⬇️ FRANK STOKES ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1990-2010 (12CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Stokes was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, in the vicinity of
Whitehaven, located two miles north of the Mississippi state line. There
is uncertainty over his year of birth; his daughter and later sources
reported 1888, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc give 1877,
the date on his World War I draft card.
His parents died when he was a child, and he was raised by his stepfather
in Tutwiler, Mississippi. He learned to play the guitar as a youth in
Tutwiler and, after 1895, in Hernando, Mississippi, which was the home of
the guitarists Jim Jackson, Dan Sane, Elijah Avery (of Cannon's Jug
Stompers), and Robert Wilkins. By the turn of the century, Stokes was
working as a blacksmith, traveling 25 miles to Memphis on weekends to sing
and play the guitar with Sane, with whom he formed a long-term musical
partnership. Together, they busked on the streets and in Church's Park
(now W. C. Handy Park) on Memphis's Beale Street in Memphis.
In the mid-1910s, Stokes joined another Mississippi musician, Garfield
Akers, as a blackface songster, comedian, and buck dancer in the Doc Watts
Medicine Show, a tent show that toured the South. During this period of
touring, Stokes developed a professionalism that set him apart from many
of the more rural, less polished blues musicians of that time and place.
It is said that his performances on the southern minstrel and vaudeville
circuit around this time influenced the country singer Jimmie Rodgers, who
played the same circuit. Rodgers borrowed songs and song fragments from
Stokes and was influenced stylistically as well.
Around 1920, Stokes settled in Oakville, Tennessee, where he went back to
work as a blacksmith. He teamed up again with Sane, playing dances,
picnics, fish fries, saloons, and parties in his free time. The two joined
Jack Kelly's Jug Busters to play at white country clubs, parties, and
dances. Stokes and Sane performed on Beale Street as the Beale Street
Sheiks and first recorded under that name for Paramount Records in August
1927. Stokes eventually cut 38 sides for Paramount and Victor Records.
"The fluid guitar interplay between Stokes and Sane, combined with a
propulsive beat, witty lyrics, and Stokes's stentorian voice, make their
recordings irresistible." Their duet style influenced the young Memphis
Minnie in duets with her husband, Kansas Joe McCoy.
The Sheiks next recorded at a session for Victor Records in February
1928, at which Furry Lewis also recorded. At this session, the emphasis
was on blues rather than the older songs that were also part of Stokes's
repertoire. Stokes recorded again for Victor that August, playing "I Got
Mine", one of a body of pre-blues songs about gambling, stealing and
living high. He also recorded the more modern "Nehi Mama" (or "Nehi Mama
Blues", also rendered as "Nehi Mamma Blues"), the title being a pun on the
name of the Nehi soft drink and the knee-high skirts that were fashionable
at the time. Sane joined Stokes for the second day of the August 1928
session, and they produced a two-part version of "Tain't Nobody's Business
if I Do", a song well known in later versions by Bessie Smith and Jimmy
Witherspoon but whose origin lies in the pre-blues era. The Sheiks also
continued to busk on the streets and perform at parties.
In 1929, Stokes and Sane recorded again for Paramount, resuming their
billing as the Beale Street Sheiks for a few cuts. In September, Stokes
was back with Victor to make what were to be his last recordings, this
time without Sane but with Will Batts playing the fiddle. Stokes and Batts
were a team, as evidenced by these records, which are both traditional and
wildly original, but their style had fallen out of favor with the
record-buying public. Stokes was still a popular live performer, however,
appearing in medicine shows, the Ringling Brothers Circus, and other tent
shows and similar venues during the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1940s, he
moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and occasionally worked with Bukka White
in local juke joints.
Stokes died of a stroke in Memphis on September 12, 1955. He is buried in
Hollywood Cemetery, in Memphis. In 2017, Frank Stokes was inducted into
the Memphis Music Hall of Fame...
(Wikipedia)
NEW!
2010-Downtown Blues (LP) @FLAC