[78-L] The Plot Thickens: More About The Mystery Of Bill Broonzy And His Connection to Grayson and Whitter's "Going Down The Lee Highway."

[Richard Blaustein]

Many thanks to Gregg Kimball, Han Enderman and Cary Ginnell for their
informative comments regarding the mystery of Bill Broonzy's  possible
connection with  Grayson and Whitter's "Going Down Lee Highway." (Victor
vi23565, recorded 09/30/29)

1) According to Han Enderman, the original Victor label of Grayson and
Whitter's
"Going Down Lee Highway" lists G.B. Grayson as the composer, not Bill
Broonzy.

The data in the Internet Discography Project  is therefore probably
incorrect, possibly the result of an error on the part of the person who
actually entered the data.

(Key To The Highway? Going Down The Lee Highway? Stranger things have
happened. )

Mistakes happen. But when errors in authoritative sources are uncritically
accepted as factually correct,  they set off  a chain of errors that
perpetuate misinformation and misconceptions.

For example, the negroartists website includes many MP3s of African-American
recording artists, including Bill Broonzy. The listing for Broonzy includes:


     2. G.b.grayson And Henry Whitter  Bill Broonzy  (label)
       Going Down Lee Highway  (1929)
      56313-1
      BLUEBIRD 5498

http://www.africanafrican.com/negroartist/mp3/big%20bill%20broonzy%20mp3.htm

I realize this is getting very picky, but this listing gives G.B.Grayson's
name with lower case letters, the same as its listing in the Online
Discography
Project, which I corrected to upper case in my earlier posting . This minor
typographic error is a clue  that the ODP could have been the source of  the
listing in the negroartists.com website,  a treasure trove of  great old 78
recordings in MP3 format well worth exploring.

2) Cary Ginnell's comment  that G.B. Grayson is listed as the composer of
"Going
     Down Lee Highway" in the Victor ledgers supports Han Enderman's
statement
     that Grayson is given composer credit  on the label of the  original
record.
   This  lends weight to Han's speculation that the information for this
   record in the ODP is probably incorrect.

3) G.B. Grayson may have claimed to have composed "Going Down Lee Highway,"
    but was  that actually true? It seems highly unlikely that he could have
independently composed a tune  virtually identical to Jimmy McCaroll's
"Home Town Blues" except for a very few minor variations. What seems much
more likely  is that Grayson heard the tune (possibly live or on McCarroll's
record),
liked it, and worked up his own version  which he renamed "Going Down Lee
Highway." Other fiddlers heard Grayson's record, liked the tune
and renamed it  "Lee Highway Blues," the title by which it is known today.
It would be interesting to trace the discographic history of  "Lee Highway
Blues"
 and find out when that tiltle was first released.

Jimmy McCarroll did the same thing when he and the Roane County Ramblers
renamed the old minstrel show tune "Jordan Am A Hard Road To Travel" and
recorded it as "Johnson City Rag" in Johnson City, Tennessee for Columbia
Record's Frank Walker in 1929:

Selection: Johnson City Rag
Artist:    Roane County Ramblers
Date Recorded:    10/21/29
Recording Label:    Columbia
Catalog Number:    15498 D
Matrix 1:    w149209=2
Source File:    http://settlet.fateback.com/COL15000d.htm
(source: Online Discography Project)

This was the second time the Roane County Ramblers recorded for Frank Walker
in Johnson City . The year before, they recorded "Home Town
Blues,"Columbia    15328 D, matrix : w147182, recorded 10/15/28), and also
"Southern No.111," (Columbia 15328 D, matrix w147183, also 10/15/28), "
Step High Waltz"
Columbia 15377 D, recorded 10/15/28), and "Tennessee Waltz," (Columbia 15377
D, Matrix 1:  w147185, 10/15/28).

(This last tune is not the same as the  melody of the hit song composed by
Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King in 1947.)

As I said before, errors in authoritative sources can set off a chain of
errors that perpetuate misinformation and misunderstandings. A little bit of
incorrect knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Which reminds me: I said that Roane County, Tennessee, the home of Jimmy
McCarroll, was located to the* east* of Knoxville.

Not true! Fiddler Jimmy McCarroll was a native of Roane County, Tennessee
who spent most of his life in the coal mining  town of  Rockwood, a bit more
than 46 miles* west * of Knoxville:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Rockwood,+Roane+County,+Tennessee&daddr=Knoxville,+Knox+County,+Tennessee+&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=36.318637,-82.352063&sspn=0.376766,0.891953&ie=UTF8&z=11

Was  Bill Broonzy the source of "Going Down Lee Highway"? It doesn't seem
very likely, considering  that he began recording for Paramount as "Big
Bill" in 1927 and only began recording under his full name for Paramount in
1930,  then for Champion, Gennett and the American Record Company before
switching to the Bluebird label in 1934, five years after Grayson and
Whitter recorded "Going Down Lee Highway " for Victor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bill_Broonzy

What an interesting puzzle altogether!

All the best,

Richard Blaustein
1303 Buffalo Street
Johnson City, Tennessee 37604
rjblaustein at gmail.com