Just got this press release, which will probably be of interest to some folks here! - Mary Katherine (no affiliation whatever)


BLIND ARVELLA GRAY'S ONLY ALBUM TO BE REISSUED ON CD WITH BONUS TRACKS, UNSEEN PHOTOS AND DELUXE PACKAGING, WILL KICK OFF NEW CONJUROO RECORDINGS LABEL

Dobro-Playing Chicago 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.

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.

The album will be available at fine retail stores through Emergent/RED. Copies will be available from http://www.conqueroo.com/conjuroo/ or by mail from Conjuroo Recordings, 13351-D Riverside Dr. #655, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423-2450.