Steven C. Tracy’s excellent book, Going to Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City,
served as my introduction to Sam Jones, AKA Stovepipe No. 1. Stovepipe played
everything from gospel and square dance tunes to hokum and jug band blues, both in
the streets and in various establishments in Cincinnati, although more often in the
city’s West End. He was on hand from at least the 1920s to as late as the 1960s,
and his voice in 1924 sounded as if he already had been around a bit. He was
called “Stovepipe” because he wore a stovepipe hat as part of his shtick, but
primarily because he literally played a length of stovepipe; if a jug is the
equivalent of a tenor sax, a stovepipe is a baritone sax. He also played guitar and harmonica, often as
a one-man band.
Stovepipe’s first one-man band recordings were made in 1924 for Gennett
Records in Richmond, Indiana; unfortunately, none of them survives. As the story
goes, when he hit Richmond, billing himself as “Daddy Stovepipe,” he found out
that Gennett had just recorded another Daddy Stovepipe (go figure!). Thus, he
started billing himself as Stovepipe No. 1―the original. A few months
later, he also recorded for Columbia Records, again as a one-man band. The first day’s session is still
missing in action, although the tracks he cut seem to have been blues and
perhaps square dance calls. The next day’s recordings are still around, including
a couple of gospel tunes (Lord, Don’t
You Know I have No Friend Like You and I’ve
Got Salvation in My Heart), some old-time songs like Turkey in the
Straw, and an instrumental (Fisher’s
Hornpipe).
In 1927, Stovepipe teamed up with guitarist David Crockett
to record some novelty songs (A Chicken
Can Waltz the Gravy Around) and some jokey blues tunes like Bed Slats. He
wrapped up his recording career in 1930 as singer and stovepiper-in-chief with
King David’s Jug Band (presumably the “king” was the aforesaid Mr. Crockett); they
recorded some prime examples of jug band hokum, including Tear It Down, another version of Bed Slats. After that,
Stovepipe went back to the streets of Cincinnati, following his calling into
what one would assume was relative old age.
My take: Stovepipe No. I’s music is charming. Like Henry Thomas of
Texas, his repertoire included a variety of forms that predated the blues;
Fisher’s Hornpipe goes back to the 18th century. Steven Tracy
surmises that the old-time and square dance material was for white audiences
and the blues and gospel material for African Americans, but it may be that the
latter (and maybe both groups) liked a variety of material presented by a top
hat-wearing and hokum-loving street minstrel. Stovepipe was also the starting
point for an impressive array of blues recordings produced by Cincinnati
artists in the 1920s and 1930s, which I hope to talk about in future posts. I
highly recommend Tracy’s Going to
Cincinnati for more background; it seems to be out of print, but
second-hand copies are out there at a reasonable price. Anyway, give old
Stovepipe a try―after all, he was Number 1.
Here are Fisher’s
Hornpipe, A Chicken Can Waltz the Gravy Around, and Sweet Potato Blues (I love the jug band’s mandolin player―I
wonder who he was? I love this stuff!
Fisher's Hornpipe
A Chicken Can Waltz the Gravy Around
Sweet Potato Blues
