T-Bone Walker is probably best known for composing Stormy Monday, but he was so much more than that. He's been gone for 45 years as I write this, but his contribution to blues music will never die. An early pioneer of the electric guitar in the late 1930s, he pretty much single-handedly established the guitar as a lead instrument by playing solo runs on single strings (as opposed to just rhythm chords). And he was fun to watch, too. He'd do splits and play his guitar with his teeth and behind his neck.
Sound familiar?
By the time he was admitted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, none of his early recordings had been available for something like 15 years - until Mosaic Records released this incredible 9-LP box set in 1990.
And what a set!
When it was released it only cost $81 (US), and I jumped on it. It was one of the fastest selling - if not the fastest selling - box set in the company's history. In addition to the records, it also includes a booklet with a full discography and essays by Billy Vera and Helen Oakley Dance, the author of the 1987 T-Bone Walker biography, Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story. The set is also available on CD, but why bother with that when you can have this?
Nobody researched box sets like Mosaic. And their attention to getting the sound perfect is second to none. T-Bone has never before sounded this good! The original version of Stormy Monday can be found here, which I bet you haven't heard - and it also sounds like nothing you've ever heard before, too.
T-Bone was born in Linden, Texas, in 1911. His family moved to Dallas when he was 4, where he became Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “guide boy” as a youth, leading the older bluesman around Dallas when he needed to go somewhere. Relocating to Los Angeles in 1935, T-Bone cut the first song on this set - T-Bone Blues - in 1940 with the Les Hite Orchestra. But it wasn't until World War II ended that his career really hit its stride.
Stormy Monday was recorded the following year, in 1941, and was one of nine hit records he served up to the Black and White label, a subsidiary of Capitol, which bought Walker’s master tapes in 1949.
A rock and roll tidal wave swamped the U.S. in the 1950s and mostly drowned out the sound of the blues, but Walker was able to retain his popularity better than many other blues artists, probably due to his use of the electric guitar. He was one of the featured artists on the first American Folk Blues Festival tour, in 1962, which inspired British blues-rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and Cream and the resulting American blues revival in the 1960s.
T-Bone continued performing and - occasionally - recording, but with significantly less success than he'd previously enjoyed. He died from the complications of a stroke in 1975.
Until this set came out Walker had been almost completely forgotten, dwarfed by the success of other performers such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B. B. King. But every other bluesman knew how great and influential he really was. Albert King once said, “I used to listen to all types of music, but when T-Bone Walker came out with his style - the singin’, the sustained notes he played - I said, ‘This is it.’”
And this box set is it. It will be extremely hard to find a copy for sale, though. I'd never sell mine, and the last time I checked there were only two for sale on all of Discogs, priced at almost $700. I think that's about double what it should cost, but … supply and demand …
It's too bad Mosaic Records has hit hard times of late and no longer produces sets like this, because their boxes were extraordinary. I have over 30 of them (I used to have even more) and I just hope the label is able to make a comeback and start reissuing long-lost vinyl treasures again - and this one really is a treasure.
If you ever happen across it somewhere for a decent price just grad it. Trust me. This is one of those sets you don't ask your wife for permission to buy before you buy it. You just buy it and ask for forgiveness later. You really will regret it if you don't. Especially if you're into early electric blues guitar! It's a …
T-Bone Walker is probably best known for composing Stormy Monday, but he was so much more than that. He's been gone for 45 years as I write this, but his contribution to blues music will never die. An early pioneer of the electric guitar in the late 1930s, he pretty much single-handedly established the guitar as a lead instrument by playing solo runs on single strings (as opposed to just rhythm chords). And he was fun to watch, too. He'd do splits and play his guitar with his teeth and behind his neck.
Sound familiar?
By the time he was admitted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, none of his early recordings had been available for something like 15 years - until Mosaic Records released this incredible 9-LP box set in 1990.
And what a set!
When it was released it only cost $81 (US), and I jumped on it. It was one of the fastest selling - if not the fastest selling - box set in the company's history. In addition to the records, it also includes a booklet with a full discography and essays by Billy Vera and Helen Oakley Dance, the author of the 1987 T-Bone Walker biography, Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story. The set is also available on CD, but why bother with that when you can have this?
Nobody researched box sets like Mosaic. And their attention to getting the sound perfect is second to none. T-Bone has never before sounded this good! The original version of Stormy Monday can be found here, which I bet you haven't heard - and it also sounds like nothing you've ever heard before, too.
T-Bone was born in Linden, Texas, in 1911. His family moved to Dallas when he was 4, where he became Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “guide boy” as a youth, leading the older bluesman around Dallas when he needed to go somewhere. Relocating to Los Angeles in 1935, T-Bone cut the first song on this set - T-Bone Blues - in 1940 with the Les Hite Orchestra. But it wasn't until World War II ended that his career really hit its stride.
Stormy Monday was recorded the following year, in 1941, and was one of nine hit records he served up to the Black and White label, a subsidiary of Capitol, which bought Walker’s master tapes in 1949.
A rock and roll tidal wave swamped the U.S. in the 1950s and mostly drowned out the sound of the blues, but Walker was able to retain his popularity better than many other blues artists, probably due to his use of the electric guitar. He was one of the featured artists on the first American Folk Blues Festival tour, in 1962, which inspired British blues-rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and Cream and the resulting American blues revival in the 1960s.
T-Bone continued performing and - occasionally - recording, but with significantly less success than he'd previously enjoyed. He died from the complications of a stroke in 1975.
Until this set came out Walker had been almost completely forgotten, dwarfed by the success of other performers such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B. B. King. But every other bluesman knew how great and influential he really was. Albert King once said, “I used to listen to all types of music, but when T-Bone Walker came out with his style - the singin’, the sustained notes he played - I said, ‘This is it.’”
And this box set is it. It will be extremely hard to find a copy for sale, though. I'd never sell mine, and the last time I checked there were only two for sale on all of Discogs, priced at almost $700. I think that's about double what it should cost, but … supply and demand …
It's too bad Mosaic Records has hit hard times of late and no longer produces sets like this, because their boxes were extraordinary. I have over 30 of them (I used to have even more) and I just hope the label is able to make a comeback and start reissuing long-lost vinyl treasures again - and this one really is a treasure.
If you ever happen across it somewhere for a decent price just grad it. Trust me. This is one of those sets you don't ask your wife for permission to buy before you buy it. You just buy it and ask for forgiveness later. You really will regret it if you don't. Especially if you're into early electric blues guitar! It's a …
BONUS TRACK
Aaron Thibeault Walker began his singing career as a teenager in Dallas in the 1920s. He came by it honestly, as his mother and stepfather were both musicians and Blind Lemon Jefferson was a family friend.
Originally billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone, he began recording for Columbia in 1929. Oak Cliff, in case youre wondering, is the name of the place he lived in at the time. T-Bone is a slang play on his middle name.
At age 25 Walker was working in the clubs on Central Avenue, in Los Angeles. In 1942 Charlie Glenn, the owner of the Rhumboogie Café in Chicago, saw him in one of the L.A. clubs and brought him to the windy city to play in the Rhumboogie. By 1944 Walker was recording for the club's Rhumboogie record label.
Walker performed on a bill that also featured Lionel Hampton and Louis Armstrong at the Calvalcade of Jazz in Los Angeles, in 1946, and again at 1947's Calvalcade of Jazz on a bill with Johnny Otis and Sarah Vaughn.
By the early 1960s, his career had slowed, although he did tour Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 alongside pianist Memphis Slim and fellow bluesman Willie Dixon.
Walker suffered a stroke in 1974 and died of bronchial pneumonia related to a second stroke in 1975. He was just 62-years-okld.
Chuck Berry cited Walker as one of his primnary influences, and B.B. King said hearing Stormy Monday inspired him to get an electric guitar. Jimi Hendrix admired Walker and even copied his trick of playing the guitar behind his head.
Rocker Steve Miller stated that in 1952, when he was just eight-years-old, Walker taught him how to play guitar behind his back and also with his teeth. T-Bone was a family friend and a frequent visitor to Miller's family home.
Aaron Thibeault Walker began his singing career as a teenager in Dallas in the 1920s. He came by it honestly, as his mother and stepfather were both musicians and Blind Lemon Jefferson was a family friend.
Originally billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone, he began recording for Columbia in 1929. Oak Cliff, in case youre wondering, is the name of the place he lived in at the time. T-Bone is a slang play on his middle name.
At age 25 Walker was working in the clubs on Central Avenue, in Los Angeles. In 1942 Charlie Glenn, the owner of the Rhumboogie Café in Chicago, saw him in one of the L.A. clubs and brought him to the windy city to play in the Rhumboogie. By 1944 Walker was recording for the club's Rhumboogie record label.
Walker performed on a bill that also featured Lionel Hampton and Louis Armstrong at the Calvalcade of Jazz in Los Angeles, in 1946, and again at 1947's Calvalcade of Jazz on a bill with Johnny Otis and Sarah Vaughn.
By the early 1960s, his career had slowed, although he did tour Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 alongside pianist Memphis Slim and fellow bluesman Willie Dixon.
Walker suffered a stroke in 1974 and died of bronchial pneumonia related to a second stroke in 1975. He was just 62-years-okld.
Chuck Berry cited Walker as one of his primnary influences, and B.B. King said hearing Stormy Monday inspired him to get an electric guitar. Jimi Hendrix admired Walker and even copied his trick of playing the guitar behind his head.
Rocker Steve Miller stated that in 1952, when he was just eight-years-old, Walker taught him how to play guitar behind his back and also with his teeth. T-Bone was a family friend and a frequent visitor to Miller's family home.
