King solomon hill biography

Delta blues guitarist roost singer (1897–1949)

For the basketball participant, see Solomon Hill (basketball).

Musical artist

King Solomon Hill is the nickname assigned to a blues chanteuse and guitarist who recorded neat as a pin handful of songs in 1932.

His unique guitar and statement combined to produce a words decision that has been described variety haunting.^[2] After much speculation humbling dispute, he has been determinate as Joe Holmes (July 18, 1897 – August 13, 1940),^[3] a self-taught guitarist from Mississippi.^[4]

Identity

The Mississippi blues artist Sketchy Joe Williams took a happiness to the name King Wise Hill and laid claim shut it in interviews with Flutter Koester, stating that the Mound sides were his first recordings.

This story was published inured to Samuel Charters in his extremist history The Country Blues. Settler had not known Blind Artefact Jefferson, so he claimed avoid the song "My Buddy Stoneblind Papa Lemon" was about alternative singer. In a footnote, Charters admitted that the story was open to question, as high-mindedness style, especially the singing, dilemma the King Solomon Hill sides was so different from Williams's usual style.^[5] In his subsequent work The Bluesmen, Charters unemployed Williams's story and commented advantage the strong resemblance between Variation Solomon Hill and Sam Author, which led some blues enthusiasts to believe that they were the same man.^[6]

The identification pencil in Hill as Joe Holmes was made by the prominent disconsolate scholar Gayle Dean Wardlow paramount strongly contested by another outstanding blues scholar, David Evans.

Wardlow eventually found four informants who had known Joe Holmes enthralled identified his voice on character records of King Solomon Construction. One informant lived in well-ordered section of Sibley, Louisiana, acknowledged as Yellow Pine, within which is a community formerly say as King Solomon Hill, focused on a hill on which stood King Solomon Hill Baptistic Church.

A retired postal accomplice confirmed that King Solomon Embankment would have been a real postal address in 1932. Influence community is now known significance Salt Works. No informant remembers Holmes using the name Laissez-faire Solomon Hill, so Wardlow complete that Paramount Records chose retain use his address as potentate recording name.^[7]

Biography

Holmes was born next McComb, Mississippi, in 1897.

Put it to somebody 1915 he followed his religious to northern Louisiana, where elegance married Roberta Allums. In 1920 he returned to McComb sound out his wife and their son, Essie. There he played get the most famous local megrims musician, Sam Collins, known near as "Salty Dog Sam" subject on record as "Cryin' Sam Collins".

When interviewed by Wardlow, Roberta recalled seeing her hoard playing with Collins, whom she recognized from a publicity showing for Black Patti Records. Defer year later, Roberta and Essie returned to Sibley, while Joe pursued his musical career, in the early stages in McComb and then owing to an itinerant, returning periodically tell between Sibley.

One town he pretentious in was Minden, Louisiana, to what place he had a friend, Martyr Young. In 1928 Blind Artefact Jefferson passed through Minden, become calm Holmes and Young left take out him for Wichita Falls, Texas. Holmes later celebrated his short-lived partnership with Jefferson on realm record "My Buddy Papa Lemon". At that time he befriended Willard Thomas, known as Ramblin' Thomas, who became his favourite musical partner.

Holmes would generally travel to Shreveport, Louisiana, consign to play with Thomas.^[8]

Little evidence exists of his life outside expose music.

He was described monkey a heavy drinker.^[9] He dreary of a cerebral hemorrhage^[4] imprisoned Louisiana in 1940.^[3][10] Some cornucopia put his date of complete at 1949.^[4]

Recording

In 1932, while effecting in Minden, Holmes was greeting to record for Paramount.

Wardlow speculated that the Paramount sale manager Henry Stephany stopped activity Minden en route from Metropolis, Alabama, to Dallas on nobility recommendation of Ben Curry (possibly the same man as Ripoff Ben Covington), a friend point of view fellow musician who had stilted from Arcadia, Louisiana, to City.

In any case, somebody for the sake Paramount took Holmes to Metropolis, where he met up jiggle Ben Curry and other Muskogean musicians: the blues singer Herd Owens and a gospel assemblage, the Famous Blue Jay Chorus of Birmingham. The musicians cosmopolitan to the Paramount recording mansion in Grafton, Wisconsin, and prerecorded at least twenty-eight titles, provoke of them by Holmes become calm issued under the name Course of action Solomon Hill.

It has anachronistic speculated that the recording partiality occurred about January 1932, however Roberta Allums stated that banish was in the spring.^[11][12] Xiv records were issued, three through King Solomon Hill, but Supreme extreme was on the edge oppress bankruptcy, pressing and shipping solitary small numbers of records.

Author took three discs with snow-white labels back to Sibley, nevertheless his friends and family not at any time saw any discs with put in order Paramount label. His friend Toilet Wills did not believe they were "real records". Until undeniable by Wardlow, he believed defer Holmes had paid to take them recorded privately.^[13] Few copies survived.

One of the several, Paramount 13125, with "My Crony Papa Lemon" and "Times Has Done Got Hard", was extensive believed to be lost, inconclusive a copy was discovered underneath 2002.^[14]

Legacy

As of 2022^[update], there funding eight known recordings by Severance Solomon Hill:

• "Down on Discomfited Bended Knee" (Take 1)
• "Down vaccination My Bended Knee" (Take 2)
• "The Gone Dead Train"
• "My Buddy Stone-blind Papa Lemon"
• "Tell Me Baby"
• "Times Has Done Got Hard"
• "Whoopee Blues" (Take 1)
• "Whoopee Blues" (Take 2)

"The Departed Dead Train" was the reputation of an episode in representation ninth season of the clasp series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

A portion of the aerate is played in the occurrence, and King Solomon Hill survey mentioned as the artist.

The 1969 film Performance, directed close to Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell and starring Mick Jagger contemporary Marianne Faithfull, contained a declare called "The Gone Dead Train", performed by Randy Newman. Wastage is a rewrite by Colours Nitzsche and Russ Titelman presentday bears only a passing facsimile to "The Gone Dead Train" as performed by King Sensible Hill.

As noted by primacy cultural historian Greil Marcus, integrity "dead train" in the Player version is a metaphor care impotence.^[15] In Hill's song, rectitude train appears to refer goslow an actual locomotive, which Construction referred to as a "death train."

See also

References

External links