Peetie Wheatstraw (December 21, 1902 – December 21, 1941) was the name adop… Read Full Bio ↴Peetie Wheatstraw (December 21, 1902 – December 21, 1941) was the name adopted by singer William Bunch, a greatly influential figure among 1930s blues singers. Although the only known picture of Bunch shows him holding a National brand tricone resonator guitar, his primary instrument was the piano.

Wheatstraw was born William Bunch in Ripley, Tennessee but grew up in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, where his family relocated soon after his birth. Little is known of his early life, other than that he took up playing both the piano and guitar at a young age.

Bunch left Cotton Plant in 1927 and began living the life of an itinerant musician traveling throughout the Deep South. Like many African Americans of this time period, the great migration eventually drew his attention to the cities of the North. Places such as Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit were favoured destinations, due to the wealth of employment in the factories located in these cities. St. Louis was another city that drew its share of uprooted individuals who sought a better life than that offered by the toil of sharecropping. It was in St. Louis that Bunch landed in 1929.

Having honed his musical talents while travelling, and influenced by the popularity of the Blues duet of pianist Leroy Carr and guitar player Scrapper Blackwell, Bunch found easy work in the clubs of both St. Louis and East St. Louis on the other side of the Mississippi River.

It was around this time Bunch decided to change his name to Peetie Wheatstraw. He also called himself "The Devil's Son-in-Law" and this title is under his name starting with his earliest recordings.

Wheatstraw's self-promotion swiftly paid off as he became a popular performer in East St. Louis, to the extent that he was asked to Chicago in 1930 to partake in recording sessions. He first entered the Vocalion Studios on August 13, 1930, and recorded a handful of numbers which included "Four O'Clock In The Morning" and "Tennessee Peaches Blues". Over the following decade, he would make several such treks, recording over 160 sides for the Vocalion, Decca and Bluebird labels.

Wheatstraw was known for his laid-back approach and adept singing and songwriting, though his instrumental talents were average at best. His songwriting appealed to working class minorities, due to their nature of the content—he often wrote about social issues such as unemployment and public assistance. There were also pieces about the immoral ways of loose women, and true to his own self-publicity, death and the supernatural. Almost all of his songs included his trademark "Ooh, well well", usually accentuated in the third verse, and this has been carried on by many subsequent Bluesmen, most noteworthy today being R.L. Burnside.

On his records Wheatstraw is occasionally heard playing guitar, but he usually took to the piano and required a guitarist to play with him—among his collaborators were Kokomo Arnold, Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Jordan, Charlie McCoy and Teddy Bunn, in addition to pianist Champion Jack Dupree. On some of his last dates, Peetie Wheatstraw recorded within a jazz inspired framework, collaborating with Lil Armstrong and trumpeter Jonah Jones.

Wheatstraw's influence was enormous during the 1930s. Perhaps the most obvious example of Wheatstraw's impact can be seen in the writings of Robert Johnson, often considered the most important Blues figure of the era. Many of Johnson's own recordings were actually re-workings of other popular artists of the time, and he drew heavily from Wheatstraw's repertoire.

Working On the Project
Peetie Wheatstraw Lyrics

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Working On The Project Trk 15 Disc 1 3:02
Peetie Wheatstraw (William Bunch)
(Jordan)
March 30, 1937 Decca 7311
Peetie Wheatstraw - vocal & piano
With Kokomo Arnold - gtr
Album: Peetie Wheatstraw Essentials Album
Allego Classic Blues CBL 200037

I was workin' on the project
Beggin' for relief for shoes
I was workin' on the project
Beggin' for relief for shoes
Because the rock an concrete
Hoo-well-well, now they giving my feet the blues

Workin' on the project
With holes all in my clothes
Workin' on the project
With holes all in my clothes
Tryin' to make me a dime
To keep the rent man from puttin me outdo's

I am workin' on the project
Tryin' to make both ends meet
I am workin' on the project
Tryin' to make ends meet
But the payday is so long
Woo-well-well, until the grocery man won't let me eat

Workin' on the project
My gal spending all my dough
Workin' on the project
My gal spending all my dough
Now I have waked up on her
Ooh-well-well, and I won't be that weak no mo'

Workin' on the project
With payday three or four weeks away
Workin' on the project
With payday three or four weeks away
Now, how can you make they meet
Ooo-well-well-well, when you can't get no pay?

Overall Meaning

The song "Working On The Project" by Peetie Wheatstraw, released in 1937, paints a vivid picture of the struggles of a worker on a government-funded public works program during the Great Depression. The opening lines of the song describe the singer's desperate plea for relief in the form of shoes, as the unforgiving concrete and rock at the project site have taken their toll on his feet. The harsh conditions on the project are also reflected in his clothes, which are full of holes, and he is working hard just to keep up with his rent payments.

The singer is clearly frustrated and exhausted by the conditions on the project, and his efforts to make ends meet are constantly thwarted by the long wait for payday, which can be three or four weeks away. Despite his struggles, he has a girlfriend who is spending all of his hard-earned money, adding to the singer's troubles. However, in the final verse, he shows a glimmer of hope and determination, declaring that he will no longer let anyone take advantage of him.

Overall, "Working On The Project" is a powerful commentary on the harsh realities of life during the Great Depression, and it showcases Peetie Wheatstraw's ability to capture the pain and desperation of working-class Americans during this difficult time in history.

Line by Line Meaning

I was workin' on the project Beggin' for relief for shoes
I was working on a construction project, but my shoes were in such bad shape that I had to beg for new ones.

Because the rock an concrete Hoo-well-well, now they giving my feet the blues
Walking on rocks and concrete all day was hurting my feet.

Workin' on the project With holes all in my clothes
My clothes were in such bad condition from working on the project that they had holes in them.

Tryin' to make me a dime To keep the rent man from puttin me outdo's
I was working hard to make money so I could pay my rent and avoid being evicted.

I am workin' on the project Tryin' to make ends meet
I'm working on the project to make enough money to meet my financial obligations.

But the payday is so long Woo-well-well, until the grocery man won't let me eat
It takes so long to get paid that I couldn't afford to buy food from the grocery store.

My gal spending all my dough Now I have waked up on her Ooh-well-well, and I won't be that weak no mo'
My girlfriend was spending all my money, but I finally realized what was happening and won't let it happen anymore.

Workin' on the project With payday three or four weeks away
I was working on the project even though payday was several weeks away.

Now, how can you make they meet Ooo-well-well-well, when you can't get no pay?
It's impossible to make ends meet without getting paid, which is taking too long.

Contributed by Cooper C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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