Casey Bill Weldon: The Essential by Casey Bill Weldon (CD - 01/07/2003)

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"Casey Bill Weldon: The Essential" (01/07/2003) Blues Weldon, Casey Bill, Classic BluesPersonnel: Casey Bill Weldon (vocals, guitar). Liner Note Author: Richard Havers. Steel guitarist Will Weldon is remembered as Casey Bill Weldon, and was also known in his time as Kansas City Bill and Levee Joe. "Casey", like "KC" or "Kaycee", referred to his links with the Kansas City music scene, although he could just as easily have been named after Pine Bluff, AK where he was born in 1909, or Atlanta or Memphis, where he made his first recordings in 1927. When in 2001 the Classic Blues label released the two-disc, 36-track "Essential Casey Bill Weldon," the producers opted to skip his early recordings with Vol Stevens, Ollie Rupert & the Memphis Jug Band (of which he was a cardinal member) to focus for the most part upon records he made under his own name during the years 1935-1938. Weldon was equally adept at expressing himself as a passionate blues singer and as a honky tonk "country" performer who clearly contributed to the development of Western swing. He was sometimes billed as the Hawaiian Guitar Wizard. The "Guitar Wizard" handle was borrowed from Tampa Red (who is heard on some of these recordings) whereas the Polynesian reference stems back through Sol Hoopi's influence to the transportation of guitars by Portuguese sailors in the 18th century and the subsequent development of the steel guitar by indigenous Hawaiians. Weldon's use of the steel (as opposed to bottleneck slide) guitar as a blues instrument was innovative, and his stylistic choices have since made him difficult to pigeonhole. "I Believe You're Cheatin' On Me" begins with a lick first used on record by guitarist Sylvester Weaver. It would serve as the melodic lynchpin of the "Steel Guitar Rag" as popularized by Bill Boyd's Cowboy Ramblers and Bob Wills' Texas Playboys. Yet on some of his Vocalions and most of the 13 Bluebird sides sprinkled throughout this collection, Casey Bill closely emulated St. Louis bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw both vocally and in the choice of subject matter. As for claims to fame, Weldon is believed to have had a hand in writing "Somebody Changed the Lock on My Door" and was also responsible for "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" and "Somebody's Got to Go" neither of which made it onto this collection. All three reference the sort of salty, quarrelsome, possessive male behavior that has been etched into countless blues recordings and, in extreme cases, manifested itself in the form of domestic violence as was the case with wife-slayer Alger "Texas" Alexander. In light of this, it's interesting to note that during the '20s Weldon was married to and recorded with feisty Lizzie Douglas, better known as Memphis Minnie. Although none of their collaborative works are included, Weldon is heard with a strong array of blues artists who were active in Chicago at that time: Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Washboard Sam, Charlie McCoy, Bill Settles, Black Bob, Joshua Altheimer, and Blind John Davis. On "Guitar Swing," Weldon harmonizes with a vocal group who saluted heavyweight champion Joe Louis by naming themselves the Brown Bombers of Swing. The results sound like a combination of Bill Boyd's Cowboy Ramblers and the jive-singing zoot-suited string band who recorded for Bluebird as the Cats and the Fiddle. "Oh Red!" was waxed for ARC in October 1936 by clarinetist Arnett Nelson & His Hot Four. Nelson was also a participant (with Tampa Red and Washboard Sam) on "Street Walkin' Blues," "Brown Skin Mama," "Arlena," and "Please Come on Down to My House." These sides, which were recorded for Bluebird in November 1935, were released under the name of the Washboard Rhythm Kings. They stand well apart from a number of other records cut for Bluebird's parent company Victor (and various other labels) during the '30s by a pool of performers (including Steve Washington, Teddy Bunn, Taft Jordan, Ghost Howell, Clarence Profit and washboard virtuoso Bruce Johnson) who recorded as the Washboard Rhythm Kings, the Washboard Rhythm Band, the Washboard Serenaders, and the Georgia Washboard Stompers. Weldon had nothing to do with those groups. Anyon

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