Confession time - I'd never heard of Peetie Wheatstraw until now which may go some way to explaining why The Devil's Son-in- Law weighs in at number 82 in The Blues Collection.
He was born William Burch on December 21st 1902 in Ripley, Tennessee and adopted the name Peetie Wheatstraw from early African American Folk tradition. Coincidentally he died aged 39 on the same date in 1941 in East St Louis.
He was quite prolific recording 161 songs which was only surpassed by Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy,Lonnie Johnson and Bumblebee Slim.
All but two of his records were issued under the names "Peetie Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-in-Law" and "Peetie Wheatstraw, the High Sheriff from Hell"
It seem appropriate then that the two songs I have selected are Devil's Son-in-Law (Chicago 1931) and Gangster's Blues (New York 1940)
More Blues Collection artists soon
I only know of him from the line to Tom Russell/ Barrence Whitfield's "Cowboy Mambo": "Peetie Wheatstraw and I.K. Dairo, riding the range with the Mighty Sparrow. You have already featured Sparrow this week, will there be some I.K. Dairo tomorrow?
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/TvDLDkeAaog?si=3zG9oG-PcB4PVM6p
Unlikely
DeleteHe's not from Bellshill
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