Episode 13 Spotlight Two J. B.s

SPOTLIGHT EPISODE  Two J. B.s:  J. B. Hutto and J. B. Lenoir  

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 Welcome to a new feature addition to Brown Shoes Blues. I am going to begin a blues artist Spotlight show that will recognize two blues artists in a shorter version of my show. The episodes will be shorter than the regular episodes that discuss one artist in depth. 

This episode is about J. B. Hutto and J. B. Lenoir.

 The titles of my releases the songs are taken from in this episode include Blues Bag and Downtown Boogie on my label Big Guitar Music. 

The musicians featured in the tracks on this episode with me on vocals and guitar include “Alabama” Amos Jensen, Bruce Jones, Gene Brandon, and Greg “Fingers” Taylor.

Visit my website for more info  www.omarandthehowlers.com 

Thank you to Matthew Garza (Upwork.com) for his work mastering this podcast.

Transcript

Episode 13 SPOTLIGHT Two J. B.'s 

Omar Dykes: Welcome to a Spotlight episode of Brown Shoes Blues that features two blues artists named J. B. We're gonna feature J. B. Hutto and J. B. Lenoir, who remind me of my sound man for many years that was with Omar and the Howlers named J. B. Burlage. 

Joseph Benjamin Hutto was born in Blackville, South Carolina in 1926. He grew up in Augusta, Georgia, where his father Calvin was a preacher. J. B. formed a gospel group with his three brothers and three sisters called the Golden Crowns and began singing in local churches. After his father's death, he relocated to Chicago in 1949, where he played drums and piano before settling on the guitar, playing with Johnny Ferguson and His Twisters and percussionist, Eddie "Pork Chop" Hines. They added Joe Custom on second guitar and Earring George Mayweather on harmonica and Hutto named the band The Hawks after the wind that blows in Chicago. He became a disciple of Elmore James and the slide guitar. Hutto recorded two singles on Chance Records in 1954 with later recordings on Vanguard, Testament, and Delmark Records in the mid-sixties.

J. B. Hutto taught himself how to play the guitar. Chicago native Ed Williams from Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials learned how to play slide guitar from his uncle J. B. Hutto. Just like his uncle, Lil' Ed had to work a day job in order to support playing music at night. The 1966 release of Chicago Blues Today Volume One on Vanguard Records contains five tracks each by Junior Wells, J. B. Hutto, and Otis Spann. J. B. Hutto's tracks include "Going Ahead," "Please Help," "Too Much Alcohol," "Married Woman Blues," and "That's the Truth." Along with J. B. Hutto, the players were Herman Hassel on the bass rhythm guitar and former Bo Diddley band member Frank Kirkland on drums. This release is credited with five-star reviews, and all five songs became classic standards of Chicago Electric Blues. Volume One with Hutto is great, and the other volumes are just as good. All volumes are some of the best Chicago Blues you'll ever hear.

In the late fifties, Hutto gave up performing after a woman broke his guitar over her husband's head one night in a club where he was playing. For the next 11 years he worked as a janitor in a funeral home as the source for his income. The woman may not have succeeded in killing her husband, but she did kill J. B.'s career for 11 years.

He returned to the music industry in the mid-sixties with a new version of the Hawks. The 1968 Delmark album Hawk Squat, which features Sunnyland Slim on organ and piano, Lee Jackson on guitar, and Maurice McIntyre on tenor saxophone is regarded as Hutto's best album up to this point. After Hound Dog Taylor died in 1975, Hutto briefly took over Taylor's band, the House Rockers. In the late 1970s, he moved to Boston and recruited a new band, the New Hawks, with whom he recorded studio albums for the Varrick label. His 1983 Varrick album, Slippin' and Slidin' the last of his career and later issued on CD as Rock with Me Tonight, has been described as nearly perfect.

I was fortunate enough to get to play two nights with Hutto in the late seventies at a club in Austin called AJ's Midtown on Guadalupe Street that later became Antone's Blues Club, and then the next night at Fitzgerald's in Houston. The morning after we played in Houston, I ate breakfast with J. B., and we talked about Hound Dog Taylor. J. B. said that he and Hound Dog Taylor both liked pawn shop cheap guitars, and that was part of the secret to their slide sound. I told Hutto one of the first songs Omar and the Howlers performed was his original song, "Too Late" and the audiences always loved it.

The red plastic Airline guitar made by National Guitars and sold at Montgomery Ward was referred to as the J. B. Hutto model because of his use of the guitar. That is the guitar he played when I played with him at the AJ's Midtown and at Fitzgerald's. Talking about that guitar is what prompted the discussion about Hound Dog Taylor and the cheap pawn shop guitar slide sound. The same model of guitar was also used by Jack White and The White Stripes, a Detroit based garage duo formed in 1997 with Meg White.

In the early eighties, I was in New York City with Omar and the Howlers, and I went to see J. B. Hutto and the New Hawks perform a show at Tramps Blues Club. I knew "Shake Rattle and Roll" was one of Hutto's favorite songs. Big Joe Turner's version of the song was recorded in 1954 and was a huge hit. Big Joe Turner was in the audience, and after the band took a break, J. B. and the band played the song with Big Joe Turner taking the vocals. J. B. Hutto was playing guitar and grinning from ear to ear.

J. B. Hutto with several variations of the Hawks and the New Hawks, recorded and toured extensively in clubs, festivals, and universities from 1949 in America and Europe until his death in 1983. Some of the important festivals that he performed include the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, the Wisconsin and Washington Blues Festivals, and the Montreux Blues Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. J. B. Hutto died of cancer in 1983 and was laid to rest in the Restvale Cemetery in Worth, Illinois. Some awards given to J. B. Hutto are the induction into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1985, and the Downbeat Magazine International Critics Award in the pop, rock and blues category. 

Here's a song that has me playing slide guitar similar to J. B. Hutto's style. The song is called "Blues in a Bottle" from my release Blues Bag.

J. B. Lenoir was born in Monticello, Mississippi. His full given name was simply J. B. Lenoir. Both of J. B.'s parents were farmers and musicians. His father taught him to play the guitar at the age of eight. J. B. Lenoir's guitar-playing father introduced him to the music of Blind Lemon Jefferson who became a major influence on J. B. In my late teens, I went to Monticello looking for Lenoir, and all I found was an elderly couple who told me he had moved to Chicago years earlier and he was already deceased. 

During the early 1940s, Lenoir worked with the blues artist, Sonny Boy Williamson II, which is Rice Miller and Elmore James in New Orleans. He probably picked up his solid boogie woogie influence in New Orleans where he spent some time performing before he settled in Chicago's blues scene during the fifties and sixties. Once Lenoir made it to Chicago, Big Bill Broonzy introduced J. B. to the Chicago Blues community, and while there, J. B. was able to play with Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, and Big Maceo. He also played with Big Bill Broonzy at Sylvio's in Chicago, and soon formed the band, J. B. and His Bayou Boys. He was later influenced by Arthur Crudup and Lightnin' Hopkins.

J. B. Lenoir was known for his high pitch vocals and jazzy guitar style. Lenoir had one of the most distinct voices in blues, and on his recordings, the musicians gave him minimal accompaniment which complimented what the songs needed perfectly. He was certainly one of the most original sounding of the blues singers. His songs often address social issues like discrimination, and the Vietnam War, and this made him a unique voice in the Blues. Lenoir's first single recording was in 1951 on Chess Records entitled "Korea Blues." Lenoir's song, "Eisenhower Blues," a critical commentary on the then President was initially released in Europe before being rerecorded as "Tax Paying Blues" for the US market due to its controversial nature. Other notable songs by J. B. Lenoir include "Let's Roll," "The Mojo," "Don't Dog Your Woman," and "Don't Touch My Head."

Lenoir was also known for his flashy stage attire, including custon-made brightly colored tuxedo tails, and zebra or leopard skin pattern coats. He gained recognition in the Chicago Blues scene recording for labels like Parrot, Chess, and Vee Jay, and later for USA Records under the name J. B. Lenoir and His African Hunch Rhythm that was named for his interest in African percussion.

His most endearing hit "Mama Talk to Your Daughter" was recorded in 1954 for the Parrot label. This song was recorded by Magic Slim, Johnny Winter, and many others becoming a staple of Chicago Blues. I accidentally discovered J. B. Lenoir on a 45 record I bought in the surprise grab boxes I bought in McComb. The 45 had a song called "Dim Lights" on one side, and the other side was a song called "Pet Cream Man."

While working in a university kitchen, Lenoir met Willie Dixon. They became friends and soon got together at Lenoir's house to record 11 songs to be used as a demo tape to promote J. B.'s music abroad. Dixon produced Lenoir's LPs Alabama Blues in 1965 and Down in Mississippi in 1966 that both expressed social concerns about civil rights and free speech. 

Lenoir was married and had three children whose given names were all only initials. J. B. Lenoir died in 1967 at the age of 38 from complications following a car accident. J. B. Lenoir was buried in the Salem Church Cemetery in Monticello, Mississippi. John Mayall gave tribute to J. B. Lenoir with two songs "I'm Going to Fight for You, J. B." and "Death of J. B. Lenoir."

This is my version of a song J. B. Lenoir wrote and recorded in 1953 called "Mojo Boogie." 

Congratulations to John in Illinois for receiving a T-shirt for his generous monthly support of this podcast and for being a long-time loyal fan.

Thank you for joining me on the Spotlight episode of Brown Shoes Blues. Don't miss the Happy Birthday episodes and in-depth Blues Masters episodes each month. I appreciate your kind and continued support of this program.