The sheer amount of high-quality old-time music that’s been preserved and released by numerous archival record labels is voluminous to the point of being forbidding to the curious neophyte. It’s okay just to plunge right in, but those seeking a thoughtfully curated point of entry need look no further than Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present…1925 Songs. As the cover of this beaucoup 2CD collection details, the contents offer, per the cover, Blues, Country, Jazz & More. The ride is fascinating and delightful from start to finish.
As the promo text for this release succinctly states, 1925 was the dawn of electrical recording. The record companies in their bloom were grooving into shellac any act, solo, duo, or group, they could plant in front of a microphone. There was no shortage of brilliance in a range of artistry that had yet to be rigidly defined, and musicologist Dick Spottswood, whose radio shows on WAMU over the years never sat stylistically still for very long, is the perfect guide to an eventful year of recording.
Dora Carr’s “Cow Cow Blues” opens the set, Carr belting it out while the track’s credited composer Charles “Cow Cow” Davenport brings the rollicking boogie-woogie piano, getting the collection off to a lively start. Rosa Lee Carson’s “The Drinker’s Child” follows, an early country lament with Rosa Lee singing and playing guitar, accompanied by her father, Fiddlin’ John Carson, on the instrument that brought him considerable success. The despair is palpable.
The Wheat Street Female Quartet’s “Go Down, Moses” swings the proceedings into gospel territory, the emotionally resonant root of a collective vocal style carried forward by groups like the Golden Gate Quartet, the Swan Silvertones, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Next is fiddler William B. Houchens and guitarist J. M. Houchins with the fleet dance mover “Fisher’s Hornpipe and Opera Reel,” and then comes the Old Southern Jug Band (reportedly the pseudonymous Dixieland Jug Band) with the spirited and lithe “Hatchet Head Blues.”
Due to his inclusion in The Anthology of American Folk Music, Bascom Lamar Lunsford is one of the major names in old-time music’s grand and varied scheme. His sound, impossible to tag as merely the endpoint of Euro-balladry morphing into proto-country, remains as rich and strange as it ever was. “Sherman Valley” may not be as gripping as “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,” but give it a few dozen listens. It’ll get in the ballpark.
The Tweedy Brothers’ “Cripple Creek” is a barnburner of a hoedown throwdown that contrasts well with the blast of hot jazz straight out of the furnace that is Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra’s “Kater Street Rag,” a fleet and inarguably more sophisto (or at least citified) affair, but still mighty greasy. Brownlee’s Orchestra of New Orleans follows with “Peculiar,” a heftier and deeper jazz variation in the mode of the titular municipality.
Many of the artists included on 1925 are, to varying degrees, obscure, but early bluesman, songster, and hokum specialist Papa Charlie Jackson is well known to fans of prewar blues recordings. His “Drop That Sack,” coming out of the minstrel shows and heading straight toward Charley Patton and Blind Willie McTell, makes a strong case for the persistence of memory regarding Jackson’s work.
Jimmy O’Bryant’s Washboard Band’s “Hot Hot Hottentot” has the sort of sound one would expect to hear not necessarily in a club or an auditorium, but under a tent. An exotic sensibility? Yes, but not overdone, and also smackdab in the hot jazz tradition. From there, we shift into Hersal Thomas’ “Suitcase Blues,” a killer piano banger at the intersection of blues and boogie-woogie.
Deacon L. J. Bates, aka Blind Lemon Jefferson, is another carryover from Harry Smith’s aforementioned Anthology, and he swings us into the gospel blues zone with “All I Want is That Pure Religion.” There’s an intensity of feeling in gospel blues that’s singular, and Jefferson, along with Blind Willie Johnson, is at the tiptop of this hybrid subgenre.
The Seminole Syncopators’ “Sailing on Lake Pontchartrain” is another large band jazz cooker, maybe not as gruff as the Brownlee Orchestra, but still far from refined. Even less polished is the deep bow pulling of Osey Helton on “Cacklin’ Hen,” which comes straight out of the North Carolina fiddling tradition. Osey often played with his brother, guitarist-banjoist Ernest Helton, whose solo banjo side “Royal Clog” follows Osey’s piece with a flurry of resonant melody.
Next in the sequence is Dr. James Roach, full throated at the piano, with one of the earliest Cajun/Creole recordings, “Gue Gue Solingaie,” followed by a sweet banjo duet by R. B. Smith and S. J. Allgood, “American and Spanish Fandango” (this cut was issued as one side of a split 78rpm disc with Ernest Helton’s “Royal Clog”).
It’s here that 1925 takes another interesting turn. Hitch’s Happy Harmonists’ “Washboard Blues” features Hoagy Carmichael on piano, a jazzy sojourn that tees up one of the most celebrated of prewar blues guitarists and also a slinger who knew how to handle business in a jazz band, Lonnie Johnson. “Mr. Johnson’s Blues” reinforces his mastery and verve.
Charles Creath’s Jazz-O-Maniacs bring another early jazz scorcher, the instrumentally dexterous sprint to the finish line that is “Grandpa’s Spells.” Next is another figure with an enduring profile, the expert vocalist Ida Cox, who downshifts with the bluesy “How Can I Miss You When I’ve Got Dead Aim.” She’s backed by a small jazz band, the whole bunch getting deep into a bucket of guts.
We move from a well-remembered blues singer to one of the biggest names in early jazz with Bix & His Rhythm Jugglers’ “Davenport Blues.” Yes indeed, that’s Bix Beiderbecke on trumpet, and this smaller group jazz side is one of the sturdier examples of ensemble musicality on 1925’s two discs. If less urbane, Clifford’s Louisville Jug Band’s “Struttin’ the Blues” is a welcome follow-up to Bix’s groove, as the jug bands specialized in blending mountain-bred fiddlers and banjo strummers with trumpet blowers from bigger burgs.
Smartly sequenced late in the set, Homer Davenport & Young Brothers’ “The Fox Chase (Reel)” is a heat-seeking missile of string band gusto. It’s easy to picture Mike Seeger’s jaw hitting the floor the first time he heard it. After that, Lem Fowler’s Washboard Wonders get their licks in with “Salty Dog,” with the washboard prominent in the admittedly rudimentary mix as the horns spit out some highly appreciated sparks.
“Salty Dog” nestles up quite nicely next to the synco-swagger of Sonny Clay’s Plantation Orchestra’s “Jambled Blues,” but next comes another style shift as Land Norris delivers a vocal and banjo tour de force with “Dogwood Mountain.” But just as quickly, we’re swung back into jazzy territory with the New Orleans Owls’ pleasingly humid “Stomp Off – Let’s Go,” and then the great guitarist Sylvester Weaver arrives with the exquisite bluesy lope of “Mixing Them Up in “C”.”
We enter the home stretch here with the Mound City Blue Blowers, a novelty jazz combo that featured leader Red McKenzie on comb (he also played kazoo) and, for a while, guitarist Eddie Lang, later to play with Bix and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer. Lange is co-composer of “Gettin’ Told,” so it’s safe to assume he plays on this peppy undertaking. This segues perfectly into Chauncey C. Lee’s “Banjo Rag,” a crisp number nearer in spirit to early jazz than old-time.
For the digital bonus track, Captain M. J. Bonner fiddles up a storm on “Yearling’s in the Canebrake / The Gal on the Log.” It’s a fine capper to a wide-reaching and intelligently ordered release. It comes with a liner booklet with words by Cameron Knowler, so the info here is just the tip of a knowledge iceberg. So much of what’s transpired musically over the last century is rooted in Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present…1925 Songs. Grabbing a copy will strengthen myriad connections.
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