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It’s always good to receive a message delivered by carrier pigeon from across the globe. Here’s a few I received, fresh this week.
The first is from Chad Dughi, a guitarist and songwriter from Honolulu. We ventured on a week-long road trip together along the Mississippi Delta a few years ago:
Dear Mark… Not in the mood for the mayhem of Mardi Gras, so I decided to hit the road. Today I visited the grave of Jimmie Rodgers in Meridian, Mississippi. Then I drove to West Point – not the military academy, but a little town near where Howlin’ Wolf was born. Several miles later, in Tupelo, I revisited the birthplace of Elvis Presley. A plaque claims his father built this house..
Gonna keep driving and I’ll let you know where I end up.
Chad
******
The following is from Fred, a fellow blues collector I know, who affectionately calls me his ‘blues grandson’:
Hi Mark, Over visiting friends in Essex for five days, just back. Found these two in Crazybeat Records in Upminster, fiver each, quite obscure!?
The Hawaiian steel guitar is a compilation of ‘20s and ‘30s recordings, only issued in the US on Rounder in 1974. Seems Hawaiian guitar dudes came over to the US in the 1900s, and when the original Delta Blues dudes saw their guitars, they wanted steel guitars – cause they were so loud, good for playing in Jook joints. And so National started to make ‘em.
The ‘Robert Shaw Blues Piano LP’ was recorded by Mack McCormack in Texas early ‘60s and released 1966 by McCormack. He started his own label but he only issused this one LP. He was probably the original dude who started researching Delta blues from the middle of the ‘50s. He was from Houston, Texas, but he moved to the Delta and got a job for the government doing the Census. When he went around he asked about old blues musicians and bought old blues 78s off the folks there.
He found loads of people related to Patton, Johnson, Son House, Skip James etc, and taped their stories and got original photos. He got the first pic of Robert Johnson off his sister. Marvellous wot ya find on yer holidays!
Fred
****
And this is an interesting one I received from a member of the John Fahey Club, a kind of appreciation society where members get geeky on all things Fahey related:
In 1967, when I was 18 I lived with my parents in a small town called Lowestoft on the east coast of the UK.
I had a strong interest in blues and folk music at the time and ordered a record list from an advert in a rock music paper. The company was in the USA and the list contained a number artists including John Fahey and Robbie Basho.
The advert raved about Fahey, and I was fascinated by the album art and song titles
I ordered ‘Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death’ because I liked the cover and description.
The LP was delivered. ‘Transfiguration’ had a thick card green sleeve and contained the booklet written by Ralph Dopmeyer.
I wrote to the address on the back of the LP, probably asking where I could buy further Fahey LPs in the UK. Shortly after I received a long letter in reply, presumably by Dopmeyer as it in the Gothic italic style of the album.
Not much later I moved to Norwich, where I lived alone. Several weeks later I answered the door to a tall American guy wearing a moustache and cowboy hat and boots accompanied by an American girl.
The guy told me that they had travelled from the USA to Lowestoft where my mother had given him my Norwich address. He told me that I had been the only person from the UK to have made contact regarding Fahey.
He asked if I would like to handle the promotion of Fahey in the UK, however as I was teenager I advised the guy to go to Transatlantic Records in London, and to contact the radio DJ John Peel.
I never heard from them again but was pleased to see the music released on Transatlantic soon after.
I no longer listened to John Peel much, and so did not hear him play Fahey at the time, but presume he did.
Colin
