Album Club
31-08-2015, 22:30
Unfortunately folks, due to DanJennings letting us down, we have had to find an alternative choice for September. So thanks to Grant (struth) for stepping in at the eleventh hour, we have an absolute cracker for September's Album Club choice. Again, please listen to the album in its entirety before you vote. This month's choice ought to prove less of a ‘Marmite’ choice than last month's.
Remembering Big Bill Broonzy
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Big Bill Broonzy was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in the tiny town of Scott, Mississippi, just across the river from Arkansas. During his childhood, Broonzy's family, itinerant sharecroppers and the descendants of ex-slaves, moved to Pine Bluff to work the fields there. Broonzy learned to play a cigar box fiddle from his uncle, and as a teenager, he played violin in local churches, at community dances, and in a country string band. During World War I, Broonzy enlisted in the U.S. Army, and in 1920 he moved to Chicago and worked in the factories for several years.
In 1924 he met Papa Charlie Jackson, a New Orleans native and pioneer blues recording artist for Paramount. Jackson took Broonzy under his wing, taught him guitar, and used him as an accompanist. Broonzy's entire first session at Paramount in 1926 was rejected, but he returned in November 1927 and succeeded in getting his first record, House Rent Stomp, onto Paramount wax. As one of his early records came out with the garbled moniker of Big Bill Broomsley, he decided to shorten his recording name to Big Bill, and this served as his handle on records until after the Second World War. Among aliases used for Big Bill on his early releases were Big Bill Johnson, Sammy Sampson, and Slim Hunter.
Broonzy was always about popularizing blues, and he was the main pioneer in the entrepreneurial spirit as it applies to the field. His songwriting, producing, and work as a go-between with Lester Melrose is exactly the sort of thing that Willie Dixon would do with Chess in the '50s. This was the part of his career that Broonzy himself valued most highly, and his latter-day fame and popularity were a just reward for a life spent working so hard on behalf of his given discipline and fellow musicians. It would be a short reward, though; just about the time the autobiography he had written with Yannick Bruynoghe, “Big Bill Blues”, appeared in 1955, he learned he had throat cancer. Big Bill Broonzy died at age 65 in August, 1958, and left a recorded legacy, which, in sheer size and depth, well exceeds that of any blues artist born on his side of the year 1900.
1 John Henry
2 Bily Bailey Won't You Please Come Home
3 Blue Tail Fly
4 Leroy Carr
5 Richard Jones' "Trouble In Mind Blues"
6 Stump Blues
7 Get Back
8 Willie Mae
9 Hey Hey
10 Tomorrow
11 Walkin' Down A Lonesome Road
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Bill is the superstar of folk blues and was a star. It’s a shame he is all but forgotten outside blues circles, but if this interests just one new person then it’s been worthwhile. Enjoy the master at work.
'All by Myself' with Washboard Sam: (not on album but an extra due to inability to find all tracks)
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Remembering Big Bill Broonzy
http://cdn.discogs.com/HY5CahoXSLMB-ZnVaUem06J5P_U=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb()/discogs-images/R-4729534-1373644571-6849.jpeg.jpg
Big Bill Broonzy was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in the tiny town of Scott, Mississippi, just across the river from Arkansas. During his childhood, Broonzy's family, itinerant sharecroppers and the descendants of ex-slaves, moved to Pine Bluff to work the fields there. Broonzy learned to play a cigar box fiddle from his uncle, and as a teenager, he played violin in local churches, at community dances, and in a country string band. During World War I, Broonzy enlisted in the U.S. Army, and in 1920 he moved to Chicago and worked in the factories for several years.
In 1924 he met Papa Charlie Jackson, a New Orleans native and pioneer blues recording artist for Paramount. Jackson took Broonzy under his wing, taught him guitar, and used him as an accompanist. Broonzy's entire first session at Paramount in 1926 was rejected, but he returned in November 1927 and succeeded in getting his first record, House Rent Stomp, onto Paramount wax. As one of his early records came out with the garbled moniker of Big Bill Broomsley, he decided to shorten his recording name to Big Bill, and this served as his handle on records until after the Second World War. Among aliases used for Big Bill on his early releases were Big Bill Johnson, Sammy Sampson, and Slim Hunter.
Broonzy was always about popularizing blues, and he was the main pioneer in the entrepreneurial spirit as it applies to the field. His songwriting, producing, and work as a go-between with Lester Melrose is exactly the sort of thing that Willie Dixon would do with Chess in the '50s. This was the part of his career that Broonzy himself valued most highly, and his latter-day fame and popularity were a just reward for a life spent working so hard on behalf of his given discipline and fellow musicians. It would be a short reward, though; just about the time the autobiography he had written with Yannick Bruynoghe, “Big Bill Blues”, appeared in 1955, he learned he had throat cancer. Big Bill Broonzy died at age 65 in August, 1958, and left a recorded legacy, which, in sheer size and depth, well exceeds that of any blues artist born on his side of the year 1900.
1 John Henry
2 Bily Bailey Won't You Please Come Home
3 Blue Tail Fly
4 Leroy Carr
5 Richard Jones' "Trouble In Mind Blues"
6 Stump Blues
7 Get Back
8 Willie Mae
9 Hey Hey
10 Tomorrow
11 Walkin' Down A Lonesome Road
xw42cVCBKK0&feature=youtu.be
2x8QLSp-cvY&feature=youtu.be
r_z_XyyhkII&feature=youtu.be
gSHBcOyjsUk&feature=youtu.be
dTD0XMJU-rE&feature=youtu.be
RyB7LrY835s&feature=youtu.be
M3yfEozSJbM&feature=youtu.be
Bill is the superstar of folk blues and was a star. It’s a shame he is all but forgotten outside blues circles, but if this interests just one new person then it’s been worthwhile. Enjoy the master at work.
'All by Myself' with Washboard Sam: (not on album but an extra due to inability to find all tracks)
_DKpYfWsKT4&feature=youtu.be