The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #63566   Message #1033546
Posted By: Mark Clark
11-Oct-03 - 12:33 AM
Thread Name: Tech Talk: Piedmont Style playing
Subject: RE: Tech Talk: Piedmont Style playing
Fulton Allen (aka Blind Boy Fuller) only recorded for a short time but his recordings were very popular. In addition to working with Gary Davis he also had collaborations with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, though not at the same time. Brownie McGhee was highly influenced by Fuller and really belongs in the list of Piedmont blues players. Following Fuller's death, McGhee's records were issued under the nom de plume Blind Boy Fuller II.

Here is a short Fuller bio quoted from ArtistDirect.com.

Unlike blues artists like Big Bill or Memphis Minnie who recorded extensively over three or four decades, Blind Boy Fuller recorded his substantial body of work over a short, six-year span. Neverthless, he was one of the most recorded artists of his time and by far the most popular and influential Piedmont blues player of all time. Fuller could play in multiple styles: slide, ragtime, pop, and blues were all enhanced by his National steel guitar. Fuller worked with some fine sidemen, including Davis, Sonny Terry, and washboard player Bull City Red. Initially discovered and promoted by Carolina entrepreneur H. B. Long, Fuller recorded for ARC and Decca. He also served as a conduit to recording sessions, steering fellow blues musicians to the studio.

In spite of Fuller's recorded output, most of his musical life was spent as a street musician and house party favorite, and he possessed the skills to reinterpret and cover the hits of other artists as well. In this sense, he was a synthesizer of styles, parallel in many ways to Robert Johnson, his contemporary who died three years earlier. Like Johnson, Fuller lived fast and died young in 1942, only 33 years old. Fuller was a fine, expressive vocalist and a masterful guitar player best remembered for his uptempo ragtime hits "Rag Mama Rag," "Trucking My Blues Away," and "Step It Up and Go." At the same time he was capable of deeper material, and his versions of "Lost Lover Blues" or "Mamie" are as deep as most Delta blues. Because of his popularity, he may have been overexposed on records, yet most of his songs remained close to tradition and much of his repertoire and style is kept alive by North Carolina and Virginia artists today. ~ Barry Lee Pearson, All Music Guide

A characteristic of Piedmont players seems to be their diversity of material. They don't play from a single genre but include all kinds of pieces. Compare, for instance, Gary Davis' U.S. March and Elizabeth Cotten's Graduation March. Both great show pieces, one still wouldn't necessarily associate those tunes with folk blues.

Fuller's recording of Baby Let Me Lay It On You is an original source, via Eric von Schmidt, for Bob Dylan's Baby Let Me Follow You Down. Of course Rev. Gary Davis claimed to have been the original composer.

      - Mark