On The Shelf: Blues Images 2022 Calendar w/CD!

The Reverend has certainly sung the praises of John Tefteller’s annual Blues Images calendar before (like in 2019 and 2020!). The annual datebook has adorned my office wall for well over a decade running, and I welcome with my usual glee the autumnal arrival of that 12”x12” box with the next year’s calendar. Well, gentle reader, I’m here to tell you that the 2022 calendar is now available and it’s a winner all around!

For those of you who haven’t gotten hip to this annual gift from Mr. Tefteller, the Blues Images calendar features vintage advertising artwork from the long-gone Paramount Records blues label, materials that noted record collector and dealer Tefteller literally rescued from a dumpster over 20 years ago. Each year’s calendar preserves an immensely-valuable visual history of the early years of the blues; I donate my slightly-used copies at the end of each year to the Bill Schurk Sound Archives at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Whereas last year’s calendar featured more photographic advertising art than the traditional pen-and-ink drawings of the past, the 2022 features an interesting balance of hand-drawn ads with little photographic inserts.

As I wrote about last year’s calendar, printing technology had improved over the years, allowing for more photographic representation, and 2022 features advertising promoting Paramount releases of plastic fantastic sides like Henry Thomas’s “John Henry,” Memphis blues legend Furry Lewis’s “Jellyroll,”  Memphis Minnie’s “You Can’t Give It Away,” and Bessie Smith’s “Homeless Blues” along with ads for 78-rpm flapjacks by folks both well-known and obscure like Blind Willie Johnson, Kansas City Jim Jackson, and Blind Blake, among others. Each calendar page is annotated with historical and biographical information about the featured artist, and each month also includes the birth and death dates of classic blues artists.

The Blues Images 2022 calendar cost slightly more than some cheap wall-hanger you’d buy from the mall or local bookstore, but for the hardcore blues fan, Tefteller packs a lot of value for the $26.95 (plus shipping) it will cost you. Each Blues Images calendar includes a full-length CD that features rare, impossible-to-find, and often one-of-a-kind tracks, many of them sourced from Tefteller’s extensive personal collection. The performances, which include the songs from the original advertising in the calendar as well as related releases, have been remastered from the original 78rpm records using the ‘American Epic’ digital process that makes the sound on these antique shellac marvels really pop out of your speakers.

Much like last year, Tefteller has expanded the scope of the calendar’s accompanying CD to include old-school blues tracks dating from the late 1920s through the mid-‘30s and featuring songs from the aforementioned legends along with Ma Rainey’s “Little Low Mama Blues,” Blind Willie Johnson’s haunting read of “John the Revelator,” Victoria Spivey’s “The Alligator Pond Went Dry,” Washboard Walter’s “Wuffin’ Blues,” and Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Hot Papa Blues No. 2” as well as tracks by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Black Byrd, and the Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham. A real treat this year is Tefteller’s amazing find of nine songs by folk-blues legend Lead Belly, recorded live during a 1949 radio broadcast by WNYC in New York City.

The Blues Images 2022 calendar kicks off with a spry 1934 recording by Mr. Ledbetter, but the 1949 radio performances are a revelation. Lead Belly delivers some of his usual blend of acoustic folk, blues, and gospel music in tunes like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Good Morning Blues,” and “The Boll Weevil” but it’s some of the less-well-worn songs that sound the sweetest here. Lead Belly’s wavering vocals and innate charisma shine brightly on performances like the traditional prison work song “Take This Hammer,” the obscure blues tune “Ain’t Gonna Let You Worry My Life No More,” or the mesmerizing chain-gang call-and-response of “Stewball” (itself derived from a British folk song). Ledbetter is allowed time for introductions and explanations between songs, making for a phenomenal set by a bona fide American music legend.    

The annual Blues Images calendar and CD is a “must have” addition to the collection of any serious old-school blues fan. Blues Images sells other cool blues-related stuff, too, like posters, t-shirts, CDs from previous years, and past years’ calendars. You can find it all on the Blues Images website. Tell John that “the Rev sent ya!”

The Blues Images 2021 Calendar Is Here!

Old-school blues fans should already be familiar with John Tefteller’s annual Blues Images calendar. I’ve hung one of these invaluable date-keepers on the wall of my office for better than a decade and I always look forward to receiving the next year’s calendar each fall. For the newcomers among you, the Blues Images calendar features vintage advertising artwork from long-gone blues label Paramount Records that noted record collector and dealer Tefteller rescued from a dumpster over 20 years ago. Each year’s calendar preserves an immensely-valuable visual history of the early years of the blues.

The 2021 calendar is light on the sort of imaginative pen-and-ink artwork that graced previous year’s collections, probably a result of improved printing and reproduction technology in the late 1920s and early ‘30s, which allowed for more expansive use of photos. You still get these unique artistic takes in ads for songs like Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Pneumonia Blues” and Ramblin’ Thomas’s “Hard To Rule Women Blues,” and there are smaller photos of B&W advertising artwork reproduced in the empty squares on the grids for several months.

Since the calendar features more visual advertising for new records, blues fans get rare, not-seen-for-decades photos of both well-known artists like John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, Blind Boy Fuller, and Lead Belly as well as lesser-known bluesmen-and-women like Victoria Spivey, Buddy Moss, and Walter Roland. Each calendar page is also annotated with historical and biographical information about the featured artist, and each month also includes the birth and death dates of classic blues artists.

The Blues Images 2021 calendar cost slightly more than some cheap wall-hanger you’d buy from the mall or local bookstore, but for the hardcore blues fan, Tefteller packs a lot of value for the $26.95 (plus shipping) it will cost you. Each Blues Images calendar includes a full-length CD that features rare, impossible-to-find, and often one-of-a-kind tracks, many of them sourced from Tefteller’s extensive personal collection (which must truly be awesome).

This year’s CD features some mighty rare but entertaining cuts among its 23 tracks. “Peg Leg” Howell’s “Too Tight Blues” is a steamy slab o’ Piedmont-styled country blues from 1927 while blues woman Bertha Henderson sings a sordid tale of “Terrible Murder Blues” with guitar accompaniment from the legendary Blind Blake (circa 1928). I’m sensing a theme here as Walter Roland tells of “Cold Blooded Murder,” offering subtle piano blues from 1935 while the elegant fretwork of Buddy Moss graces a 1935 recording of “Undertaker Blues” (and he’s accompanied on second guitar by folk-blues legend Josh White!).  

Whereas Tefteller plumbed the depths of the first decade of the blues (1920s) with previous calendars, now we’re inching into the 1930s with stellar performances. The previously-mentioned songs are joined by the familiar “Good Morning, School Girl” from the original “Sonny Boy” Williamson, recorded in 1937 with Robert Nighthawk and Joe Williams joining the harmonica wizard. The great Huddie Ledbetter (a/k/a Leadbelly) is represented by the haunting “New Black Snake Moan,” which takes full advantage of the singer’s ethereal vocals, and Texas blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson showcases his six-string dexterity and high-lonesome vocals with a 1929 recording of “Pneumonia Blues.”

Tefteller jumps forward a couple of decades to 1950 with eleven red-hot, eyebrow-scorching performances by obscure blues pianist Lost John Hunter. These recently-discovered sides were originally recorded at the Memphis Recording Service (a/k/a Sun Studios) in Memphis, Tennessee and provide a first look at the piano-pounder’s talents on tracks like the sultry “Miss Thelma Mae,” the jaunty “Mind Your Own Business,” and the raucous “Lost John’s Pinetop Boogie,” a rollicking number that probably had ‘em hanging from the rafters in juke-joints on either side of the mighty Mississippi. Tefteller includes alternate takes among these eleven tracks, but there’s not a bad performance to be found.   

The performances on the CD, which include the songs from the original advertising featured on the calendar pages as well as related releases, have been remastered from the original 78rpm records using a digital process that was originally developed for the American Epic PBS series. Using original, 1920s-era sound equipment and pairing it with cutting edge modern technology, the “American Epic” process digitizes these rare sides, preserving them for posterity and making the sound on these antique shellac flapjacks really jump out of your speakers.

The annual Blues Images calendar and CD is a “must have” addition to the collection of any serious fan of early blues music. Blues Images sells other cool blues-related stuff, too, like posters, t-shirts, CDs from previous years, and past years’ calendars. You can find it all on the Blues Images website. Tell John that “the Rev sent ya!”

CD Preview: Eric Bibb & JJ Milteau discover Lead Belly’s Gold!

With one foot in the past and his eyes on the horizon, bluesman Eric Bibb is one of the most exciting and innovative artists on the blues scene today. Working with acclaimed French harmonica wizard JJ Milteau, Bibb further fuses blues tradition with a contemporary edge on Lead Belly’s Gold, scheduled for November 6, 2015 release by Stony Plain Records.

Lead Belly’s Gold features eleven live tracks recorded at the legendary Paris jazz club The Sunset, combined with five new studio tracks. Offering both material chosen from the Lead Belly songbook as well as original tunes written by Bibb and Milteau in tribute to the influential bluesman, the pair are backed on Lead Belly’s Gold by guitarist Jerome Browne, bassist Gilles Michel, keyboardist/percussionist Glen Scott, drummer Larry Crockett, and backing singers Big Daddy Wilson and Michael Robinson.

In his day, Lead Belly (born Huddie Ledbetter in 1888 in Louisiana), was known as a “songster,” a musical wanderer who would perform a mix of folk, gospel, blues, and ballads – whatever songs might elicit tips from an appreciative audience. Ledbetter was also a skilled and innovative 12-string guitarist, a role taken on by Browne on the new album. Ledbetter’s ability to take a traditional song and interpret it in a way so as to make it his own is a large part of his legacy, and his artistic influence extends beyond blues music (notably Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee) to folk singers (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan) to rock ‘n’ roll (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, the White Stripes – even Nirvana recorded a Lead Belly song).

Lead Belly’s Gold features several classic tunes from the artist’s milieu, including “Midnight Special,” “Good Night Irene,” and “Rock Island Line,” as well as lesser-known Ledbetter gems like “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” and “The House of the Rising Sun.” One of the more intriguing among the new Bibb/Milteau compositions is “Swimmin’ In A River Of Songs.” Writing in the album’s liner notes, Bibb notes, “It’s hard to remember when I first heard Lead Belly’s music because, somehow, he’s always been around. Most likely, I heard recordings of others (The Weavers and Woody Guthrie) singing songs from his huge repertoire before hearing his actual voice…”

Continuing, Bibb adds, “what I hear now, when I listen to Lead Belly’s recordings and YouTube clips, and what I must have sensed when I was a boy, is the man’s personal power and independence. His sound made it clear that he was his own man. The fatalism and resignation that I heard later in the voices of many of my prewar blues heroes was missing in Lead Belly. He was way ahead of his time. The path he cut through a world that conspired to rob him of his humanity, dignity and manhood was a personal triumph that will inspire for generations to come.”

“Lead Belly was a human jukebox,” says Bibb. “He knew hundreds of songs that he’d either heard somewhere and adapted, or written himself. Jean-Jacques and I chose songs from Lead Belly’s vast repertoire that we could make our own. We wanted to pay homage to not only a great musician, but to the rich tradition he embodied. Staying pretty close to his renditions, we had a lot of fun collaborating on these new arrangements.” Check out the video below for a taste of Lead Belly's Gold!

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Eric Bibb & JJ Milteau's Lead Belly's Gold