One of the roughest-hewn bluesmen to emerge from the Mississippi Delta, Tommy McClennan was known for his distinctively uncomplicated but hard-grooving style of guitar playing, coarse and gravelly vocals, and evocative, sometimes provocative lyrics. Though his recording career spanned only three years, McClennan’s records were among the best selling by a Delta musician in the pre-World War II era. Despite that success, most of the details surrounding McClennan’s life and work are uncertain, if not outright lost to time.
A crop of the only known photograph of Tommy McClennan, pictured in Bluebird catalog supplement.
Tommy McClennan is believed to have been born on January 4, 1905, in Durant, Mississippi, one of Virgil and Cassie McClennan’s several children. He grew up on plantations in Carroll and Leflore Counties, and was later known to have spent much of his time in Yazoo City and Greenwood. As a musician, he associated himself with fellow bluesmen Robert Petway and David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and was well known around the southern Mississippi Delta as “Sugar” or “Bottle Up”. While living on the Sligh Plantation in Yazoo City in 1939, McClennan was “scouted” by Chicago blues impresario Lester Melrose. Subsequently, like so many of compatriots, he traveled north to make a record. At five sessions between November 22, 1939, and February 20, 1942, Tommy McClennan recorded forty sides for RCA Victor’s Bluebird label, cutting exactly eight tracks each time—plus an appearance on his friend Robert Petway’s “Boogie Woogie Woman” at the last date. His twenty records saw considerable success compared to those of many of his contemporaries, and many of songs inspired covers in later years. Among his recorded songs were his famous “Bottle it Up and Go”, “Cross Cut Saw Blues”, and “Deep Blue Sea Blues”—the last of which he called “the best one I’ve got.” He was well remembered during that period by Big Bill Broonzy, who later recounted some sordid tales of him, such as an occasion in which Broonzy purportedly shoved him out the window of a Chicago blues club after some of the controversial verses in his “Bottle it Up and Go” riled the crowd to the point of violence. Although his recording career came as the rural-flavored, unelectrified blues of pre-war years was being supplanted by a more urbane, amplified and ensemble-based style that would dominate in years to come, his music and lyrics were deeply steeped in the Delta blues tradition of his earlier contemporaries. After the conclusion of his recording career, McClennan evidently remained in Chicago, where he is thought to have continued to perform for about a decade before descending into alcoholism and underworld life. On May 9, 1961, Tommy McClennan died of bronchopneumonia at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago at the age of fifty-six, just as the folk and blues revival was beginning to gain steam. Though he didn’t make it to see the revival firsthand, many of McClennan’s recordings have since been reissued on prominent blues compilations, earning him well-deserved recognition in the years and decades since his death.
Bluebird 34-0706 was recorded on February 20, 1942, in RCA Victor’s Studio A in Chicago, Illinois—Tommy McClennan’s last session. McClennan’s vocal and guitar are accompanied by the prolific Ransom Knowling on string bass.
On the “A” side of 34-0706, Tommy McClennan sings “Roll Me, Baby”, espousing a common theme in blues songs, very similar to Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “Rock Me Mamma” or “Rockin’ and Rollin'” as made famous by Little Son Jackson.
Roll Me, Baby, recorded February 20, 1942 by Tommy McClennan.
And on the “B” side, Tommy delivers a fine performance on “Blue as I Can Be”, a number which seems to be one of his more popular recordings in the present day. It is as good an example as any of his famously rugged fashion of both singing and guitar playing.
Blue as I Can Be, recorded February 20, 1942 by Tommy McClennan.
Few songs in the vast and diverse country blues tradition have had such an enduring impact, and few melodies known such ubiquity, as the Mississippi Sheiks’ legendary 1930 recording of “Sitting On Top of the World”. Yet in spite of its great import, the song’s origins are quite obscure. Thus, I endeavor herein to unravel the tangled roots of one of America’s greatest blues songs. I do ask that if you readers have any greater insight into the song’s history than I have to offer, please let me in on it by commenting on this post.
The Mississippi Sheiks—Bo Carter, Lonnie Chatmon, and Walter Vinson—pictured in the 1937 Bluebird catalog.
The Mississippi Sheiks were a versatile country string band with a repertoire consisting of everything from deep plantation blues melodies to the latest Tin Pan Alley pop hits. Though its personnel varied from session to session, core members were Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle and Walter Vinson on guitar. Sometimes, they were joined by other Chatmon brothers Sam and Armenter—better known as Bo Carter—or mandolin player Papa Charlie McCoy, brother of Kansas Joe McCoy. The Chatmon family of Bolton, Mississippi had a venerable musical history in the region. Patriarch Henderson Chatmon, born into slavery around 1850, was a fiddle player, and he passed his legacy of music on to his sons Lonnie, Bo, Sam, Harry, and reputedly Charley Patton by a different mother. Lonnie Chatmon was born either in June of 1888 or on November 8, 1890. He provided the heart of the Sheiks as their main fiddle player, remaining ever-present through all the Sheiks sessions and varying membership. Guitar picker Walter Vinson, sometimes called Vincent or Vincson, and credited pseudonymously as Walter Jacobs, was born on February 2, 1901, also in Bolton. Prior to becoming a Mississippi Sheik, he played alongside such noted talents as Charlie Spand, Rube Lacey, and the aforementioned Papa Charlie McCoy. He made his first records with Bo Carter for Brunswick in 1928, also Carter’s first.
Following in the footsteps of similar Bo Carter and Walter Vinson groups of 1928 and ’29, the Mississippi Sheiks had their first recording session in Shreveport, Louisiana in February of 1930 for Okeh, and continued to record exclusively for them through 1931, with several of their records released in the 45000 “hillbilly” series rather than the 8000 “race” series, and their two final discs appearing on the parent label Columbia. While at Okeh, the Sheiks accompanied “Texas” Alexander in a single San Antonio session. Meanwhile, offshoot groups such as the Mississippi Mud Steppers and Mississippi Blacksnakes, both featuring Charlie McCoy, cut several records for Okeh and Brunswick. Thereafter, they traveled to Grafton, Wisconsin to make a series of records for the faltering Paramount label in July of ’32 before returning to Okeh in ’33 for a single session while the record industry was in dire straits. The following year, they signed with RCA Victor’s new up-and-comer Bluebird, with whom they remained until their final session in 1935. Lonnie cut several more records for Bluebird late in 1936 with brother Sam Chatmon, who had participated in a handful of earlier Sheiks sessions, before calling it quits.
After the days of the Mississippi Sheiks had drawn to a close in the middle of the 1930s, the Chatmons, excepting Bo, quit music and returned to a life as farmers. Lonnie Chatmon died around 1942 of ’43. Walter Vinson and Bo Carter continued to enjoy solo recording careers into the 1940s. Bo Carter made some (as yet unreleased) final recordings for Paul Oliver in 1960 with Will Shade and Dewey Corley of the Memphis Jug Band, and died four years later at the age of seventy-one. Walter Vinson too returned to music in 1960, making a rather more successful comeback than Carter, before retiring for the last time in 1972, owing to atherosclerosis, three years before his death. Sam Chatmon spent many years working on plantations in Mississippi before the folk revival of the 1960s brought him back to the spotlight with great success, dying at the age of 86 in 1983.
Okeh 8784 was recorded at the Mississippi Sheiks’ first session on February 17, 1930 in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Sheiks are Walter Vinson (a.k.a. Walter Jacobs) on guitar and vocal, Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle, and on the second side, Bo Carter on second guitar. It is the Sheiks’ second issued record.
Without a doubt the Sheiks’ greatest success—then as now—is “Sitting on Top of the World”. The Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon accredited composition has subsequently been covered by dozens, if not hundreds of artists, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. After proving to be one of the biggest “race” hits of 1930, the Sheiks followed up with “Sitting on Top of the World No. 2” (Okeh 8854) in 1931 and “The New Sittin’ on Top of the World” (Paramount 13134) in ’32. Bearing no resemblance to the 1926 popular song “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” besides its title, the unmistakable melody of “Sitting on Top of the World”, or a very similar one, was used by quite a number of recordings prior to the Sheiks’ 1930 waxing.
Where exactly and from whom the melody originated is considerably more difficult to pin down than simply citing some of the many songs to use it. Walter Vinson claimed to have written the song after playing for a white dance. Ida Cox recorded “How Long, Daddy, How Long” in 1925 with a like melody, accompanied by Papa Charlie Jackson, the composer credited as “W.H. Jackson”. Leroy Carr made that song famous three years later with his influential “How Long – How Long Blues”, and reused the melody in his “You Got to Reap What You Sow” only two months later. Some have suggested that the Sheiks were introduced to the melody by way of Tampa Red and a song he recorded several times called “Things ‘Bout Coming My Way”, however I am dubious of that prospect; the earliest recording of “Things ‘Bout Coming My Way” was cut on January 17, 1931 by one “Sam Hill” from Louisville—apparently a pseudonym for Walter Vinson—for Brunswick records, at the same session as the Sheiks’ offshoot the Mississippi Blacksnakes. Tampa Red made his first recording of the song the following month, with the composer credited as “Sam Hill”. The Sheiks themselves recorded the song later in that year. However, prior to every recording of “Things ‘Bout Coming My Way”, the Atlanta-based fiddler Eddie Anthony recorded the very similar “Everything’s Coming My Way” in December of 1930, with the same melody, borrowing some lyrics from “Sitting on Top of the World”. To complicate matters further, the 1941 Sam Price and his Texas Bluesiscians recording of “Things ‘Bout Coming My Way” perplexingly credits Bert Johnson and Spencer Williams as composers.
Contemporaneous to the Sheik’s “Stitting On Top of the World”, a version was cut by Charley Patton, an associate of the Sheiks, only a few months after theirs under the title “Some Summer Day”. Big Bill Broonzy used the popular melody in his two-parter “Worrying You Off My Mind” in 1932, and Robert Johnson too echoed it in his 1936 “Come On in My Kitchen”. Milton Brown introduced the tune into the western swing repertoire with his 1934 recording titled “Just Sitting on Top of the World”, which was in turn covered by Bob Wills and others.
Sitting on Top of the World, recorded February 17, 1930 by the Mississippi Sheiks.
Though a little worse for wear, owing to a touch of groove stripping, the Sheiks give us some more of their good stuff, with Bo Carter sitting in, on the less well-remembered, but nonetheless excellent “Lonely One In this Town”.
Lonely One In this Town, recorded February 17, 1930 by the Mississippi Sheiks.
This occasion’s serenade is provided by the obscure but outstanding string duo of Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater, who play here a couple of snappy rag numbers on mandolin and guitar.
Napoleon “Nap” Hayes and Matthew Prater were a pair of black musicians hailing from Vicksburg, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Hayes was likely born in 1885 in West Corinth, Mississippi, and Prater in New Albany in either 1886 or on June 30, 1889. With Hayes on guitar and Prater on mandolin, the two played raggy music in a style not too disparate from that of the Dallas String Band. In February of 1928, they traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to record a total of eight sides for Okeh Records, out of which all but two were issued. Half of those eight featured vocals and violin by Lonnie Johnson (though some sources, including Discography of Okeh Records, cite a different Johnson—T.C. Johnson—who recorded at the same field trip as part of the minstrel-esque trio Johnson-Nelson-Porkchop). Out of those three discs, only one was released in the 8000 “race” series, while the other two were in the 45000 “hillbilly” series. Each record was credited differently, one under their own names as Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater, another as “The Blue Boys”, and one with Johnson as “The Johnson Boys”. Of note, those sides included a piece titled “Easy Winner”, which, despite taking the name of another of his rags, was in fact a take on Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”. That session accounted for the entirety of Hayes and Prater’s recorded legacy, and their later lives are as yet undocumented.
Okeh 45231 was recorded February 15, 1928 in Memphis, Tennessee by Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater. Hayes plays guitar, while Prater takes the raggy mandolin. I picked this record up in a junk shop, and it’s not in the most wonderful condition, but it plays quite well in spite of it. Not bad for a record that made the 78 Quarterly’s list of “The Rarest 78s”!
The duo first play a peppy rendition of Scott Joplin’s 1903 rag “Something Doing”, here styled as “Somethin’ Doin'”.
Somethin’ Doin’, recorded February 15, 1928 by Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater.
As an answer to the first tune, on the flip they play the folk rag “Nothin’ Doin'”, a little bluer—and a little cleaner playing—than the previous side. I’m hearing a bit of Lemon Jefferson’s “Black Snake Moan” interpolated in this tune (“oh-oh, honey what’s the matter now”).
Nothin’ Doin, recorded February 28, 1928 by Nap Hayes and Matthew Prater.
One of the great blues songsters of yesteryear was Jim Jackson. With a strong voice and a wide repertoire ranging from blues to popular songs to hokum, he one of the most prominent blues figures of his day.
An illustration of Jim Jackson from a Vocalion advertisement, reprinted in 78 Quarterly.
Jim Jackson was born on a farm in Hernando, Mississippi, twenty miles south of Memphis, most likely in June of 1876, though 1884 and 1890 have also been ventured as possible years. Sometime around 1905, Jackson began playing, singing, and dancing in medicine shows around the South. He was later a member of the famed Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and ran the Red Rose Minstrels himself. By the 1910s, Jackson worked primarily on Memphis, Tennessee, like contemporary Frank Stokes. His success on Beale Street was enough that he was reportedly residing in the luxurious Peabody Hotel by 1919. In 1927, store owner and talent broker H.C. Speir secured a contract for Jackson with Vocalion records. He made his recording debut on October 10, 1927, recording the first two parts of his “Kansas City Blues” series, which were issued as his first record. In addition to recording for Vocalion, Jackson also worked as a talent scout for the company, notably “discovering” boogie woogie piano man Speckled Red (Rufus Perryman). As one of Vocalions most popular race artists, the company released a “descriptive novelty” record titled “Jim Jackson’s Jamboree” featuring Tampa Red and Georgia Tom and Speckled Red, and “hosted” by Jackson. Jackson continued to record for Vocalion until 1930, and held several sessions for Victor in 1928. He supposedly played a bit part in King Vidor’s 1929 film Hallelujah, though it’s unknown what role he played, and indeed if he appeared in the film at all. Jackson’s last session was held in February of 1930, after which he returned to his home in Mississippi, where he continued to perform. Jim Jackson died on December 18, 1933.
Vocalion 1144 was recorded in Chicago on October 10, 1927. Jackson’s “Kansas City Blues” songs were among the most successful and influential blues records of their time, inspiring numerous covers by contemporaries like William Harris and Charley Patton, and latter day artists like Janis Joplin. Some have cited it as one of the first rock ‘n’ roll records.
First, Jackson sings the first of his four part series, “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues–Part 1″.
Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues–Part 1, recorded October 10, 1927 by Jim Jackson.
He concludes the disc with “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues–Part 2″. This is the second take of this side (“34” in the runoff), which may be more scarce than the more commonly heard first take.
Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues–Part 2, recorded October 10, 1927 by Jim Jackson.
