Blind Blake's Guitar and the Search for Roots in the Capuchon Notes

As the clink of my glass filled with a splendid Capuchon white wine blend resonates, I, Harriet West-Moore, unravel the intricate tapestry of American blues through the life of the enigmatic Blind Blake. Imagine the vibrant strings of a guitar weaving the story of a man whose beginnings are as shrouded in mystery as the Gullah Geechee culture that his tunes hint at. Our journey is not just about the melodies that shaped a genre but also a soul-searching quest into my heritage, with DNA testing offering a surprising connection to the rich tapestry of the past.

This session is a solo venture into the heart of the Piedmont blues, where the haunting influence of West African heritage in the coastal lowlands of the Carolinas and Georgia comes alive in each chord. Blind Blake, the king of this style, serves as our muse, guiding us through a time when records were scarce, and stories were told in rhythm. No guest accompanies us this week, but the rhythms and tales of Blind Blake's time are all the company we need to engage in a profound dialogue with the roots of American music. So, refill your glass and tune in for an experience where history harmonizes with the present in the key of blues.

Intro/outro music by Soundtripe music

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

music, music, music music. Hey everyone, welcome to the More Wine and Music podcast, the podcast where we discuss early music history of American music over a glass of wine. I want to welcome everybody. I am Harriet Westmore, your podcast host. I'm hoping everyone had a pretty good weekend so far. My weekend has been very busy for the last two days, so but it's all good. It's all good. I'm here and I'm raring to go. Before I get into this week's episode, I want everybody to subscribe and hit that like and hit that share button and go on to wwwmorewineandmusiccom where you can become a subscriber. And if you're interested in becoming a guest on the show to discuss some of your expertise on any early artists of American music, you can go on to the website, hit that appointment icon and set up an appointment and I will get in touch with you, all right? So before we get started, I want to.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Part of this podcast is wine and music, so I'm going to tell you what I'm drinking today. It is called Capuchon I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right, but what it is is a white wine blend, so it's not that sweet, but it's not dry either. So so that's that's my choice of wine this week. All right, this episode I'm going to be talking about the blue singer, blind Blake. Blind Blake was known as the king of the East Coast Piedmont blues, which is another style of blues that was very popular in the early 20s and 30s. All right of when he was born, but it looks like he was born in the year of 1896. He was known as an American blues and rectines singer and guitarist. His birthplace was listed as Jacksonville, florida, and really, as with a lot of the early blues artists, little is pretty much known. No record was really kept about a lot of these artists' early life. So, and Blime Blake is no exception. Again, you know he said there was some documentation that says that he was either born in Jacksonville, florida, or around Newport News. So I mean, that's kind of a stretch. So it's not. You know, jacksonville Florida is not close to Newport News, virginia, so I don't know. But and they say that there was, his source was, his name was Arthur Phelps, which you know. Again, nobody knows. Again, the records good records wasn't kept in the early days. According to Paramount Records, some of the records material that was, who actually recorded some of Blime Blake's records indicate that he was born blind and and it seems that he lived in various places during the period that he was young. He seemed to have had relatives in Patterson, georgia.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Some authors have written that in one recording he slipped into Gullah Gici, which indicates that he has some Gici, which means that he was, which is a dialect that was is very well indoctrinated in the southern the coast of Carolinas and into Georgia. So if you go to somewhere like Sidenote, if you go somewhere like around Myrtle Beach, all around Hilton Head, some of the outlines of Hilton Head, you go into the lowlands of South Carolina and into Georgia. That is a community that's called the Gullah Gici, which was really known as came from West Africa slaves that was inhabited there after they were brought from Africa, west Africa. What's so interesting about those slaves? They were able to stay close to their actual culture, whereas the rest of the slaves that were brought over here they lost their dialect, they lost their culture. But the Galagici people from Western part of Africa they were, who settled in those lowlands down there in South Carolina and into Georgia. They were able to keep intact their actual culture, their speech, their clothing, all the customs that was in their homeland, west Africa. They was able to maintain that. That's why there's a certain dialect. If you live in that area, if you go visit, it's a certain dialect that they have. They talk fast and they talk into it in a different dialect that you can't understand. That's called Galagici. Now I'm doing side notes here. I did a DNA because I wanted to trace some of my heritage On my mom's side. I remember some of the DNA that I saw, some of the that I may have some Galagici history in my family, because some of the Africa that I saw on the map, according to my DNA, was from Western part of Africa. But that's basically what Gullah or Gici dialect is. Let's see.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Blind Blake is a figure of enormous importance in American music. Not only was he one of the greatest blues artists of all time, but Blake seemed to have been the primary developer of finger style rack time on the guitar, the sixth string equivalent to playing rack time on the piano. So it seems like Blind Blake developed that style playing guitar. Blake mastered this form so completely that few, if any, guitar artists who have learned to play in this style wasn't able to play it. Blind Blake was the only one that was able. He was so good in playing that type of style.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Blind Blake was most frequently recorded in the Paramount Records race catalog. Paramount waxed him as often as they could as he was one of their best-selling artists, one with some lies, given Blind Blake's importance, celebrity status, popularity and sizable recorded output that he would know something about. There would be a lot more information about this man, but after more than five decades of searching on experts on behalf of Blind Blake, it still is little known about his life early life, again, typical of the early blues artists who just didn't know anything about them until they became famous and start recording their songs. At one point a theory was advanced that Blind Blake's true name again was Arthur Phelps, and it was under the name Blake in Sheldon Harris's blues who's who. Like I said, he was known briefly to have lived in or born in either Jacksonville Florida. I seem like that's some more of the theme that he was in. Jacksonville Florida is where he was born, so I'm going to assume that's probably where he was from. Let's see as far as his career. He made his first early recordings in 1926. And his records sold very well. His first solo record was early morning blues with West Coast blues on the B side of the record. Both are considered excellent examples of his ragtime based guitar style and were prototypes for the burgeoning Pete Montblues Okay, he made his last recordings in 1932.

Speaker 1: 11:33

At the end of his career, aided by paramounts, evidently paramount records went bankrupt In 1932, after that he kind of drifted back to Jacksonville and lived there a few more years and there he met and married Beatrice McGee, but this was around 31. In 1931, he met and married Beatrice McGee, just before, like I said, he went after he made his last record in 32. He went back to Jacksonville. That's where he became married. But then I guess he went back up to the north and went to Chicago and he did some playing there and in 1934, it says that he died there, but then it says he died in Milwaukee. So again, everything is so contradictory you really don't know. His death was either a pulmonary tuberculosis Brought on by pneumonia. Some said he froze to death. I mean he started drinking and fell Um. He became sick, had pneumonia and ultimately died. On December 1st of 1934. Beatrice Blake summoned an ambulance and he suffered a pulmonary hemorrhage and died on the way to the hospital. As I said, his cause of death was listed as a pulmonary tuberculosis and he was buried in Glen Oak Cemetery in Glendale, wisconsin, in a previously unmarked grave. But now I guess now it is marked and he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1990.

Speaker 1: 14:28

This was a difficult and inconsistent biography this week because again he disappeared for a while. His records are not chronological or consistent. The information that I found was inconsistent. There was a lot of inconsistencies. I mean he could have been here, he could have been born there, he could have recorded up here up in Chicago, or he went to Wisconsin. I mean there's a lot of inconsistency, but the main theme was about him. The most famous thing about him is that he discovered the East Coast peed Mont Blues and his ability to his finger playing was equivalent to a rack time of playing the piano and he was able to perfect that on a six string guitar. I mean they said he had one of the best playing of that type of music around.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So that is blind Blake, not too much. It's one of those he's known, but then he's not known. You know what I mean. It's one of those artists that you have to mention him because he has made an effect on the Blues genre, but again, his story is very limited. Okay, so blind Blake. That was it for this week. Next week I'm going to do another female Blues early Blues artists and this one would be about Ida Cox. So again, if you have any suggestions of any other Blues artists that you would like me to talk about, go to wwwmoorwineandmusiccom, leave your comments and your suggestions. If you are a music junkie or music historian, you would like to be a guest on the show, again, go to wwwmoorwineandmusiccom, hit the appointment tab, sign up and I will get back with you and then we can collaborate and schedule a time for a show. That's it. So you guys stay safe and I will talk to you next week, episode 7 on Ida Cox. Okay, bye.