CD review: Bukka White – Aberdeen Mississippi Blues: Complete Recordings 1930 – 1940 – 2025: Video, CD cover

Booker T. Washington White, named for the great black educator, was born on a farm south of Houston in northeastern Mississippi on November 12, 1906. Bukka is the phonetic pronunciation of Booker.

His mother was the sister of B.B. King’s maternal grandmother, giving him a connection to B.B. His father was a railroad worker who played the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and piano. At age 9, is father gave him his first guitar. At age 16, he married and was given a Stella guitar for a wedding present. The marriage did not last long as his wife died of a ruptured appendix.

He moved to the Mississippi Delta to work on a farm. While there, a talent scout, Ralph Lembo, spotted him walking down the street with his guitar. In May 1930, Ralph took Bukka to Victor Records for a recording session which delivered fourteen songs in one sitting. Unfortunately, only four of them ever made it to a record.

He married again in 1934 to Susie Simpson. They moved to Aberdeen to again take up farming. Around 1935, Peetie Wheatstraw took him to Chicago where he became friends with Big Bill Broonzy, Washboard Sam and Tampa Red. While in Chicago in early 1937, he recorded two songs – “Pinebluff Arkansas” and “Shake ’em on Down”, which were released on Vocalion. The latter becoming a major hit.

In October 1937, he was arrested in Aberdeen for the murder of a man he shot in the thigh and was sentenced to life in prison in the Mississippi State Penitentiary, otherwise known as the Parchman farm. John Lomax visited the prison in 1939 and recorded two songs with Bukka – “Po Boy” and “Sic “em Dogs On”. “Po’ Boy” became his second hit. He served two years in prison and was released. His wife divorced him shortly after his release. In early 1940, he returned to Chicago to try his hand at recording again. His producer, Lester Melrose, rejected the idea of recording old songs. Lester put him up in a hotel and told him to write new material. Bukka returned with twelve new songs that were recorded with Washboard Sam in March 1940. Those songs constitute the final twelve songs on this album.

Unfortunately, during the war years the music evolved and the interest in the style of music Bukka performed waned. In 1942, he moved to Memphis where he became a factory laborer. He continued to play music, but received little recognition until the interest in the blues rose again in the 1960’s. Bob Dylan recorded Bukka’s 1940 song “Fixin’ to Die Blues” in 1962. His young cousin, B.B. King moved to Memphis and lived with Bukka. Bukka introduced him around town. As B.B.’s fame grew, interest in Bukka grew again in the 1960’s, but that is another part of Bukka’s story not covered with this album release. Bukka died in Memphis on February 26, 1977.

White explained his vigorous guitar playing style as “I stomp ’em, I don’t peddle ’em”. Critics cited his slide guitar style as “slashing” and noted his deep vocals as “booming”. The album opens with his first two songs recorded in May 1930 with his friend Napoleon Hairiston (shown in some notes as Harrison). “The New ‘Frisco Train” and “The Panama Limited” reflected his interest in trains dating back to his father. The next two songs from 1930, the gospel songs “I Am in the Heavenly Way” and “The Promise True and Grand” added Memphis Minnie (referenced as Miss Minnie) on vocals.

The songs previously cited that were recorded in Chicago in 1937 and from prison in 1939 follow. That order is “Pinebluff Arkansas”, “Shake’ em On Down”, “Sic’ em Dogs On”, and Po’ Boy”.

He returns to his interest in trains on “Black Train Blues”, the first of the recordings from 1940. On “Strange Places Blues”, he addresses the death of his mother in 1933 and seeking a woman to take his mother’s place. “When Can I Change My Clothes” addresses his time in prison and having to wear the prison attire. “Sleepy Man Blues” also addresses his time of being in trouble and shunned by his friends noting “When A Man gets in trouble in his mind, he wanna sleep all the time”.

“Parchman Farm Blues” provides the story of his murder sentence, being sentenced to the prison, and life while there citing “If you wanna do good, you better stay off ol’ Parchman Farm. We got to work in the mornin’ just dawn of day. Just at the settin’ sun, that’s when the work is done.” He then declares his love of alcohol in “Good Gin Blues”. “High Fever Blues” discusses a time of sickness as the doctor stuck his “fever gauge” under his tongue and was told by the doctor, “All you need, your lover in your arms”. “District Attorney Blues” was released as the B side of “Parchman Farm Blues” and again is part of his criminal story citing that “he taken me from my woman cause her to love some other man.”

On “Fixin’ to Die Blues” he addresses loneliness singing “sure seems lonesome, Lord when the sun goes down…tell Jesus make up my dying bed.” On “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues”, he cites two Aberdeen women “gonna make me lose my mind”. He encourages the women to do “Bukka’s Jitterbug Swing”. The album ends with another train song “Special Stream Line”, a train that runs so fast from Memphis to New Orleans that ran “so fast the hobos don’t fool with this train. They stand on the track with their hat in their hands”.

Bukka’s songs reflect the country blues that were part of that era. The songs provide a story of his life, perhaps somewhat simply, but tied together makes for a solid narrative.