I was a fan of Art Rosenbaum’s recordings without actually knowing much about him. Among my favorite records of the 1960’s are a pair on the Bluesville label; Scrapper Blackwell’s Mr. Scrapper’s Blues and Shirley Griffith’s Saturday Blues. Rosenbaum, like his contemporaries who went into the field, men such as George Mitchell, Pete Lowry, David Evans, Sam Charters, Pete Welding, mostly stayed in the background. It wasn’t until recently when a couple of recent well praised reissues put him in the spotlight. Those included two 4-CD box sets on the Dust-To-Digital label, the Art Of Field Recording I & II. The first volume won a Grammy for 2008 Best Historical Album. While Rosenbaum recorded a wide variety of roots music, our focus today will be on his blues recordings. In addition we talk to Art near the end of the first hour.
Art Rosenbaum is a painter, muralist, and illustrator, as well as a collector and performer of traditional American folk music. His folk music field work in the South and Midwest has resulted in over 14 recordings, several of which are on Smithsonian-Folkways; he wrote and illustrated two books, Folk Visions and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in North Georgia(1983), and Shout Because You’re Free: The African American Ring Shout Tradition on the Coast of Georgia (1998). A performer on a variety of folk instruments, he has appeared at numerous folk festivals both solo and with groups. His field recordings have been collected on two 4-CD box sets on the Dust-To-Digital label called the Art Of Field Recording. Rosenbaum was also involved in producing several albums for Bluesville in the early 1960’s including records by Indianapolis artists such as Scrapper Blackwell, Pete Franklin, Shirley Griffith, J.T.Adams and Brooks Berry.
Scrapper Blackwell began working with pianist Leroy Carr, whom he met in Indianapolis in the mid-1920’s. Carr convinced Blackwell to record 
with him for the Vocalion label in 1928; the result was “How Long, How Long Blues”, the biggest blues hit of that year. Blackwell also made solo recordings for Vocalion, including “Kokomo Blues” which was transformed into “Old Kokomo Blues” by Kokomo Arnold before being redone as “Sweet Home Chicago” by Robert Johnson. Blackwell and Carr toured throughout the American Midwest and South between 1928 and 1935 as stars of the blues scene, recording over 100 sides. Blackwell’s last recording session with Carr was in February 1935 for the Bluebird label. The recording session ended bitterly, as both musicians left the studio mid-session and on bad terms, stemming from payment disputes. Two months later Blackwell received a phone call informing him of Carr’s death due to heavy drinking and nephritis. Blackwell soon recorded a tribute to his musical partner of seven years (“My Old Pal Blues”) before retiring from the music industry. Blackwell returned to music in the late 1950’s where he was recorded first in June 1958 by Colin C. Pomroy. He was next recorded by Duncan P. Schiedt in 1959 and 1950. These recordings appeared on on the album Blues Before Sunriseon the 77 label. Rosenbaum recorded him in 1962 for the Prestige/Bluesville Records label resulting in his finest latter day recording, the album Mr. Scrapper’s Blues. In 1963 Rosenbaum recorded him again for Bluesville, this time with singer Brooks Berry resulting in the album My Heart Struck Sorrow which has yet to be issued on CD. Sadly Blackwell was shot and killed during a mugging in an Indianapolis alley in 1962. He was 59 years old.
Shirley Griffith was a deeply expressive singer and guitarist who learned first hand from Tommy Johnson as a teenager in Mississippi. Griffith missed his opportunity to record as a young man but recorded three superb albums: Indiana Ave. Blues (1964, with partner J.T. Adams), Saturday Blues (1965), both recorded by Art Rosenbaum for Bluesville, and Mississippi Blues(1973) cut for Blue Goose. Unfortunatley all three albums have yet to be reissued on CD. In 1928 Griffith’s friend and mentor, Tommy Johnson, offered to help him get started but, by his own account, he was too “wild and reckless” in those days. In 1928 he moved to Indianapolis where he became friendly with Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. It was Art Rosenbaum who was responsible for getting Griffith on record. “I recall one August afternoon”, he wrote in the notes to 
Saturday Blues, “shortly after these recordings were made; Shirley sat in Scrapper Blackwell’s furnished room singing the “Bye Bye Blues” with such intensity that everyone present was deeply moved, though they had all heard him sing it many times before. Scrapper was playing , too, and the little room swelled with sound. When they finished there was a moment of awkward silence. Finally Shirley smiled and said: ‘The blues’ll kill you. And make you live, too.” Griffith achieved modest notice touring clubs with Yank Rachell in 1968, performed at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 and appeared at the Notre Dame Blues Festival in South Bend, Indiana in 1971.
John Tyler Adams was born in Western Kentucky and it was his father who started him out on guitar. In 1941 he went up North, eventually settling in Indianapolis. Adams became good friends with Shirley Griffith and at the time of this recording had been playing together for fifteen years. Adams recorded just one album, Indiana Ave. Blues on Bluesville with Griffith with other sides appearing on the album Indianapolis Jump issued on Flyright.
Neal Pattman was born in Madison County, GA. and at age seven he lost his right arm in a farming accident. His father taught him to play harmonica soon after. His playing and soulful vocals made him something of a local legend but he remained unknown to the blues world at large until 1989, when he performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center and immediately thereafter was flooded with invitations to tour internationally. In 1991, he met Timothy Duffy, head of the Maker Relief Foundation — Duffy teamed Pattman with some of the other acts supported by the organization, most notably singer/guitarist Cootie Stark, with whom he mounted the 48-city Blues Revival Tour in support of Taj Mahal. A 1995 date at London’s 100 Club alongside British guitarist Dave Peabody was 
the subject of Pattman’s long-awaited debut LP, Live in London. Three years later, Duffy’s Music Maker label released the follow-up, Prison Blues. Pattman died of cancer on May 4, 2005, a few months after contributing to Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads. Today’s selection, “Key To The Highway”, comes from the Art Of Field Recording I.
Ceci Barfiled was first recorded by George Mitchell who called Barfield “probably the greatest previously unrecorded bluesman I have had the pleasure of recording during my 15 years of field research.” Using the name William Robertson, in fear of endangering his welfare checks, he cut the LP South Georgia Bluesfor Southland in the mid-70’s with several other tracks appearing on Flyright’s Georgia BluesToday. He was also recorded by Pete Lowery and Art Rosenbaum. Today’s selection, “Georgia Bottleneck Blues”, comes from the Art Of Field Recording I.
Pete Franklin’s mother was good friend with Leroy Carr, who roomed at their house shortly before he passed in 1935. Franklin eventually became proficient on piano and guitar. After getting discharged from the war Franklin found his way to Chicago where he backed St. Louis Jimmy on a 1947 record and made his debut under his own name for Victor in 1949 waxing “Casey Brown Blues b/w Down Behind The Rise.” In the late 1940’s and early 5o’s he backed Jazz Gillum, John Brim and Sunnyland Slim. Art Rosenbaum recorded Franklin in 1961 which resulted in the Bluesville album Guitar Pete’s Blues. A few other recordings appear on the album Indianapolis Jump.
Brooks Berry moved to Indianapolis in her early teens. As Art Rosenbaum wrote: “She met Scrapper shortly after she moved to Indianapolis and thus began a long though at times
stormy friendship that was to end suddenly some fifteen months after the last of the present recordings were made. On October 6, 1962. Scrapper was shot to death in a back alley near his home. Brooks has been, during the four years I have known her, reluctant to sing blues without her friend’s sensitive guitar or piano playing behind her; and she will sing less and less now that he is gone.” As Rosenabum observed: “Singing blues is for Brooks not a social activity or a performance for others, although it once might have been, but rather a completely internal and personal expression. She sings with her eyes shut, swaying back and forth to her music, apparently unconscious of those around her. It is a deeply moving and often slightly awkward experience to listen to her sing—one sometimes feels that he is intruding or her most private thoughts and feelings.” Rosenbaum recorded the duo in 1961 resulting in the Bluesville album My Heart Struck Sorrow. Berry was also recorded live with Blackwell at a 1959 concert which are available on the Document CD Scrapper Blackwell with Brooks Berry 1959 – 1960.
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Several track were omitted due to the length of the interview. I’ve included those tracks below plus the interview:
Scrapper Blackwell Brooks Berry – Blues And Trouble (MP3)
Shirley Griffith-Yank Rachell – Mandolin Stomp (MP3)
Cliff Sheats – Got the Blues So Bad (MP3)
Guitar Pete Franklin – How Long Blues (MP3)
Art Rosenbaum Interview (MP3)
Read the article at SundayBlues.org