Our Blues
"Our Blues" is a curated photography exhibition intended to expand the participants' view of America's art form, Blues, and how 'Russell City' in Hayward, Calif, influenced a West Coast Blues genre.
West Coast Blues are best described as a type of blues music influenced by jazz and jump blues, with piano-dominated solid sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players who relocated to California in the 1940s. West Coast blues features smooth, honey-toned vocals, frequently crossing into rhythm and blues. West Coast Blues music invariably influenced the traditional sound of Blues when horns replaced the harmonica, and West Coast Blues was born.
W. C. Handy documented Blues' unusual sound in 1903 and later wrote “Memphis Blues" in 1909. Blues and their' jazz counterpart are considered original American music art forms. Beginnings are rooted in the work songs of the enslaved West Africans in the South. During their back-breaking work in the fields of Southern plantations, enslaved people developed a "call and response" way of singing to give rhythm to the struggle of their servitude. The "field hollers" were the foundation of all blues music and eventually much of the famous American music that we know today.
One has to track people, time, and place to grasp the idea of West Coast Blues and Russell City's influence on it. In this case, the people are African American migrants escaping the harsh conditions of the South and the ill-treatment by white southerners.
Between 1910 and 1970 ( Great Black Migration), an estimated six million Black people left the South. 1940 -1970 (Second Migration) stimulated a more significant flow fueled by legislation limiting immigration into the United States. It resulted in the creation of large black urban centers in the Northeast, Midwest, and West. Many West Coast communities in California, such as Oakland, Hayward-Russell City, Pittsburg, Richmond, Vallejo, and Los Angeles, as well as Seattle, Washington, were homes to these people who brought with them their deep roots in the blues.
Russell City was founded in the mid-1880s’ by a Danish immigrant who gave sanctuary to African Americans before and after the Civil War. It was a small landing spot for Blacks in an unincorporated area of Hayward, California, approximately 20 minutes from the City of Oakland. According to archival material highlighted at the Hayward Area Historical Society's Museum, it grew into a bustling and ethnically diverse community.
It was a small community of modest houses and small farms along the bay. For many, it felt like a place to raise a family, develop a business, and expand their cultural and historical practices. Throughout the region, the community was known for its clubs with dirt floors, illegal electricity, and a constant flow of performers playing a unique style of Delta Blues and Texas sounds. Some would later go on to great fame.
Famous Artists included such greats as Etta James, Big Joe Thornton, Lloyd Fulson, Big Mamma Thornton, Amos Milburn, the singer Percy Mayfield, Charles Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, and Lowell Fulson. Finally, T. Bone Walker was a crucial figure in the electrification and urbanization of the West Coast Blues, probably doing more to popularize the electric guitar in the form than anyone else. Much of his material had a distinct jazzy jump blues feel, an influence that would characterize much of the most influential blues to emerge from California in the 1940s and 1950s. His most significant hit was Call It Stormy Monday' (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad).
Over 50 years ago, the city was annexed into the City of Hayward as part of a redevelopment plan that entailed the relocation of residents and businesses and rezoning property for industrial development. It was bulldozed like many other thriving Black communities across the United States. Such action though different in intensity for many, was not unlike the Burning of Black Wall Street.' Russell City is a landmark on the map of American contributions to world culture.
Now the rest of the story! To right this wrong, On November 16, 2021, Hayward voted unanimously to issue a formal apology for the City's historical role in and perpetuating racial discrimination and the racially disparate impacts of its past actions and inactions. Council cited that it participated in decades of federally sponsored urban renewal projects that displaced many communities of color in the 1960s and 1970s. The resolution also called out the past city government and the real estate and banking industry for participating "in the discriminatory practice of redlining.
The Hayward-Russell City Blues Festival, presented every year for the last 25 years, celebrates the rich history, musical and cultural art form found in Russell City and Hayward during the post-war years from the 1940s thru the 1960s. Artists perform on this stage today with great reverence. Some are award-winning artists, and others are performers whose talents are locally known throughout the west coast, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Combined, they continue the legacy of Russell City and its place in influencing the 'West Coast Blues.'
Johnny Bee and Queen Iretta are often referred to as the modern Ike and Tina Turner and have toured together for more than twenty years. The couple was married in 1986 and had a family. Johnnie B was musically schooled in Chicago, and Iretta was born in Tunica, Mississippi. She gained her singing start in church and was later influenced by such greats as Koko Taylor, the Supremes, and Etta James.
They are headline festival favorites across the United States. Their fan base expanded following a renowned 2019 Debut at the Blues Crissier Festival in Switzerland, followed by a tour around Italy that included the Dia Dia club and the Rabbit Club.
According to Blues and Rhythm Magazine United Kingdom, Johnnie B. and Queen Irretta "are under the radar screen." Rentiesville Blues Festival proclaimed Johnnie B and Queen Irreta a world-class act. Morgan Freemans' Zero Ground Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi, exclaimed, Johnnie B and Queen Irretta bring Chicago's best music performance and are also the best-dressed couple. Also, as a duo, they sport one-of-a-kind costumes, as displayed in this exhibition.
De Jeanna Burkes is a Blues, Jazz, and R&B vocalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She enjoys storytelling about the blues genre. She is credited with having a compelling voice that resonates with the spirit and intent of the blues. According to Ronnie Stewart, she is a core of Oakland's Blues Divas and The City of Oakland Music history.
Teddy Bluesmaster Watson, according to Jim Harrington of the Bay Area News Group, is a living, breathing piece of Bay Area music history. He helped define the West Coast blues sound while performing in such landmark local venues as Esther's Orbit Room and the Continental Club in the '50s and '60s. Through the years, Watson has shared the stage with such greats as B.B. King, Solomon Burke, Bobby Blue Bland, and Irma Franklin. He died in 2017.
Bobby Warren was born in 1947 in a place called. Corinth, Mississippi -USA. His musical career began in the church. His first recording was with the Zion Trumpeters on RCA at eight years old. He is a West Coast blues guitarist and vocalist who Started his career in Dayton, OH. He has sung, played, and traveled around the world. In 1964, he took the first soul group to Australia and later went to New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji, and Thailand. He has appeared and supported the Ohio Players, Barry White, Sam and Dave, The Average White Band, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Rydell, Temptations, Stylistics, Miracles, Legendary Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Lowell Fulson, Legendary Frankie Lee, and Charlie Musselwhite, The Poppa Chubby Band, The James Harman Band, Steamin' Stan Ruffo, Duke Robillard, and many more artist! He has recorded four albums- "Make Me Yours, (2003), I slipped (2005) and Pioneers and Legends (2006 ), and "Greatest Hits Volume1" (2011).
Bobby Rush was born Emmett Ellis Jr. outside Homer, Louisiana, in 1933. At eleven, he picked up the guitar, and his preacher father taught him a few riffs on the harmonica. The entire family relocated to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1948.
Bobby Rush is an 85-year-old Grammy-winning and legendary R&B, Soul, Funk, and Blues artist. Rolling Stone calls him "The King of the Chitlin' Circuit" for his constant touring (200 shows a year).
Rush earned his first Grammy Nomination in the new millennium for his 2000 album 'Hoochie Man.' He was nominated again in 2014 for 'Down in Louisiana' and again in 2001 for ' Decisions.' He later won a 2017 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for "Porcupine Meat."
Bobby Rush has earned 12 Blues Music Awards, including the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award and Album of the Year. He co-starred in the 2014 documentary "Take Me to the River" alongside Terrence Howard, Snoop Dogg, and Mavis Staples. That same year, he made his late-night TV debut on The Tonight Show, Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Finally, His autobiography, I Aint Studdin Ya: My American Blues Story via Hatchett books which is famous for publishing some of the world's greatest artists, is available on Amazon. Also, he is honored with a marker on Mississippi Blues Trail and has a street named Rush Way in his honor in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Jock “Shock” Little was born in Piero, Illinois, in 1950 and has played music for more than 25 years. He has been a constant performer at the Russell City Blues Festival in Hayward, California. He started playing in high school and was able to participate in bars and clubs at earlier and learned a great deal about the blues as a result. He has played such greats as Fillmore Slim and Bobby Rush. He was influenced by such great Guitar players as Albert Collins, Lighting Slim and BB King. Currently, he is in the process of developing a CD which will contain his song, “Orleans.” Jocks’Blues say is black people’s history and life. It is our footsteps; its our roots but it is also interchangeable.
Marcus " Mookie " Cartwright was born in 1993 in Stuttgart, Arkansas; his grandmother started him singing at the age of four age of 4 at the church and everywhere else. He got his first guitar from his mom when he was 14. Amite City, Louisiana, is home now. Mookie plays Chicago blues and, according to the field, sounds like the great Willie Johnson, the wolf's guitarist before he moved to North Chicago. Cartwright sings in a rich, warm tenor, enthralling soulful voice. Jontavious Willis and Jerron Paxton are considered the future of the acoustic blues. Cartwright credits David Kimbrough, Big Jack Johnson, and Willie Big Eyes for his evolving style.
He plays mainly around Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. His appearance at the Russell City Blues Festival was his first. He states, " I want to make people happy through playing my music. He is recognized by audiences for his deep Louisiana /Arkansas dialect when singing many of the Blues' standards. He has not released an album.
Sonny Rhodes was born Clarence Edward Mauldin (November 3, 1940 – December 14, 2021) and became known as Sonny Rhodes. He was orphaned as a baby and was adopted by sharecroppers Leroy and Julia Smith. He received his first guitar at eight as a Christmas present and became serious about playing the blues at age 12. After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy and was stationed in California, where he was a radioman and closed-circuit Navy ship disc jockey
Rhodes was an American blues singer and lap steel guitar player that recorded over two hundred songs. He was nominated 15 times for Blues Music Awards and won the category 'Of Instrumentalist. He says, "I am what you call a self-proclaimed Disciple of the Blues!"
He acknowledged as influencers the guitarists L.C Robinson, Pee Wee Crayton, B.B. King, and the singer Percy Mayfield.
Rhodes recorded "The Ballad of Serenity," the theme music for the television series Firefly, written by Joss Whedon, the creator. He recorded a single, "I Do Not Love You No More," in 1966 and another single for Galaxy in 1967. Frustrated with the San Francisco Bay area record companies, he recorded "Cigarette Blues" on his label, Rhodes-Way Records, in 1978. Sonny Rhodes died on December 14, 2021, at 81.
Carl Green was a product of the Oakland schools in Oakland, California. He was once the band director of the Caravan of All-Stars, a popular and powerhouse revue put together to showcase some of the unsung heroes of the West Coast Blues. Notable performances include the inaugural pre-party for President Bill Clinton. The Caravan has performed with Bobby Rush, Etta James, Gladys Knight, and The O'Jays, to name a few. He led the first Rhythm and Blues Band to play in Russell City. A genius on the Sax, he Co-produced 'Songs of Russell City Volume 1." He died in 2021 at the age of 74.
Danielle Woosley was born in 1986 and raised by her grandmother in Vallejo, California. She started playing drums in the church. Ms. Woosley is one of the most sought-after drummers on the blues circuit, and according to Ronnie Steward, Executive Director of the Blues Society, her timing is impeccable. She has not produced an Album or CD to date.
Fillmore Slim was born in 1935 as Clarence Sims in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His musical style mixes New Orleans & West Coast blues, R&B, funk, rap, and soul. He recorded his first hit song, "You Got the Nerve of A Big Brass Monkey," in the 50s.
Fillmore Slim's songwriting talents and musicianship have garnered him several awards, including being inducted into the Bay Area's West Coast Blues Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Lowell Fulson "Jus' Blues" Award in Memphis in 2011. He is in the Black Music Hall of Fame. Accordingly, he is referred to as the Godfather of Hip Hop and is adored by such artists as Snoop Dogg, Ice T, and others. As a Blues singer and guitarist, he has recorded nine full-length critically acclaimed albums, including his recently released Son of the Seven Sisters.
During the '60s and '70s, he was a highly renowned pimp in San Francisco and was often referred to as the West Coast Godfather of the Game. There is a documentary on him entitled, American Pimp." In 2017, he published his memoir, "Blues Man Mack: How I conquered the Stage & the Streets." He states, " I done lived the blues." The blues is about picking cotton, working in the fields, and living in the streets, and I did all these things.
Ronnie Stewart was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1949, a minute or so after his twin sister, Donnie. His family relocated to a house on Adeline Street in West Oakland. Stewart began playing guitar in Oakland-area blues bands during the early '70s. He credits Good Rockin" Robinson for his confidence and determination to pursue the Blues.
Stewarts' passion is the Bay Area Blues Society, founded in 1985. As the Executive Director of the nonprofit organization, he works to improve the lives and careers of Bay Area Blues Artists. He has helped musicians secure paying gigs and has increased local talent exposure through events such as the Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival and the Red, White, and Blues Festival at the Alameda County Fair.
As an Activist, He has also provided significant avenues to remember and honor past champions of the area, mainly through the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame & Award Show, held each March in Oakland. He stages the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame & Award Show every spring with his wife, family, and volunteers. The Society also hosts the Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival, a significant festival venue for Blues artists.
Through his efforts, the Blues Society inducted such notables as former Muddy Waters sideman Pinetop Perkins, guitarist Fillmore Slim, and Santana-vet Coke Escovedo into its hall of fame. He believes we must keep the blues alive to celebrate its past, elevate its present and sustain its future.
Alvon Johnson was born in 1950. He was influenced by great guitar players like Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, and Jimi Hendrix. His vocalist influences were Joe Williams, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra." He learned from such iconic blues artists as John Lee Hooker, Pee Wee Clayton, Harmonica Fats, Lowell Folsom, and Buddy Ace. As a former vocalist with the Rock and Roll Hall of fame group "The Coasters," Alvon's voice is silky and soulful with a classic "old blues man" timbre.
Johnson has earned awards, including the 2015 Music Icon Award from the Black Music Association & Academy of America: Best Male Blues Artist. In 2005, he was voted "Guitar Player" of the year. His CD, The Blues Grew up, was nominated for "Outstanding Blues Album" in 2004 and voted top ten CD in Japan in 2005. His 2008 CD "Guitars and Cars" was voted in the top ten CDs by the prestigious Blues magazine " Real Blues. Finally, Alvon was Nominated for the "Entertainer of the Year Award" by the International Music and Entertainment Association.
In Russia, Alvon is referred to as the "King and Ambassador of the Blues." Many artists have recorded the songs he wrote, including Wyclef Jean, B.B. King, James Brown, and The Staple Singers. Rolling Stone named his 1979 LP Rush Hour one of the Top 10 Blues albums of the 1970s.
Carl Weathersby was born in 1953 in Jackson, Mississippi, and moved to East Chicago, Indiana, with his family when he was eight. He was Albert King's rhythm guitarist between 1979 and 1982.
He once said, "The Blues has got to change, or it will die." his debut solo album, 'Do not Lay Your Blues On Me,' was nominated for the W.C. Handy's Blues Album of the Year Award. He received three Living Blues Magazine Critics' Award nominations for his composition " The Blues Follow Me Around." His 4th CD, "Come to Papa," was nominated for two W.C. Handy Awards. The CD was at the top of the blues charts in Japan and was #1 in February 2001.
