Label: Document Records.
Release Date: January 1, 1991.
Recording Time: 75 minutes.
Recording Date: February 11, 1931 - August 12, 1932.
Release Info: Compilation (DOCD-5069) Studio Recording.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues, Piedmont Blues, Pre-War Country Blues, Regional Blues, Pre-War Blues.
Lonnie Johnson, who had played both creative blues and advanced jazz in the 1920s, was sticking exclusively to blues (with some good-time hokum) by 1931. These 21 performances ended his classic period with OKeh before Johnson disappeared from records for five years. All of the selections are solo vocal/guitar numbers with the exception of three cuts, where he switches to piano and one duet with pianist Fred Longshaw. Johnson is in excellent form on such numbers as "Low Down St. Louis Blues," "Hell Is a Name for Sinners," "Best Jockey in Town," "She's Dangerous With the Thing," and "Racketeers Blues." True blues collectors will want all seven Lonnie Johnson CDs in this valuable series. ~ Scott Yanow
Abridged from this album's original booklet notes.
By 1931, record sales were declining catastrophically under the impact of the Depression, but Okeh, who had the Mississippi Sheiks and Bo Carter, actually put out more race records in 1931 than they had in 1930. They also had Lonnie Johnson, whose proven sales potential encouraged them to bring him in for six recording sessions in 1931 and even for four in 1932. Johnson's lyrics remained misogynistic; on Low Down St. Louis Blues, he catalogued the allegedly violent ways of the women of his former hometown, where his wife Mary was still living and Beautiful But Dumb added to his catalogue of generalised complaints. The intriguing title From A Wash Woman On Up conceals the fitting of a new lyric to his "jelly roll" tune, while Hell Is A Name For All Sinners holds out a melodramatic warning of the life to come, delivered with gloomy relish, and the moral advice on Home Wreckers Blues is more specific. As if to repay Okeh's confidence, Johnson was playing guitar better than ever, inserting dazzling runs made up of chromatic chords, which do something to alleviate the overstretched metaphor of Best Jockey In Town. On Sleepy Water Blues and Uncle Ned, Don't Use Your Head, however, his playing simply makes two glorious performances even better. Sleepy Water Blues, beautifully sung, is another in Lonnie's series of songs about "dear old Southland"; the lyrics may boggle the mind today, but as discussed in the notes to DOCD-5068, there were good reasons why this sort of song should have appealed to blacks facing economic hardship in the North. "Uncle Ned" is a rewrite of Sam Theard's 1929 hit "You Rascal You"; shortly, Lonnie was to reconstruct Cab Calloway's "Minnie The Moocher" into Winnie The Wailer. On Cat You Been Messin' Around, Lonnie rejects another (and evidently white) man's child, which his woman is trying to foist onto him, with some of Calloway's fantastical exaggeration, though without a trace of humour to lighten his delivery of the lyrics. More cheerful is She's Dangerous With That Thing, its strutting rhythms perfectly attuned to the inconsequential words. He was still lecturing his audience, though, attacking "pimps and gigolos", and "no-good women" as well, on Men Get Wise To Yourself. On Sam, You're Just A Rat, Johnson played piano on record for the last time until 1960, fittingly producing one of his best efforts on that instrument. The eight bar There Is No Justice finds Lonnie's playing sounding somewhat like Big Bill Broonzy's, but by the time of his last session for Okeh, on 12th August 1932, he was back to sounding like his unmistakable self. ~ Chris Smith, 1991 Document Records.
Credits: Jimmy Blythe - piano; Jaybird Coleman - piano, speech/speaker/speaking part, vocals; John Erby - piano; Porter Grainger - piano; Nap Hayes - guitar; Jaybird - piano, speech/speaker/speaking part, vocals; Lonnie Johnson - composer, guitar, piano, primary artist, vocals; Jimmy Jordan - guitar, vocals; Keghouse - vocals; Hans Klement - remastering; Fred Longshaw - piano; Johnny Parth - compilation producer, producer; Matthew Prater - mando, mandolin; Mark Prather - mandolin; Deloise Searcy - piano; Chris Smith - liner notes.
Tracklist:
1. Low Down St. Louis Blues - Lonnie Johnson;
2. Beautiful But Dumb - Lonnie Johnson;
3. From A Wash Woman On Up - Lonnie Johnson;
4. Hell Is A Name For All Sinners - Lonnie Johnson;
5. Home Wreckers Blues - Lonnie Johnson;
6. Not The Chump I Use To Be - Lonnie Johnson;
7. Best Jockey In Town - Lonnie Johnson;
8. Sleepy Water Blues - Lonnie Johnson;
9. Uncle Ned, Don't Use Your Head - Lonnie Johnson;
10. Cat You Been Messin' Aroun' - Jimmie Jordan (Lonnie Johnson);
11. She's Dangerous With That Thing - Jimmie Jordan (Lonnie Johnson);
12. Men, Get Wise To Yourself - Lonnie Johnson;
13. Sam, You're Just A Rat - Lonnie Johnson;
14. Winnie The Wailer - Jimmie Jordan (Lonnie Johnson);
15. There Is No Justice - Jimmie Jordan (Lonnie Johnson);
16. I'm Nuts About That Gal - Lonnie Johnson;
17. Racketeers Blues - Lonnie Johnson;
18. Unselfish Love - Lonnie Johnson;
19. My Love Don't Belong To You - Lonnie Johnson;
20. Love Is A Song (Your Love Is Cold) - Lonnie Johnson;
21. Go Back To Your No Good Man - Lonnie Johnson.
Recorded New York City, 11 February 1931 (track 1), 16 June 1931 (tracks 2, 3), 6 July 1931 (tracks 4, 5), 21 August 1931 (tracks 6, 7), 3 December 1931 (tracks 8, 9), 12 January 1932 (tracks 10, 11), 9 February 1932 (tracks 12, 13), 17 March 1932 (tracks 14, 15), and 12 August 1932 (tracks 16 to 21).