul as the “Love Doctor.” A track called “Blues for Tchula” was released on a 1994 CD by local medical doctor Ron Myers, a jazz pianist and promoter. content © Mississippi Blues Commission"

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Rast an einer Tanke. Chicken Lunch und dieser sehr ängstliche Hund. Aber der Hunger trieb ihn an unseren Wagen. War ich zunächst der erste der teilte flogen ihm bald auch von den anderen Brocken zu.
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Ebenezer

Elmore James - Ebenezer

The cemetery of the Newport Missionary Baptist Church is the final resting place of Elmore James (1918-1963), often described as the "king of the slide guitar." James' electric style built on the approach of Robert Johnson and later influenced many blues and rock guitarists. Also buried here is Lonnie Pitchford (1955-1998), known for his skills on the one-string guitar or "diddley bow" and his dedication to keeping alive older traditions of Delta blues.

Elmore James embodied the dramatic style changes in the blues associated both with the mass migration of rural Mississippians to Chicago and with evolving electronic technology during the 1940s and ’50s. Born Elmore Brooks on January 27, 1918, in Richland, he first played a one-string guitar, and locals recalled that he soon constructed a multi-stringed instrument with a lard can. In the late ’30s James began performing with Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 in Belzoni. Johnson’s boogie bass runs and slide guitar style were integral to James’ approach to the guitar. James also played with his adopted brother Robert Holston, sometimes with bands featuring horns and amplifiers. James lived on various farms in Holmes and Humphreys Counties before serving from 1943 to 1945 in the Navy. He returned to Mississippi as a decorated veteran.

James, who learned more about electronically amplifying his guitar while working at Holston's radio repair shop in Canton, played on radio shows with Williamson in Belzoni and Helena, Arkansas, and made his debut recording in 1951 for Jackson's Trumpet label. Williamson played harmonica on James' record, "Dust My Broom," a tune recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936, and James also backed Williamson and Willie Love on Trumpet sessions. After "Dust My Broom" became a national R&B hit, James began touring and moved frequently between Mississippi and Chicago. He recorded for Meteor, Modern, Chess, Fire, and other labels over the next decade, scoring hits with “I Believe,” “The Sky is Crying” and “It Hurts Me Too.” James, who had a longstanding coronary condition, died of a heart attack on May 24, 1963, at the Chicago home of fellow musician Homesick James Williamson. Following a wake in Chicago, James’ body was sent home to Mississippi for burial.

Lonnie Pitchford, who often played songs by Elmore James and Robert Johnson, was born near Lexington on October 8, 1955. His parents, Willie Douglas and Rosie Pitchford, and his brothers Rosby, Willie Douglas, A. J. and Charles also played guitar. As a child Pitchford built one-string “diddley bows” using baling or broom wire and snuff cans. After he began playing a regular guitar, he joined a high school band and also played in churches with gospel groups in the area and while living in Chicago, Kansas City, and Kalamazoo. In the 1970s he began showcasing his one-string guitar skills under the guidance of folklorist Worth Long, who also helped him meet and learn from blues veterans Eugene Powell, Sam Chatmon, and Robert Lockwood. Pitchford performed across the U.S., toured Europe and Australia, appeared on several albums, and was featured in films and on TV. Around Lexington, he was sometimes joined by guitarist Curtis Price, who, like Pitchford, worked as a carpenter, recorded with the Star Lite Singers gospel group, and was buried here. Price, born on May 2, 1956, died in an auto accident on July 19, 2010. Pitchford died on November 8, 1998.

content © Mississippi Blues Commission

Lothar bei der Arbeit

Das gibt Rücken...

DAS ist eine Wespe, und nicht das Kleinszeug bei uns..

Spooky - Old Tombstones but great portraits

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AVALON

Das Mississippi John Hurt Haus in Avalon

Der Amarillo unter der Veranda

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Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon

World-renowned master of the acoustic guitar John Hurt, an important figure in the 1960s folk blues revival, spent most of his life doing farm work around Avalon in Carroll County and performing for parties and local gatherings. Hurt (1893-1966) only began to earn a living from music after he left Mississippi in 1963 to play at folk festivals, colleges, and coffeehouses. His first recordings, 78 rpm discs released in 1928-29, are regarded as classics of the blues genre.

Mississippi John Hurt's delicate vocals, inventive fingerpicking on guitar, and warm personality endeared him to generations of music fans. Much of Hurt’s material predated the blues, and his gentle style provided a stark contrast to the typically harsh approaches of Delta musicians such as Son House and Charley Patton. According to a family bible, Hurt was born on July 3, 1893, in Teoc, several miles southwest of here. Other sources, including his tombstone at the St. James Cemetery in Avalon, have suggested dates ranging from 1892 to 1900. He began playing guitar around age nine. By twenty Hurt was performing at parties and square dances, sometimes with local white fiddler Willie Narmour, who had a contract with OKeh Records. Narmour recommended Hurt to OKeh, and in 1928 Hurt traveled to Memphis and New York to record. His OKeh songs included the murder ballads “Frankie,” “Stack O’Lee,” and “Louis Collins;” “Spike Driver Blues” (Hurt’s take on the John Henry legend); “Nobody’s Dirty Business” (a tune with roots in 19th century minstrelsy); religious songs; and Hurt’s own “Candy Man Blues” and “Got the Blues Can’t Be Satisfied.”

The recordings apparently had little effect on Hurt's lifestyle, and he continued to play regularly for locals at house parties, picnics, night spots, work sheds, hunting lodges, and at the Valley Store at this site. His older brother Junious also sometimes played harmonica here. For most of his life Hurt worked as a farmer, but he also worked in a factory in Jackson and at a local gravel pit, and was employed as a laborer for Illinois Central Railroad and the Works Progress Administration. One of Hurt’s 1928 songs, “Avalon Blues,” later provided record collector Tom Hoskins with a clue to his whereabouts, and in 1963 Hoskins located Hurt in Avalon and arranged for him to move to Washington, D.C., where he cut several albums and recorded for the Library of Congress. Hurt subsequently became a popular and beloved performer on the folk music circuit. His many admirers included the folk-rock band the Lovin’ Spoonful, whose name was inspired by a line from Hurt’s “Coffee Blues.” In 1965 he moved to Grenada, Mississippi, where he died on November 2, 1966.

Other blues performers from Carroll County include G.L. Crockett, Jim Lockhart, and Art Browning from Carrollton; Brewer Phillips and Ben Wiley Payton from Coila; and Po’ Bob Phillips from Black Hawk. Rockabilly artist Mack Allen Smith, a cousin to Narmour’s partner Shell Smith, often saw Hurt playing in North Carrollton while growing up, and later recorded many blues songs as well as a version of Narmour and Smith’s “Carroll County Blues.”

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Tommy McClennan - Yazoo City

Tommy McClennan (c. 1905-1961) was one of America's most successful down-home blues recording artists during the period when he recorded 20 singles for the Bluebird label (1939-1942). Among McClennan's most notable numbers were "Bottle It Up and Go," "Cross Cut Saw," "Travelin' Highway Man," and "New Highway No. 51 Blues." McClennan, famed for his raucous, uninhibited singing and guitar playing, frequented this section of Yazoo City when he lived on the nearby J. F. Sligh plantation.

Tommy McClennan was born in Yazoo City in April of 1908, according to Big Bill Broonzy in his book "Big Bill Blues." However, McClennan's death certificate cites his birthplace as Durant (Holmes County) and the date as January 4, 1905. He is shown with his mother Cassie and his siblings in the 1910 census in Carroll County, and in 1920 the family was living on a plantation near Sidon in Leflore County. McClennan and his wife Ophelia were also enumerated in the 1930 Leflore County census, with his occupation listed as teamster. His name was variously spelled McClinton, McLindon, McCleland, and McClenan on these documents, although the McClennan spelling was used on all of his recordings. Other bluesmen remembered him from elsewhere in the Delta, including Bolivar County and Vance, but he was best known around Greenwood, where Booker Miller, a protege of Charley Patton, knew him as "Sugar," and Yazoo City, where local resident Herman Bennett, Jr., and others called him "Bottle Up," after his most popular song, “Bottle It Up and Go.” When Miller quit playing in 1937, he sold his guitar to McClennan. In the Greenwood area, McClennan's performing partners included Robert Petway and Honeyboy Edwards. When Samuel Charters traveled to Yazoo City doing research for his book "The Country Blues" in the 1950s, he learned that McClennan had lived on the Sligh plantation and liked to hang out on Water Street at the Ren Theater, an adjacent barroom, and a pool hall. Bennett also recalled him from the Cotton Club, a popular blues spot on Champlin Avenue.

McClennan began his recording career in 1939 after white Chicago record producer Lester Melrose came looking for him. Broonzy recounted that Melrose had to make a hurried exit when his presence angered locals who thought he was recruiting laborers to leave Mississippi. In Chicago McClennan, “one of the most ferocious blues singers to get near a microphone,” in the words of Charters, unleashed his gruff, unbridled blues in the studio, sometimes further energizing the recordings with lively comments urging himself on. According to Broonzy, McClennan was chased from a Chicago party when revelers objected to the controversial lyrics McClennan sang in “Bottle It Up and Go.” McClennan's friend Robert Petway also recorded sixteen songs for Bluebird. Petway (aka Petaway or Pettiway) shared a similar, if less rough-hewn and exuberant, performing style with McClennan. They were of similar diminutive height and were sometimes taken to be brothers. Their recording careers both ended in 1942, although Bluebird and RCA Victor continued to release McClennan singles for several years. McClennan moved to Chicago but there are few reports of him performing there. The last time Honeyboy Edwards saw him, McClennan was drinking heavily and living in a hobo jungle. McClennan died of bronchopneumonia in Chicago on May 9, 1961.