Mrs Johnson`s Blues

Mary Johnson is one of the less well-known blues singers of the `20s and `30s, in part because she is overshadowed by the relative fame of her husband, Lonnie Johnson.

As is often the case with blues artists of this era, the little information we have is often confused and contradictory.

Most online sources that I have found give her maiden name as Mary Smith and state that she began performing live as a youngster. However, James Sallis in his book The Guitar Players devotes a chapter to her husband and gives a slightly different account of Mary`s life in passing. He  gives her maiden name as Mary Williams and her place of origin as Yazoo City, Mississipi. He further states, from her own account,  that she got her start helping Lonnie write his own songs and that the two of them then realised that she had a natural aptitude for jazz and blues songwriting. It seems that Lonnie suggested she pursue her own career, and she began to build something of a following in St Louis as well as recording 20 - 30 songs. All sources agree that her recording career began during the seven years she and Lonnie were married.

The two parted company in 1932. As the hungry thirties got under way, Lonnie found work outside the music business but continued to perform as an amateur musician. On his return to recording (1937 if I recall correctly), he drew on a number of previously unrecorded originals, including, perhaps poignantly, She`s My Mary, which appears (to me at least) to be a song written for Mary when the two were together, with just minor amendments  to reflect the fact that they were now apart. Some have speculated that other tunes from this session, notably Trust Your Man, might also relate to their time together. By the same token, Mary`s own Mary Johnson Blues does seem to cast a rather acerbic look back at their marriage.

Mary continued to record for a few years after their divorce, but eventually left the world of jazz and blues due to her increasing involvement with the church. This is probably a good moment to mention that she`s a different person to the soul/gospel Mary Johnson, her jazz and blues recordings of the `20s and `30s are the only tunes she recorded.

Fortunately, those nice people at redhotjazz have assembled a selection of Mary`s recordings for our delight and delectation. I like to think that one day we`ll have access to all her work, including the two unreleased tracks. 

For a chance to hear perform, click this link ;

www.redhotjazz.com/maryjohnson.html

Additional comment on her recorded output may be a tad redundant, but for what it`s worth, I`d have to say that my initial impression is that she recorded a fine body of work in her handful of recording sessions. Just occasionally, maybe the odd track shows her lack of experience but overall, her stuff holds up well, in part due to the high standard of the  musicians she worked with. Personally, Death Cell Blues, Delmar Avenue, I Just Can`t Take It and Three Months Ago Blues come to mind as being tracks I particularly liked, but I was less keen on Barrel House Flat Blues and one other where I felt her vocal style was poorly judged.

James Sallis drew on The Devil`s Music by Giles Oakley and a 1962 Paul Oliver interview with Mary for his account of her life. He gives no source for the interview. His account of Lonnie`s career and background (from The Guitar Players) can be found at www.jamessallis.com .

Also useful is Jeff (no surname) - Mary Johnson : An Appreciation, which can be found at
http://sundayblues.org/archives/47 . His choice of quotes from her songs tend to make her sound like a sexually promiscuous serial killer,  but still he`s worth reading !

I`m a bit of a sentimental old softie at heart and I like to think that maybe now Mary will get some of the recognition she so patently deserves. If you like to unwind at the end of the day with a drink and some music,  click on to redhotjazz sometime and drink a toast to Mary !

Happy Trails : A Cowboy from the Midlands

It`s a funny old world.


Only a short time ago, I penned a short article for this blog (The Cowboy and the Detective, 14 January 2011) based in part on information supplied to me by writer Chap O`Keefe (Keith Chapman), who in days gone by  had worked on the staff of the Sexton Blake Library and eventually became editor of the Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine.


Mr O`Keefe/Chapman now writes titles for Hale`s  Black Horse Westerns series and runs the Black Horse Extra website.


Here we are less than three months later and we have just added to our stock three signed books by another Black Horse writer, B J Holmes (aka Ethan Wall aka Charles Langley Hayes).

Mr Holmes/Wall/Hayes is an interesting character.

The son of a  Midlands factory worker he initially followed in his father`s footsteps, but then decided to first return to education and from there went into teaching.

His earliest attempt at writing, never completed, was a short piece from the 1950s describing  a young working class man from the Midlands getting dressed in his teddy-boy gear prior to going out for a night on the town. Of course, it was a description of Holnes himself, seen through the eyes of an outsider. Youthful self-doubt seems to have kicked in ( "Who`d want to know about a working class teenager in the English Midlands of the 1950s ?" he apparently asked himself ) and his writing ambitions lay dormant for twenty years.

At some point in the `70s he tried his hand at writing a text-book - apparently with little success - and decided to try writing a western, a genre he was completely unfamiliar with, more or less on a whim. Cutting a long story short (so to speak), he has now written over 30 Black Horse Westerns and a number of short stories in various genres (crime, horror, science fiction). Interestingly, one of his books (North of the Bravo) began life as an unpublished work of historical fiction and was only later adapted to a western setting. Among his other talents he has had some success writing guides to solving crosswords.

Anyway, that`s enough of that.  The background info on My Holmes here comes from http://website.lineone.net/~adam_and_lynne  , which is co-owened by another Black Horse writer, Adam Wright. Also useful is http://www.blackhorsewesterns.com/ .

To visit our store, use the Buy Books links provided. In the meantime, here are samples of his signatures, in case they are of interest.

Arundel Books of Nottinghamshire

I never hesitate to use this blog to plug a few books from our own stock, so I suppose it`s only fair if I give someone else a plug now and then.


Following on from the local success of his books Narrow Marsh and The Chilwell Ghost, local man A R Dance has produced another book, Leen Times. The sequel to Narrow Marsh, Leen Times is set in Nottingham during the period 1820 -  1830,  described as "an era of brutal and uncompromising change, and of fierce political upheaval". The author promises a "fast-moving story of retribution, radical politics and criminal conspiracies".


You will find my verdict on it`s predecessor among the book reviews on this blog.

For more info on Mr Dance`s works,  visit http://www.arundelbooks.co.uk/ .

Save Bentham Library - Walk from Bentham to Settle - 7 May 2011

Details from http://benthamlibrary.blogspot.com and/or http://ny-libraries.org .

George Eliot and the Silas Marner Anniversary

One of the best things about life as a bookseller is the opportunity it provides for coming into contact with interesting people and learning of their actvities.

In 2009 we heard from musician Joe Jorgensen who had recently finished a book on Bob Marley, and also heard from  Ross Bradshaw of Nottingham-based independent publisher Five Leaves (though in fact I already knew him) about his bookish tendencies.

In 2010 we heard from poet and academic N S Thompson about his book Letter to Auden and some readings he was giving.

Earlier this year we heard from journalist and author Keith Chapman, formerly of the Sexton Blake Library and Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine, about his past dealings with Walter Tyrer and his current involvement with the Black Horse Westerns series.

Today, I was lucky enough to hear from John Burton, chair of the George Eliot Fellowship concerning his organisation`s plans for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Silas Marner this year.

They are planning a series of events and actvities throughout the year,  including a George Eliot Weekend (21/22 May), a series of walks (June - Sept), a play (November), a Silas Marner Festival/Annual Lecture (October), a birthday luncheon (November) and more. These events seem to be centred around the Nuneaton/Bedworth/Bulkington area. Ask them nicely and they`ll e-mail a copy of their newsletter to you.

For anyone wanting more information,  the group`s website is at http://www.george-eliot-fellowship.com/ . 

Brinsley Headstocks Revisited Again

Brinsley Headstocks is the name given to the set of restored 1875 tandem headstocks on the site of the former Brinsley Colliery.

The site is now a very attractive nature area. It also has it`s own special claim to fame in that D H Lawrence`s uncle Jim died in a rockfall there, an incident referred to by Lawrence in The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd and An Odour of Chrysanthemums.

These are my most recent attempts to capture the wonderfulness of the headstocks. I do not know much about photography. Shutter speeds and all the other stuff are a complete mystery to me. On the other hand, I do have a cheap Argos camera and plenty of enthusiasm !

I`ll admit to being quite proud of these pictures, but there`s only so much here I can take credit for. When I took the first two the sun was dazzling me, so I had no real idea how they`d turn out !

My approach to local history is similar. Others may favour a more methodical approach, but I often just pick up stray facts haphazardly as I go along. 

This can lead to odd gaps in my knowledge. Here are a couple of questions relating to the Brinsley site that I`ve sometimes wondered about.

I understand that D H Lawrence`s Aunt Polly lived in a white cottage very close to the old colliery. I have always understood this to be a quite large white building, currently unoccupied, adjacent to the path leading from the car park to the site itself. This puzzles me a little, as I would have thought the building in question would have been rather grand for a family of miners from the Eastwood/Brinsley area. Maybe someone can cast light on this ?

I`ve also wondered whether Polly was the wife/widow of the ill-fated Jim, or a different Aunt altogether ? No doubt someone will know.

Long Eaton Library Revisited

Following on from my earlier posting on the subject, we return to the story of my bookish ancestor, Arthur Hooper.

Arthur, it turns out was my great-grandfather on my mother`s side of the family. He was apprenticed in the boot and shoe trade (manufacturing ? repair ? the details are unclear) in his native Worcester but moved to Long Eaton to set up his own business as a cobbler.

In that time and place, people were reluctant to throw away a good pair of boots if they could be repaired, and business prospered. Arthur became friendly with a number of local councillors and other civic-minded individuals, including his good friend Samuel Clegg. Arthur was to credit Samuel as the driving force behind the introduction of a free library in Long Eaton.

Here are a couple of  pictures of the library that I took on a recent visit to see my great-grandfather`s papers.  The frontage of the building is something of a photographer magnet, so you may like to look at the many images there are on the web.  Some are older and show a slightly different appearance.

I now have the text of two talks gven by my great-grandfather on the movement for free public libraries. Hopefully, I`ll be posting something about these in the not too distant future.  In the meantime, here`s a picture of the inside of the library as it appeared in my great-grandfather`s day.

More articles on libraries and library-related matters appear elsewhere on this blog and on http://angpav.blogspot.com/ , though you may have to search about a bit. Hopefully, I`ll be returning to the subject fairly soon.