The last thing we heard from the East St. Louis blues king Peetie Wheatstraw was a couple of swing-blues sides from the tail end of his career. Now, let us direct our attentions eight years earlier toward the beginning of his recorded legacy.
A cropped version of the only known photograph of Wheatstraw, pictured in Decca catalog.
Though the only known photograph of William Bunch—better known as Peetie Wheatstraw—depicts him holding a National metal-bodied resonator guitar, the artist played piano on the overwhelming majority of his recordings, while guitar was most often provided by the likes of Charley Jordan, Kokomo Arnold, or Lonnie Johnson. Other times he played nothing at all, only singing and leaving his accompaniment solely to other musicians. But that depiction of Peetie was not entirely inaccurate; it is said that he started out his musical career on the guitar and learned to handle the instrument with proficiency, before switching to piano later on. By the time he made his first records in 1930, he was primarily playing piano, developing a signature formula which he continued to use for the majority of his more than one-hundred-fifty sides. In 1932 however, Wheatstraw had a pair of stand-out sessions which departed from his standard formula. On a recording trip to New York City in March of 1932, Wheatstraw first played piano for Charley Jordan on a series of sides, then Peetie picked up the guitar himself, and, on March fifteenth and seventeenth, he laid down four blues songs unlike any other that he recorded: “Police Station Blues” and “All Alone Blues” on the former day, and “Can’t See Blues” and “Sleepless Nights’ Blues” on the latter. Afterward, he returned home to East St. Louis, and didn’t cut another record for two years, by which time he had settled into his formula, and never touched a guitar again on records, excepting one single 1935 session accompanying singer Alice Moore on Decca, on which Jimmie Gordon took the piano.
Vocalion 1722 was recorded on March 15, 1932, in New York City. On it, Peetie Wheatstraw (The Devil’s Son-in-Law) sings and accompanies himself on guitar. Both sides were later reissued around 1938 to ’39, each on separate records, with the first side appearing on Vocalion 04487 and Conqueror 9210 and the second on Vocalion 04912 and Conqueror 9767.
On the “A” side, Peetie’s “Police Station Blues” has been the subject of some latter-day acclaim, due in no small part to its attribution as an inspiration for Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues”, recorded some five years later. It has been reissued several times, including on Columbia’s Roots N’ Blues, The Retrospective (1925-1950) and Yazoo’s Back To The Crossroads, The Roots of Robert Johnson.
Police Station Blues, recorded March 15, 1932 by Peetie Wheatstraw (The Devil’s Son-in-Law).
Melodically almost identical to the former side, Wheatstraw plays and sings “All Alone Blues” on the flip-side.
All Alone Blues, recorded March 15, 1932 by Peetie Wheatstraw (The Devi’s Son-in-Law)
Vocalion 1727 was recorded on either March 15 or (more likely) 17, 1932, in New York City. As on the former, Peetie sings and plays guitar on both sides. Also like the former, both sides were reissued separately, with the first side appearing on Vocalion 04592 and the second joining the “B” side of the previous record on Vocalion 04912.
Despite any technical limitations Peetie may have had, he dishes out a wonderful performance on “Sleepless Nights’ Blues”, a blues number equal to or perhaps even better than his more popular “Police Station”, earning a spot on the Origin Jazz Library compilation The Blues In St. Louis 1929-1937 and Yazoo’s St. Louis Blues 1929-1935, The Depression.
Sleepless Nights’ Blues, recorded March 17, 1932 by Peetie Wheatstraw (The Devil’s Son-in-Law).
Reusing many of the licks heard on the previous side (though actually vice-versa, since this one was recorded earlier), Wheatstraw next sings “Can’t See Blues”. Like his piano playing, Wheatstraw had a very idiosyncratic style of playing guitar (which is to say, he typically followed a very similar pattern in all of the songs he played).
Can’t See Blues, recorded March 17, 1932 by Peetie Wheatstraw (The Devil’s Son-in-Law).
Updated on June 20, 2024.