Woodrow Adams

[stefanwirz]

Illustrated Woodrow Adams discography

[Admin]

Highly under-recorded

[alanbalfour]

Highly under-recorded indeed. The following represent the first two features published about Adams. Goes to show how much knowledge had been gleaned, in a space of seven years.


RHYTHM
& BLUES
By ANTHONY ROTANTE
Record Research Issue 33, March 1961 p.14

WOODROW ADAMS
Judging by his recording endeavors (Checker 757 and Meteor 5018) WOODROW ADAMS
is one of the most primitive blues singers on wax today. His unorthodox weird free verse with a musical background strongly marked by oriental overtones (Pretty Baby Blues) is really something to hear.

WOODROW ADAMS & THE THREE B’S (vo); unknown (har); (2 gs); (d) 1952

1030 CHECKER 757 PRETTY BABY BLUES (Adams)
1031 CHECKER 757 SHE’S DONE COME AND GONE (Adams)

WOODROW ADAMS WITH BOOGIE BLUES BLASTERS (vo); unknown (har); (2 gs); (d)
Circa 1954

M.R. 5033 METEOR 5018 BABY YOU JUST DON’T KNOW (W. Adams-Leslo)
M.R. 5034 METEOR 5019 WINE HEAD WOMAN KNOW (W. Adams-Leslo)

(No Details) HOME OF THE BLUES 109 SOMETHING ON MY MIND
HOME OF THE BLUES 109 SAD AND BLUE

Circa 1960


THE WOODROW ADAMS STORY
David Evans

(First published in Blues Unlimited 55, July 1968, p., 7-8. Reprinted in Leadbitter: Nothing But The Blues, Hanover Books 1971, p. 142-144)

Woodrow Adams lives right off Highway 61, north of Robinsonville, Mississippi, on the boundary between DeSoto and Tunica countries. Here he drives a tractor on a plantation and occasionally plays blues on a Saturday night at a local club or up in West Memphis. But he is finding that there is less and less demand for the blues. The people around there mostly favour 'jump numbers' and the big hits of people like James Brown, Little Milton, and Bobby Bland. He is forced to play the latest hits for the teenagers and finds that only a few people like the older blues pieces. If he plays one old song, about a dozen teenagers will come up and ask for a James Brown number.

Woodrow was born in 1917 at Tchula, Mississippi. As a child he moved to Minter City, where he learned music. He and another boy, L.C. Green, "just taken it up." They would string a piece of wire up on the wall and play it with a bottleneck. One boy would pick the string and the other would play harmonica. Thus they became proficient on both instruments. Both men later made records, and Woodrow last heard that Green was living in Pontiac, Michigan.

Eventually Woodrow bought a guitar and began playing behind phonograph records. But he doesn't seem to have done much music until he moved to Robinsonville sometime in the 1940's, Here he began playing with Howlin' Wolf, who was also a local resident. Wolf became a major influence on Woodrow's music. He seems to have picked up a number of musical ideas including the falsetto 'yodelling' from Wolf, although he claims that he isn't' copying' Wolf. Actually, Woodrow first met Howlin' Wolf in Minster City when he was seventeen years old. But he didn't play music with Wolf until he came to Robinsonville. This must have been in the 1940's, because he says he never played with Son House and doesn't remember Robert Johnson there. (He does remember Willie Brown, although he didn't know him well).

Other local musicians he has played with are Robert Nighthawk, Robert Junior Lockwood, Sonny Boy Williamson, Houston Stackhouse, Joe Hill Louis and Willie Nix, who is living now in West Memphis.

Woodrow has made three records and claims to have played on one record by Joe Hill Louis. He says his last record was in 1963. When he was making them, he would write out the words, practise the pieces, and time them. The Checker coupling is by far his best effort. 'Pretty Baby Blues' is in the Howlin' Wolf style and is quiet good. The Meteor sides as less interesting though still worthwhile, but the Home Of The Blues numbers are pretty awful. The instruments are badly out of tune with each other. But this probably isn't Woodrows' fault. Anyone who has dealings with the people at Home Of The Blues can well imagine their lack of concern for such details. Undoubtedly this session was a rush job, the consequent poor results being a feature of Home Of The Blues records.

One result of his recording activity is that Woodrow seems to have become a studio engineer of sorts himself. He owns a small home model tape recorder and likes to make tapes of himself. This would not be so unusual, but Woodrow has carried it a step further by doing primitive overdubbing. He first records himself singing and playing guitar. Then he plays this back into the microphone of another machine, while at the same time he or someone else plays another instrument, such as drums, second guitar or piano. This process is repeated until the final ensemble sound is achieved. I dubbed several of these tapes he had made in 1961, and on one he sang and played two guitars and a drum. The resultant sound can only be described as weird. This is the only time I've ever heard a guitar sound like an accordion. Woodrow is very proud of these tapes and likes to play them for his friends who are always properly mystified at how he achieves such a sound.

Woodrow's band today has three pieces, Woodrow sings and plays either harmonica or guitar. His step-son, Curtis Allen, plays guitar in an early Chicago style, usually playing bass lines. The drummer is Fiddlin' Joe Martin, Son House's old partner. Joe has a three piece drum set—bass, snare and cymbal. With this he lays down a simple solid beat. The overall sound is very solid and down-home, perfectly suited for a loud juke joint. I recorded a number of really fine pieces by this group, far better than Woodrow's recent records. I tried to concentrate on his older material. On harmonica he did fine versions of "Sitting On Top Of The World', 'Mean Mistreater' and 'How Long'. His harp playing is a spare succession of single notes, very effective with amplification. On guitar he did 'Rolling And Tumbling' and instrumental, 'Pony Blues', and 'Get Up In The Morning'. These last two are in the Howlin' Wolf vein. On these, and 'Rolling And Tumbling' he used a bottle neck, although he stayed in standard tuning. (Muddy Waters and Robert Nighthawk have also done this). His guitar is also spare but effective, though perhaps not as good as his harmonica work.