R.C. Montgomery is a writer and folklore collector from North Texas, and the creative force and 78 RPM phonograph record collector behind Old Time Blues. Everything found here—for better or worse—is his doing. You may read more about his eccentric proclivities on the site's "About" page.
We have previously taken a look at the life and work of the illustrious Czexan bandleader Joe Patek. In the aforementioned article was passing mention of Patek’s ill-fated first recording session. Herein, you may find a more in-depth examination of their seldom-seen and seldom-heard debut recording.
Early in the year of 1937, the Decca record company made a field trip down to Texas to conduct their first recording sessions in the Lone Star State. With their mobile recording laboratory in tow, they arrived first in San Antonio at the beginning of February, where they recorded primarily Tejano and Mexican groups (including the first recordings of Santiago Jiménez, Sr.) between the third and eleventh of the month. Next, they moved on to Dallas, recording a host of country, western swing, and blues talent between the fourteenth and the eighteenth. In the little town of Shiner, Joe Patek got wind of the record company’s presence, and brought his Czech band some eighty miles west to San Antonio to record for Decca on their last days there (though many discographies ascribe the location to Dallas). Between the ninth and the eleventh of February, 1937, Joe Patek and his Bohemian Orchestra waxed a total of seven sides: “Grandmother’s Joy”, “Clover Leaf”, “Au Revoir”, “Farewell”, “Red Handkerchief”, “Divorced”, and “Innocent Polka”. Of those, only the first two ever saw release. Issued in Decca’s “Hill Billy” series alongside a handful of other polka bands, the record seems to have sold rather poorly, and, as such, is quite uncommon today. Patek attributed the suboptimal outcome of the session to his band being rushed by the session supervisor, resulting in inferior performances. It would be roughly a decade before Patek’s orchestra recorded again, at which point they recorded exclusively—and extensively—for the small regional labels that were springing up around the state of Texas in the years following World War II. Included among those later recordings were new versions of some of their unissued (and issued) Decca material.
Decca 5338 was recorded on February 10, 1937. While most discographies give the location as Dallas, Texas, it seems more probably to have been recorded in San Antonio, based both upon date and matrices and Patek’s own recollection. It is the only issued disc from Patek’s first session.
On the “A” side, Patek’s Bohemian orchestra plays the ländler “Grandmother’s Joy” (“Babiččina radost Sousedska“), penned by prolific Bohemian composer Anton Grill.
Grandmother’s Joy, recorded February 10, 1937 by Joe Patek’s Bohemian Orchestra.
A little more upbeat than the former, on “B”, they play an instrumental polka titled “Clover Leaf” (“Proč ten Jeteliček“), also composed by Grill, who shares the credit with A. Kubicek. Patek and his orchestra later re-recorded the number in the 1940s or ’50s for the Waco-based Humming Bird label.
Clover Leaf, recorded February 10, 1937 by Joe Patek’s Bohemian Orchestra.
In this website dedicated to honoring the legends and the lost of American music, it would seem terribly remiss to not pay tribute to such a tremendous figure as mandolinist, singer, and founder of the bluegrass genre, Bill Monroe—falling, needless to say, into the former category. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to overstate the man’s legacy.
Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys at the time of their Bluebird recordings. From Bluebird catalog.
William Smith Monroe was born into a musically inclined family on September 13, 1911, in Rosine, Kentucky, the eighth and youngest child of Buck and Malissa Monroe. Among his early musical influences were his uncle, fiddle player Pendleton Vandiver—with whom he lived after his parents’ deaths, and to whom he dedicated his popular song “Uncle Pen”—and black guitarist and fiddler Arnold Shultz. As his older brothers Charlie and Birch already played guitar and fiddle, young Bill was relegated to playing the mandolin. Together with them, Bill began playing music in a professional manner in 1929. After Birch departed and the group became a duo consisting of just Bill and Charlie, the Monroe Brothers made their recording debut for RCA Victor subsidiary Bluebird in 1936, producing some popular records such as the sacred song “What Would You Give Me in Exchange?”. The act was not particularly long-lived however, as the brothers tended to butt heads, and they went their separate ways in 1938. Subsequently, Bill formed a new band—dubbed the Blue Grass Boys, for his home state of Kentucky—and in 1939 auditioned for WSM’s Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. His rendition of Jimmie Rodgers’s “Mule Skinner Blues” impressed the Solemn Old Judge, and the Blue Grass Boys became a mainstay of that program for decades to come. A year after their Opry debut, Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys made their first recordings for Bluebird, foreshadowing the genre of music that would be named in the group’s honor. Over the years, Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys employed such future bluegrass luminaries as Clyde Moody, David (“Stringbean”) Akeman, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and Jimmy Martin, all of whom would go on to be stars in their own rights. In 1945, the group went to Columbia Records, and in 1949 on to Decca, producing hits for each, including “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and “New Mule Skinner Blues”. Although his success dipped in the 1950s with the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and more modern styles of country music, Monroe and his bluegrass enjoyed renewed popularity during the folk music revival of he 1960s, and the musical form over which he reigned found a dedicated community of musicians and fans that has persisted to the present day. Bill Monroe continued to perform and lead the Blue Grass Boys until months before his death on September 9, 1996, four days before he would have been eighty-five.
Montgomery Ward M-8861 was recorded on October 7, 1940 in the Kimball House Hotel at 30 South Pryor Street in Atlanta, Georgia. The Blue Grass Boys are Bill Monroe on mandolin and guitar, Clyde Moody on guitar and mandolin, Tommy Magness on fiddle, and Willie “Cousin Wilbur” Wesbrooks on string bass. It was originally released as Bluebird B-8568 on November 22, 1940. Side A was reissued on RCA Victor 20-3163 in 1948.
Bill Monroe sings and plays the guitar, while Clyde Moody takes the mandolin, on the Blue Grass Boys’ legendary rendition of the Jimmie Rodgers classic, “Mule Skinner Blues”., the number that won Monroe a place on the prestigious Grand Ole Opry.
Mule Skinner Blues, recorded October 7, 1940 by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.
On the “B” side, Clyde Moody sings the baritone vocal on the twelve-bar blues of his own composition, “Six White Horses” (not to be confused with the Tommy Cash song of later years).
Six White Horses, recorded October 7, 1940 by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.
In our continuing examination of the Texas blues, we have taken a look at some of the most renowned figures—like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and “Texas” Alexander—as well as some of the more obscure—like “Stick Horse” Hammond, Gene Campbell, and Jesse Lockett. Now, let us turn our attention to one of the obscurest of them all, Dallas bluesman Otis Hinton, and his one record (which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest ever made).
Otis was born Odis Hinton in Jacksonville, Texas, on June 8, 1916 (or 1918), one of eleven children of the Reverend Claude A. and Mae Ollie Hinton. Prior to revelatory research by blues historian Bob Eagle, he was believed to have hailed from Shreveport, Louisiana. After receiving a third grade education, Hinton relocated to Dallas around the age of ten. There, he was surely exposed to the blues scene flourishing in Deep Ellum and its surrounding neighborhoods. As an adult, Hinton stood six feet tall, of dark complexion, and was blind in his right eye. In the early 1940s, he married Rachael Mae Washom, the daughter of a family with whom he had lived for some time prior. The couple had at least two children, Tommie and Odell, the former of whom died in infancy. Though he evidently made his living working menial jobs in white folks’ yards, Hinton was a proficient musician in a style similar to many of his fellow Texas musicians. His skills were presumably of some local renown, as they earned him a listing as a musician in the Dallas city directory. He traveled to New York, purportedly in 1953, to wax four sides for Apollo Records—”No More to Roam”, “Railroad Woman” (or “Beloved Woman” per copyright filing), “Little Woman”, and “Hinton’s Boogie”—none of which ever saw release. Copyrights were filed for all four unissued Apollo recordings on September 9, 1955, perhaps suggesting that they may at one time have been planned for release, or that they were recorded later than attributed (the latter, in my opinion, is the more likely scenario). In 1954, he recorded two additional sides for Apollo founder Hy Siegel’s new record label, Timely, which were released this time around. Back home in Texas, he found work for the Binyon-O’Keefe Company, a storage and moving business in Dallas-Fort Worth. Just over three years after his only record’s release, Hinton was pronounced dead from pneumonia—the same ailment that had claimed his infant son years earlier—at Parkland Hospital on November 18, 1957. He was interred at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, where his father had previously been buried, as would many more of his family members in years to come. Otis Hinton’s two released recordings have been featured on several reissue compilation since the folk-blues revival of the 1960s. His younger brother “Little Joe” Hinton (1937-2022) was also a noted singer and songwriter, recording a series of soul singles in the 1960s and ’70s.
Timely 1003 was recorded in New York City, probably in early 1954. The date has often been cited as July 7, 1954, however this seems improbable, as it was advertised as a “New R&B Record” in Billboard magazine on June 26, 1954. Otis Hinton accompanies himself on guitar and is joined by an unidentified rhythm section consisting of bass and drums.
Hinton’s “Walkin’ Down Hill” is a loose variant of the classic “Big Road Blues”, made famous by Mississippi bluesman Tommy Johnson in the 1920s. Billboard’s review opined that “Southern blues fans should enjoy this bright reading of a bouncy down-home effort sung by Otis Hinton. He accompanies himself solidly on the guitar. Side could catch loot in the South.” This is one of my favorite sides of all time.
Walkin’ Down Hill, recorded 1954 by Otis Hinton.
“Emmaline” seems to be a variant of the blues standard popularized by Little Son Jackson as “Rockin’ and Rollin'”, also known as “Rock Me, Mama”. Although Hinton’s country blues style might seem somewhat dated in the days of rock ‘n’ roll—and indeed, his record does not seem to have sold particularly well—it would foreshadow the revival of traditional blues that was on the horizon at the time.
Gaining fame in Detroit and Chicago during the Roaring Twenties, piano man Charlie Spand was both a pioneer of boogie-woogie and a highly regarded bluesman both during and after his life. Yet as is too often the case with such musicians, despite his success and popularity, little is known of Spand outside of his sporadic recording career.
For many years, it was thought that Charlie Spand may have hailed from Alabama, Georgia, or Louisiana. Thanks to the groundbreaking research of Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc, it is now believed that Spand was born on May 8, 1893, in Columbus, Mississippi. The activities of his early life are largely unknown, but it is evident that he became a proficient piano player by young adulthood. He may have served in the First World War; service records exist for one or more Charlie Spands, but it is difficult to ascertain if they are the same one. A participant of the Great Migration, Spand had relocated to Detroit by the early 1920s, where he made a name for himself alongside Texas pianists Will Ezell and Hersal Thomas on the boogie-woogie scene burgeoning on Hastings and Brady Streets. By the end of that decade, he had moved on to Chicago, where he lodged at 732 East 45th Street (to which he referred in his 1929 recording of “45th St. Blues”, a variant of James “Stump” Johnson’s popular “The Snitchers Blues” of the previous year).
Under the auspices of their race records manager Aletha Dickerson, Spand made his recording debut for Paramount Records on June 6, 1929, at the Richmond, Indiana, facilities of Gennett Records, waxing two sides of barrelhouse piano boogie-woogie, backed by stalwart guitarist Blind Blake. His first record sold quite well, and he was called upon to record further for Paramount, subsequently returning to their recording laboratories every month until October of 1929 (and we know what happened at the end of that one), then in September of both 1930 and ’31, producing a grand total of twenty-six sides—notwithstanding alternate takes—of which all but three were issued, plus a guest spot on Paramount’s “Hometown Skiffle” record featuring their top stars. His second session, on August 17, 1929, produced his most enduring recording, the rollicking “Hastings St.”, a piano and guitar duet with Blind Blake dedicated to the Detroit boogie hot spot of the same name. There is debate as to the identity of Spand’s accompanist for the rest of the same session, with some proposing an early appearance by Josh White, and others suggesting Blake or another guitarist. As the Great Depression hit bottom in the early 1930s, record companies were hit hard, and Paramount ceased operations in 1932, thus Spand would not record again for nearly a decade. His activities over the course of that decade are largely unknown; blues and jazz researcher and later owner of the Paramount label John Steiner reported that Spand may have worked with Will Ezell and Blind Leroy Garnett at Cripple Clarence Lofton’s Big Apple Tavern on South State Street in Chicago during the 1930s. When he finally did return to the microphone, the year was 1940, and it was for Okeh Records—just in time for the boogie-woogie craze. In two sessions, one week apart, Spand produced his swan song of eight final titles, still in excellent form. He was accompanied on guitar on the former date by Memphis Minnie’s husband Little Son Joe Lawlars, and on the latter by an unknown guitarist identified by some sources as Big Bill Broonzy. Despite the concurrent success of fellow boogie pioneers like Meade “Lux” Lewis, these records did not seem to see big sales, and he returned to obscurity.
Spand’s later life and eventual fate are unknown; some said that he moved to California after World War II, while others have claimed that he lived in Chicago as late as the 1970s. The 1940 census reported a Mississippi-born Charles Spand living at 4340 South Evans Avenue, employed as a “water man” and married to a woman named Elizabeth—ten years later she was still living at the same address and reported herself as widowed, so it is uncertain if this was the same Spand, though many details seem to be a match. He was photographed at some point in the 1940s with piano great Jimmy Yancey at the latter’s Chicago apartment, looking rather gaunt but indeed still alive at that time. Fellow pianist Little Brother Montgomery, who knew Spand in his earlier years, claimed that he was still active in Chicago as late as 1958. A death certificate issued for one Charles Spand residing at 4055 South Ellis Avenue in Chicago, Illinois—born around 1899 in Columbus, Mississippi—shows that he died on March 31, 1959, and was buried five days later at Burr Oak Cemetery; while no positive identification has yet been made; it seems quite probable that this was indeed the “our” Spand.
Paramount 12790 was recorded June 6, 1929, at the Starr Piano Company (Gennett) studio in Richmond, Indiana, and was released aronbd August of the same year. It is both Spand’s first recorded and first released record. Spand plays the piano and sings, accompanied on the guitar by Blind Blake (though some have cast doubt on this identification, proposing alternative possibilities including the elusive Freezone). Apparently, Paramount, being the consummate professionals that they were, also issued the 12790 catalog number to a record by Hattie McDaniels (of future Gone With the Wind fame).
While perhaps overshadowed by the success of the other song, “Fetch Your Water” is a fine piece of piano blues, and certainly deserving of recognition.
Fetch Your Water, recorded June 6, 1929 by Charlie Spand
Although allotted to the record’s “B” side, “Soon This Morning Blues” was in fact Spand’s first recording, and a signature number of his. It proved to be the more influential side of the two, becoming something of a barrelhouse standard, covered and adapted by many subsequent piano bluesmen (such as Walter Roland) and others, though—like perhaps most such songs—it drew heavily on earlier blues songs itself. Spand himself followed it up with “Soon This Morning No. 2” in both 1930 and 1940.
Soon This Morning Blues, recorded June 6, 1929 by Charlie Spand.
In the second half of the 1920s, bandleader, pianist and organist “Tiny” Parham produced a series of hot recordings considered some of the finest of the Jazz Age. Alongside Duke Ellington, Jelly-Roll Morton, Bennie Moten, and others, Parham stood—both figuratively and literally—as one of the biggest in pre-war jazz.
“Tiny” Parham and his Musicians, pictured in 1930 Victor race records catalog.
“Tiny” was born Hartzell Strathdene Parham in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on February 25, 1900 (though both his World War I and II draft cards suggest the same date in December of either the same year or the previous one). From a very young age, he lived in Kansas City, Missouri. There, he studied piano under the “Little Professor,” ragtime composer James Scott, and found work playing piano and organ in local vaudeville theaters. A heavyset man of five feet, ten-and-a-half inches and 275 pounds, he earned the nickname “Tiny” in ironic reference to his stature. In 1926, he made his debut recordings accompanying blues singer and future Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel on a pair of sides for the Kansas City-based Meritt label. Shortly thereafter, he relocated to Chicago, where he began working for the New York Recording Laboratories, makers of Paramount records, as an artist as well as a talent scout and arranger. His earliest Paramount recordings found him as pianist in Junie Cobb’s Hometown Band, followed shortly by a series of records accompanying blues singers Ardell Bragg, Ora Brown, Priscilla Stewart, Sharlie English, “Ma” Rainey, and possibly Ida Cox, Leola B. Wilson and Elzadie Robinson. Parham debuted his first recording ensemble under his own name—the Pickett-Parham Apollo Syncopators—in joint leadership with violinist Leroy Pickett for a single session at the end of 1926. Subsequently, he led his band to St. Paul, Minnesota, to make a single recording for J. Mayio Williams’s legendary Black Patti label. Other recordings Parham made during this period included Paramount sessions with Johnny Dodds, Jasper Taylor’s State Street Boys, and his own “Forty” Five, plus a Gennett session with King Brady’s Clarinet Band. Beginning in 1928, Parham joined the likes of Jelly-Roll Morton and King Oliver as an exclusive Victor artist, leading a band dubbed the Musicians. Over the course of the next two years, “Tiny” Parham and his Musicians cut thirty-nine outstanding hot jazz performances for Victor, of which all but four were issued. At the end of 1930, Parham, like Morton and Oliver, was unceremoniously dropped by Victor, and he did not make any further recordings in the decade that ensued, though he continued to work both as a touring bandleader and theater organist. In 1940, Parham made his last recordings for Decca, with a group called the Four Aces, producing two instrumentals and one side accompanying hokum singer Lovin’ Sam Theard. Three years later, during a performance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, “Tiny” Parham died in his dressing room on April 4, 1943.
Victor V-38041 was recorded at 852 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, on February 2, 1929, in a session supervised by Ralph S. Peer. Parham’s Musicians are Ray Hobson on cornet, Charlie Lawson on trombone, Charles Johnson doubling on clarinet and alto saxophone, Elliot Washington on violin, Mike McKendrick on banjo and guitar, Tiny on piano, Quinn Wilson on tuba, and Mike Marrero on drums.
On side “A”, the Musicians play “Subway Sobs”, heavily featuring Quinn Wilson’s tuba and the respective violin and guitar of Elliot Washington and Mike McKendrick.
Subway Sobs, recorded February 2, 1929 by “Tiny” Parham and his Musicians.
A slower number than the first, they play “Blue Island Blues” on the reverse, with more of Washington and McKendrick’s violin and banjo to be heard, plus plenty of cornet from Ray Hobson.
Blue Island Blues, recorded February 2, 1929 by “Tiny” Parham and his Musicians.
