Well, maybe I should write sumffin about Peetie Wheatstraw’s / William Bunch’s life, but it would be useless, cause the little information available is already gathered in a good wikipedia entry. The only thing I could add is about the Buick that caused Peetie’s death: it was a gift Peetie received from a record company (Decca, if I’m not misstaken); it was an usual practice that record companies offered some 700$ car to bluesmen, instead of paying them the due percent of sales. OK, I’ll assume you have already read the wikipedia entry.
I won’t analyse any song for now; as a mater of fact, today I’ve been playing, exceptionally, Barbecue Bob (I also played in open D, which is also very rare), and I’m not quite ready to enter a brand new universe. I’ll write instead about two Peetie Wheatstraw verses; they’re from the “Peetie Wheatstraw Stomp no 2″, which Wheatstraw recorded in Chicago (March 26, 1937) for Decca. Unfortunately I’m not allowed to post the song, but here’s a sample. (NB. Peetie – vocals & piano – recorded this song with Lonnie Johnson). Finally, if you wana listen to other Peetie Wheatstraw blues, I found some on Soundpedia.
Now here’s the two verses:

Continue reading →