Annotation:Milwaukee Blues: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:50, 25 March 2019

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MILWAUKEE BLUES. American, Country Blues Tune/Song (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part.

Odell Smith, fiddle, with the Carolina Buddies, a group that also included Norman Woodlieff (seated), a North Carolina Ramblers alumnae.

"Milwaukee Blues" was recorded in September, 1930, by Charlie Poole (1892-1931) and the North Carolina Ramblers at Poole's last session. The group had undergone some personnel changes since they started recording in 1925. The fiddler at the time of the recording was Odell Smith (1908-1959), a mill worker who quit his job to record and perform with Poole. After Poole died, Smith went on to play with the Carolina Buddies, then broadcast over WMFR. In the mid-1930's he partnered with guitarist Clifton Kinny "Cliff" Clinard (1915-2001) in bands with a few iterations, particularly as the Rhythm Buddies. Clinard left for service during World War II and Smith found work as a sheet metal worker, but continued to play for dances.

The Rambler's recording was released in 1931, followed soon thereafter by another version by Ramblers guitarist Roy Harvey (with Jess Johnson on vocals), under the pseudonym 'John Martin'. Whether Poole or Harvey wrote "Milwaukee Blues" is open to question. Norm Cohen ^[1] points out that Harvey worked on the railroads for most of his life (he was the youngest engineer on the Virginian Railway, at age 22) and brought several railroad songs to the Ramblers, including "Bill Mason" and "The Wreck of the Virginian Number Three." Poole himself was no stranger to railroads and lived a peripatetic lifestyle, and could have picked up the basics of "Milwaukee Blues" in his travels. Cohen believes the song derives from a 'tangle' of songs that deals with hoboes and wanderers; he writes:

Charlie Poole, Jr., stated his father wrote "Milwaukee Blues" and among Poole's scrapbooks was a sheet of song titles including "Milwaukee Blues", with the notation "by C.P." In one sense, then, it probably was "his" song, although he was not its author, as modern readers understand the term. More to the point, the title "Milwaukee Blues" is pencilled in alongside a crossed-out title, "Hobo Jones," which more firmly identifies the piece with its true relatives.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : -

Recorded sources: - County Records CO 3516, "The Legend of Charlie Poole" (1998). Document Records DOCD-8052, "Roy Harvey vol. 3: 1929-1930."

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [ ]
Hear Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers 1930 recording at Slippery Hill [1] and at youtube.com [ ]
See/hear the piece played by the Carolina Chocolate Drops on youtube.com [2]
Hear Roy Harvey's 1931 recording on youtube.com [3] and at Slippery Hill [4]

Back to Milwaukee Blues

↑ Norm Cohen, Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Song', 1981, pp. 387-388.

[1] Norm Cohen, Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Song', 1981, pp. 387-388.

[1]

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-The Rambler's recording was released in 1931, followed soon thereafter by a version by Ramblers guitarist Roy Harvey (with Jess Johnson on vocals), under the pseudonym 'John Martin'.  Whether Poole or Harvey wrote "Milwaukee Blues" is open to question. Norm Cohen <ref> </ref> points out that Harvey worked on the railroads for most of his life (he was the youngest engineer on the Virginian Railway, at age 22) and brought several railroad songs to the Ramblers, including "Bill Mason" and "The Wreck of the Virginian Number Three." Poole himself was no stranger to railroads and lived a peripatetic lifestyle, and could have picked up the basics of "Milwaukee Blues" in his travels. Cohen believes the song derives from a 'tangle' of songs that deals with hoboes and wanderers; he writes:
+The Rambler's recording was released in 1931, followed soon thereafter by another version by Ramblers guitarist Roy Harvey (with Jess Johnson on vocals), under the pseudonym 'John Martin'.  Whether Poole or Harvey wrote "Milwaukee Blues" is open to question. Norm Cohen <ref>Norm Cohen, ''Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Song''', 1981, pp. 387-388. </ref> points out that Harvey worked on the railroads for most of his life (he was the youngest engineer on the Virginian Railway, at age 22) and brought several railroad songs to the Ramblers, including "Bill Mason" and "The Wreck of the Virginian Number Three." Poole himself was no stranger to railroads and lived a peripatetic lifestyle, and could have picked up the basics of "Milwaukee Blues" in his travels. Cohen believes the song derives from a 'tangle' of songs that deals with hoboes and wanderers; he writes:
 <blockquote>
 ''Charlie Poole, Jr., stated his father wrote "Milwaukee Blues" and among Poole's scrapbooks was a sheet of song titles including "Milwaukee''