The role that Arkansas played in blues history has
been obscured by the better-known contributions of
its neighbors the Mississippi Delta and Memphis. But the Arkansas Delta, a musically rich area that
includes all or part of twenty-seven counties in the
state’s eastern region, has produced an incredible
array of blues talent.
Helena
Located on a high bluff on the Mississippi River,
Helena was the most important river port between
Memphis and Vicksburg. A center for the local cotton
trade and a key point for the distribution of goods
into the surrounding countryside, Helena attracted
thousands of black people to work on riverboats
and on shore. In a region where money was scarce,
these workers attracted many bluesmen to the juke
joints along Elm and Walnut Streets. Nearby West
Helena also overflowed with clubs. Barrelhouse pianists and itinerant blues musicians with guitars and
harps filled Helena’s joints with raucous music. Piano
legend Roosevelt Sykes learned much of his technique
as a teenager in the early 1920s by observing the piano
players in Helena.
On November 19, 1941, radio station KFFA went
on the air in Helena. A few days later, Sonny Boy
Williamson II (Rice Miller) asked if he could perform
on the station. The station’s owners agreed that he
could if he found his own sponsor. Sonny Boy quickly
signed with the Interstate Grocer Company, whose
owner, Max Moore, wanted to promote his local
King Biscuit flour. Thus was born the King Biscuit
Time radio show, featuring Sonny Boy’s dynamic
blues harp and sardonic singing, coupled with the
innovative guitar playing of Robert Lockwood, Jr.
Lockwood developed his skills under the tutelage of
Delta blues legend Robert Johnson, who had been
romantically involved with Lockwood’s mother.
King Biscuit Time was an instant success and aired
from 12:15 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. each weekday. The
show also went on the road, airing live on Saturdays
from many Delta towns in Arkansas and Mississippi.
In 1947, Interstate Grocer Company introduced
Sonny Boy Corn Meal—with a picture of Sonny
Boy sitting on an ear of corn on the front of each
sack—to further profit from the show’s success.
Among the performers who appeared on King
Biscuit Time were pianists Robert ‘‘Dudlow’’ Taylor,
Willie Love, and Pinetop Perkins, guitarists Joe ‘‘Willie’’ Wilkins, Houston Stackhouse, Earl Hooker, and
Sammy Lawhorn, and drummer Peck Curtis.
Lockwood left the show after two years because of
a dispute with Max Moore. He soon had his own
show on KFFA, sponsored by Mother’s Best Flour
Company, which lasted about a year. Delta bluesman
and Helena native Robert Nighthawk also had a
show on KFFA, sponsored by Bright Star Flour. He
also appeared on King Biscuit Time and replaced
Sonny Boy as the show’s regular star after Sonny
Boy died in Helena in 1965. Nighthawk passed away
in 1967 and is buried in Helena’s Magnolia Cemetery.
Since 1968, King Biscuit Time has featured
recorded music instead of a live band. Today the
show is hosted by Sonny Payne, who has been with
the program since the 1940s.
Helena blues has carried on in the juke-joint blues
of harp player Frank Frost (who died in 1999) and
drummer Sam Carr, the modern blues of west Helena
native Lonnie Shields, and the creative down-home
blues of John Weston. In 1986, Helena’s Sonny Boy
Blues Society put together a one-day blues festival to
honor the city’s rich blues heritage. The King Biscuit
Blues Festival has since grown into one of the world’s
largest free blues festivals, attracting tens of
thousands of fans annually.
West Memphis
West Memphis, located directly across the Mississippi
River from Memphis, was by the late 1940s a more
significant blues center than its larger neighbor.
Founded in 1910 as a logging camp, West Memphis
grew into a town known for its gambling, hot blues,
and other vices. It had many jukes and clubs, especially
along 8th Street, which included a variety of venues,
from country-style jukes such as the Little Brown Jug
to more substantial clubs like the Be-Bop Hall. Just
fifteen miles to the west was the Top Hat club at
Blackfish Lake, which held hundreds of people.
The most important blues musician on the West
Memphis scene was Howlin’ Wolf, who loomed large
physically and musically. An energetic performer who
sang with a voice that sounded like an earthquake feels
and played raw, country-style blues harp, Wolf put
together his first electric band in the late 1940s while
living in West Memphis. Made up largely of musicians
much younger than himself, Wolf’s band featured
many of the best players in the region, including harp
players Little Junior Parker and James Cotton, pianist
William ‘‘Destruction’’ Johnson, drummer Willie
Steele, and guitarists Willie Lee Johnson, Matt ‘‘Guitar’’ Murphy, and Auburn ‘‘Pat’’ Hare. Johnson’s
guitar work, combining raw blues riffs with jazzy
chord flourishes, in particular helped establish the signature sound of the band, which quickly established
itself as the most popular in West Memphis and the
surrounding Arkansas Delta.
In 1949, Wolf secured a radio show on West Memphis station KWEM, on which he advertised farm supplies. Memphis record producer Sam Phillips
heard Wolf on the show and, impressed by his raw
talent, began recording him for Chess Records in
Chicago. Wolf’s success on KWEM opened the door
for other blues artists on the station, including Sonny
Boy II, who advertised the patent medicine Hadacol,
piano player Willie Love, and drummer Willie Nix.
Other blues musicians active in West Memphis at the
time included B. B. King, Joe Hill Louis, Rosco
Gordon, Jr., and Hubert Sumlin. In the 1970s, locally
owned 8th Street Records recorded West Memphis
blues veterans Sammy Lewis and Sonny Blake,
though their records were poorly distributed. Little
remains of the West Memphis blues scene today.
Other Parts of the State
Many other Arkansas towns had active blues scenes.
In Brinkley, the White Swan club regularly featured
Robert Nighthawk, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy
Williamson, and others. In Osceola, M. C. Reeder
owned the T-99 club, whose In the Groove Boys
band included young guitarist Albert Nelson, who
later became famous as Albert King. Another Osceola
guitarist, Son Seals, learned the blues at his father’s
juke the Dipsy Doodle. Forrest City lent its name to
harp player ‘‘Forrest City’’ Joe Pugh, who made a
handful of recordings for Aristocrat (later Chess)
Records. Little Rock’s blues scene produced the woefully underrated Larry Davis, best known for his
recording of ‘‘Texas Flood’’ for Duke Records, and
Elmon ‘‘Driftin’ Slim’’ Mickle, who later moved to
Los Angeles and worked as a one-man band. Also
associated with Little Rock was bluesman Calvin
Leavy, who achieved a surprise R&B hit with the
down-home blues tune ‘‘Cummins Prison Farm.’’
Most unusual of all Arkansas bluesman is Cedell
Davis of Pine Bluff. Born in Helena in 1927, Davis
contracted polio as a child, which crippled his right
hand. He learned to play guitar upside-down, clutching a butter knife as a slide in his crippled hand. The
result is a uniquely discordant but powerful and eerie
blues sound. Recently, Michael Burks emerged from
Arkansas with an outstanding guitar style (influenced
by Albert King) and strong vocals that are quickly
making him a star.
Other blues artists born in the cities and towns of
Arkansas include Luther Allison (Widener), Little
Willie Anderson (West Memphis), Buster Benton
(Texarkana), Willie Cobbs (Smales), Detroit Junior
(Haynes), Art and Roman Griswold (Tillar), ‘‘Shakey’’
Jake Harris (Earle), Floyd Jones (Marianna), Charley
Jordan (Mabelville), Louis Jordan (Brinkley), Sammy
Lawhorn (Little Rock), Hosea Leavy (Altheimer),
Larry McCray (Magnolia), George ‘‘Harmonica’’
Smith (Helena), Blue Smitty (Marianna), Johnnie
Taylor (Crawfordsville), Washboard Sam (Walnut
Ridge), Casey Bill Weldon (Pine Bluff), and Jimmy
Witherspoon (Gurdon).
MARK HOFFMAN/JAMES SEGREST
Bibliography
Guida, Louis, Lorenzo Thomas, and Cheryl Cohen. Blues
Music in Arkansas. Philadelphia, PA: Portfolio Associates, 1982.
Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues. New York: Penguin, 1981.
Rotenstein, David S. ‘‘The Helena Blues: Cultural Tourism
and African American Folk Music.’’ Southern Folklore
Quarterly 49, no. 2 (1992): 133–146.