[78-L] Reuss was Etri was Christian

[eugene hayhoe]

Didn't sound anything like Christian, but 'Casey Bill' Weldon was recording on electric in the 1930s as well.  Of course, there's also guys like Ceele Burke and Bob Dunn. 



--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 12/26/13, Joe Scott <joenscott at mail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [78-L] Reuss was Etri was Christian
 To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
 Date: Thursday, December 26, 2013, 1:29 PM
 
 Here are some excerpts from Barnes'
 interview in Guitar Player 2/75:
 "In 1935, I started recording with the top black blues
 artists of that time." That would be before, for instance,
 Zeke Campbell was recording on electric, but really it was
 1938, after he was.
 
 "At 16, I made my first record under my group's own name. We
 recorded 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' and "I Can't Believe
 That You're in Love With Me," for Okeh records." That would
 be before Christian, but really it was two years later than
 that, after Christian.
 Imo regionalism is usually overrated in understanding the
 growth of U.S. music. Playing like a jazz horn player on a
 guitar was something anyone who admired any jazz horn player
 -- or admired Lang or Django -- could take up, whether in
 Texas or New York or wherever, while hanging out with
 fiddlers or Bechet or whoever. 
 Joseph Scott
 ----- Original Message -----
 From: warren moorman
 Sent: 12/23/13 01:25 PM
 To: 78-L Mail List
 Subject: Re: [78-L] Reuss was Etri was Christian
 
 Joseph, you're certainly right about the role of hawaiian
 guitarists, as well as the conflicting accounts from Durham,
 Paul, et al, which also simply stem from them having been
 well known and available in later years to be asked! I
 believe both aural and other evidence does pretty well
 indicate Barnes' electric is present on some '38 sides
 (although, per Julian's post re Blind John Davis, it's the
 later 1948 Davis cut "Magic Carpet" that most heavily
 featured Barnes, and a great side it is). Of course we
 realize that the evolution of purely acoustic to completely
 electric and later solid body electric was a continuum that
 encompassed resonator and mic-amplified acoustic, e.g.
 Hittin' The Bottle, and aurally the boundary was
 occasionally unclear. I'd love to know for sure the
 amplified acoustic player on Georgia White's "The Blues
 Ain't Nothin'", (perhaps Lonnie Johnson, but not certain). I
 just think Ware's adept and indisputably electric recordings
 of 1938 are more notable t
  han they're usually given credit as proof of the spread of
 electric guitar pre-Christian, and I certainly think Ware's
 Spirituals To Swing appearance on electric should be rescued
 from historical oblivion; imagine if Robert Johnson made the
 show as Hammond first intended, playing with amplification!
 Also, perhaps I should have said big beat rather than back
 beat, but I do think a back beat feel emerges in some of the
 more idiomatic boogie piano playing, e.g. some slower Ammons
 pieces, and they long predated R&B's rhythmic
 assertions. I'm an amateur on the subject, but my thinking
 is informed by hearing both Chet Atkins and Ahmet Ertegun
 say much the same thing. Anyway, for all the other reasons I
 gave-the elevation of "roots" awareness, boogie's emergence
 to prominence, the early inclusion of electric guitar in a
 highly visible popular music showcase (Carnegie Hall, no
 less), the spur to Blue Note Records and Cafe Society
 nightclub, and so on, it's worth noting the 75th anni
  versary of Spirituals To Swing today, Dec. 23. Thanks for
 the stimulating discussion, and yuletide cheers to all,
 Warren Moorman On Monday, December 23, 2013 1:30 PM, Julian
 Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
 wrote: On 23/12/13 18:16, Joe Scott wrote: > Thanks
 Warren. > > For anyone who's interested in these
 pioneers, it's worth knowing that something George Barnes,
 Eddie Durham, Les Paul, and T-Bone Walker unfortunately had
 in common is that they told stories about their
 chronological primacy that conflict pretty glaringly with
 other sources. In the case of Barnes, he gave an interview
 to the WPA on May 10, 1939 (e.g., in connection with the
 fact that horn players influenced his own guitar playing,
 "You know I never heard any guitar solos until a year ago,"
 & "I played in my first orchestra a year and a half
 ago") that conflicts with inflated claims he made when he
 was much older. Similarly, T-Bone's stories varied, but he
 once mentioned that the first electric guitarist he
   ever heard was Les Paul, which is more likely to be
 true than his claim to have been playing electric guitar
 well before 1939. His wife's recollection involving him
 learning to play electric guitar right about 1940 is
 probably correct. > > Joseph Scott >
 =============== Barnes is rumoured to have accompanied
 various blues singers for Bluebird and Vocalion around 1938.
 I heard a story about Blind John Davis appearing in France
 in the early 1950s and the audience expecting him to be
 playing electric guitar, when in fact it had been played by
 Barnes on record and Davis had played piano! He contributes
 two great performances on Louise Massey's "Billie Boy" and
 "Polly Wolly Doodle". He's also on a Squirrel Ashcraft
 private recording of "I Know That You Know", which also
 contains a brilliant bass sax solo by Spencer Clark. Julian
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