“Blind Blake was the most frequently recorded blues guitarist in the Paramount Records’ race catalog…” Uncle Dave Lewis, recording 111 sides between 1926-1932. I love “race records”; especially of the psychedelic late ’20s vintage. You got Blind Blake with his intensely subtle finger-picking, some oddly quivering bowed-saw backed with what I’m guessing is a clarinet played in what sounds like the wrong key when it blends so perfectly with the saw. This is on par with Blind Lemon levels of strangeness; really it is.

C.C. Pill Blues - Blind Blake

And now for one of the least recorded bluesmen of the late ’20s/early 30s, Blind Willie Johnson. Johnson cut about 30 records in three years which is about average with Blind Blake, he just died faster; and on every one of those thirty tracks he exerts the energy of a man possessed at least by God. Willie was pretty much a born bluesman; his mother died early on in his life, then a few years later his dad remarries the woman who a little while later accidentally blinds him (with lye) while engaged in a bout of domestic violence with her husband. Even before he was recorded Johnson was probably vaguely known around east Texas for what were certainly impassioned street-corner sermons. (On a side note: I discovered while finding a picture for this post that like Robert Johnson there appears to be exactly one existing picture of Willie Johnson; spooky stuff.) With only thirty tracks to choose from it took me a considerable portion of the day to pick the one but it is the one; really it is.

Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time - Blind Willie Johnson
(another side note: this is the model for the often titled “Motherless Children”)

Finally we got a straight out boogie from ‘49 by Blind Willie McTell. This was a spur of the moment addition, so there is nothing more for you read.

Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie - Blind Willie McTell