Blind Arvella Gray’s only album, 1980s The Singing Drifter was reissued on the Conjuroo label in 2005. Reissue producer was Cary Baker, who wrote the liner notes for the original Birch Records vinyl LP.
BLIND ARVELLA GRAY PLAYED CHICAGO’S STREETS AND BOB DYLAN WAS A FAN
GRAY’S ONLY LP TO BE REISSUED ON CD WITH BONUS TRACKS, UNSEEN PHOTOS AND DELUXE PACKAGING, WILL KICK OFF NEW CONJUROO RECORDINGS LABEL
Dobro-Playing Street Singer Was Urban Link to Field Hollers and Folk Blues
SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. — The only album by Blind Arvella Gray, a nearly forgotten street singer who spent the latter part of his life performing folk, blues and gospel music at Chicago’s Maxwell Street flea market and at rapid-transit depots, will receive a deluxe reissue on August 2, 2005. The album, The Singing Drifter, was originally released in 1972 on vinyl and fewer than 1,000 copies were sold. Unavailable for more than 30 years, the album will be released as a CD with full liner notes, extensive photography and three bonus tracks.
The reissue kicks off the new Conjuroo Recordings label, an indie record company headed by Cary Baker, president of the music publicity company called conqueroo based in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Conjuroo is marketed by Emergent Music Marketing and distributed through RED Distribution.
As a teenager in Chicago in the ’70s, Baker made several forays to Maxwell Street to watch Gray, and was even responsible for connecting the artist with label that released Drifter, the Wilmette, Ill.-based Birch Records. Until it recorded Gray, Birch had specialized in traditional country artists of the WLS Barndance lineage including Doc Hopkins and Patsy Montana.
Birch Records only released a handful of vinyl LPs, and had gone dormant by the inception of the CD. The Blind Arvella Gray album became a hot item, on collectors’ want lists for years. Finally, in 2004, Baker developed a strong desire to reissue the recording. It was not easy to find Birch Records founder David Wylie, who maintained no web site, nor even an email address.
To reissue the album, Baker set upon launching Conjuroo Records and enlisted the services of Grammy Award-winning art director Susan Archie of w0rld of aNarchie, who oversaw innovative packages for Revenant reissues by Charley Patton and Albert Ayler. Additionally, Wylie found three unreleased tracks, which have been added to the release.
Arvella Gray (real name James Dixon) was born in Texas in 1906 and was blinded in the ‘30s, possibly while holding up a bank, possibly in Peoria (he never told the story the same way twice). Arriving in Chicago in the ‘40s, he brought the music of the cotton fields and chain gangs to the industrial North, proving an unheralded missing link to the origins of American folk music, blues and gospel. His repertoire included many standards, such as the chain gang standard “John Henry” and the traditional country song “More Pretty Girls Than One,” while touching on the gospel tradition with songs like “Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave it There.” He accompanied himself on slide National Dobro — an instrument that was later sold on eBay. His fans included Bob Dylan, whose 1961 song “He Was a Friend of Mine” was said to have been borrowed from Gray.
Arvella Gray died in Chicago in 1981. “My father took me to the Maxwell Street flea market to show me where his Eastern European immigrant parents had shopped in the ‘30s and ‘40s,” says Baker. “In the ensuing years, it had become a hotbed for blues artists including Muddy Waters and Big Walter Horton, whose music was heard under the din of CTA buses and flea market hawkers on bullhorns augmented by the aroma of Polish sausages and onions grilling nearby. By the time I visited, Gray was among a handful of surviving buskers who continued to hold forth on Sunday mornings. I was taken by the unique sound and authenticity of his music. In historical perspective, Gray’s wailing slide Dobro stands in a category with Hound Dog Taylor, R.L. Burnside or Junior Kimborough — wild, unruly and imperfect. This album quietly slipped between the cracks and it is my privilege and honor to turn a new generation on to this unforgettable street singer.”
The album will be available at fine retail stores through Emergent/RED. Copies will be available from http://www.conjuroo.com or by mail ($16 in U.S., $18 internationally in U.S. funds) from Conjuroo Recordings, Conjuroo Recordings 11271 Ventura Blvd. #522
Studio City, CA 91604
Source: BLIND ARVELLA GRAY
John Henry
Blind Arvella Gray Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Line a track and I can carry a jack, pick and shovel too, lord lord pick and shovel too
John Henry said to the captain, captain how that can be
Got forty nine men on your job, you hurry nobody but me, lord lord, hurry nobody but me
John Henry was a still driving man lord lord, Henry was a railroad man
When John Henry was sick and in his bad, she drove steel like a natural man, lord lord, she drove steel like a natural man
John Henry had a little wife and she began to sing
Said you don't have to worry as long as I can make this hammer ring, lord lord, as long as I can make this hammer ring
Well a peck woodpecker would woodpecker would make your head so red
I been working all the levee and the sun done by in my head, lord lord sun done by in my head
Says he where did you get your pretty little shoes woman, you dress so fine
Got the shoe off of Maxwell, I got to dress up a (?) lord lord, I got to dress up a (?) man
John Henry was a still driving man lord lord, Henry was a railroad man
John Henry went to his woman's house, told her to turn down her bed
Says he was sick and he had to lay down, he had a mighty hurtin' in his head, lord lord, mighty hurtin' in his head
Now John Henry died up in the mountain, they buried him in the clay
And the last words I heard him say Never let your woman have a way, lord lord, Never let your woman have a way
John Henry was a still driving man lord lord, Henry was a railroad man
Blind Arvella Gray's song "John Henry" opens with the foreman asking John Henry what he can do in response to a job request. John Henry replies by saying he can lay a track, carry a jack, pick and shovel too. This indicates that he is a skilled and hardworking man with a plethora of experience. He then meets the captain who appears to be skeptical of John Henry's ability to do the job but is left amazed when John Henry hurries faster than any of the other 49 men on the job.
The lyrics also mention John Henry's wife Polly Ann, who is just as hardworking as he is. When John Henry fell ill, Polly Ann took over and drove steel like a natural man. The song also includes a verse where John Henry meets a woman with pretty shoes who tells him she got the shoe off of Maxwell and she has to dress up a (blank). This verse is somewhat enigmatic, but it seems to indicate John Henry's observation of another person's hard work and dedication.
Overall, "John Henry" is a tribute to the hardworking men and women who were instrumental in building America's railroads. It is a testament to their strength, dedication, and perseverance in the face of adversity.
Line by Line Meaning
Well the foreman said to John Henry, he said what can you do?
The foreman asked John Henry what he was capable of doing.
Line a track and I can carry a jack, pick and shovel too, lord lord pick and shovel too
John Henry could lay railroad tracks and also had the strength to carry tools.
John Henry said to the captain, captain how that can be
John Henry asked the captain how he was the only one being hurried despite having forty nine men on the job.
Got forty nine men on your job, you hurry nobody but me, lord lord, hurry nobody but me
Despite having forty nine other men on the job, John Henry was being rushed and pressured to work faster.
John Henry was a still driving man lord lord, Henry was a railroad man
John Henry was a hard-working man who laid railroad tracks.
John Henry had a little wife her name was Polly Ann
John Henry had a wife named Polly Ann.
When John Henry was sick and in his bad, she drove steel like a natural man, lord lord, she drove steel like a natural man
When John Henry was sick, his wife Polly Ann took over and worked as hard as he did, like a natural steel driver.
John Henry had a little wife and she began to sing
John Henry's wife Polly Ann started singing a song.
Said you don't have to worry as long as I can make this hammer ring, lord lord, as long as I can make this hammer ring
Polly Ann reassured John Henry that she could handle the work as long as she could continue to strike her hammer.
Well a peck woodpecker would woodpecker would make your head so red
Working on the levee under the sun had made John Henry's head ache like being pecked by a woodpecker.
I been working all the levee and the sun done by in my head, lord lord sun done by in my head
John Henry's head hurt from working in the sun all day long.
Says he where did you get your pretty little shoes woman, you dress so fine
John Henry asked his wife where she had gotten her nice shoes, observing how well dressed she was.
Got the shoe off of Maxwell, I got to dress up a (?) lord lord, I got to dress up a (?) man
Polly Ann replied that she had gotten the shoe off of Maxwell and that she wanted to dress up her man.
John Henry went to his woman's house, told her to turn down her bed
John Henry went to his wife's house and asked her to prepare the bed for him to rest in.
Says he was sick and he had to lay down, he had a mighty hurtin' in his head, lord lord, mighty hurtin' in his head
John Henry was too sick to work and had a severe headache.
Now John Henry died up in the mountain, they buried him in the clay
John Henry died in the mountains and was buried in the earth.
And the last words I heard him say Never let your woman have a way, lord lord, Never let your woman have a way
John Henry's last words were to never let a woman have control or power over a man.
Contributed by Camilla K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Dave Jones
So few comments I can't believe it this man was a master
Mark Hubbell
Favorite artist from my childhood -- leading the Market Sunday Parade, down on Maxwell Street.
Dave Jones
@Mark Hubbell . I saw him in Detroit. It was a cold day, but he was out there.
Cary Baker
This album is available at conjuroo dot com