Scott Dirks, Kim Field and Dennis Gruenling join me to discuss the great Little Walter
Scott is co-author of the book: ‘Blues With A Feeling: The Little Walter Story’. An essential read for any harmonica fan!
Scott got involved in writing the book after he met a harmonica player in Chicago who had been working on a book about Little Walter for ten years, and had done lots of research
Found that Little Walter was buried in an unmarked grave, and Scott was involved in putting a marker on his grave in 1991
Tony Glover heard about the grave and contacted Scott. Tony was well known from being in the band called Koerner, Ray and Glover
Tony Glover wrote the first blues harmonica instructional book: ‘Blues Harp’
Tony contacted Scott about the idea of putting together the book on Little Walter, as Tony was in process of putting together a discography on Little Walter
Tony started writing a book with Ward Gaines on Little Walter, and Scott joined and started putting the book together in earnest in 1995, until 2001, without knowing if it would be published
Tony Glover helped get the book published
Scott used his connections in Chicago to do the research on Little Walter from some of the people who knew and worked with him
Other information that was available on Little Walter
Kim Field is a musician and writer, having written two books: ‘Harmonicas, Harps and Heavy Breathers’ and ‘The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold’
Kim first took up harmonica when he saw a James Cotton show
Got the idea for the Billy Boy Arnold book after described his time meeting John Lee Williamson, with Billy Boy having tremendous recall of the events of the past
Billy Boy had a great interest in the harmonica players around him, especially Little Walter
Dennis Gruenling is the third guest, being the last person to record a tribute album to Little Walter
Scott wrote the liner notes for the Dennis tribute album to Little Walter
Much of the research material for this podcast is based on Scott’s Little Walter book
Little Walter was born in 1930, in Marksville, Louisiana, although the year of his birth is somewhat disputed, with Tony Glover’s wife having done some good research into the topic
He didn’t have a birth certificate
Knowing his age allows us to date the various milestones in his life
He started playing harmonica age 8
May have started playing on the Regimental Band harmonica, the cheaper version of the Marine Band
His sister said he wanted to be a saxophone player, but the harmonica was chosen as it was cheaper
Lonnie Glosson was probably the first harmonica player he heard. Lonnie was a big star and appeared a lot on the radio, playing country music on harmonica
Kim provides some more info on Lonnie Glosson and Wayne Raney, who played together on national radio and sold over 5 million of their harmonicas
Honeyboy Edwards said that Little Walter had a Cajun style of playing when he was young, showing that he definitely had different influences from blues early on
Sister had a photo of Little Walter leaving to go to New Orleans for the first time, age 12, where he spent a lot of time busking
He used to stand outside clubs in New Orleans and play along with the songs he could hearing being inside the clubs
John Lee Williamson (Sonny Boy Williamson I) was a big influence on Little Walter’s blues playing and Little Walter imitated his style early on
John Lee Williamson was the first to use the harmonica as a lead instrument, and he was a huge star
Billy Boy Arnold was a John Lee Williamson fanatic, heard Little Walter compliment John Lee Williamson (the only player he might have ever complimented!)
Little Walter went to Helena, Arkansas, Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II) was based, although feeling is he didn’t learn much from his style
Little Walter filled-in for Rice Miller on his radio show sometimes
Met Walter Horton, who was 13 years older than him
Played with Honeyboy Edwards in the south before making his momentous move to Chicago, where he started playing on Maxwell Street
Advertisement in the Chicago Defender of his first gig there, in 1946, at the Purple Cat Lounge
Story where John Lee Williamson told Little Walter he played too fast
Jimmy Roger’s suggested Little Walter’s time wasn’t great, but the panel refute this
First recording made in 1947, Ora Nelle Blues, made in a backroom studio on Maxwell Street
Floyd Jones claimed he made the first recording with Little Walter, with Walter playing guitar, although this recording isn’t available
Little Walter played some guitar, and recorded on several tracks playing guitar
Billy Boy Arnold said he only saw Little Walter play guitar on the bandstand once
He would change instruments with Louis Myers in his band, to play guitar with Myers playing harmonica, to take on harmonica challengers
In the first recordings he made, he sang on I Just Keep Loving Her
Little Walter syncopated his rhythms and improvised from the beginning, something which John Lee Williamson didn’t do
Little Walter didn’t play stock licks, as a lot of his contemporaries did, and he quickly broke away from playing like Sonny Boy I to always push himself to play something different
The influence of saxophone players on his sound
Little Walter really wanted to swing and he became frustrated playing the slow blues style of Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters was a generation older then Little Walter but Walter wanted to play faster
Little Walter preferred to play to a dance crowd
Started playing with Muddy Waters in 1948
The Chicago blues sound and the part the trio with Muddy Waters played in evolution of that
Real Chicago sound came later when Muddy started recording with drums and piano
Took some time for Leonard Chess to allow Little Walter to record with Muddy, but he eventually did, and it was a hit
First song recorded with Muddy at Chess was You’re Gonna Need My Help
I Can’t Be Satisfied was a huge hit with Muddy playing just with bass player Big Crawford, hence Chess were reluctant to change the winning formula
Walter also made recordings with Jimmy Rogers at Chess, although the band was the same personnel
His first amplified harmonica recorded at Chess was Country Boy with Muddy Waters
Frustrations at not always being able to record with his amp at Chess
Little Walter’s amplified sound was down to the way that he play through the equipment, not the equipment itself
Most players were using amps in Chicago at this time but Walter heard a way he could advance his sound using an amp, like Charlie Christian did on guitar
While on tour they overheard another band trying to work out what instrument Walter was playing on Juke as it played on the juke box
Juke was released in 1952 and was a huge hit and launched Walter’s solo career
Snooky Pryor probably recorded amplified harmonica in the studio before Walter did
The released version of Juke was the first cut made in the studio for Checker records
Juke was played live with Muddy before Walter recorded it
A story as to why Walter left Muddy’s band was because someone gave him a dime instead of the quarter they gave to Muddy
How much would white audiences hear blues music in the early 1950s
Released numerous singles with Chess, which were double-sided, with one side vocal and one side instrumental
Juke was the biggest hit Chess had with a record and made them financially stable
Sad Hours was in the charts at the same time as Juke
Every single he released between 1952-1955 charted, and outsold Muddy Waters during this time
Juke was recorded using Muddy’s band
Some of the hits Walter had during the first half of the 1950s
Continued to record with Muddy in the studio, even though he had left that band for live performances, and the song Baby Please Don’t Go
First recording on chromatic and in 3rd position was That’s It, and his influence as a blues chromatic player
Kim doesn’t think Walter took any inspiration from the non-blues chromatic players who came before him
Jerry Murad’s Peg O’ My Heart was recorded in the same studio used by Chess
Walter probably was the first to start using 3rd position on the diatonic too, or at least developed its use
Rhythm Willie was another harmonica player who imitated horn players, but didn’t have the same presence of sound as Walter
John Lee Williamson was also influenced by horn players in his later recordings
Little Walter’s band was much louder than horn ensembles at the time
The string of great tracks he recorded through the first part of the 1950s
One of reasons Walter was so successful on the charts is that he was touring all the time
Juke really helped bring a younger audience to the blues, including females
Great photo of Little Walter surrounded by women in a record store
Walter was a pretty boy who the women certainly liked
Bob Corritore website has a great photo tribute page to Walter, as well as many other blues artists
Second number one single, in 1955: My Babe, which was based on the gospel song My Train
Ray Charles played saxophone with Walter on one of his tours, as well as playing piano as a support act for Walter
In 1958 Walter was shot in the leg and also broke his leg separately, which contributed to a downward spiral for him from this time, also from R&B starting to become more popular than blues
Walter’s band was starting to lose it’s regular members, and his music output dipped somewhat, although there was always some interesting aspects to his music
All the Chess acts suffered a decline at this time due to the rise of R&B, but enjoyed the blues boom later in the 1960s, which Walter missed following his death
Walter still released some classic recordings during this time, with Key To The Highway his last top ten hit
Crawling King Snake was the only song he recorded on a tremolo harmonica
Walter did a tour of the UK in 1964, which wasn’t too successful, partly due to the quality of the backing bands
Walter probably suffered by being ahead of his time somewhat, his ideas too modern for the day
Billy Boy Arnold saw Walter play whole sets just on harmonica
The difference of Walter on record and playing live in clubs was significant. He improvised much more freely when playing live
Such a crying shame we don’t have live recordings of Walter in his heyday
Earliest live recording of Walter is from 1964, in the UK
The next live recording was from 1967: Walter’s Jump, an acoustic recording which is favourably received
Scott actually named this live recording as Walter’s Jump, as it was untitled
Last session as a leader at Chess was in 1966
Great album where you can hear lots of studio outtakes and alternate takes of songs: ‘Little Walter: The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967)’. This won a Grammy for Best Historical Re-issue
Scott co-produced this album, and says there was a lot more material in the studio that wasn’t used, including an instrumental version of One Of The Mornings
Did another UK tour in 1967
Live bootleg recording of Walter playing with Sam Lay in 1967, where his playing is strong
It is rumoured that Muddy was going to hire Walter back into his band in 1968, just before his death
Little Walter on February 15, 1968, after being involved in a street fight, twenty years after John Lee Williamson died in very similar circumstances
He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and then later the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 (for a sideman category!)
Dennis thought the sideman category was ok as it recognised how Walter revolutionised the role of the harmonica
The panels favourite two Little Walter songs, Louisiana Blues & Mellow Down Easy for Neil
Kim chooses Blue Midnight and Back Track
Back Track was recorded after Walter had been insisting he could record a song in the studio using his amp
Scott chooses Roller Coaster and That’s It
Dennis chooses Sad Hours and Fast Boogie (Scott had already chosen Roller Coaster!)
Eight songs were chosen but there were many more we could selected
Walter wrote the book on how to play back-up harp with Muddy and Jimmy Rogers, and then to go on and have such a successful solo career
Walter used a Marine Band diatonic and a 16 hole chromatic, either or both of the Hohner 280 or the Super 64
Experimented a little with harmonicas, using Kock and a tremolo
Didn’t use a harmonica customiser, although the harps were made, and tuned differently back then
Embouchre: mainly tongue blocking with some puckering and possibly U bend
John Lee Williamson tongue blocked
The harmonica was built to be tongue blocked (to play chords), with Paul Butterfield being a major reason puckering rose to prominence
Most of the classic players used both tongue blocking and puckering
For live performances Walter usually used the PA systems available, which had inputs for crystal mics
JT30s and Green Bullets were used for vocals back then, which has resulted in modern players using them by this happy accident
The JT30 also has a wide face to accommodate the harmonica
The PA systems used in the 1950s were tube driven
What Walter used to record in the studio: his recorded tracks with amps used in the studio all sound different, so he probably used different amps
Small Masco PA system is a strong possibility
Dennis saw that Snooky Pryor and James Cotton really appreciated using some of the classic amps that Dennis owned
There isn’t one Chicago blues tone, there were many different ones
Augmentation of Walter’s sound in the studio (by adding reverb, delay slapback, etc)