I absolutely love the Peabody Hotel & duck parade, but never heard of this. Prof. Gioia’s Substack is my fav find of 2024. I not only learn something new every time I read it, but I fall down new curiosity rabbit holes. This is the ultimate fun for me. Thank you 🙏
There is a leaning, or an affinity, between Willie Brown’s ‘Future Blues’ and ‘Rowdy Blues.’ But the more live listened over the years the more Kid Bailey—and the whole name could be a pseudonym—they separate. There’s a lift, a jig, in ‘Rowdy Blues’ that’s all its own. That may be what attracted the Be Good Tanyas to it.
I like your idea that Kid indicates a criminal past. I’d be stretch to think it’s really William Bonney, but would have been only 70 . . .
“Consider the last lines of Kid Bailey’s “Mississippi Bottom Blues”—where he is defending himself against some vague accusation:
And my baby passed me and she never said a word.
Nothing I had did but 'twas something she had heard.
My conclusion from all this is that Kid Bailey broke the law, and served time.”
I’m not doubting that the Kid might have served time, but I do question the conclusion that he necessarily broke the law. As documented in detail by Blackmon’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (also made into a 2012 PBS documentary), during this period blacks in the south were systematically arrested and imprisoned under false or minor charges, and had their sentences extended for months or years to pay off exorbitant fines and fees. They were then leased via forced labor camps to plantation owners, coal companies, and even public utilities as a legal replacement of slave labor. This was done on a very large scale throughout the south. States slowly began outlawing this practice beginning in the early 20th century, but plenty of loopholes and alternate strategies were available to keep this practice alive until FDR signed federal legislation more thoroughly prohibiting it in 1941.
Could this be the fate that befell Kid Bailey in 1928?
The two "Kid Bailey" recordings feature a guitar style that sounds like strumming that uses the surface of the fingernails on the down-stroke, a clumped flail. The Willie Brown recording is a different player using a more common finger style.
That's what I hear anyway.
I also agree with Mary Jo Wilen (elsewhere in the comments). The Willie Brown singer's voice is a different person.
I agree to the guitar technique you are hearing, however as someone who plays clawhammer banjo I would call it “frail” rather than “flail,” referring to “flailing,” using the nails downward stroke of the index and/or middle finger and the pluck of the fleshy pad of the thumb.
Hi John, yeah - I was thinking about the starting position of the Flamenco flail where the fingers start in a clump and fan out as you describe, but without the fan out.
I wasn't familiar with the proper term frail nor am I the slightest bit competent with the clawhammer technique. But, the down-stroke top-of-the-nails sound is distinctive, and I can honestly say that I don't hear it that often on the guitar. Rhiannon Giddens and Abigail Washburn, both consummate clawhammer banjo players hit that downstroke frail occasionally. At least I think that's what I hear, but it sounds different on a guitar.
So, thanks for your reply. Learning something is always a bonus.
I think I know what you meant, that rasgueado thing that Flamenco guitarists do, and yes Rhiannon and Abigail do frail their banjos, with lots of double thumbing. Molly Tuttle does the clawhammer thing on the guitar sometimes. https://youtu.be/xed8z2ue-sE?si=RkgKyhQT0aWyo9RA I think some of those Delta players used every possible technique that came their way
This is incredible! "My favorite story about Wardlow tells of him taking a job as a pest exterminator in impoverished Mississippi neighborhoods—so he had an excuse to visit homes and ask (while doing his job) if they owned any old blues 78s."
Great article. For those interested in discussions of acoustic blues music I suggest WeenieCampbell.com. The site strongly leans towards guitar playing, but there are many resources including lyrics and transcriptions. Gayle Dean Warlow has posted there himself. Cheers!
Listening to Rowdy Blues and being a fairly expert fingerstyle blues guitarist myself, I wonder if there are not two guitars playing. The two registers of the repetitive bass part vs the busy higher register part sound like something that would be very difficult to play on one guitar. That's a first impression just having listened to it. The guitar could be in some open tuning that might make it work but I haven't sat down and tried to figure that out yet. If I do I'll let you know. But on first listen I'm thinking two guitars.
What an incredible interesting story this! I love it when musicians exist, but cannot be traced back haha. I had never heard of Kid Bailey before... Do you know if in the research for this song they have consulted recording engineers and musicians? I know that, incredible but true, this is often overlooked in academic studies on music (as I argued in 2009 and continue to argue with regard to Dylanology; https://www.amazon.nl/Bob-Dylan-Lyrics-Versus-Academics/dp/3843381542).
I say this because my first response to this recording as a recording engineer and performing songwriter: it is unlikely that the singer on this recording is also playing the guitar:
-As an engineer I can hear and tell the difference in distance between the guitar and the vocal especially in what is captured in this type of recording from this period. The definition of the guitar would have been different if it would have come from one position;
-As a performing songwriter who plays complex fingerpicking patterns while singing elaborate lyrics, I listen to this guitar part and notice at several points in the song that the difference between vocal timing and the tightness on beat playing of the interesting fragmented guitar part are unlikely to be 1 person. Singing and playing he would have changed the rhythm on certain parts to fit his vocal movements. Not doing this is musically strange. Or remarkable to say the least.
The fact that the singer and the guitarist seem to operate as two could be a good reason to presume they are in fact two. In other words: there is a guitarist accompanying him here. This results in the tightness. This could also mean that he was "just" a singer and did not perform as a singer and guitarist later on.
So how reliable are the statements that it was 1 man who walked in to do this recording?
Perhaps the search should be broadened: who was the singer? And who played the guitar on this recording?
Record companies were hungry for material. They had a policy of recording anyone who could get through a song.
Avocational or semi-professional players generally weren’t strong singers, but were often good musicians.
Record companies recorded their entire repertoire, in one or two sessions, indicating that you didn’t have to be that good to get a complete recording session.
Bailey is a strong singer, suggesting he was a professional entertainer, but the fact that he only recorded two tracks suggests he had no repertoire, and therefore wasn’t a standard bluesman, who normally played and sang.
The driving rhythm of the first performance sounds like Willie Brown, but the second sounds more like Tommy Johnson. So it’s likely Bailey was only the singer, and might have had more than one accompanist on the session.
I’d conclude therefore that Bailey was primarily a singer, and that he effectively recorded two demos.
Also, nicknames are evidence of notoriety. If it’s highly unlikely that a bluesman with Bailey’s undoubted proficiency would elicit blank stares from other musicians, it’s hard to see how he got a nickname if no one knew him, especially one that suggested he was some sort of outlaw. So the name is presumably fake. Record companies didn’t always use the performer’s real name in their files, so what they wrote in their files isn’t evidence either way.
Artists would use other names when recording for other recording companies. Ted Gioia writes about the panoply of names John Lee Hooker recorded under in order to skirt recording contracts.
Also, the record companies often recorded only the part of an artist’s repertoire that they thought would sell to a target audience. Many blues artists, including Robert Johnson, had large repertoires that included spirituals, Tin Pan Alley songs and Hillbilly music.
Folklorists were also guilty of selectively recording only a small part of an artist’s repertoire. Alan Lomax told me a major mistake of some song collectors in the West was to track down a cowboy singer and only record their cowboy songs. He said all of those singers also sang some Child ballads, some pop songs, some “ethnic” material, as well as spirituals. Who knows if those two Kid Bailey sides were the part of his repertoire that his audiences requested the most or not?
I absolutely love the Peabody Hotel & duck parade, but never heard of this. Prof. Gioia’s Substack is my fav find of 2024. I not only learn something new every time I read it, but I fall down new curiosity rabbit holes. This is the ultimate fun for me. Thank you 🙏
Same here, Kate. It's giving my brain a good workout indeed 🙏🏻
Yes, Sol! A brain workout 💪🧠
🤓
There is a leaning, or an affinity, between Willie Brown’s ‘Future Blues’ and ‘Rowdy Blues.’ But the more live listened over the years the more Kid Bailey—and the whole name could be a pseudonym—they separate. There’s a lift, a jig, in ‘Rowdy Blues’ that’s all its own. That may be what attracted the Be Good Tanyas to it.
I like your idea that Kid indicates a criminal past. I’d be stretch to think it’s really William Bonney, but would have been only 70 . . .
Yup Greil.
“Consider the last lines of Kid Bailey’s “Mississippi Bottom Blues”—where he is defending himself against some vague accusation:
And my baby passed me and she never said a word.
Nothing I had did but 'twas something she had heard.
My conclusion from all this is that Kid Bailey broke the law, and served time.”
I’m not doubting that the Kid might have served time, but I do question the conclusion that he necessarily broke the law. As documented in detail by Blackmon’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (also made into a 2012 PBS documentary), during this period blacks in the south were systematically arrested and imprisoned under false or minor charges, and had their sentences extended for months or years to pay off exorbitant fines and fees. They were then leased via forced labor camps to plantation owners, coal companies, and even public utilities as a legal replacement of slave labor. This was done on a very large scale throughout the south. States slowly began outlawing this practice beginning in the early 20th century, but plenty of loopholes and alternate strategies were available to keep this practice alive until FDR signed federal legislation more thoroughly prohibiting it in 1941.
Could this be the fate that befell Kid Bailey in 1928?
IMO Kid Bailey and Willie Brown sound like two different singers. Can't some fancy voice recognition program sort this out for us?
A fascinating real life music mystery.
Rowdy wants an arrangement for a small acoustic ensemble. That rhythm is terrific!
The two "Kid Bailey" recordings feature a guitar style that sounds like strumming that uses the surface of the fingernails on the down-stroke, a clumped flail. The Willie Brown recording is a different player using a more common finger style.
That's what I hear anyway.
I also agree with Mary Jo Wilen (elsewhere in the comments). The Willie Brown singer's voice is a different person.
Absolutely fabulous blues, thank you!
I agree to the guitar technique you are hearing, however as someone who plays clawhammer banjo I would call it “frail” rather than “flail,” referring to “flailing,” using the nails downward stroke of the index and/or middle finger and the pluck of the fleshy pad of the thumb.
Hi John, yeah - I was thinking about the starting position of the Flamenco flail where the fingers start in a clump and fan out as you describe, but without the fan out.
I wasn't familiar with the proper term frail nor am I the slightest bit competent with the clawhammer technique. But, the down-stroke top-of-the-nails sound is distinctive, and I can honestly say that I don't hear it that often on the guitar. Rhiannon Giddens and Abigail Washburn, both consummate clawhammer banjo players hit that downstroke frail occasionally. At least I think that's what I hear, but it sounds different on a guitar.
So, thanks for your reply. Learning something is always a bonus.
I think I know what you meant, that rasgueado thing that Flamenco guitarists do, and yes Rhiannon and Abigail do frail their banjos, with lots of double thumbing. Molly Tuttle does the clawhammer thing on the guitar sometimes. https://youtu.be/xed8z2ue-sE?si=RkgKyhQT0aWyo9RA I think some of those Delta players used every possible technique that came their way
Needed to find time to listen/view, but yes - exactly, the frail on guitar.
Also, thanks for the pointer to Molly Tuttle.
This is incredible! "My favorite story about Wardlow tells of him taking a job as a pest exterminator in impoverished Mississippi neighborhoods—so he had an excuse to visit homes and ask (while doing his job) if they owned any old blues 78s."
Here's a few pages about Kid Bailey from King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=12711.0;attach=7206
Brilliant stuff. Kid Bailey is tops.
FWIW A live performance of "Mississippi Bottom Blues" was featured in a movie on the blues called "The Devil is a Lie."
Brilliant post, Ted. More like this please!
Great article. For those interested in discussions of acoustic blues music I suggest WeenieCampbell.com. The site strongly leans towards guitar playing, but there are many resources including lyrics and transcriptions. Gayle Dean Warlow has posted there himself. Cheers!
*Wardlow
"perhaps that should be enough for us." Therein lies the crux of the matter.
Listening to Rowdy Blues and being a fairly expert fingerstyle blues guitarist myself, I wonder if there are not two guitars playing. The two registers of the repetitive bass part vs the busy higher register part sound like something that would be very difficult to play on one guitar. That's a first impression just having listened to it. The guitar could be in some open tuning that might make it work but I haven't sat down and tried to figure that out yet. If I do I'll let you know. But on first listen I'm thinking two guitars.
I agree. There’s definitely a doubling effect going on and it’s too varied to be from a 12-string guitar
What an incredible interesting story this! I love it when musicians exist, but cannot be traced back haha. I had never heard of Kid Bailey before... Do you know if in the research for this song they have consulted recording engineers and musicians? I know that, incredible but true, this is often overlooked in academic studies on music (as I argued in 2009 and continue to argue with regard to Dylanology; https://www.amazon.nl/Bob-Dylan-Lyrics-Versus-Academics/dp/3843381542).
I say this because my first response to this recording as a recording engineer and performing songwriter: it is unlikely that the singer on this recording is also playing the guitar:
-As an engineer I can hear and tell the difference in distance between the guitar and the vocal especially in what is captured in this type of recording from this period. The definition of the guitar would have been different if it would have come from one position;
-As a performing songwriter who plays complex fingerpicking patterns while singing elaborate lyrics, I listen to this guitar part and notice at several points in the song that the difference between vocal timing and the tightness on beat playing of the interesting fragmented guitar part are unlikely to be 1 person. Singing and playing he would have changed the rhythm on certain parts to fit his vocal movements. Not doing this is musically strange. Or remarkable to say the least.
The fact that the singer and the guitarist seem to operate as two could be a good reason to presume they are in fact two. In other words: there is a guitarist accompanying him here. This results in the tightness. This could also mean that he was "just" a singer and did not perform as a singer and guitarist later on.
So how reliable are the statements that it was 1 man who walked in to do this recording?
Perhaps the search should be broadened: who was the singer? And who played the guitar on this recording?
Thank you for pointing out what your skilled ears are hearing. Upon relistening I think I can hear the same.
A few thoughts:
Record companies were hungry for material. They had a policy of recording anyone who could get through a song.
Avocational or semi-professional players generally weren’t strong singers, but were often good musicians.
Record companies recorded their entire repertoire, in one or two sessions, indicating that you didn’t have to be that good to get a complete recording session.
Bailey is a strong singer, suggesting he was a professional entertainer, but the fact that he only recorded two tracks suggests he had no repertoire, and therefore wasn’t a standard bluesman, who normally played and sang.
The driving rhythm of the first performance sounds like Willie Brown, but the second sounds more like Tommy Johnson. So it’s likely Bailey was only the singer, and might have had more than one accompanist on the session.
I’d conclude therefore that Bailey was primarily a singer, and that he effectively recorded two demos.
Also, nicknames are evidence of notoriety. If it’s highly unlikely that a bluesman with Bailey’s undoubted proficiency would elicit blank stares from other musicians, it’s hard to see how he got a nickname if no one knew him, especially one that suggested he was some sort of outlaw. So the name is presumably fake. Record companies didn’t always use the performer’s real name in their files, so what they wrote in their files isn’t evidence either way.
Artists would use other names when recording for other recording companies. Ted Gioia writes about the panoply of names John Lee Hooker recorded under in order to skirt recording contracts.
Also, the record companies often recorded only the part of an artist’s repertoire that they thought would sell to a target audience. Many blues artists, including Robert Johnson, had large repertoires that included spirituals, Tin Pan Alley songs and Hillbilly music.
Folklorists were also guilty of selectively recording only a small part of an artist’s repertoire. Alan Lomax told me a major mistake of some song collectors in the West was to track down a cowboy singer and only record their cowboy songs. He said all of those singers also sang some Child ballads, some pop songs, some “ethnic” material, as well as spirituals. Who knows if those two Kid Bailey sides were the part of his repertoire that his audiences requested the most or not?