Juke - George Harmonica Smith

George "Harmonica" Smith (April 22, 1924 – October 2, 1983) (born Allen George Smith) was an American electric blues harmonica player
Born in West Helena, Arkansas, United States, but brought up in Cairo, Illinois, he began playing professionally in 1951. He was recruited to join Muddy Waters' band in 1954, making his presence between the short-lived Henry Strong, and James Cotton. He would rejoin Waters in 1966. He eventually made the decision to leave Chicago, and spent much of his adult life on the West Coast of America.

Smith played with the blues combo, Bacon Fat, and tutored its harmonica player Rod Piazza, and mentored guitarist (Blues Musician) Buddy Reed, before joining forces with Big Mama Thornton in the 1970s. He appeared on her album Jail (1975), and with another harmonica student William Clarke.

The few solo albums he recorded in his life reflected his admiration for the playing style of Little Walter.

George "Harmonica" Smith died in 1983, in Los Angeles, California at the age of 59.
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She's Got Good Dry Goods - Little Buddy Doyle

Little Buddy Doyle (March 20, 1911 – unknown) was an American Memphis and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of Big Walter Horton and Hammie Nixon.

Charlie Doyle was probably born in Forrest City, Arkansas, United States. During the 1930s, the diminutive Doyle performed regularly on Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.

It is generally accepted that Big Walter Horton made his first recording backing Doyle, on Doyle's Memphis based eight song recordings made for the Okeh and Vocalion labels in 1939. Doyle also recorded with the harmonica player, Hammie Nixon, around the same time, although some of their recorded work remains unissued.

Little is known of Doyle's life outside of his recorded work, and his death appears to be unrecorded.
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This Old Worlds in A Tangle - Calvin Frazier

Calvin Frazier (February 16, 1915 – September 23, 1972) was an American Detroit blues and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Despite leaving a fragmented recording history, both as a singer and guitarist, Frazier was an associate of Robert Johnson, and recorded alongside Johnny Shines, Sampson Pittman, T.J. Fowler, Alberta Adams, Jimmy Milner, Baby Boy Warren, Boogie Woogie Red, and latterly Washboard Willie. His early work was recorded by the Library of Congress (now preserved by the National Recording Registry) prior to the outbreak of World War II, although his more commercial period took place between 1949 and 1956
Calvin H. Frazier was born in Osceola, Arkansas, and originally performed with his own brothers. Befriending Johnny Shines, in 1930 they jointly travelled to Helena, Arkansas where they met Robert Johnson. The threesome moved on to Detroit, Michigan, performing hymns on local radio stations. Frazier and Johnson returned south where they played along with the drummer, James 'Peck' Curtis.

In 1935 Frazier was involved in dispute in Memphis, Tennessee where he was wounded and another man was shot dead. Frazier returned to Detroit, and married a cousin of Shines. He played guitar as an accompanist to Big Maceo Merriweather, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Baby Boy Warren before being recorded in 1938 by the folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. His recordings included "Lily Mae", a revised version of Johnson's "Honeymoon Blues"; and "Highway 51", another variant, this time of Johnson's track, "Dust My Broom".

His unique style combined slide guitar work with unusual lyrics, and a vocal phrasing that was difficult to decipher. He released three singles under his own name in 1949 and 1951 on the Alben and New Song labels, including "Got Nobody To Tell My Troubles To", which he recorded in Toledo, Ohio in 1951. Between 1951 and 1953, Frazier was a recording member of T.J. Fowler's jump blues combo, then recorded with Warren in 1954, whilst his final sessions in the studio appear to be in 1956 backing Washboard Willie.Without any tangible success on record or otherwise, Frazier nevertheless performed around Detroit until his death.

Calvin Frazier died in Detroit of cancer in September 1972, at the age of 57.
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I Didn't Know - Frank Frost

Born Frank Otis Frost in Auvergne, Arkansas, United States, Frost learned to play piano at church as a young boy. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri at age 15, and spent time as a guitarist with drummer Sam Carr and Carr's father, Robert Nighthawk. He learned to play harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson, who he toured with.

While playing with guitarist Big Jack Johnson, Frost attracted the interest of the record producer Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records. Some recordings of note that followed included "Hey Boss Man" and "My Back Scratcher".

In the late 1970s, Frost was re-discovered by a blues enthusiast, Michael Frank, who began releasing albums on his Earwig Music Company label by the trio, now called The Jelly Roll Kings, after a song from Hey Boss Man.

Frost appeared in the films Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads and Crossroads.

He died of cardiac arrest in Helena, Arkansas in 1999.
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So Long Baby Goodbye - Sammy Lewis and Willie Johnson

The productive and all too brief meeting between vocalist / harmonica player Sammy Lewis and guitarist Willie Johnson produced one of the best blues issued by Sun Records. In the eyes of many collectors and blues fans - including this writer - there is no finer blues side ever cut on Sun than "I Feel So Worried" (Sun 218). Even rockabilly fans who merely tolerate Sun blues are often fond of this record, owing in no small way to Willie Johnson's guitar style. Recorded on March 28, 1955, it was the only time that Lewis and Johnson recorded together. The flipside, So Long Baby Goodbye" is more conventional R&B. The third song from this session, "Gonna Leave You Baby", was obviously not issued by Sam Phillips because the harmonica and guitar are terribly out of tune with each other. Willie Johnson, who was born in Senatobia, Mississippi, on March 24, 1923, played with Howlin' Wolf as far back as 1942. He played on a number of Sun sessions before recording with Lewis. Soon afterwards he headed for Chicago to rejoin Wolf's band where he remained until 1961. Sammy Lewis continued working in Memphis after Johnson moved north, working with an assortment of bands. Lewis was influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter on his Sun recordings. He went on to cut sides for the West Memphis 8th Street label and was thought to have died until he was rediscovered in 1970, still playing in West Memphis.
Ref "This Is My Story"
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Freight Train Blues - ROBERT LEE McCOY

Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician, who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk.
The band here is Mc Coy on guitar, Sonny Boy Williamson on Harmonica and Speckled Red on Piano.
Born in Helena, Arkansas, he left home at an early age to become a busking musician, and after a period wandering through southern Mississippi, settled for a time in Memphis, Tennessee where he played with local orchestras and musicians, such as the Memphis Jug Band. A particular influence during this period was Houston Stackhouse, from whom he learnt to play slide guitar, and with whom he appeared on the radio in Jackson, Mississippi.

After further travels through Mississippi, he found it advisable to take his mother's name, and as Robert Lee McCoy moved to St. Louis, Missouri in the mid 1930s
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Outside Woman Blues - Blind Joe ( Willie ) Reynolds

"Blind Joe" Reynolds (1900 or 1904 - March 10, 1968), was a singer-songwriter.

Reynolds is thought to have been born in Tallulah, Louisiana in 1904, although his death certificate stated his birthplace as Arkansas in 1900. He was blinded by a shotgun blast to the face in Louisiana in the mid-late 1920s, which resulted in the physical loss of his eyes. Despite this handicap, Blind Joe became known for his distinctive bottleneck style as well as his reported accuracy with a pistol, with which it is said he could judge the position of a target by sound alone.

Reynolds was known to be outspoken and flamboyant, often using his music as a medium to attack society.
It is uncertain what name Reynolds' was given at birth. Whilst it is widely thought to have been Joe Sheppard, his nephew Henry Millage claimed it was Joe Leonard. Throughout his career, Reynolds traveled the country performing under various aliases as a way of evading the police, as he had served two jail sentences in his early life, as well as "escaping [his] enemies".
In March 1968, Reynolds was admitted to a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana following a stroke, where he died on March 10. The cause of death was pneumonia.
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Part Time Love - Little Johnny Taylor

Little Johnny Taylor (born Johnny Lamont Merrett; February 11, 1943 – May 17, 2002) was an American blues and soul singer, who made recordings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and continued public performances through the 1980s and 1990s.
Born in Gregory, Arkansas, United States, he is frequently confused with his contemporary and near namesake Johnnie Taylor, especially since the latter made a cover version of the song that Little Johnny Taylor was most famous for, "Part Time Love" (1963), and the fact that both men began their careers as gospel singers.

Little Johnny Taylor moved to Los Angeles in 1950, and sang with the Mighty Clouds of Joy before moving into secular music. Influenced by Little Willie John, he first recorded as an R&B artist for the Swingin' record label.

However, he did not achieve major success until signing for San Francisco-based Fantasy Records' subsidiary label, Galaxy. His first hit was the mid-tempo blues "You'll Need Another Favor," sung in the style of Bobby Bland, with arrangement by Ray Shanklin and produced by Cliff Goldsmith. The follow-up, "Part Time Love", became his biggest hit, reaching #1 in the U.S. Billboard R&B chart, and # 19 on the pop chart, in October 1963. However, follow-ups on the Galaxy label were much less successful.

By 1971, Taylor had moved to the Ronn label subsidiary of Jewel Records in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he had his second R&B Top 10 hit with "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing". The following year, he had another hit with "Open House at My House". While at Ronn, Taylor also recorded some duets with Ted Taylor (also unrelated).

Though he recorded only sparingly during the 1980s and 1990s, he remained an active performer until his death in May 2002 in Conway, Arkansas
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Misery Blues - Arbee Stidham

Arbee Stidham (February 9, 1917 – April 1988) was an American blues singer and mufti-instrumentalist, most successful in the late 1940s and 1950s.

He was born in De Valls Bluff, Arkansas, United States, to a musical family - his father played with Jimmie Lunceford and his uncle with the Memphis Jug Band - and learned to play harmonica, clarinet and saxophone as a child.Before his teens he had formed his own band, the Southern Syncopators, which backed Bessie Smith on tour in 1930-31, and played on radio and in clubs in Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee.

In the mid-1940s he moved to Chicago and met Lester Melrose, who signed him to RCA Victor in 1947. His biggest hit, "My Heart Belongs to You", was recorded at his first session, and reached # 1 on the US Billboard R&B chart in June 1948.[2] He spent the rest of his career trying to emulate its success, recording for Checker, States, and other independent record labels as a jazz-influenced blues vocalist. After a car accident made it impossible to play the saxophone, he took up the guitar in the 1950s under the tutelage of Big Bill Broonzy, and played it on his early 1960s recordings for Folkways.

Stidham continued to record occasionally up to the early 1970s, and also made many music festival and club appearances nationwide and internationally. He lectured on the blues at Cleveland State University in the 1970s, and appeared in the film The Bluesman in 1973.

He died in April 1988 in Cook County, Illinois, aged 71.
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Caldonia - Louis Jordan

Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day.

Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who specialized in the alto saxophone but played all forms of the instrument, as well as piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, many of the songs he wrote or co-wrote became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.

Although Jordan began his career in big band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electric organ.

With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".
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We Need to Help Each Other - Lil Mack Simmons

Lil Mack Simmons (January 25, 1933 — October 24, 2000) was an African American, Chicago blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.By the late 1960s, Simmons had redefined his musical style, incorporating an intriguing mix of gospel, country and western, funk, soul and rock influences into his blues. From the mid to late 1970s, he owned and operated the Zodiac Lounge in Chicago. He also owned a studio and recorded for his own labels: PM Records and Simmons Records. In addition he cut blues tracks for Biscayne and Dud Sound, and in the 1980s he recorded for Sky Hero Productions, in which he was a partner.

By the mid-1990s, Mack was back in the studio, cutting Come Back To Me Baby on the Wolf label in 1994 and High And Lonesome for St. George Records the following year.

But it was his 1997 Electro-Fi release, Little Mack Is Back, that proclaimed the revival of Simmons's career, reaping enthusiastic reviews from around the globe. Similarly his current Electro-Fi CD, Somewhere On Down The Line, is racking up worldwide acclaim as word is spreading that Little Mack Simmons is an artist who embodies the best of Chicago blues.
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Rocking Good Way - Eb Davis

The Ambassador of the Blues......a name that has been bestowed upon EB Davis...
A name that he has earned throughout his long years of service to the Blues. Born in the Arkansas Delta and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. As a kid hanging out on Beale Street and learning from the masters like Bobby Bland, B.B. and Albert King, Junior Parker and numerous other greats when Memphis was truly the home of the Blues and the weekly jam sessions in Handy Park had become legendary...

..The sixties found EB in New York where he went on to form The Soul Groovers. The band becoming one of the most important touring bands of the Soul and Blues era. Regularly touring with and supporting people like Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, Ray Charles and B.B. King. ..

..He then migrated to Europe as one of the Drifters and ended up in Berlin, Germany where he was asked to remain for a while and front the popular Bayou Blues Band. One thing led to another and from there came The Radio Kings and then The Superband...

..The following are just a few highlights from an amazing career that has truly been a part of musical history...
EB Davis has more than 19 recordings to his name and can be heard on numerous other recordings as a guest; a career of more than 7000 concerts in more as 60 different countries...
He has been invited to give lectures and seminars on the history of the Blues and its influence on various forms of American music throughout Europe at the request of the US State Department and is the only Bluesman to appear at the Posnan- (Poland) and Bratislava- (Slovakia) State Opera Houses.
In 1994 he was invited to entertain and lecture the Russian soldiers on the history of the Blues and American music and toured nearly all of the East Bloc countries shortly before and after the fall of Communism, performing, giving lectures and seminars on the Blues.
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Spider In My Stew - Buster Benton

Buster Benton (July 19, 1932 – January 20, 1996) was an American blues guitarist and singer, who played guitar in Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars, and is best known for his solo rendition of the Dixon-penned song "Spider in My Stew." He was tenacious and in the latter part of his lengthy career, despite the amputation of parts of both his legs, Benton never stopped playing his own version of Chicago blues.
Arley Benton was born in Texarkana, Arkansas.

Whilst residing in Toledo, Ohio, during the mid 1950s, and having been influenced by Sam Cooke and B.B. King, Benton began playing blues music. By 1959, he was leading his own band in Chicago. During the 1960s, local record labels, such as Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight Records released several Benton singles, before in 1971 he joined Willie Dixon. Indeed, a lack of opportunity in the early 1960s meant that Benton gave up playing professionally for several years, and he worked as an auto mechanic. Benton's earlier work was an amalgam of blues and soul, which he confusingly dubbed 'disco blues'. However, according to Music journalist, Bill Dahl, "in the late 1970s, when the popularity of blues music was at low ebb, Benton's recordings, particularly for Ronn Records, were a breath of fresh air."

Benton became a fixture in Dixon's Blues All-Stars for some time. A 1973 album by Dixon's Blues All-Stars, featuring Benton, The All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon and his Chicago Blues Band, was issued on Spivey.

Dixon was credited as the songwriter of Benton's best known song, "Spider in My Stew." Released on the Shreveport-based Jewel Records label, it gave Benton a modicum of fame, and his 1974 follow-up, "Money Is the Name of the Game", helped to cement his standing. Benton's 1978 effort for Jewel's Ronn Records subsidiary (also titled Spider in My Stew) became recognized as one of the more engaging Chicago blues albums of its time.

Benton recorded three further albums on the Ichiban label, but in comparison to his work on the Ronn label, they were uncommercial. One such LP offering was 1989's, Money's The Name of The Game, produced by Gary B.B. Coleman. Benton also issued a record on the Blue Phoenix label. Benton's fortitude did not go unnoticed. He suffered from the effects of diabetes and received dialysis for the final years of his life. In addition, in 1993, part of his right leg was amputated due to poor circulation, having already lost a portion of the other some ten years previously. He soldiered on, playing his brand of the blues up to his death. However, as journalist, Tony Russell, stated in his book The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, Benton "never found another money spider".

Benton died in January 1996, in Chicago, from the effects of diabetes, at age 63.

His work has appeared on a number of compilation albums, including Chicago Blues Festival: 1969-1986 (2001)
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Take A Little Chance - Jimmy Deberry

Jimmy DeBerry, 17 November 1911, Gumwood, Arkansas, USA - 17 January 1985, Sikeston, Missouri, USA.
De Berry was an active if peripheral member of the Memphis blues community from its heyday during the 20s until the early 50s. He grew up in Arkansas and Mississippi before moving to Memphis to live with his aunt in 1927. Teaching himself to play ukulele and then banjo and guitar, he associated with the likes of Will Shade, Charlie Burse, Jack Kelly, Frank Stokes and a very young Walter Horton. While in East St.
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Who Do You Love - Ronnie Hawkins

Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins (born January 10, 1935) is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life. He is considered highly influential in the establishment and evolution of rock music in Canada.

Also known as Rompin' Ronnie, Mr. Dynamo or simply The Hawk, Hawkins was one of the key players in the 1960s rock scene in Toronto, Canada. Throughout his career, Hawkins has performed all across North America and recorded more than twenty-five albums. His hit songs included covers of Chuck Berry's "Thirty Days" (entitled "Forty Days" by Hawkins) and Young Jessie's "Mary Lou", a song about a "gold digging woman". His other well-known recordings are "Who Do You Love?", "Hey Bo Diddley", and "Suzie Q", which was written by his cousin, the late rockabilly artist Dale Hawkins.

Hawkins is also notable for his role as something of a talent scout and mentor. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of premiere backing musicians via his band, The Hawks. The most successful of those eventually forming The Band, while other musicians Hawkins had recruited provided the makings of Robbie Lane & The Disciples, Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band, Crowbar, Bearfoot and Skylark.Everyone has seen this lineup (the Last Waltz) but the significance of Ronnie and the Band. Ronnie had a band called The Hawks who featured such players as Duane Allman and Roy Buchanan. His primary band in the 60's became Bob Dylans band in the 60's..."The Band".
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Rippin' The Blues! - Michael Burks

Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Michael “Iron Man” Burks stands tall as a major contemporary blues figure. With a nickname earned by his hours-long, intensely physical performances, fearsome guitar attack, tough, smoky vocals and the thousands of miles logged behind the wheel of his touring van, Burks is a modern blues hero. Nobody in today’s blues world successfully bridges searing electric guitar blues with unbridled rock and roll energy like Burks.
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Down By The Riverside - Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American pioneering gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of gospel music in the late 1930s and also became known as the "original soul sister" of recorded music.

Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her inspirational music of 'light' in the 'darkness' of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, her witty, idiosyncratic style also left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the world of pop music, she never left gospel music.
Tharpe's performances were curtailed by a stroke in 1970, after which she had a leg amputated as a result of complications from diabetes. She died in 1973 after another stroke, on the eve of a scheduled recording session. She was buried in Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an unmarked grave. A resurgence in interest in her legendary work has led to a biography, several NPR segments, scholarly articles and honors. In 2007 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2008, a concert was held to raise funds for a marker for her grave and January 11 was declared Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in Pennsylvania. A gravestone was put in place later that year and a Pennsylvania historical marker was approved for placement at her home in the Yorktown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
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Key To The Highway - Steve Pryor and Earl Cate

Arkansas-based Earl and Ernie Cate (Twins born on Dec 26, 1942) were prolific songwriters and singers who blended the blues with elements of rock & roll, country and rockabilly. Pianist/vocalist Ernie and guitarist/vocalist Earl signed to Asylum Records in 1975; their self-titled debut, issued shortly after, included appearances by Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve Cropper, former Band drummer Levon Helm, and former Eagle and Poco member Timothy B. Schmidt. They followed up their debut in 1976 with In One Eye and Out the Other, trailed in 1977 by The Cate Brothers Band. Spurred by the success of the single "Union Man," 1979's Fire on the Tracks reached number 24 on the album rock charts in 1976.
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Floyd Jones, Big Walter, Big John Wrencher, James Smith & Playboy Venson

Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 – December 19, 1989) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, who is significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after World War II. A number of Jones' recordings are regarded as classics of the Chicago blues idiom, and his song "On The Road Again" was a top ten hit for Canned Heat in 1968. Notably for a blues artist of his era, several of his songs have economic or social themes, such as "Stockyard Blues" (which refers to a strike at the Union Stockyards), "Hard Times" or "Schooldays
Jones was born in Marianna, Arkansas. He started playing guitar seriously after being given a guitar by Howlin' Wolf, and worked as an itinerant musician in the Arkansas and Mississippi area in the 1930s and early 1940s, before settling in Chicago in 1945.

In Chicago, Jones took up the electric guitar, and was one of a number of musicians playing on Maxwell Street and in non-union venues in the late 1940s who played an important role in the development of the post-war Chicago Blues sound. This group included Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers, both of who went on to become mainstays of the Muddy Waters band, and also Snooky Pryor, Floyd's cousin Moody Jones and mandolin player Johnny Young. His first recording session in 1947, with Snooky on harmonica and Moody on guitar, produced the sides "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got", which formed one of the two records released by the Marvel Label, and was one of the first examples of the new style on record. A second session in 1949 resulted in a release on the similarly short-lived Tempo-Tone label. During the 1950s Jones also had records released on JOB, Chess and Vee-Jay, and in 1966 he recorded for the Testament label's Masters of Modern Blues series.
Jones continued performing in Chicago for the rest of his life, although he had few further recording opportunities. Later in his career the electric bass became his main instrument. He died in Chicago in December 1989.

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Willie "Big Eyes" Smith funeral services - Bob Corritore correspondent

Sunday, September 25, 2011
Visitation 10 AM to 10 PM
Leaks & Sons Funeral Home
http://www.leakandsonsfuneralhomes.com/
7838 South Cottage Grove, Chicago, IL 60619 Ph:773-846-6567

Monday, Sept 26, 2011
Wake 10am until 11am
Funeral services 11am until noon
South Park Baptist Church
http://southparkbaptistchurch.com/
3720 S. King Drive, Chicago, IL 60653 Ph. 773) 548-6566