Joe Hill Louis, one man band of the blues
Hello friends, Samm Bennett here. While gathering photos for my One Man Band Vintage Photos Gallery, I learned about
Joe Hill Louis. One man bands who are genuine blues musicians are relatively rare, so I was intrigued. Joe Hill Louis was recorded by the legendary Sam Phillips of Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Here are some videos various folks have uploaded to YouTube, for your listening pleasure. Electric blues doesn't come much rawer and rougher than some of Joe Hill's stuff. Here it is in all its ragged glory... |
"When I Am Gone" (AKA "She Treats Me Mean and Evil") is probably my favorite Joe Hill recording. Love the asymmetrical guitar breaks, the utterly raw room sound of the recording, and the vocal, wow, is just full-on blues belting at its best. The hypnotically insistent quarter note pulse of Joe's kick drum works perfectly for this tune, as well.
Joe's "Back Slide Boogie" is a chugging instrumental that features his harmonica playing
|
"Gotta Let You Go": just a bare bones rhythm guitar riff and a spirited spoken vocal is ALL YOU NEED! Fabulous stuff from the deepest reaches of that legendary Memphis of the Mind. I discovered Joe Hill Louis and this song only a couple of weeks after writing a tune of my own with the exact same title (I'm a
big fan of and frequent user of "gotta" and "gonna" in my songs). Didn't know the title had been taken, but... yup, Joe Hill got there first. Oh well! "Boogie In the Park": wow, this one is raw, too, with a
capital R. Serious folk music, if you know what I mean. Rockin' blues/boogie just the way it ought be, no messin' around. This is, I believe my personal favorite Joe Hill Louis harp performance. And his rhythm here has an infectiously jaunty
feel to it. |
Some Joe Hill Louis links:
Here's the Joe Hill Louis Wikipedia page
This review of a CD release called Boogie In the Park contains some biographical material
Here's a Houndblog article on Joe with some good info and photos
A little more info here in a short article from Roctober.com
Here's the Joe Hill Louis Wikipedia page
This review of a CD release called Boogie In the Park contains some biographical material
Here's a Houndblog article on Joe with some good info and photos
A little more info here in a short article from Roctober.com
This rare headshot of Joe Hill shows his harmonica rack with mic attached.
Below: Here's Louis with a tap dancer (with his tap shoes OFF!) Special thanks to blues harp maestro Bob Corritore for hipping me to this photo!
Above are CD jackets from a release called "King of the One Man Bands".