World War One Vets In Jazz & Country Music

On the hundredth anniversary of the Treaty Of Versailles I wanted to take a look at how some veterans of WW1 had an effect on the new and coming popular music scene that was about to become the dominate cultural movement of the 20th century; Jazz, Blues and Country music.



The Jazz Age started in America almost as soon as ink on the Versailles Treaty was dry and quickly spread to Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and eventually further afield to Japan, Latin America, Caribbean and a few parts of Africa and Asia. The unprecedented spread of this new music was facilitated by two modern inventions. The Gramophone and the radio. Gramophones had been around since the 1890's but for much of that time they did not really become affordable until the 1910's and aside from Ragtime, some black Spirituals and a bare handful of quirky exceptions, record companies did not start to record any recognizable Jazz, Blues or Country records. Once they did the sales of these records took off with amazing speed as there was now a solid number cadre of young people and bohemians eager for the exiting new sounds to shake off the exhausted cobwebs of the now discredited Victorian age. Before the War Gramophones were playthings for the middle classes, they were now cheap enough for the working classes as well and even the poor rural and black folks, meaning there was now a market for music they would buy as well, namely Blues, Country and Gospel. Since Gramophones (unlike the later phonographs) were not electric and instead were wound-up like a jack-in-the-box they could be used in the most remote and poor cabins of the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, the Ozarks, Dust Bowl Prairies and Newfoundland outports. This was even somewhat true for parts of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America where records would be exported and have an influence on the evolution of music such as Latin Jazz, Salsa, Ska and various African Jazz genres.

Radio's rise would be even more explosive. Before WW1 there were literally no radio stations anywhere in the world other than a bare handfull of hobbyists. As the Jazz age started there were radio stations throughout the world with millions of listeners in an unprecedented growth rate. By contrast television's growth took more than a decade, albeit slowed by WW2. Radio would for the first time allow for music to be brought to the masses nationwide and even internationally just as music from the Bohemian fringe or the wildest hinterlands was being recorded.



In spite of the quick creation of this infrastructure the number of Jazz Age artists who had been veterans of the recently passed WW1 is surprisingly small. One reason might be that America's involvement in the war was rather brief and most of these artists were either black or rural or too young and thus far less likely to be drafted. However there were a few;

James Reese Europe (1881-1919) A bandleader widely seen as being one of the most important figures in the transition between Ragtime and Jazz. Already a well known figure in New York society for his bouncy dance bands, he had also made a number of successful records, being the first Ragtime black band leader to do so. These records reveal his take on Ragtime was energetic but essentially conventional (and some are string bands that have no brass instruments) although he did allow some short solos and this along with the syncopated beat displayed the basic foundations of Jazz. His band became popular headliners at the Clef Club in New York but when WW1 broke out Europe immediately signed up and suggested the formation of a band that would entertain the Allied troops and quickly formed a band called the Hellfighters. Although the US army was still segregated the army did allow for black officers and Europe was made a lieutenant. Besides serving under fire and winning the French Croix De Guerre as a unit the Hellfighters became a musical sensation in France and Britain and returned home to as triumphant heroes leading a victory parade in Harlem. He then returned to his post but didn't get much chance to capitalize on his new fame because in 1919 he was murdered by one of his own drummers in a pay dispute. We can never know what effect Europe would have had on the Jazz age as his bands were not really proper Jazz bands. Perhaps the ambitious and solidly professional Europe would have adapted and updated his sound as Paul Whiteman would later do, or maybe he would have been left behind as a respected but essentially no longer relevant elder founder like WC Handy. Either way he would have been an important figure.

JAMES REESE EUROPE;


Some other notable members of Europe's Hellfighters Band or those with a Europe connection included;
Noble Sissle (1885-1975) Recruited by Europe for his Society Orchestra before the war as a song and dance man, he had already made successful recordings by 1917. Sissle followed Europe into the army and helped organize a new band. After the war he returned to New York and teamed up with pianist Eubie Blake, who had been in Europe's pre-war band but had not joined up, and became a highly successful duo with hits like the classic "I'm Just Wild About Harry" (written by Sissle) and the musical "Shuffle Along" throughout the 1920's. Sissle & Blake also became one of the first musical acts to make a sound video. He had a long life, dying in 1975.

NOBLE SISSLE & EUBIE BLAKE;


Vernon Castle (1887-1918) Although not a musician at all, British born dancer Vernon Castle and his wife Irene became fashionable stars in the 1910's by adapting ballroom dancing to modern ragtime music. To do so they worked with black bandleaders James Reese Europe and Dan Kildare. The Castles helped popularize ragtime to a respectable audience of young white upper middle class sophisticates who would have avoided a ragtime dance hall and got the attention of white bandleaders like Paul Whiteman who would be important figures of the early Jazz Age. Like James Reese Europe, Castle himself would not get to see how things would develop. The aristocratic Castle enlisted enlisted in the new British air force and survived the war only to die in a plane crash in 1918. Irene would continue to have a successful dance career in New York for many years.

IRENE & VERNON CASTLE;


Rafael & Jesus Hernandez; New York based Puerto Rican brothers who were recruited by Europe along with over a dozen fellow Puerto Ricans. After the war they returned to New York where Rafael had a long career as a band leader and composer of a number of songs that made him a star in Cuba and Puerto Rico, where there are a number of buildings and streets nameed after him. He died in 1965.

RAFAEL HERNANDEZ ~ "MADRIGAL";


Opal Cooper (1889-1974) Singer with Europe's pre-war band as well as being a banjo playing song & dance man, Cooper also enlisted but separately from Europe and ended in a different unit. Before the war in 1912 he recorded a couple of comedy songs and after the war he briefly led James Europe's band after his death but soon returned to Europe (the continent) where black musicians could get better treatment than in the USA and he had a long career as a nightclub singer along with making a few other recordings none of which received much notice in the USA.


OPAL COOPER

James "Tim" Brymn (1881-1946) Known as "Mr Jazz Himself", Brymn was James Europe's greatest rival. Originally from North Carolina but having a formal musical education at the National Conservatory in New York, by 1900 he already had a successful band as well as being a solo ragtime pianist and had written a few hit songs. Like Europe he enlisted in the army and organized a band called variously the Seventy Black Devils, Black Devil Orchestra, and often advertised as “The Overseas Jazz Sensation” which toured FRance where a young Willie The lion Smith reported seeing them. After the war he would form a new band, the Black Devils who toured with enough success to be recorded by OKEH Records and take over James Europe's position at the Clef Club and would record several albums into the swing era.



JAMES BRYMN ~ "DON'T TELL IT TO ME"


Harry Francis Cole (1896-1961) A Jazz sax player from Harlem, he was drafted and served in the artillery with Brymn and was soon added to his band. After the war he returned to Harlem where he became a successful local figure and a prominent mamber of the New Amsterdam Musical Association (NAMA), an all black musicians union formed as the existing white union would not allow black members yet musicians had to be members of a union to get a cabaret license or record. During the Drepression he would find work through the government's WPA cultural projects and was working as late as the WW2 years, then he seems to have retired to become a landlord as he had bought some property. He died in 1961.


COLES' ARMY DISCHARGE FORM

Frankie Half Pint Jaxon (circa 1896-1953) Half Pint Jaxon (real name Frank Jackson) was the most flamboyant figure in black music, or any music, of the early Jazz Age. A diminutive, 5 ft 2, more-or-less openly gay singer who sang ribald blues in a weeping flasetto and sometimes performed in drag, he had already established a career in the black medicine show circuit travelling from his Kansas City base to Texas where he shared stages with the young Bessie Smith and Ethel Watersand then the big city vaudeville stages of the East Coast. He served in the US army in 1918-1919 and rose the rank of Sgt. After the war he would have a successful career for the next twenty years on records and radio working with Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Bennie Moten, King Oliver, Freddie Keppard, Cow Cow Davenport, Tampa Red and "Georgia Tom" Dorsey and the Harlem Hamfats and would be an influence on Cab Calloway and H-Bomb Fergussion. With the outbreak of WW2 he quit the music business and worked for the war department in some capacity. His death is a mystery with some sources giving the date as 1944 while Jazz historian Brian Berger found a Veterans Dept graves registry for 1953, still others claim he lived untill 1970. Although he was fairly well known in Jazz circles in the 1920's & 30's, recorded dozens of records and should be seen as a pioneering figure in Gay culture he has been all but fogotten today.

FRANKIE HALF PINT JAXON ~ "


Sam Davis (1889-1980) ~ (no relation to Sammy Davis Jr) Was a New Orleans born Ragtime pianist, praised by Jellyroll Morton, who travelled throughout the Midwest. He was drafted in 1918 and spent the war playing in a USA Army Band but did not actually serve overseas. After the War he continued his life on the road before finally settling in upstate New York but he gave few interviews and never made any proper recordings aside from a couple radio transcriptions.


DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD FOR SAM DAVIS

Eddie Edwards (1891-1963) New Orleans trombonist with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB), famous as the first Jazz band to actually record (in 1917). They would score a number of hits (including his own "Sensation Rag") and tour to Britain and France until Edwards was drafted into the US Army in 1918. He served for over a year and upon returnng he would return on and off to music into the 1940's alternating with stints during the Depression working at a newspaper stand and at the YMCA even as his style of Jazz became passe compared to Swing.

THE ORIGINAL DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND;


Minor Hall (1897-1959) A New Orleans based drummer who played with Kid Ory, King Oliver and Louis Armstrong Hall was drafted and served two years in WW1 but details of his service are scanty. Uniquely he also was drafted again in WW2 at the age of 45 and served another short stint before getting an honorable discharge due to his age whereupon he got a job in a military aircraft defense plant for the duration. Afterwards he continued his Jazz career with Ory including appearing in movies "Mahogany Magic" and "The Benny Goodman Story".


DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD FOR MINOR HALL

KID ORY ~ "MUSKRAT RAMBLE";


George Reynolds (1888 - 1976) A minor St Louis pianist, Reynolds was drafted and raised to the rank of Corporal by the time of his discharge. After the War he travelled back and forth between St Louis and Chicago making a few minor recordings in bands led by trombonist Preston Jackson and something called the Richard M. Jones Jazz Wizards in the 1920's and 30's. Mostly a sideman he never recorded as a soloist or band leader and Jellyroll Morton considered him a mediocre player. In the 1950's he returned to St Louis for good living quitely and playing occasionally but not recording.


DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD FOR GEORGE REYNOLDS

THE RICHARD M JONES JAZZ WIZARDS ~ "IT'S TIGHT JIM";


Willie "The Lion" Smith (1893-1973) James Reese Europe and Vernon Castle might not be proper Jazz figures but that could never be said about Willie "The Lion" Smith. One of the great Jazz pianists of the 1920's known for his lightning fast barrelhouse playing as well as his image of the flashy sportin' life pianist with his jaunty suspenders, gold rings, derby hat and cigar and larger than life swagger. He had been an infantryman in the Great War (but not in the Hellfighters) and had seen some action. Exactly the nature of his service is in debate. Not known for false modesty, or any other kind, Smith always claimed he had been a sergeant but the records say he was only a private, he also claimed he had gotten his nickname "The Lion" for his bravery on the front, however there is no record of that either and it would appear that he had already been using that name during a brief career as a boxer and others drolly noted that the Lion's roar was worse than his bite. At any rate he would have a long career continuing into the Swing Era and into the post WW2 era with his barrelhouse playing an influence on the later Be-Bop and Boogie Woogie styles of Fats Waller, Pete Johnson, Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson up to R&B and R&R pianists like Merrill Moore, Moon Mullican, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Ray Charles and Charlie Rich.


DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD FOR WILLIE "THE LION" SMITH

WILLIE "THE LION" SMITH ~ "FINGER BUSTER";


Japser Taylor (1894 -1964) A respected and prolific drummer, xylophone and washboard player from Texarkana who had recorded as early as 1917 with WC Handy, Taylor served in France with the infantry. After the War he moved to Chicago where he recorded with Jellyroll Marton, Jimmy O'Bryant, Jimmy Blythe, Clarence Williams and Freddie Keppard. Like many other musicians he found work drying up during the Depression and became a cobbler, returning to music after the WW2 recording with Art Hodes, Natty Dominique and some lesser lights as well as his own band until his death.


DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD FOR JASPER TAYLOR

ART HODES QUARTET ~ "WASHBOARD STOMP";


Will Vodery (1885-1951) A bandleader originally from Pennsylvania then based out of Washington DC and Harlem, New York as a noted composer/arranger. Like James Europe he enlisted during the war and organized yet another band. After the war he made it to Broadway where he worked on popular musicals like "Showboat", worked with George Gershwin and Will Marion Cook and became an influence on the young Duke Ellington who he worked with at the Cotton Club. Oddly for a guy with such a long and successful career he doesn't seem to have made it into a recording studio on his own.

THE VODERY GIRLS ~ "PUTTIN IT ON";


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BRITISH JAZZ MUSICIANS;

Jack Hylton (1892-1965) A British pianist and bandleader who became one of the first British Jazzmen earning the title the British King Of Jazz. Hylton had been a singer and pianist in various cafes as well as in a dance orchestra before the war and served as regimental musical director. His post war career was not notably successful and he ended up getting fired from his own band but by the mid twenties he had formed a proper Jazz orchestra which became highly successful through heavy touring, radio appearances and recordings, he also became a promoter bringing prominent Americans to the UK including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller. After WW2 he wound down his performing but continued as a promoter into just before his death in 1965.

JACK HYLTON ~ "LIFE IS JUST A BOWL OF CHERRIES";


Henry Hall (1898-1989) Another British bandleader of the interwar era. Before the war Hall had been a trumpeter, pianist and composer for the Salvation Army before joining the artillery where he played in the regimental band. After the war he eventually formed a society dance band which played dance halls and on the BBC where he became a fixture throughout the thirties and entertaining the troops in WW2. He continued his career into the sixties before retiring, dying in 1989.

HENRY HALL;


Percival Mackey (1894-1950) A London based pianist who played as a travelling entertainer in a one man act that included ventriloquism, magic and comedy as well as part of a troupe. After serving in the war he formed a dance band that would include popular singer Al Bowly as well as being musical director for musicals, film scores and for the record label EMI. He died in 1950.

PERCIVAL MACKEY;


Jack Payne (1899-1969) A British pianist who served in the Royal Air Force where he discovered Jazz from visiting Americans. After the war he formed a dance band which performed on the BBC and later became the first band to perform on TV for the first BBC TV broadcast in 1929. He continued at the BBC until he retired in the sixties dying in 1969.

JACK PAYNE ORCH ~ "TIGER RAG";


Victor Silvester (1900-1978) Enlisted in the British Army at the age of sixteen (he lied about his age) he served as a private and saw action at the Battle Of Arras and even served on a firing squad before his actual age was discovered and he was sent home. Before getting there he volunteered as a stretcher bearer on the Italian front and was wounded thus getting a medal from the Italian govt. Before the War he had been studying music and returned to his studies at Trinity College along with dancing. He would later start his own dance band and dancing school while recording dance tunes which became wildly popular in the UK in the 30s and into the Second World War. While his band would do some Big Band Jazz numbers it was more of a Society Dance Band than a Swing band and by the 1950's was clearly out of style. In the Rock & Roll era he tried to do string-laden versions of pop songs and show tunes until his death in 1978 after which his sons continued the band to this day.

VICTOR SILVESTER ORCH ~ "DEEP PURPLE";


Debroy Somers (1890-1952) Another British teen who lied about his age to enlist, although he done so in peace time in 1905. He rejoined during the War and served as a sergeant and military bandsman. In the twenties he would form another one of those sort-of-Jazz dance bands of the era rather like Paul Whitemen's and reworked George Gershwin's so successfully that Gershwin himself joined them for a UK performance. He and his band appeared in a few movies and scored a hit with "Amy, Wonderful Amy", a song about Amy Johnson, Britain's Amelia Earhart. Somers continued through WW2 but died before the R&R era in 1952.

DEBROY SOMERS ORCH ~ "OUT OF THE SPECIAL";


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COUNTRY & WESTERN SINGERS;

Ken Maynard (1895-1873) Now largely forgotten, Maynard was an important figure in early Country & Western, in fact he helped put the "Country" in C&W music. He had actually worked as a cowboy before enlisting in the army. After the war he headed off to the new town of Hollywood to try his luck where he got a job in the new silent film industry as a stuntman in western films before graduating to acting in them. Unlike other western film stars like William S Hart and Tom Mix, Maynard managed to continue into the sound era and in a 1929 film he became the first singing cowboy. Unlike Gene Autry (who he would later discover) Maynard was never really a professional singer but could play a little guitar and fiddle and sing in a rather reedy voice which while crude did sound authentically western. He never had any real hit records and had little interest in pursuing a singing career but his movies were successful enough to encourage the studios to make more specifically musical movies using Gene Autry who had been a supporting player in a few Maynard films and who Maynard encouraged. Autry's singing cowboy movies were a smashing success and his star soon surpassed Maynard's. Changing tastes were not Maynard's only problem, although supportive of Autry, Maynard had earned a reputation as hard drinking and quick tempered and prone to brawls. By the end of the thirties his career was effectively over and his fortune gambled away. He still had a few friends, especially Autry, who gave him some money and arranged for bit parts and he died in 1973.

KEN MAYNARD ~ "THE COWBOY'S LAMENT";


Jules Verne Allen (1883-1945) He called himself "The Original Singing Cowboy"; A title which was not entirely accurate, but he was certainly one of the first to record. Details of his life are hard to pin down because he would later write an autobiography which was, to say the least, highly misleading. But he had apparently spent some time as a working cowboy including claiming stints as a rodeo rider (which may or may not be true) and a town sheriff (probably not true) while a census actually lists him as a barber before enlisting in the US Army in 1905 and again during WW1 where he entertained the troops doing rope tricks and singing cowboy songs as well as appearing as a blackface minstrel. After the war the census reports him as working as an autoworker for a few years until the success of singers like Carl Sprague, Vernon Dalhart and Ken Maynard lured him out to Hollywood to try his luck at being a singing cowboy in the 1920's. He did not get a movie contract but he did get a recording contract from Columbia Records legendary talent scout Ralph Peer who had discovered Jimmy Rodgers, Fiddlin John Carson and the Carter Family. He would record a number of songs including the classic "Jack Of Diamonds" between 1928-29 before the Great Depression and changing tastes in the 1930's ended the careers of rustic singers like him. He continued to perform at rodeos and on radio in the Southwest and wrote a successful and self-glorifying autobiography which included a number of songs and poems and a glossary of cowboy terms called "Cowboy Lore" much of which he seems to have made up or plagiarized from a book by famed folklorist John Lomax. He also managed to collect a number of ex-wives before dying in 1945, completely missing the folk revival that would have no doubt loved the charming old rogue.

JULES VERNE ALLEN ~ "JACK OF DIAMONDS";


Carl T Sprague (1895-1979) ~ Less flashy than Maynard or Allen and also less scandal prone, Sprague lived a quieter and longer life than either. He beat both of them to title of "Father Of The Singing Cowboys" with his 1925 recording of "When The Work's All Done This Fall" which sold 900,000 copies, later certainly reaching a million. There had been an earlier million selling singing cowboy record from Vernon Dalhart but he while he was from Texas, Dalhart was no cowboy, and was in fact a trained tenor who had appeared in Gilbert & Sullivan light operas and recorded several successful pop songs in the 1910's. Sprague on the other hand had really grown up on a ranch in Texas and worked as a cowboy before joining the army in WW1. After the war he went to university at Texas A&M where he performed cowboy songs on the campus radio station and was offered a recording contract in 1925 scoring the above mentioned hit and another in "The Dying Cowboy" along with a few others until the Great Depression ended his recording career in 1930. He would live quietly until the 1960's folk revival discovered him and he would play the folk circuit and record another album before dying at 1979, thus the first of the classic Singing Cowboys was also the last.

CARL T SPRAGUE ~ "O BURY ME NOT ON THE OLD PRAIRIE";


David Miller (1883-1953) ~ A less well known figure of the early C&W era. Miller had a career as an obscure medicine show performer as a singer/guitarist before joining the the army during the war. His military career was brief however as he developed an eye infection which left him effectively blind. Even worse the Army denied him a disability pension saying that he had developed his infection before he enlisted. With no better options he pursued his singing career in the new record business starting in 1924 with Paramount Records and then the newer radio with some success although never becoming a star. He kept it up through changing tastes into the Honky Tonk era eventually sharing stages with Patsy Cline and Hawkshaw Hawkins when he was billed as the "Blind Soldier". By that time his style was positively archaic.

DAVID MILLER ~ "JAILHOUSE RAG";


John Jacob Niles (1892-1980) An odd but influential figure of the post WW2 Folk revival, Niles came from Kentucky from a respectable background of a musical family and his father being a active in local politics. When America entered WW1 he enlisted as a Lieutenant in the fledgling Airforce and was injured in a plane crash. After the war he stayed a while in France studying music and hanging out with the Bohemian set like Gertrude Stein. Returning to the USA he began compiling traditional folk ballads and touring the country singing them in a ghostly Renaissance style falsetto while playing an unwieldy dulcimer he made himself. He also published song books and did some recordings well into the late 1950's Folk Revival era when he became an influence of the likes of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul & Mary although his style was too idiosyncratic to reach a larger audience. He continued to play on and off until his death in 1980 when he was into his nineties.

JOHN JACOB NILES ~ "GO WAY FROM MY WINDOW";


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PRE WW1; There actually were a few veterans of pre-WW1 wars who made it into the recording era.

Harry McClintock (1882-1957); One of the important early folk singers, known for the classic "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "The Old Chisholm Trail". Born in Tennessee, he ran away to join a circus then worked the railroads and merchant marine before enlisting in the Spanish-American War in 1898 serving in the Philippines as a mule-team packer for supply trains. After that he went to China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 as a reporter. Back in the USA he joined the IWW (AKA the Wobblies), a radical anarchist union and spent the next forty years as a travelling minstrel singing folk and labour songs both his own as well as publicizing the songs of Wobblie songwriter Joe Hill. In the 1920's he began recording sometimes under the name of Haywire Harry and was a major influence on Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Cisco Houston. He died in 1957 just before the Folk Revival that certainly would have made him a star again.

HARRY McCLINTOCK ~ "THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN";


Henry C. Gilliland (1845-1924); A fiddler from Texas Gilliland became one of the first authentic Old Time Musicians to record when he joined fellow Texan Eck Robertson to a recording session in New York in 1922 and recorded a single of "Arkansas Traveler" / "Turkey In The Straw" which became a surprise hit kicking off the start of the country music record industry. Originally from Missouri Gilliland was a 74 year old veteran of the Confederate Army who usually performed wearing his old uniform. Although Gilliland took the lead on at least one of the songs top billing went to Roberston as he had arranged to session and was known as a championship fiddler. For years the story about this legendary session was that they had simply showed up at Victor Studios demanding an audition with Gilliland in his CSA uniform and Robertson in full cowboy gear and the intimidated staff complied. But it later turned out that this was a regular session that Roberston had arranged previously like any other. Even in 1922 record labels were not in the habit of simply letting people swagger into a record deal off the street. Roberston would go on to a long career but Gilliland apparently did not record again and returned to Texas dying two years later.

ECK ROBERTSON & HENRY GILLILAND ~ "ARKANSAS TRAVELER";


Polk Miller (1844-1913) Although the Robertson/Gilliland record is considered the birth of the country music recording industry more recent research has turned up earlier recordings that are obvious influencers on later country and blues artists notably the minstrelsy records of Polk Miller & His Old South Quartette made in 1909. From Virginia, Miller served in the Confederate artillery where he learned the banjo from slaves attached to the Confederate army. After the Civil War he went into business founding a patent medicine for dogs which grew into the pet supply maker Sargent's (named after his dog) which is still in business. Although he had given up playing music publicly as undignified when he went into business by 1892 the now partially retired Miller started a successful career as a singer and banjo player doing old folk songs from the south backed by a black vocal quartet. Much of their material was meant to glorify the antebellum south and were quite popular, with Mark Twain and Grover Cleveland being fans, and an influence on the next generation of early country and blues performers both black and white notably Uncle Dave Macon, Charlie Poole, Wilmer Watts, Papa Charlie Jackson and Gus Cannon. Miller's attitude is complicated; while he openly revered the Confederacy he also refused to play in black face or had his quartet do so but they instead dressed in dignified formal wear and by all accounts treated them fairly. They did play Confederate reunions but avoided touring in areas where openly racist crowds made Miller concerned for the safety of his quartet. He cited his concerns about the increasing racism of the times when he retired in 1911 and died two years later. The members of the Quartet carried on for a few more years at least before fading from view. However a version of the group reunited in the twenties to record a few more sides before disappearing for good.

POLK MILLER & HIS OLD SOUTH QUARTETTE ~ "BONNIE BLUE FLAG";


James MacNeil (circa 1870-1945) One of the leading black bandleaders and trumpet players in the early New Orleans jazz scene, MacNeil (sometimes also spelled as MacNeal) played in a number of the most popular bands in the city including the John Robicheaux band and was considered a rival to the legendary Buddy Bolden and an inspiration to younger players like King Oliver, Bunk Johnson and Freddie Keppard. He led the Onward Brass band along with his fiddle playing brother Wendell (1876-?) and most of the band enlisted in the army during the Spanish-American War in 1898 as bandsmen where they gained a reputation both as musicians and hell-raisers before being mustered out in New York where they made a brief splash on the music scene before returning home. While in NY MacNeil was recorded as making a record (possibly solo) which however has never surfaced which is a shame because he apparently never recorded again, quitting the band and handing leadership over to trumpeter Manuel Perez who would continue it til about 1930 when the depression and changing tastes put an end to them. Their lineup included a young King Oliver for a time. But this version of the band also never recorded. James went on to the more sedate life of a music teacher dying before the post-WW2 Dixieland revival that would rediscover Bunk Johnson could find him. Wendell moved to Chicago and was listed as still being alive in an 1958 index of Jazz musicians but there is no other info on him I can find.


THE JOHN ROBICHAUX ORCH circa 1896 w/James MacNeil at back row second to right and brother Wendell sitting at right, bandleader Robichaux sits next to Wendell

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And one more veteran; Although obviously not part of the Jazz or even Ragtime scenes, I'm including Arnold Schoenberg as the founder of avant garde classical music which would influence later figures like John Cage, Phillip Glass, Glen Branca, Karlheinz Stockhousen, Terry Reilly, George Antheil, La Monte Young and John Cale as well as Hollywood film scores.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) ~ The father of avant garde composers was drafted into the Austrian army during World War One in spite of the fact that he was already 42 years old, out of shape, asthmatic, nearsighted and with no military training. He was also already a well known composer, notorious amongst the deeply conservative Habsburg establishment for his experiments in atonal music. Given that Schoenberg was also a converted Jew in the deeply reactionary Hapsburg empire he could hardly expect a good reception in the Austrian army. Arnold's own rather prickly personality didn't help. He was greeted by one officer with the words; "You wouldn't have to be that notorious Arnold Schoenberg would you?" To which he replied; "Well yes; I did have to be since nobody else was willing to". Still, he was well educated and so was sent off to officer training in 1916 but was eventually discharged on health grounds. A year later he was actually drafted again, this time to serve in a military band which at least does make some sense, but was quickly discharged again for the same health reasons. Once Hitler came to power he would flee the country and move to America where he would have a succesful career as a composer and educator as well as being a tempermental tutor to Hollywood film score composers.
SCHOENBERG'S 12 TONE METHOD;


And one more with Calixa Lavalee (1842-1891), a French Canadian pianist, organist and cornet player who journeyed south to the USA during the Civil War to enlist in the US Army where he served as a bandsman reaching the rank of Lieutenant and was wounded at the Battle of Antietam. After the war he toured the USA and Canada as part of a minstrel troupe before returning to Montreal where he worked as a music teacher, choir master and composer including his most famous work, "Oh Canada" which would become Canada's national anthem. He ended up in Boston where he died penniless.

Offbeat Instruments In Old Time Music

We have a certain image of the instruments used during the 1920's birth of the Blues and Country music. Guitars, Banjos, Fiddles, Harmonicas, Pianos, Mandolins and the occasional Autoharp, along with whatever jerry-rigged instruments Jug Bands cobbled together, and that's pretty much it. But that's quite wrong, a trip through the Sears & Roebuck Catalogs of the age which were commonly used to order instruments even in most rural areas show pages of Zithers, Harp-Guitars, Cellos and Harmoniums for sale. And we know that some rural folk did indeed play them. Then there were locally produced instruments such as the Mountain Dulcimer, Washboard, Washtub Bass, Musical Saw and the Quills. I've even seen an old photo of a stringband standing in front of a saloon proudly showing off their full size concert harp. Lord knows what they played on it.

The problem was that in the early days of recordings many instruments simply did not record well given the crude technology of the time. Banjos, Fiddles and Pianos recorded quite well from the start, they were loud, clear and distinct. In fact the banjo, which had been around for over a century as a African-American instrument, became wildly popular in the Ragtime Age when white, tuxedoed players like Fred Van Epps and Vess Ossman had numerous hit records with their rapid fire instrumentals. Guitars by comparison, now seen as the archetypal blues, folk and country instrument, took longer to catch on, they were too quiet to record well at first. It's noteworthy that the first big selling rural artists like Eck Robertson, Fiddling John Carson, Uncle Dave Macon and Papa Charlie Jackson played fiddle or banjo. Soon enough the guitar pushed it's way in and took over. Of course it was sexier than the weedy fiddles or clanging banjos. On the other hand there's the autoharp. They had been around since the 1900's and sold well enough since they were relatively easy to play, however they did not record well and might have been largely forgotten if it were not for the fact that two of the biggest names in country music, The Carter Family and Ernest Stoneman used them on their hit records. By comparison take the Mountain Dulcimer. Like the autoharp they are easy to play and in fact have obvious advantages in that since they only have three or four strings they are a lot easier to tune. They are also louder. Due to the vagaries of taste however they were never very popular as recording instruments and never had a hit-maker like Stoneman or the Carters to champion them. The instrument might have slipped into complete obscurity if folk revivalists like Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Richard Farina and Mike Seeger hadn't championed them in the 1950's and 1960's. The mandolin is another example of the vagaries of taste. They had been subject of an odd fad in the 1910's when large all-mandolin orchestras briefly became all the rage. The dawning of the electric Honky Tonk era might have pushed them to the sidelines if it were not for Bill Monroe's bluegrass bands and various brother duos like the Louvins and the Stanleys. Now it is literally impossible to have a bluegrass band without one. I think it may actually be a bylaw. By contrast the bodhran, a hand-held drum common in folk music of the Celtic Fringe of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and the Isle Of Man would have been a perfect addiction to Bluegrass, Country Stringbands or Jugbands. However the numorous immigrants from these Gaelic lands did not move to Appalachia and the Ozarks so this never happened.

There were also the commercial decisions made by record companies. Once certain instruments and genres sold well record companies rushed to sign up more of the same while more regional and eccentric tastes fell by the wayside. A few oddities still managed to slip through;

THE QUILLS ~ RAGTIME HENRY THOMAS:
RAGTIME HENRY THOMAS ~ "FISHING BLUES";


Henry Thomas (1874 - 1950's) was a Texas based bluesman who recorded in the twenties. He was actually a full generation older than other 1920's bluesmen which was reflected both in his repertoire, which ranged from standard blues to rags and minstrel tunes, as well as his use of the quills. A crude instrument known since ancient times, the quills were simply a set of several short flutes cut from hollowed out reeds and attached to a rack. The ancient Greeks referred to a similar instrument as the Pan Flute. Since the quills were easy to play, compact, and could be made by any handy craftsman they were quite popular amongst black slaves as well as poor white farmers, sailors and other rural folk, including children, going back to colonial times. They were not considered a respectable instrument however and their reedy sound did not record well and by the turn of the century they had been superseded by the harmonica which had the advantage of being a far more versatile instrument, not to mention louder, as well as being sturdier and more compact. Thomas, a singer/guitarist, was the only notable recording artist who used the quills, which he played using neck mounted rack similar to the ones later used by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. He recorded some twenty three sides for Vocalion throughout the twenties. The quills add a distinctive touch to his fairly upbeat tunes as the perfect counterpart to his equally reedy tenor voice.



Thomas was best known for his classic "Bull Doze Blues" later covered by Canned Heat. Thomas was a mysterious figure about whom little is known in fact exact dates for his birth and death are not confirmed. Besides Thomas a few other rural artists would be recorded playing the quills in later years by John and Alan Lomax.

RAGTIME HENRY THOMAS ~ "BULLDOZE BLUES";


THE HARP-GUITAR ~ ALFRED KARNES;



The harp-guitar was one of the many odd hybrid instruments that was briefly popular in the late Victorian era. A large and unwieldy instrument the harp-guitar was a guitar with a extra large body topped with several extra strings that could be strummed to add extra body to the melody picked out or chorded on the fretboard. The harp-guitar was so large and bulky that shorter players actually had to prop it up on a stand. They were not an instrument that came from rural America but were instead a modification of the lutes used in Europe since the Renaissance. They probably made their way to rural audiences via vaudeville where odd instrumental acts were not unusual. A few photos from this era show the instrument. Too awkward and bulky to be really popular they could however be easily be bought through the Sears & Roebuck mail-order catalogs even in remote rural areas and they can occasionally still be found in antique shops.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "I'M BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND";



Alfred Karnes was one of the artists recorded at the legendary Bristol Sessions set up by producer Ralph Peer in 1927 which included such major figures as The Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers and Ernest Stoneman. Karnes was a singing preacher who had never recorded before. He showed up with his harp-guitar which he played using a distinct slapping sound while picking out the guitar melodies and using the harp strings to strum a backing. This gave his records the illusion of playing two guitars, an effect also made by Maybell Carter's innovative duel picking and strumming style. He also sung his gospel songs in a ringing stentorian baritone far removed from the nasal twang of the likes of Jimmy Rodgers or Charlie Poole. His best known songs were the rousing "I'm Bound For The Promised Land", "To The Work" and the mournful "Where We'll Never Grow Old". At the Bristol Sessions Karnes is believed to have played and sang backups with another singing preacher from Corbin, Kentucky named Ernest Phipps who recorded songs like "I Want To Go Where Jesus Is" backed by a stringband. However the details are sketchy and the audio evidence is unclear.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "TO THE WORK";


Given the excellence of his recordings Karnes could have single-highhandedly popularized the harp-guitar if he had chosen to seriously pursue a serious musical career. However unlike the stars of the Bristol sessions like Rodgers, Stoneman and the Carters, Karnes had little interest in doing so and after his promising start Karnes made a few other recordings before returning to preaching for the rest of his life. He died in 1958 just a few years to soon for the folk revival of the early sixties which would lead to the rediscovery of contemporaries like Maybell Carter, Roscoe Holcomb and Hobart Smith and it certainly would have done the same for Karnes and his harp-guitar.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "WHERE WE'LL NEVER GROW OLD";


Another more obscure group to use the harp-guitar was The Gibbs Stringband who recorded six sides for for Paramount Records in 1927 and six more in 1930 for Vocalion. The Gibbs Brothers were Bob (banjo), Joe (guitar) and Hugh (harp-guitar) with James Jackson (fiddle) and Sam Spencer (vocals). Their records are standard stringband fare, well done and lively, especially on "I'm Going Crazy". However, as with the Ernest Phipps records, in a group context it is difficult to tell the difference between a harp-guitar and regular guitar. Clearly the harp-guitar really shined as a solo instrument in the hands of someone with the power of Alfred Karnes. The Gibbs Band made no further records and dropped from sight.

THE GIBBS STRING BAND ~ "I'M GOING CRAZY";


THE GIBBS STRING BAND ~ "CHICKEN REEL";

As it was the instrument, too bulky to be truly popular, fell into obscurity. As an added note there exists an old photo of what appears to be old time country gospel group (note what appears to be bible in the older man's hands) named Leigh & Frieda Northrup and John & Maude Montgomery, featuring a fiddle and harp-guitar with a vocal duo. This clearly shows that at least a few other rural groups were using the harp-guitar at the time. Unfortunately the Northrup & Montgomery group apparently did not record so thus missing another chance to preserve this peculiar instrument.



UPDATE; After I posted this someone did some research on these folks and discovered they were indeed preachers who lived in Tillamook County, Oregon where they built Bethel Mission Church around 1916 which is probably when this photo was taken judging by the clothes. They probably never saw the inside of a studio or radio station sadly.

THE ZITHER vs THE DOLCEOLA; WASHINGTON PHILLIPS;

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS ~ "I AM BORN TO PREACH THE GOSPEL";


The zither is a multi-stringed harp-like instrument having a hollow wooden body to act as a sound box (unlike a true harp which has no body at all) having anywhere from a dozen two dozen strings. Unlike most folk instruments used in North America which came from the British Isles (except the banjo, which is African in origin), the zither came from central Europe. Specifically Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Scandinavia and was brought by the waves of immigrants who came from these lands starting in the mid-nineteenth century. There were numerous different types of zither each with different names, shapes and numbers of strings but the German type would become the standard with it's harp-like shape, usually around a foot and half by fourteen inches in size, with anywhere from 25 to 35 strings. They were invariably painted black with a floral design. These zithers were quite common and any Sears & Roebuck catalog of the 1900's and 1910's will always have a page or two of these models. They can often still be found cheaply in antique stores today. By the 1920's however they had fallen out of fashion.

A STANDARD MODEL ZITHER FROM THE 1910's;


A MORE ELABORATE MODEL FROM THE 1890's;
The zither's downfall can be traced to some of the usual suspects. It's gentle sound did not record well. It's delicate and intricate finger picking, while suitable for slow ballads, was completely unsuited to accompany the more aggressive dance tunes, rags and fiddle breakdowns that became popular. With their multiple strings they were also difficult to keep in tune. Essentially the zither was made obsolete by the invention of the autoharp, which kept the basic shape and size of the zither while adding the distinctive tonebars which allowed the instrument to be chorded and strummed vigorously enough to accompany other instruments. It was also therefore easier to play. Zithers were also victims of the xenophobia of World War One when all things German became taboo.

Washington Phillips was one of the most enigmatic Gospel/Blues singers of the 1920's. For decades little was known about his life and death, and nobody knew what he looked like. This is true for other figures like Blind Blake (of whom one photo exists, but little else is known) but Phillips is unique in that for decades nobody was even sure what instrument he played. The Texas based singer recorded a series of sides in 1927 and again in 1929 for Columbia records, and then dropped out of sight. On these unique records he sings in a gently drawling, somewhat quavering, tenor accompanied by an oddly chiming zither-like instrument which gives him an almost ethereal sound. Originally it was insisted that he was playing an odd instrument called a dolceola, an equally enigmatic and rarely recorded instrument of which few examples exist. The dolceola was basically a zither with a keyboard attached which made it sound like a tiny piano or harpsichord. They were only made for a few years and then discontinued and were seen mostly as a novelty instrument. Virtually the only person who is known for sure to have occasionally played around with one is fellow Texan Leadbelly so it's possible for Phillips to have had one. However the only real evidence he did so was the producer's notes for the original recordings. However eyewitness reports seem to indicate a zither and the issue became a matter of heated debate for years. However in the 1980's a photo surfaced in a Columbia Records catalog which showed Phillips holding two instruments which are clearly zithers. That should have ended the debate. But of course it did not and the powerful dolceola lobby is quite stubborn. Audio evidence is completely subjective as everyone listening to scratchy old 78's tends to hear something different. Some hear keyboard strikes, some do not. I can't tell but personally I prefer the zither theory on the grounds that;

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS ~ "KEYS TO THE KINGDOM";


1) The zither was a fairly common instrument in the turn of the century (albeit not amongst black musicians) and easy enough to find. Whereas the dolceola was always an obscure novelty instrument only available for a few years. It's always possible that Phillips could have found one of course, Leadbelly obviously did, but the odds are definitely with the zither.
2) All the eyewitness accounts about Phillips that have surfaced (of which there are admittedly only a few) consistently describe a zither type instrument played by strumming and plucking, not a keyboard instrument. That's not a mistaken impression anybody is likely to make. The only real evidence for a dolceola is that notation in the Columbia Record's files, which could have been made later and might indeed be a mistake.
3) Listening to the Leadbelly track, which everybody agrees is definitely a dolceoa, sounds quite different from the Phillips records.
4) Then there's that photo. After all what are the odds that Phillips happened to be sitting around when a photographer handed him two zithers, said "Here hold these and say cheese!" and then snapped a quick photo? And even if he did why would Columbia Records then choose that photo for their catalog if he played a completely different instrument?
Washington Phillips did not record after 1929 and for years it was assumed that he died in 1938 after being committed to an insane asylum. However recent research revealed that he actually returned to preaching and died in 1954, outliving the far more famous Leadbelly who died in 1949. Phillips' recordings represent a gentle and charming contrast to the Hellfire and Brimstone more commonly associated with rural gospel music. Some of his songs were later covered by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS ~ "TAKE YOUR BURDENS TO THE LORD";


Although not normally used by rural musicians (at least those who recorded) there is one other example of a group who clearly did use a classic German style zither. The Perry County Music Makers were Nonnie Smith Presson on zither and vocals, her brother Bulow Smith on vocals and guitar and occasionally a harmonica player, Nonnie was apparently the main songwriter. They recorded four sides for Vocalion Records in Knowville in 1930 in which Nonnie's zither is the main instrument and can therefore be compared to Washington Phillips. Nonnie and Phillips do playing the same basic instrument although she is much more fluid, not to mention louder. Unlike most of the other artists here Nonnie and Bulow. although never very successful in the 30's did live long enough to be rediscovered and and recorded two albums in the 1970's before she died in 1970.

THE PERRY COUNTY MUSIC MAKERS ~ "I'M SAD & BLUE";


THE REED ORGAN AND HARMONIUM;
The organ is the oldest mechanical instrument known to man, having existed since the late middle ages. These early organs were massive, honking monsters powered by large bellows operated by separate assistants. Clearly they were not portable and were limited to large churches and the occasional palace. By the late renaissance smaller, more portable models had been invented using hand bellows, basically like an accordion. The reed organ was the last pre-electronic organ developed and some were small enough to be reasonably portable, at least if you had a car. The harmonium was even more portable, being about twice the size of an accordion and operated much the same way. They were reasonably affordable and commonly sold through mail order. They took a while to catch on as recorded instruments however. Their sound, while easily loud enough, did not record well at first. Their rather blaring honk tended to overwhelm everything else and the notes seemed to blur together. By the 1920's these technical problems had mostly been worked out, however their were still cultural issues to restrict the use of organs in secular music. The organ had always been seen, at least in popular tastes, as a church instrument. Using the organ for blues, country, jazz or ragtime would have been seen almost as blasphemy. Fats Waller would make some jazz recordings in the 1940's but it was not until the 1950's that figures like Ray Charles, Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff would score commercial hits using the organ, and even then there was controversy. Prior to then it was mostly limited to some gospel recordings, at least those denominations which allowed musical instruments at all. The harmonium was made obsolete by small electric organs although oddly they did catch on in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal (presumably brought by missionaries) where they are still quite common.



The Jubilee Gospel Team were a black trio from Georgia who made a series of recordings in 1928. Like most gospel groups at the time (and now for that matter) their repertoire is fairly limited. Basically they have two tempos; slow and slightly faster. Structurally the songs are typical call and response. They are fairly lively though and the organ adds depth to the records. A couple of records like "Dry Bones In The Valley" have an urgent string-of-consciousness sound. Little else is known about the group and what happened to them other than the probability they were from Virginia.

THE JUBILEE GOSPEL TEAM ~ "DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY";

Luther Magby was a gospel singer from from Georgia who made only two recordings in 1927. He used a harmonium in a fast paced rhythmic style that was well suited to his sharp, slurring voice. He is also backed by a single anonymous tambourine player. The results make for a lively and upbeat single although once again the songs do sound very similar and one wonders if Magby had any other more varied material in his repertoire. Unfortunately he made no more recordings and little more is known of him.

LUTHER MAGBY ~ "JESUS IS GETTING READY FOR THAT GREAT DAY";


One of the few non-religious groups to use the instruments were the obscure Reeves White County Revelers from White County, Arkansas and made up of three Reeves Brothers; Ike and Ira on fiddle, Lloyd on piano and vocals and Fred Rumble on guitar. Pianos were already somewhat odd in stringbands but not unknown, however when they arrived at Chicago in 1928 to record they discovered that the studio amazingly did not have a piano so Lloyd had to make do with a reed organ. The resulting singles are highly unusual in combining traditional stringband fare like "Arkansas Traveler" and "Shortning Bread" with the fiddles battling their way through a fog of blaring organ. Purist collectors of stringband 78's find this cacophony difficult to wade through but they do have a distinctive sound that somehow sounds even more out of time than other stringbands in spite of their more "modern" flourishes. They were brought back to the studio six weeks later to record a second series of more standard stringband tunes. The Ramblers then returned to Arkansas and made no further recordings although they remained active into the sixties.

THE REEVES WHITE COUNTY REVELERS ~ "RATTLER TREED A POSSUM";




THE LUTE-DULCIMER ~ JOHN JACOB NILES;
John Jacob Niles (1892 - 1980) is not normally seen as a rural performer, he was a serious musicologist with a degree from Cincinatti University as well as studying in France who did an extensive study of traditional ballads. However he had genuine rural southern roots having been born in Kentucky, who had been performing traditional ballads since childhood. He played an odd version of the Mountain Dulcimer he made himself. The Mountain Dulcimer was a simplified version of various strummed zithers brought to America by immigrants from The British Isles, Germany and Scandinavia. These instruments had various numbers of strings and names like the hummel (Swiss), kantele (Finnish), langleik (Norwegian) and the scheitholt (German). The Mountain Dulcimer came from Appalachia and had either three or four strings grouped in sets of two, similar to the German scheitholt. Held in the lap or on a table and played with a vigorous strumming motion, the first set of strings were fretted like a guitar using a wooden slider while the second set of strings were unfretted and acted as drones giving the instrument a buzzing echo effect. Easy to play and tune it was also useful to accompany a ballad singer or a string band although it lacks the complexity for a good solo. In spite of these advantages it was never popular as a recorded instrument, partly for cultural reasons. The Dulcimer's very ease of play made it popular with women singers but thus not popular with men who preferred the more flashy fiddles, banjos, guitars or mandolins.

JOHN JACOB NILES ~ "GO AWAY FROM MY WINDOW";


From childhood John Jacob Niles designed and built his own unique instruments which combined a body based on the old European lute with the basic string setup of the Mountain Dulcimer for a unique instrument that was at least twice the size of the usual dulcimer. The lute was an old European stringed instrument that dated back to the Middle Ages when it became the choice instrument of minstrels and troubadours. It had a large oval body and a thick neck and a distinctive bent head and multiple strings played with intricate finger plucking creating a delicate sound. The lute was fiendishly difficult to play or keep in tune and not suitable to play fast dances or accompany a string band. By the late restoration period it was falling out fashion to be replaced by far more versatile and user-friendly guitars and mandolins. Paintings of the era often show a musician happily playing a guitar while a lute sits unused in a corner, dusty and forlorn. They were never common in America but the studious Niles could have easily seen pictures of one and used it as a model for his homemade version of the smaller mountain dulcimer.
Niles researched old Anglo-Celtic ballads popular in his Kentucky home and sang them in a breathless, ghostly tenor that seemed enveloped in the mists of time beyond the mountains of Appalachia to the foggy Highlands of Scotland, the sunny meadows of England, the hills of Wales and the fields of Ireland. His dulcimer playing was rudimentary at best, often little more than fragmentary strumming that could barely be heard. By the time he started recording in 1938 his style was already so archaic as to be positively prehistoric, even in Appalachia, and his small audience was mostly made of young, university educated urban folkies in the late 1950's and early 60's folk revival. Too offbeat and weird to have ever found a larger audience he nonetheless influenced the next generation of folkies like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Jean Richie, the latter of whom would popularize the dulcimer with a far more dexterous style. He continued playing up his death.

BLIND MAMIE FOREHAND & HER HAND CYMBALS ~ "I WOULDN'T MIND DYING";


Mamie Forehand was a gospel singer along with her guitarist husband A.C. who recorded two singles (along with a couple of out-takes) in Memphis in 1927. They were apparently rather elderly and their origins are unknown but were presumably from Tennessee or neighboring Arkansas or Missouri. Tamborines were quite common in black Baptist and Pentecostal churches but somewhere along the road Mamie Forehand found a pair of hand cymbals, an instrument known from the Orient and rarely, if ever, used in rural music black or white. The cymbals were small, delicate and tuned to a specific pitch and were played like Spanish castanets. They are not used with the same staccato urgency however and instead used with a softly played simple rhythm that is barely audible on the tracks sung by A.C., especially given his guitar and harmonica playing. The tracks sung by Mamie are softer and with less backing from A.C. and thus her cymbals are more clearly heard. The Forehand's records are gentle and intimate and like those of Washington Phillips are reminder of the softer side of gospel. Unlike Phillips their records were, and remain obscure and the Forehand's subsequent whereabouts are unknown but it's safe to assume they're long gone.

THE KAZZOO ~ JAMES WIGGANS;
Normally seen as a child's toy, the kazzoo was occasionally used by blues and country musicians,both black and white, as a sort of novelty version of the harmonica. It recorded reasonably well and unlike the harmonica it required no skill and could be played hands free. It quickly fell out out of fashion to be replaced by the far more expressive, and far less goofy sounding, harmonica. James Wiggans was a piano playing bluesman who recorded a few records for Paramount Records including the original version of "Keep A Knockin" later covered in a classic version by Little Richard. Kazoos were also used by a few other black artists particularly on Paramount Records.

JAMES "BOODLE IT" WIGGINS" ~ "KEEP A KNOCKIN";


THE STOVEPIPE;
Jug Bands and other rural songsters, black and white, were known for making use of a number of improvised and Jerry-rigged homemade instruments as the iconic Moonshine Jugs, Washboards, Washtub Bass, Musical Saw, and Spoons. In fact all of these are still in some use today in some form. One of the oddest improvised instruments to have a brief heyday was the stovepipe. In spite of it's rather intimidating name which suggests something to be used by Cabaret Voltaire or S.P.K, the stovepipe was simply a length of stove pipe tapered at the ends which the player hummed, blew, whistled or stuttered into rather like a combination of the jug and kazoo. The results were the limited, monotonous and downright silly sounding, it's even less expressive than the kazoo. Still at least two black songsters chose to not only specialize in the instrument but made it their trademark. Sweet Papa Stovepipe who recorded for Paramount Records (of course) in 1926 and his rival Stovepipe Number 1 who recorded for Paramount, Columbia and OKeh in the 1920's. Both were older than the usual bluesman and their materiel suggests they started out in the 1910's which is probably when the stovepipe had it's day, such as it was. Stovepipe Number 1 (real name Sam Jones) was fairly versatile recording not only solo but also with a band from 1924 to 1930.

STOVEPIPE NUMBER 1 ~ "A WOMAN GETS TIRED OF THE SAME MAN";