Label: Document Records.
Release Date: January 1, 1991.
Recording Time: 73 minutes.
Recording Date: March 9, 1928 - May 8 12, 1929.
Release Info: Compilation (DOCD-5066) Studio Recording.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues, Piedmont Blues, Pre-War Country Blues, Regional Blues, Pre-War Blues.
The period of time covered in the fourth of seven Lonnie Johnson Document CDs found the guitarist/singer being well-featured as a leader in many settings. He is heard on three two-part double-entendre performances with singer Victoria Spivey ("New Black Snake Blues," "Toothache Blues," and "Furniture Man Blues"); on five guitar duets with the great Eddie Lang (during which Lang was billed as Blind Willie Dunn); in a vocal duet with Spencer Williams; on the two-part "It Feels So Good" with Lang, King Oliver, and Hoagy Carmichael; as part of Blind Willie Dunn's Gin Bottle Four; and as a solo blues performer. Everything works. Considering that this is a strictly chronological release, the music is consistently rewarding, making this one of the key Lonnie Johnson CDs to pick up. ~ Scott Yanow
Abridged from DOCD-5066 original booklet notes.
In March 1928, Lonnie Johnson was in San Antonio, travelling with Okeh's mobile unit, and supplying accompaniment as needed. Part way through a stint backing Texas Alexander, he took time out to make the lovely ballad I'm So Tired Of Living All Alone, and a few days later he cut a four title session which included the first version of his famous attack on pimps, Crowing Rooster Blues; as so often with Lonnie, this song also includes some jaundiced opinions on women - note his advice on the dangers of buying them silk underwear in quantity. Broken Levee Blues is an unusual song of protest about the means by which the levees along the Mississippi were maintained, a system, which a few years later, was called "Mississippi Slavery in 1933" by Roy Wilkins of the NAACP.
In November, Lonnie Johnson made a classic version of Careless Love, and accompanied Texas Alexander for the last time, on this occasion in duet with one Salvatore Massaro. Massaro was better known as Eddie Lang, and in 1928 was aged 26. Lang had the deepest understanding of harmony in jazz, and Johnson the finest technique in blues; to consider the obvious esteem in which each man held the other; and to listen. Alongside the magnificent abstract music of Two Tone Stomp and Blue Guitars (a nod to Picasso?), Lonnie Johnson had formed another partnership, with Spencer Williams, which, if it didn't scale the same artistic heights, was to be commercially quite successful. The hottest record in the country in early 1929 was Tampa Red's "It's Tight Like That", and in It Feel So Good, Okeh had their entry to the race for soundalikes. Sam Charters is about right: "it wasn't any better than the original, but then it wasn't any worse either." One could add that, like Tampa Red, Johnson was a guitarist of exquisite clarity and logic, whatever the material; listen to his work on I Want A Little Some O' That What You Got, for instance.
A fortnight before Death Is On Your Track was cut, Lonnie Johnson was supplying a classic solo on Louis Armstrong's "Mahogany Hall Blues Stomp"; the previous December, he'd supervised Mississippi John Hurt's New York session, and shown Hurt around the town. His was a busy and successful career; if working for Okeh meant singing "Said the chicken when she ate the worm, "It makes me wiggle when you start to squirm"," he probably felt it was worth it. ~ Chris Smith, 1991 Document Records.
Credits: Raymond Boyd - accordion, vocals; Joe Brown - vocals; Hoagy Carmichael - percussion, vocals; J. Davis - composer; Blind Willie Dunn - guitar, primary artist; Blind Willie Dunn's Gin Bottle Four - primary artists; Jack Erby - piano; John Erby - piano; Jimmy Foster - vocals; W.C. Handy - composer; Helen Humes - vocals; James P. Johnson & His Orchestra - guitar, violin; J.C. Johnson - piano; James Johnson - guitar, violin; Lonnie Johnson - accordion, composer, guitar, harmonium, piano, primary artist, vocals; Jimmy Jordan - sax (alto); King Oliver - cornet; Martha E. Koenig - composer; Eddie Lang - composer, guest artist, guitar; Fred Longshaw - piano; Jelly Roll Morton - composer; Johnny Parth - compilation producer, producer; Deloise Searcy - piano; Chris Smith - liner notes; Victoria Spivey - composer, guest artist, piano, primary artist, vocals; Clarence Williams - composer, piano; Spencer Williams - composer, primary artist, vocals.
Tracklist:
1. I'm So Tired Of Living All Alone – Lonnie Johnson;
2. Way Down That Lonesome Road – Lonnie Johnson;
3. Crowing Rooster Blues – Lonnie Johnson;
4. Broken Levee Blues – Lonnie Johnson;
5. Wrong Woman Blues – Lonnie Johnson;
6. New Black Snake Blues, Part 1 – Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson;
7. New Black Snake Blues, Part 2 – Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson;
8. Toothache Blues, Part 1 – Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson;
9. Furniture Man Blues, Part 1 – Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson;
10. Furniture Man Blues, Part 2 – Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson;
11. Toothache Blues, Part 2 – Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson;
12. When You Fall For Someone That's Not Your Own – Lonnie Johnson;
13. Careless Love – Lonnie Johnson;
14. Two Tone Stomp – Lonnie Johnson & Blind Willie Dunn (Eddie Lang);
15. Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues – Lonnie Johnson And Blind Willie Dunn (Eddie Lang);
16. It Feels So Good, Part 1 – Lonnie Johnson & Spencer Williams;
17. It Feels So Good, Part 2 – Lonnie Johnson & Spencer Williams;
18. I Want A Little Some Of That What You Got – Lonnie Johnson & Jimmy Foster;
19. Death Is On Your Track – Lonnie Johnson & Spencer Williams;
20. Jet Black Blues – Blind Willie Dunn's Gin Bottle Four;
21. Blue Blood Blues – Blind Willie Dunn's Gin Bottle Four;
22. Guitar Blues – Lonnie Johnson & Blind Willie Dunn (Eddie Lang);
23. A Handful Of Riffs – Lonnie Johnson & Blind Willie Dunn (Eddie Lang);
24. Blue Guitars – Lonnie Johnson & Blind Willie Dunn (Eddie Lang).
Recorded in San Antonio, TX, 9 March 1928 (track 1), and 13 March 1928 (tracks 2 to 5).
Recorded in New York City, NY, 13 October 1928 (tracks 6, 7), 17 October 1928 (track 8), 18 October 1928 (tracks 9 to 11), 16 November 1928 (tracks 12, 13), 17 November 1928 (tracks 14, 15), 18 February 1929 (tracks 16, 17), 27 February 1929 (track 18), 19 March 1929 (track 19), 30 April 1929 (tracks 20, 21), 7 May 1929 (track 22), and 8 May 1929 (tracks 23, 24).