Josh White - Blues Singer 1932-1936

Railroads, women and God; some things never change

Like so many of his peers, Josh White was torn between the Devil’s music and the heavenly sounds of gospel. To solve the problem, he recorded the majority of these songs under secular and spiritual pseudonyms. Not that the personas sound very different, except that he gets his blues worries fixed by women and railroads, and his gospel ones by the man upstairs.

White’s first recording, Black & Evil Blues, finds the 18-year-old with a basic guitar style, but a likeable voice with touches of gentle falsetto. Within two years he had developed a complex style similar to Gary Davis’ and his voice had matured into a warm, powerful instrument of its own. Lyrically, White was looking at wider problems, such as the miner’s disease silicosis (“I was digging that tunnel, but I was digging my own grave”) and addressing male deficiencies from a woman’s perspective in Black Man. It’s not all serious, though, as proven by the naughty Bed Spring Blues and the fun I Believe I’ll Make A Change, shouting, “Come on, fat man, shake that laziness out!” to his pianist. The recordings end in 1936, when White punched through a window and paralysed his hand, leaving him unable to play for several years.

SPV | SPV 42452

Reviewed by Mat Croft
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