ALABAMA. Encyclopedia of Blues

Alabama’s 1819 constitution designated the state’s
land boundaries:
Beginning at the point where the thirty-first degree of
north latitude intersects the Perdido River; thence, east,
to the western boundary line of the State of Georgia;
thence, along said line, to the southern boundary line of
the State of Tennessee; thence, west, along said boundary line, to the Tennessee River; thence, up the same, to
the mouth of Bear Creek; thence, by a direct line, to the
northwest corner of Washington county; thence, due
south, to the Gulf of Mexico; thence, eastwardly, including all Islands within six leagues of the shore, to the
Perdido River; and thence, up the same, to the beginning; subject to such alteration as is provided in the third
section of said act of Congress, and subject to such
enlargement as may be made by law in consequence
of any cession of territory by the United States, or either
of them.
The House of Representatives of the United States
used the above boundaries when it declared in the
spring of 1817 that the eastern-most part of the Mississippi Territory ‘‘shall for the purpose of a temporary government, constitute a separate Territory, and
be called ‘Alabama’.’’ By 1818, the General Assembly
of the Alabama Territory petitioned the U.S. Congress for its inclusion into the confederacy. As sufficient cause for this change, the petition sited the
continual population growth of ‘‘free men’’ numbering in the area of sixty thousand persons, an increase
of nearly forty-one thousand ‘‘souls’’ in just two years
owing to the ‘‘general fertility of our soil and the
happy temperature of our Climate.’’ The dramatic
increase of ‘‘free men,’’ however, was likely due far
more to the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory
and to the practice of westward manifest destiny
with the forced removal of the territory’s native
populations.
According to the Alabama Department of
Archives and History website, the etymology of the
word ‘‘Alabama’’ is still under debate. The word,
which was in use as far back as the Desoto expedition
of the 1500s, underwent some spelling changes due to
the confluence of Europeans in the area, but the
actual meaning remains disputed. At times the word
is attributed to the languages of the Chickasaws,
the Muskogee, and the Choctaw as well as being the
name of a Central Alabama native tribe, with the
meaning of the word being either ‘‘Here we rest’’ or
‘‘thicket clearers.’’
From 1819 through 1945, Alabama’s economy,
society, and politics were shaped by agriculture, especially by cotton. Three important factors led to the
settlement of Alabama: the depletion of lands east of
Alabama, due to overcultivation; the forceful removal
of the area’s Native American populations; and
Napoleon’s sale of the Louisiana Territory. As white
farmers moved into the Alabama territory, many of
them brought slaves. After the Civil War and the
ensuing Reconstruction, black labor on white-owned
lands continued, especially in the ‘‘Black Belt,’’ a
stretch of land ending along Alabama’s central western border with the eastern boarder of Mississippi
and cutting through the lower region of the state to
its most southeastern edge. This Black Belt belongs to
a larger land mass that is crescent shaped and cuts
across the heart of the southern United States. Originally named for its deep dark-colored soil, which was
rich in minerals and ideal for agricultural harvest, the
name later denoted a sense of politics because the
majority of the land, which had once been populated
by Native Americans, became populated by African
American descendants of former slaves. Hence, sharecropping environments and Jim Crow society prevailed in the Black Belt region of Alabama in much
the same way it prevailed in the Mississippi Delta.
Alabama’s 1900 census reports that blacks comprised
nearly two hundred persons short of one million persons within its population, whereas whites tipped the
scales at just one thousand persons above a million.
That same census reflects that the cotton crop, grown
mainly within the Black Belt region of the state,
consisted of more than a million bales.
During the prewar era of the blues through 1941,
Alabama produced a number of blues figures. The
most famous of them was W. C. Handy, ‘‘The Father
of the Blues,’’ who was born in Florence, Alabama, in
1873. Although he was raised by a Baptist minister
who had higher hopes for his son than being a musician, Handy nevertheless pursued a career as musician, bandleader, composer, and music entrepreneur
in Mississippi, Memphis, and ultimately New York
City.
During the 1920s a number of rural bluesmen and
guitarists made records, including Ed Bell, Pillie
Bolling, Daddy Stovepipe, Clifford Gibson, and
Ed Thompson, as well as Buddy Boy Hawkins, who
had more of a city style. There were also several
excellent, evocative harmonica players such as
Jaybird Coleman and George ‘‘Bullet’’ Williams.
Other nonblues artists whose records are treasurable
are the notable jazz group from Birmingham, the
Black Birds of Paradise, and the sanctified preacher
D. C. Rice, who for a time ran a church in Chicago
before returning to Alabama in later years.
The employees of the steel mills in Huntsville and
Birmingham supported a number of public establishments that had pianos. One of the earliest, and best,
boogie-woogie pianists was Cow Cow Davenport,
whose ‘‘Cow Cow Blues’’ of 1925 was a muchimitated standard. Another great pianist of the era
was Jabo Williams, who recorded a pounding twopart rendition of ‘‘Ko-Ko-Mo Blues’’ in 1932. A
Williams prote´ge´ was Walter Roland, who shared a
piano repertoire. Roland made several excellent
records on his own, but he remains best known for
his performances with singer Lucille Bogan.
Bogan herself had been a remarkable singer since
the early 1920s, but her best-selling, most famous, and
most ribald records were made from 1933 through
1935. The guitarist Sonny Scott performed with
Roland and Bogan during one set of ARC label
sessions. Another remarkable guitarist of the 1930s
and later was Marshall Owens. Bogan, Roland, Scott,
and Owens all sang songs about the Red Cross stores
that existed in poor neighborhoods during the
Depression. One unrecorded black musician was
‘‘Tee Tot’’ Rufe Payne of Montgomery, Alabama,
who made a great impression on the future country
star Hank Williams during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Postwar musicians in Alabama performed mostly
locally. One example was John Lee. Lee recorded several knife-slide guitar numbers for the Federal subsidiary of King Records in 1951, and for many years
afterward record collectors thought perhaps Lee was
a pseudonym for John Lee Hooker. Jerry McCain
began his long career as blues harmonica player in
the early 1950s, making his first records for the Trumpet label in Jackson, Mississippi, a few hours drive due
west across the western Alabama border. Another fine
harmonica player was George ‘‘Wild Child’’ Butler,
who was born in Autaugaville, Alabama, in 1936.
Two of the most famous and enduring Alabamaborn singers have been Dinah Washington, who
began in gospel music in the 1940s, then became the
leading rhythm and blues singer of the 1950s and
early 1960s, and Willa Mae ‘‘Big Mama’’ Thornton,
famous for her first recordings of ‘‘Hound Dog’’ and
‘‘Ball and Chain.’’ Another great singer is Clarence
Carter, who has been a fan favorite since the 1970s
with hits like ‘‘Patches.’’ Two more are Lynn White,
whose raucous soul blues have been well known to
black southern audiences since the 1980s, and Peggy
Scott-Adams, whose career rebounded from obscurity when she made recordings with Ray Charles and
garnered a topical hit song ‘‘Bill.’’
There was also a phenomenon of notable musicians having been born in Alabama, then moving
north or west while young, growing up, and having
remarkable careers in blues and folk music. Electric
guitarist Jody Williams was in Howlin’ Wolf ’s first
Chicago band, drummer Sam Lay would play in various Chicago blues bands including the integrated
Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the 1960s, and folk
singer/guitarist Odetta was raised in California but
built her career on performing traditional African
American folk music.
However, some talent came to north Alabama to
record, especially with the remarkable horn sections
in the Muscle Shoals Sound studio in Muscle Shoals
and the Fame studio. In two instances of reverse
migration, Tennessee-born bluesman Johnny Shines
moved from Chicago to Holt, Alabama, in the mid-
1970s, and Mississippi-born topical blues composer
and guitarist Willie King moved from Chicago to Old
Memphis, Alabama, in the late 1960s.
Several excellent white blues musicians were from
or were based in Alabama, including Keri Leigh (who
would establish her career in Austin, Texas), ‘‘Little
Charlie’’ Baty with the Nightcats, harmonica player
and composer James Harman, and soul composer
Dan Penn, who made his impact in Memphis during
the 1960s and 1970s.
Although Alabama’s blues history seems meager
compared to those of its neighboring states Mississippi and Georgia, it is celebrated by many of its
institutions and residents. Two notable museums are
the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia, and
the W. C. Handy Birthplace, Museum, and Library in
Florence. Birmingham hosts several music festivals
featuring blues talent, including the City Stages Festival every June.
PHOENIX SAVAGE-WISEMAN/EDWARD KOMARA

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