Furry Lewis & Mississippi Joe Callicott : The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions (2007)

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Same day, same place...

Same day : July 21, 1968. Same place : Ardent Studios, Memphis. Same (British) producer : Mike Vernon. Same label : Blue Horizon. But two albums by two different future legends of country blues. This Complete Blue Horizon Sessions released in 2007 are in fact the joint re-issue of two older albums : “Presenting the country blues : Furry Lewis”, first released in 1969 in the UK and 1972 in the US, and “Presenting the country blues : Mississippi Joe Callicott”, originally released in 1970 in the UK and 1972 in the US. This 2007 edition presents a total of 10 additional unreleased tracks (original songs or alternate takes), two by Lewis, eight by Callicott.

Both musicians were contemporary and several aspects of their lives are similar : recording debut in Chicago in 1929/1930, period of retirement from playing, re-discovery during the early 1960s folk & blues revival…

Furry Lewis, born in Greenwood, Mississippi, between 1893 and 1899, moved to Memphis when he was 7. He learned guitar from a middle-aged local guitarist, one "Blind Joe", who was probably the one who transmitted him songs like "Casey Jones" and "John Henry" and other traditionals. At 15, Lewis started to play on the famous Beale Street, a magnet place for all blues musicians residing or passing through Memphis. (An interesting excerpt of a Folkways Magazine article about how Lewis was nurtured by the boiling musical environment of the time can be read on Onurblues).

Furry in the 1920s

Within a short few years, he was living as an itinerant musician. In 1917, while trying to hop on a train, he slipped and got his right leg severed. He wore a peg leg and used a walking-stick for the rest of his life. In the early 1920s, Lewis joined the Medicine Show of one Dr. Willie Lewis (no relation) where he shared the stage with artists like Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson...

His first recordings were made in 1927 in Chicago for Vocalion Records. Between 1927 and 1929, he recorded 23 songs for the Vocalion and Victor labels both in Chicago and Memphis.

Then the Big Depression spread to the South. Professional musician lives got increasingly difficult and Lewis quit in the mid-'30s. He found a steady job as a municipal laborer for the city of Memphis, and held it until his retirement in 1966, simply performing occasionally for friends and relatives, and with the buskers that used to gather on Saturday afternoon around Beale Street.

Sam Charters (left), Willie B., Furry Lewis and Gus Cannon

Twenty-five years later, in 1959, music historian Sam Charters and his wife Ann (a specialist of the beat movement and famed biographer of Jack Kerouac) looked for him, had him record songs that were released the same year by Folkways on the album “Furry Lewis”, and featured him on their documentary film “The Blues”.

His second life was launched. He recorded two albums for the Prestige/Bluesville labels in 1961: “Back On My Feet Again” and “Done Changed My Mind”. In 1968, he recorded “Presenting the country blues : Furry Lewis” mentioned earlier, and “Furry Lewis at home in Memphis” (different releases from 1970 in Germany and Europe), and with Bukka White (“Furry Lewis & Bukka White at home with friends”, released in 1972).

Furry with Bukka White

In 1969, it was “On The Road Again” again with Bukka White and Gus Cannon, and “Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends: Party! At Home” (both also released in 1972 too), and “Take Your Time” with Lee Baker, Jr. (released only in 1999). Later that year he was recorded in his apartment  while sick and in bed. This gave a famous album, first released as “Beale Street Blues” in 1971 by the French label Barclay, then as “Fourth And Beale” in 1974 on Blue Star.

With Don Nix

The 1970s were Lewis' busiest decade : he was captured live in 1971 on “Live at the Gaslight (at the Au Go Go)” (sic), toured with Don Nix' Alabama State Troupers (he was featured on two albums : “Road Show” (1972) and “Live For A Moment” (released much later, in 2005), and toured worldwide with Leon Russell. In 1972, Lewis was part of the highly regarded package tour Memphis Blues Caravan, along Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes, Clarence Nelson, Hammie Nixon, Memphis Piano Red, Sam Chatmon and Mose Vinson (Vol. 1 & 2 released in 1994).

A portrait of him titled “Furry’s Blues” published in 1970 in Playboy magazine had suddenly turned him into a legend at over 70. He opened twice for the Rolling Stones  in Memphis, appeared on the Johnny Carson's “Tonight Show”, and played along Burt Reynolds in the blockbuster movie “W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings” (1975). Meanwhile, he was featured on dozens of various compilations on Memphis blues.

But age began to weigh on him : he began to lose his eyesight because of cataracts in his final years, contracted pneumonia in 1981, which led to his death from heart failure in Memphis on September 14 of that year, at the age of 88.

Callicott at home in Nesbit

Although Joe Callicott's life remains largely undocumented, one thing is certain, it wasn't as fictional as that of Lewis. He was born in 1899 on the southern edge of the Mississippi part of Memphis, in Nesbit, and spent his whole sedentary life there, never traveling much farther than Memphis. He was also one of the most under-recorded legends of the Mississippi country blues : 95% of his work were recorded on two sessions only !

Callicott first picked up the guitar around the age of 15 and performed for many years with fellow guitarist Garfield Akers (1900-1959) around Nesbit at usual gatherings (house parties, picnics, fish fries…) and was also a friend of Frank Stokes who certainly influenced him strongly.

In 1929 their friend Hernando’s Jim Jackson arranged for Akers and Callicott to record at a temporary recording unit set by the Brunswick label of Chicago at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Callicott’s recording of “Mississippi Boll Weevil Blues” from that session was unissued, but he played as the second guitarist on Akers’ two-part single “Cottonfield Blues” which was issued on Vocalion.

The following year they recorded again in Memphis and this time Callicott cut two songs (“Fare Thee Well Blues” and “Traveling Mama Blues”) that were published by Brunswick. His playing on these tracks is marked by an aggressive vocal that mellowed throughout the years. So far, this couple of songs were Callicott's entire discography, but were re-issued on numerous compilations.

When Akers died in 1959, Callicott stopped playing for several years.

In 1967 blues researcher George Mitchell looked out for the artist and find him in Nesbit (read about their encounter below). Callicott was then slowed down a bit but still remaining a magnificent musician. On the historical day of Sept 1, 1967, Mitchell carefully recorded a little more than 20 songs from Callicott (see details on Onurblues) that were released on different albums and compilations between 1969 and 2003.

Mike Vernon

Callicott's next recording session took place on July 1, 1968, at Ardent Studios in Memphis, organized by British blues boom producer Mike Vernon, with Bill Barth (guitar) and Bukka White (“whistling”). 8 tracks were featured on the album “Presenting the country blues : Mississippi Joe Callicott” released by Blue Horizon in 1970 in the UK, and 1972 in the US. 9 tracks remained unissued until 8 came out on the album "Joe Callicott" (Blue Horizon 2007). The ninth one, the unfinished and messy “Chief Police Blues”, has voluntarily not been released yet.

The Mitchell and Vernon sessions earned Callicott a booking at the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival in Memphis. On this occasion, maybe did he met Furry Lewis who was featured too... 2 recorded live songs were released the same year by the Sire label, and by Blue Horizon (UK 1968, US 1969) on the album "The 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival".

Altogether Callicott's discography doesn't exceed about 40 pieces. More than Robert Johnson but much less than most of the famous Mississippi bluesmen who have passed.

Furry Lewis played slide
(here a real "bottleneck")

In his last two years before his death in May 1969, Callicott mentored a young teenager neighbor who skipped school to learn guitar from this unassuming master : the now renowned Kenny Brown.

Listening to the two CDs of this double set, one clearly hears the differences in playing styles between Lewis and Callicott. Lewis plays slide, Callicott sticks to his raw finger picking though he sometimes sounds short of energy. On the vocal side, though their voices sound different, both men are equally moving. There is something kind of tragic in Callicott's sometimes quavering voice, while Lewis, under a more extroverted and facetious showmanship, is as dramatic and soulful. Both master the art of story-telling and of transmitting their dramatic feelings. ■

■ About Furry Lewis' influences

The Smithsonian Folkways Magazine wrote an article explaining the musical environment that might explain the creative talent of Lewis. No need to paraphrase it  :

Furry Lewis, the busker

“[Lewis] grew up in an atmosphere charged with the energy of nascent Afro-American musics, an era in which ragtime and the first incarnations of jazz met the folk songs of the Appalachians and the spiritual and "work song" vocal traditions of former slaves. The intersection of these forms created a diverse and vibrant cultural landscape in the Southern USA, as migrations of rural agricultural laborers spread what were once regional musics far beyond their initial origins. The city of Memphis, and the Beale Street neighborhood in particular, developed an almost mythical status as a musical mecca.

“In a time when recorded music was rare, Beale Street served as a kind of marketplace for music and musicians, where performers of various styles and techniques could go to inspire, and be inspired. It was this climate that nurtured the young Furry Lewis' talent, exposing him to the repertoire and techniques that he would eventually make his own.”

→ https://folkways.si.edu/furry-lewis-rural-blues-performer/music/article/smithsonian

■ Discographies

The always superbly documented illustrated discographies researched by Stefan Wirz (without his work, I would have had a hard time trying to untangle the original recordings of both bluesmen from their release on numerous albums, compilations and anthologies, so I thank him very much) :

→ Joe Callicott : https://wirz.de/music/calicott.htm

→ Furry Lewis : https://wirz.de/music/lewis.htm

■ Sam Charters

Audio interview with one of the pioneers of the blues revival, 2014 : https://youtu.be/2eLDeIA4Eok

■ George Mitchell

At the opening of a gallery exposition of his photos, Fort Myers,  FL, 2011 : https://youtu.be/R1dzZGlzIdQ

Click to enlarge and read

→

Mitchell/Callicott:
the encounter
told by Mitchell
→

■ Joe Callicott: the historical Sept 1, 1967 recordings

Mitchell recorded  22 songs : “Lonesome Katy Blues”, “Come Home To Me Baby”, “Fare You Well Baby Blues”, “Country Blues”, “Laughing To Keep From Crying”, “Love Me Baby Blues (aka “France Chance”), “Rolling And Tumbling (aka “I Rolled And I Tumbled” aka “Roll And Tumble”), “Riverside Blues”, “Down Home Blues”, “Old Boll Weevil”, “Frankie And Albert”, “Good Time Blues”, “Up Town Blues”, “Down To The River Jordan”, “River Blues”, “Up The Country”, “Fare Thee Well Blues”, “Goodbye Baby Blues”, “Let Your Deal Go Down”, “Good Times Blues”, “Something Just Keep A-Worrying' My Mind”, “The Saints”. From them :

→ 6 songs (“Lonesome Katy Blues”, “Come Home To Me Baby”, “Fare You Well Baby Blues”, “Country Blues”, “Laughing To Keep From Crying”, “Love Me Baby Blues”) were released by Arhoolie in 1969 on the compilation "Mississippi Delta Blues, Vol. 2",

→ 5 songs (“Let Your/The Deal Go Down”, “Something Just Keep A-Worryin' My Mind”, “When The Saints Go Marching In”, “Goodbye Baby Blues”, “Frankie & Albert”- alt. take) stayed unissued until Fat Possum put two out in 2003 and the label Southland released the remaining three in 2004 on a compilation titled “Joe Callicott: North Mississippi Blues”.

→ 11 tracks were released on "Deal Gone Down" in 1970 by Revival, and as "Ain't A Gonna Lie To You" by Fat Possum in 2003,

■ Audio and video docs

As could be guessed, unfortunately there is no real live video of Joe Callicott.

Kenny Brown

► Here is Kenny Brown, who learned guitar with him, covering two of his famous songs :

→ “France Chance” aka  ”Love Me Baby Blues”, at his ranch in Potts Camp, MS, 2011  : https://youtu.be/iIqrjpHJYp8

→ “You don't know my mind”, at the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, 2016 : https://youtu.be/FC2vXL2AYxM

► And two audio clips of Callicott covers by Kelly Joe Phelps from his album “Lead Me On” :

→ “Love Me Baby Blues” : https://youtu.be/3ypbdO3H7VM

→ “Fare Thee Well” : https://youtu.be/pkmBYK2r0hg

Audio - Both Callicott and Lewis took part in the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival : https://youtu.be/lsnn5TUez6E

Things are not very different concerning Furry Lewis : videos are scarce. Here are a few :

► Furry Lewis, Washington University, Seattle, 1968 : https://youtu.be/_L7NL7wkAew

► With Leon Russell And Friends, 1971 : https://youtu.be/tJEjpG4ggcg

► “Let's Shake Hand in Hand”, at home in Memphis, late 1970s or early 1980s : https://youtu.be/gwU87wzt97s

► "Judge Boushe Blues"(aka “Judge Harsh Blues”), from the DVD "Legends of Country Blues Guitar, Vol. Three" : https://youtu.be/y9R-5hCv9gk

► Lewis covers

→ Joni Mitchell, who visited Lewis in his Beale Street apartment in February 1976, wrote the tribute song “Furry Sings The Blues”, here performed live in 1979 (with lyrics below the video) : https://youtu.be/ybCwd1yBP88

→ Willy DeVille's “Good morning Judge” (audio), an adaptation of ”Judge Harsh Blues” : https://youtu.be/aELWauqgsog?t=18

 

"Mississippi" Joe Callicott,
1899-1969

Walter E. "Furry" Lewis,
1893-1981