On Tuesday the New York Times reported on the death of Rosetta Reitz, one of the few women to actively research the blues. She was 84. Among many other things, she created the label Rosetta Records, which issued multiple albums of women’s blues and jazz. From the article:

Ms. Reitz started Rosetta Records in 1979 with $10,000 she had borrowed from friends. Her routine was to scout out lost music, usually through record collectors. She then supervised the remastering of records that were often severely damaged; researched and wrote detailed liner notes; and designed graphics and found period photographs for the album covers. She personally wrapped each order and took it to the post office for shipment. (Around a dozen stores later carried the Rosetta label.)

Over the years Ms. Reitz went from vinyl recordings to tapes to CDs. She refused to give sales figures, but she did tell The Los Angeles Times that the four titles in her “independent women’s blues” series of compilations — including “Mean Mothers” — sold around 20,000 copies each. Some albums centered on themes like railroads or prisons.

The prison album, “Jailhouse Blues,” was issued in tandem with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and contained recordings made of female prisoners at Parchman Farm in 1936 and 1939. Blues historian Sam Charters wrote an article about Reitz that centered on “Jailhouse Blues” in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Living Blues.

A week ago I posted about a tribute to soul great O.V. Wright that was held up in Memphis at Ground Zero this past Saturday. I unfortunately was feeling sick and didn’t make it, but I heard that it was a great show. I’m glad to see that the Wall Street Journal is featuring an extensive review, with information about the successful efforts to place a tombstone on Wright’s unmarked grave.

The Houston Press has an article about Mack McCormick, who did pioneering blues research in the 1960s on Texas artists such as Lightnin’ Hopkins, who he recorded extensively, as well as on Robert Johnson. The article focuses on McCormick’s reaction to the recent article in Vanity Fair on a purported new photograph of  Johnson.

McCormick is thought to have another picture of Johnson, but although he spent years working on a biography of Johnson, it appears that he has lost interest and his research won’t come to the surface. For those who want to know more about McCormick, look up a April 2002 profile of him in Texas Monthly, previewed here. There’s also a website dedicated to trying to preserve his vast archive.

From the Tuscaloosa News:

Cincinnati’s King Records, owned by Syd Nathan, was one of the great labels of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, but hasn’t been well represented on CD for the last decades given its importance. It initially specialized in country music, with artists including the Delmore Brothers, Grandpa Jones, Reno & Smiley and the Stanley Brothers, but soon also became a major blues and R&B label. Artists who recorded for King and its subsidiary Federal label included Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, Tiny Bradshaw, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Billy Ward and the Dominoes, the 5 Royales, Little Willie John, Freddie King, Ike Turner, Champion Jack Dupree and perhaps most notably, James Brown. 

The cover story of this week’s Cincinnati City Beat is on the dedication of a historic marker on Nov. 23 at the site of King’s former headquarters, and of plans to eventually build there a music education center in King’s honor. There’s also a related story on bluegrass great and former King artist Ralph Stanley (who, incidentally, helped deliver Virginia to Obama)..

There’s a nice page on King at the Cincinnati Public Library website, with links to articles including a longish history of the label by music writer Larry Nager.

That’s the provocative - if unfortunate - title of a feature in Vanity Fair magazine which includes an interview with Roger Stolle, proprietor of the Cat Head Blues and Folk Art store in Clarksdale, and Jeff Konkel, the owner of Broke and Hungry Records. They’re the producers of the new blues documentary “M for Mississippi.”

Above: Stolle, Konkel and bluesman Terry “Harmonica” Bean at the Ground Zero Blues Club.

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Last week the Jackson Free Press also ran a story on the film by Larry Morrisey

Alyce Burnside, widow of the late R.L. Burnside, holds one of her grandchildren while son Joseph Burnside plays blues on the front porch of the family's trailer near Chulahoma, MS. Photo by Bill Steber

 Alyce Mae Burnside, the matriarch of the Burnside family, died on Saturday. She usually attended R.L.’s gigs in the area, and I feel lucky to have visited some of the annual birthday picnics in her honor. She and R.L., who died in 2005, were married for over fifty years, and had thirteen children, many of whom were musicians.

You can listen to R.L.’s song “Alice Mae” here.

UPDATE: 

Alyce Burnside’s funeral will be held at 11:00 AM on Sat Nov 22nd at Chulahoma Church on Highway 4 just south of Holly Springs.

I got the word the other day that blues singer Mae Mercer had died. I can’t say I was too familiar with her work, and it appears as though the North Carolina-born performer had enjoyed her greatest popularity as a blues singer while working in Paris in the ’60s. Here is an obit from the L.A. Times, which also addresses her film career.

The following video is from the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe in 1964, and features Mercer performing together with Sonny Boy Williamson II.

photo by Bill Steber

Our condolences to Sam Carr of Lula, one of the greatest drummers in the blues, whose wife Doris died this morning. 

I just got this news report from Roger Stolle in Clarksdale:

SAD NEWS FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA…

Mrs. Doris Carr of Lula, Mississippi, passed away early this morning at age 80, according to long-time Carr Family friend and former Rooster Blues co-owner Patty Johnson of Clarksdale.

Known by many as the beloved wife of legendary blues drummer Sam Carr, Miss Doris was also a blues singer in her own right and a care taker of other Deltans in the past. She is survived by her husband, Sam Carr — the son of slide guitar master Robert Nighthawk and drummer of the world-famous Jelly Roll Kings. Sam and Doris Carr have been together since she was 13 years old. Mrs. Carr had been in poor health for some time. Mr. Carr still resides in Lula.

UPDATE:  Doris Carr Memorial Information:

Visitation is Friday, November 21, 2008 from 5pm-7pm. Doris’s “Homegoing Celebration” services will be held at 12noon on Saturday, November 22. BOTH at:

Century Funeral Home (click for map)

506 Ashton Ave.
Clarksdale, MS 38614
(662) 627-4182

My good friend Joe Rosen, one of the leading blues photographers, just returned from a 12-day tour of Iraq and Kuwait to document the second edition of the Bluzapalooza tour to entertain the troops. This year’s performers included Shemekia Copeland, Michael Burks, and Jackson native Zac Harmon. Upon returning Joe submitted a disc of photos to the New York Daily News, hoping they’d run a couple, but instead they put up a 53 picture slide show.