Blues singers have been among the most interviewed of any group of tradition-based professional performers. At least since John A. and Alan Lomax’s Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Lead Belly (1936), the oral histories of blues singers have been recorded and transcribed for publication. Paul Oliver’s Conversation with the Blues (1966) was a milestone, and the many transcribed interviews in the pages of Blues Unlimited, Living Blues, and other such magazines have assured that the voice of the blues singer is well documented. These interviews have not always gone well, partly because of the differing agendas of the blues singers and their interviewers. Probably the classic example is John A. Lomax’s interview with Willie McTell in 1940: McTell was intent on outlining his professional career, while Lomax was interested in protest songs—the result was a disaster.
Whether done poorly or well, however, these transcribed interviews represent decades of interaction between performer and researcher that is almost as interesting as the life histories and other information revealed by the singers. Steve Cushing’s book is the latest contribution to this body of work, but unlike previous efforts, it is based on broadcast radio interviews. Beginning in 1980, Cushing’s radio show Blues Before Sunrise was a local Chicago program on WBEZ. Besides playing mostly pre-World War II commercial blues, Cushing recorded interviews with blues singers, as well as those in the blues recording industry, and played the interviews on his show. It is a selection of these interviews that Cushing has transcribed and edited for this publication.
If the McTell-Lomax interview is at the low end of the scale, Cushing’s are certainly at the upper end. His questions are brief and act primarily as memory-joggers, and his deep knowledge of pre- and post-war blues allows him to zero in on topics that are of concern as much to his interviewees as to himself. In general, he gives his interviewees free range to digress and expand, and one of the results of this method is that Cushing remains relatively unobtrusive. Of course, these transcriptions are edited for print, but the editing appears to be done with a light touch, and does not interfere with the interviewees’ roles as performers of their own stories.
The twelve interviews in this book run from early performers of the blues, such as Yank Rachell and Alberta Hunter, to the younger post-war generation, such as Little Hudson and Tommy Brown; and from prolific recording artists, such as Jody Williams, to obscure itinerants, such as R. T. “Grey Ghost” Williams, who never recorded commercially. Besides nine interviews with singers, Cushing includes record-producer Ralph Bass (the only non-African American interviewee), club-owner Narvel “Cadillac Baby” Eatmon, and radio host “Open the Door” Richard Stamz. Cushing conducted his interviews between 1982 and 2003.
Some of the transcriptions approach stream-of-consciousness in the way the speakers launch off a question and free associate, which is a refreshing change from transcriptions from other sources that are more structured or focused. Once again, it is to Cushing’s credit that he allowed his interviewees this freedom. The result is a wealth of information on, among other things, the interrelationships among groups of performers (e.g., John and Grace Brim remembering Jimmy Reed), street serenading (e.g., Rev. Johnny Williams remembering the scene on Chicago’s Maxwell Street), song-stealing (as related by several singers), the recording business in general (especially Ralph Bass’s stories), the economics of running a club (Cadillac Baby), and the realities of payola (Richard Stamz).
Cushing is as knowledgeable, in his way, as those he interviewed, and there is an implicit expectation that the reader will come to these interviews with an appropriate background in blues history. There is no added information or annotation on the names of performers, record labels, locations, and other details discussed in these interviews—other than a basic book index—so that a reader unversed in the blues will sometimes miss the significance of references, allusions, and connections made in Cushing’s questions or the speakers’ answers. Cushing does give short introductions to each interview, which are helpful as far as they go.
In an afterword, Cushing gives a brief history of his program. It is especially noteworthy that when his show was a local Chicago program, he was able to rely on information supplied directly by members of the African American community who knew blues singers or had information on the music scene in Chicago. In 1996, when his show was syndicated for national distribution, Cushing lost the intimacy that he had built with his local listenership. It was this intimacy in the first fifteen years of the show that allowed Cushing to produce this book, and we should be thankful for that.
WORKS CITED
Lomax, John A., and Alan Lomax, eds. Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Lead Belly. New York: Macmillan, 1936.
McTell, Blind Willie. Blind Willie McTell: 1940 [12 in. 33 1/3 rpm. microgroove sound recording]. n.pl.: Melodeon MLP 7323, 1966.
Oliver, Paul, comp. Conversation with the Blues. London: Cassell, 1966.
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[Review length: 828 words • Review posted on January 26, 2011]