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The Blues Tradition in Kentucky by Brenda Bogert
Kentucky has a rich musical history that stretches back to its pioneer days,
with influences coming from the cultures of its inhabitants—people of
European descent as well as those of African descent. These influences have
combined to create music that is uniquely American but appreciated worldwide—bluegrass,
country, gospel, jazz, and the blues. From the myth of Cato Watts of Corn
Island, who played his fiddle for settlers at a Christmas celebration in 1778,
to the legend of Arnold Shultz of Ohio County, who developed his own distinctive
style of thumbpicking, the African-American tradition is an essential part
of Kentucky music. The flatted notes, the storytelling tradition, the singing
of one's troubles and one's joys, and the playful insult songs (the precursor
to "the dirty dozens") existed in Africa.As slavery created African
Americans, the music came along with modifications to the lyrics to express
the troubles and suffering of forced immigrants in a new world.
These are just two of the larger groups of new immigrant arrivals in Louisville.
Other immigrant groups include many from the former Yugoslavia, Latin America,
and Africa. Resettlement agencies and educators have learned from the past.
Immigrants are not encouraged to give up their old culture, as was the custom
in the old days of "melting pot" assimilation. Now the diversity
of these cultures is celebrated, preserved, and valued not only by the immigrants
themselves but also by those of us in the Louisville community who benefit
from their contributions. W. C. Handy, at one time a resident of Henderson,
Kentucky, claimed that he first heard the blues being played in the train
station at Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1903. An African-American man sang a
song and played his guitar by sliding a knife along the strings. Several years
later, Chester Mason, an African American string band guitarist from Louisville,
was listening to his older brothers play the blues at a house party in St.
Matthews, a suburb of Louisville. At about the same time, white guitarist
Cliff Carlisle was being taught to play by the African-American musicians
who performed around the courthouse in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Carlisle considered
the style that he learned a melding of hillbilly music and blues.
The culture of the blues, with its flatted blue notes conveying emotion and
its lyrics telling stories of life, love, and loss, was being passed from
family member to family member, from player to player.
Meanwhile, in western Kentucky, Arnold Shultz, the son of a former slave,
was working as a coal loader in the mines of Ohio County and traveling throughout
the area whenever he could to play his guitar for parties and dances. He developed
a reputation as an outstanding guitarist and was a frequent sight in coal
camps and railroad stations, playing solo or with other musicians in string
bands. He played all types of music, including blues, and has been described
as "the man who put the blue in bluegrass." During his career he
played with such luminaries as "Uncle Pen" Vandiver, Kennedy Jones,
and a young Bill Monroe.In 1917 Shultz' sister Novalla married John Taylor,
the father of Walter Taylor, who like Shultz was a coal miner by profession
but also an accomplished musician. He could play the guitar, fiddle, and mandolin
and often traveled with Shultz, playing for tips. According to Boots Faught,
a white musician from Ohio County, "Walter and Arnold would come to McHenry
[in Ohio County] on payday and make a hatful of money just sitting on the
street playing."
Taylor also played with legendary guitarist Kennedy Jones. According to Kennedy Jones Jr., "When Walter was around, he and my dad played jobs together. They would walk through town and stop at a railroad crossing and drop their hats and play for whatever people would give them. [They] would go to Central City and play, then they would go over to Greenville, Kentucky, and places like that. My dad would play lead and Walter would play what they call 'second.' "At the same time in nearby Drakesboro, coal miner and self-taught guitarist Amos Johnson was entertaining friends and neighbors at house parties and dances. He played ragtime, blues, and popular tunes. He also sang gospel music in his church and at home with his family. He served as a mentor to the young white guitarists of the area, teaching his licks to Merle Travis and Mose Rager.
While the distinctive sounds of western Kentucky were developing, the blues
was having a major effect on the world of recorded music. On August 10, 1920,
Mamie Smith made the first blues record, "Crazy Blues," setting
off a recording boom the likes of which had never been seen before. Her phenomenal
success created a demand for blues records and female blues recording artists.
One of these early "blues queens" was Louisvillian Sarah Martin,
who recorded "Sugar Blues" on October 17, 1922. During her career,
she recorded with Clarence Williams, Fats Waller, and W. C. Handy and his
orchestra. During a New York recording session in late October 1923, she was
accompanied by a friend, Louisville guitarist Sylvester Weaver. Weaver also
made two solo recordings, "Guitar Blues" and "Guitar Rag,"
and thus became the first blues guitarist to make a record. His "Guitar
Rag" was recorded by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys in 1936 under
the title "Steel Guitar Rag." This version of his song has become
a classic of country music.
Recording history was made again in 1924 when Sarah Martin traveled to New
York City with a group of jazz and blues musicians from Louisville to record
as "Sarah Martin's Jug Band," becoming the first jug band to make
a record. Jug bands, so named because bass notes were provided by a musician
blowing into a jug, were a fixture in Louisville from about 1900 until the
1960s. They were extremely popular at Derby time, entertaining white audiences
at Churchill Downs, downtown hotels, and at country club parties. Over the
years the jug bands of Louisville included brothers Clifford and Curtis Hayes
(members of a talented family from Glasgow, Kentucky), tenor guitarist Cal
Smith, Buford Threlkeld (known professionally as "Whistler" because
he played a nose whistle), jug player Earl McDonald, and fiddle player Henry
Miles. Miles was known to radio audiences throughout the southeast as a member
of the Ballard Chefs jug band, which broadcast over WHAS in a show sponsored
by Louisville's Ballard & Ballard Flour Mills.
The 1940s and 50s in Louisville saw the rise of nightclubs that featured fine jazz and blues, such as Haley's (later known as The Brown Derby), the Orchid Bar, Jack's Chauffeurs Club, and the Top Hat. Popular blues artists included the Morgan Brothers, "Tweedlin' Tom" Towell, "Eggie" Porter, Foree Wells, Cliff Butler, "Boodie" Green, Jesse Palmer, and Mary Ann Fisher. During this time nationally known acts such as Little Walter, Wynonie Harris, Joe Turner, and Helen Humes appeared in Louisville at the Lyric Theatre on Walnut Street.
In
a 1992 interview Foree Wells, who came to love the blues by listening to B.
B. King records, described Walnut Street in the 1950s, "It had more action
going on than Beale Street. They had entertainment all up and down the street
and it never shut down. The clubs shut down, but the restaurants and things
stayed open 24 hours a day. Jukeboxes would be going on all night long. People
would be walking up and down the street all night long–24 hours a day.
"Foree passed away in 1997, but his blues live on in the music of his
sons Greg and Michael, who perform in the Walnut Street Blues Band. And so
the cycle continues as the blues tradition is passed from player to player,
and father to son.
Over the years the music remains the same–flatted blue notes on a guitar singing the emotion that matches the lyrics, but instead of a few people gathered around a player in a railroad station or a coal camp, we can expect to see thousands turn out for a blues festival anywhere in the world. The music means different things to different people. In a Black night spot in a predominantly Black neighborhood, it is a strong musical tradition among older patrons. It is music to listen to, to participate in ("Play it, man! Play it!"), to dance to, to drink to. In a white bar in a predominantly white neighborhood, it is chiefly a celebration of the playing styles of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Duane Allman—music to drink to, and music to play along with if you have a harmonica in your pocket and you are bold enough to force yourself on the band.
The blues is appreciated worldwide because it is the music of people living life. Perhaps Foree Wells said it best, "Some people get up to play the blues and think that all you do is play three changes. There's more to it than that. The blues is a feeling."
