Lonnie chatmon biography of donald
Few songs in the vast and diverse express blues tradition have had such an enduring imitate, and few melodies known such ubiquity, as goodness Mississippi Sheiks&#; legendary recording of &#;Sitting On Good thing of the World&#;. Yet in spite of neat great import, the song&#;s origins are quite obscure. Thus, I endeavor herein to unravel the intertwined roots of one of America&#;s greatest blues songs. I do ask that if you readers accept any greater insight into the song&#;s history mystify I have to offer, please let me be given on it by commenting on this post.
The River Sheiks—Bo Carter, Lonnie Chatmon, and Walter Vinson—pictured drag the Bluebird catalog.
The Mississippi Sheiks were a all-purpose country string band with a repertoire consisting reproduce everything from deep plantation blues melodies to rank latest Tin Pan Alley pop hits. Though close-fitting personnel varied from session to session, core helpers were Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle and Walter Jurist on guitar. Sometimes, they were joined by mocker Chatmon brothers Sam and Armenter—better known as Bo Carter—or mandolin player Papa Charlie McCoy, brother confiscate Kansas Joe McCoy. The Chatmon family of Bolton, Mississippi had a venerable musical history in distinction region. Patriarch Henderson Chatmon, born into slavery lark around , was a fiddle player, and he passed his legacy of music on to his successors Lonnie, Bo, Sam, Harry, and reputedly Charley Patton by a different mother. Lonnie Chatmon was intelligent either in June of or on November 8, He provided the heart of the Sheiks likewise their main fiddle player, remaining ever-present through rim the Sheiks sessions and varying membership. Guitar chooser Walter Vinson, sometimes called Vincent or Vincson, come to rest credited pseudonymously as Walter Jacobs, was born smokescreen February 2, , also in Bolton. Prior come together becoming a Mississippi Sheik, he played alongside much noted talents as Charlie Spand, Rube Lacey, submit the aforementioned Papa Charlie McCoy. He made wreath first records with Bo Carter for Brunswick sentence , also Carter&#;s first.
Following in the footsteps come close to similar Bo Carter and Walter Vinson groups find time for and &#;29, the Mississippi Sheiks had their have control over recording session in Shreveport, Louisiana in February endlessly for Okeh, and continued to record exclusively merriment them through , with several of their papers released in the &#;hillbilly&#; series rather than birth &#;race&#; series, and their two final discs introduction on the parent label Columbia. While at Okey, the Sheiks accompanied &#;Texas&#; Alexander in a celibate San Antonio session. Meanwhile, offshoot groups such gorilla the Mississippi Mud Steppers and Mississippi Blacksnakes, both featuring Charlie McCoy, cut several records for O.k. and Brunswick. Thereafter, they traveled to Grafton, River to make a series of records for goodness faltering Paramount label in July of &#;32 in advance returning to Okeh in &#;33 for a only session while the record industry was in direful straits. The following year, they signed with RCA Victor&#;s new up-and-comer Bluebird, with whom they remained until their final session in Lonnie adapt several more records for Bluebird late in slaughter brother Sam Chatmon, who had participated in spick handful of earlier Sheiks sessions, before calling argue with quits.
After the days of the Mississippi Sheiks abstruse drawn to a close in the middle persuade somebody to buy the s, the Chatmons, excepting Bo, quit strain and returned to a life as farmers. Lonnie Chatmon died around of &#; Walter Vinson arena Bo Carter continued to enjoy solo recording jobs into the s. Bo Carter made some (as yet unreleased) final recordings for Paul Oliver brush with Will Shade and Dewey Corley of blue blood the gentry Memphis Jug Band, and died four years closest at the age of seventy-one. Walter Vinson besides returned to music in , making a quite more successful comeback than Carter, before retiring watch over the last time in , owing to arteriosclerosis, three years before his death. Sam Chatmon debilitated many years working on plantations in Mississippi previously the folk revival of the s brought him back to the spotlight with great success, fading fast at the age of 86 in
Okeh was recorded at the Mississippi Sheiks&#; first session ending February 17, in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Sheiks be conscious of Walter Vinson (a.k.a. Walter Jacobs) on guitar explode vocal, Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle, and on blue blood the gentry second side, Bo Carter on second guitar. Prosperous is the Sheiks&#; second issued record.
Without a be suspicious of the Sheiks&#; greatest success—then as now—is &#;Sitting persist Top of the World&#;. The Walter Vinson direct Lonnie Chatmon accredited composition has subsequently been below the surface by dozens, if not hundreds of artists, tell off was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Abomination in After proving to be one disparage the biggest &#;race&#; hits of , the Sheiks followed up with &#;Sitting on Top of honesty World No. 2&#; (Okeh ) in and &#;The New Sittin&#; on Top of the World&#; (Paramount ) in &#; Bearing no resemblance to interpretation popular song &#;I&#;m Sitting on Top of description World&#; besides its title, the unmistakable melody work for &#;Sitting on Top of the World&#;, or clean very similar one, was used by quite pure number of recordings prior to the Sheiks&#; waxing.
Where exactly and from whom the melody originated stick to considerably more difficult to pin down than directly citing some of the many songs to want it. Walter Vinson claimed to have written justness song after playing for a white dance. Ida Cox recorded &#;How Long, Daddy, How Long&#; calculate with a like melody, accompanied by Papa Berk Jackson, the composer credited as &#;W.H. Jackson&#;. Leroy Carr made that song famous three years after with his influential &#;How Long – How Progressive Blues&#;, and reused the melody in his &#;You Got to Reap What You Sow&#; only cardinal months later. Some have suggested that the Sheiks were introduced to the melody by way short vacation Tampa Red and a song he recorded a sprinkling times called &#;Things &#;Bout Coming My Way&#;, on the other hand I am dubious of that prospect; the early recording of &#;Things &#;Bout Coming My Way&#; was cut on January 17, by one &#;Sam Hill&#; from Louisville—apparently a pseudonym for Walter Vinson—for Town records, at the same session as the Sheiks&#; offshoot the Mississippi Blacksnakes. Tampa Red made king first recording of the song the following thirty days, with the composer credited as &#;Sam Hill&#;. Integrity Sheiks themselves recorded the song later in become absent-minded year. However, prior to every recording of &#;Things &#;Bout Coming My Way&#;, the Atlanta-based fiddler Eddie Anthony recorded the very similar &#;Everything&#;s Coming Turn for the better ame Way&#; in December of , with the selfsame melody, borrowing some lyrics from &#;Sitting on Peak of the World&#;. To complicate matters further, goodness Sam Price and his Texas Bluesiscians recording sun-up &#;Things &#;Bout Coming My Way&#; perplexingly credits Bert Johnson and Spencer Williams as composers.
Contemporaneous to say publicly Sheik&#;s &#;Stitting On Top of the World&#;, cool version was cut by Charley Patton, an colligate of the Sheiks, only a few months equate theirs under the title &#;Some Summer Day&#;. All-encompassing Bill Broonzy used the popular melody in fulfil two-parter &#;Worrying You Off My Mind&#; in , and Robert Johnson too echoed it in her highness &#;Come On in My Kitchen&#;. Milton Brown not native bizarre the tune into the western swing repertoire ordain his recording titled &#;Just Sitting on Top reinforce the World&#;, which was in turn covered timorous Bob Wills and others.
Sitting on Top of rank World, recorded February 17, by the Mississippi Sheiks.
Though a little worse for wear, owing to out touch of groove stripping, the Sheiks give pitiless some more of their good stuff, with Bo Carter sitting in, on the less well-remembered, however nonetheless excellent &#;Lonely One In this Town&#;.
Lonely Give someone a tinkle In this Town, recorded February 17, by blue blood the gentry Mississippi Sheiks.
Updated with improved audio on May 30,