Willie Trice by th' Bullfrog Willard McGhee
Consider the cradles of civilization: In Mesopotamia they developed the wheel, cultivated grain, domesticated bees and goats. The Chinese discovered paper, cultivated rice, domesticated the silkworm. Mesoamericans made use of mathematics, calendars, the number zero; they domesticated camels; they cultivated maize. So, I have a favorite analogy...
Jellyroll Morton told about hearing the blues in New Orleans for the first time around 1900. Ma Rainey remembered hearing it for the first time in Missouri around 1902. W.C. Handy famously described hearing the “Yellow Dog Blues” on the platform of the train station at Tutweiler, Mississippi in 1903. Howard Odum recorded the presence of blues in Lafayette, Mississippi and Newton, Georgia between 1905-08. The first published blues was Hart Wand’s “Dallas Blues” in 1912. Handy’s Memphis Blues was first recorded by the Victor Military Band in 1912. The first black singer to record blues, Mamie Smith, waxed “Crazy Blues” for the Okeh label in New York City in 1920.
If there was a single seminal moment in America, a preceding moment when there was no blues followed by one when there was, that moment and the people who shaped it are lost. Blues emerged quickly, nearly whole and spread throughout the south with the speed and the efficiency of the railroads and the river boat traffic moving up and down the Mississippi. Two weeks after “Dallas Blues” was published in 1912, it was being played in saloons and bars along the entire length of the river. Because of the influence of a few individual performers and the idiosyncratic nature of their playing, phrasing and interpretation and despite the speed with which early blues was transmitted around the south there are a dozen or so important regions that have their own distinctive voice. For the early blues, there is East Texas (Lemon Jefferson), the Mississippi Delta (Charlie Patton), New Orleans (Jellyroll Morton), the Turpentine and Lumber camps from Texas to north Arkansas to north Alabama (George Thomas), Atlanta (Willie McTell), the swampy tidewater region of south Georgia and north Florida (Blind Blake) and the Piedmont region of the Appalachians (Blind Boy Fuller) – these are the cradles of civilization for the blues. Before Chicago or St. Louis or Memphis there was the Delta; before New York there was the Piedmont…
About a dozen years ago, I took one of the best drives of my life. I started in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and drove highway 61 the length of the Mississippi Delta down into New Orleans. The guys at Red Rooster Records and the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi used to sell a half dozen mimeographed pages listing sites of interest to the avid blues fan. It included homes where the great men and women were born, homes where they died, graveyards where they lay, and juke joints where they played. I happily ticked each and every one off the list.
The Crooked Road is another Heritage Trail extending over 19 Virginia counties and includes sites where early country musicians lived and played. Part of that project also includes a musician’s directory so teachers and those who book traditional music can find musicians and throw money and prestige at them.
The Piedmont is one of the principle “cradles of civilization” for the blues. I would like for the TBS to be involved in the creation of a Blues Heritage Trail here in the piedmont. As a regular feature in the news(blues)letter I’ll be presenting a few of our local piedmont blues guys and hitting you, the readers, up for any additional information you may have about them and the geography associated with them – any photographs you may have would be appreciated too. Eventually, we’ll have a marked trail you can download from the website so you can conduct yourselves on your own piedmont blues tour.
Blues geography for this month:
Blind Boy Fuller (b. Fulton Allen: July10, 1907 – d. February 13, 1941) – Seminal blues guitarist.
Grove Hill Cemetery, Durham, NC.
Location - Grove Hill is unattended and unused. It is located on private property at the rear of 2919 Fayetteville Street, just south of the Fayetteville Street School and just north of the old railway right-of-way.
904 Massey Avenue, Durham, NC
Location – This is Fuller’s last address; the house where he lived and died.
James Baxter Long (b. December 25, 1903 – d. February 25, 1975) – Dollar Store manager, manager of Fuller, discoverer of Gary Davis. Long is the man responsible for first recording Fuller, Davis, Sonny Terry, Bull City Red and others.
Magnolia Cemetery, Elon, NC.
Location - Cemetery is in Elon, NC and is bounded by E. Trollinger Ave and S. Oak Ave.
Willie Trice (b. February 10, 1910 – d. December 10, 1976) – Guitar player, friend and influence of Blind Boy Fuller.
Richard Trice (b. November 16, 1917 – d. April 6, 2000) – Guitar player, brother of Willie Trice – influenced by Fuller.
Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, Orange County, NC.
Location - NE of Chapel Hill on Mt. Sinai Church Road (SR #1718) about .3 mile east of the intersection with Friends School Road (SR #1719. The cemetery lies to the rear of the church.
Floyd Council (b. February 2, 1911 – d. May 9, 1976) – Guitar player. According to legend, Syd Barrett named his band after South Carolina bluesman Pink Anderson and North Carolina Bluesman Floyd Council.
White Oak AME Zion Cemetery, Sanford, NC.
Location – This cemetery isn’t in the NC cemetery census and is a little difficult to find. Take Hwy 1 south out of Raleigh and drive about forty miles. Get off at the 15-501 exit and at the bottom of the ramp turn left. This is Hawkins Street. Turn left again onto Weatherspoon. The police station is just past this intersection on the left and the officers in there are helpful and friendly. Follow Weatherspoon past the police station to the first stoplight which is Seventh Street. Take a right onto Seventh. At the next light, turn left onto Charlotte. At the next light, you will turn left onto Eleventh, which will quickly turn into Moncure. Exactly two miles from this intersection you will see the remains of the White Oak AME Church on your left. The cemetery is on the right hand side of the road. It is pretty well grown up, so you will want to dress for ticks, chiggers and the like. There is no marker for Floyd Council…perhaps we could have a fundraiser with the TBS and get a small monument or a highway marker for ol’ Floyd.
Any additional information you have about these folks is appreciated. Remember, if you go hunting a cemetery or house where one of your heroes hung up or laid down their hat and that place is on private property, get permission first and be nice…you’ll be astonished at how forthcoming most people will be with you…
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