R.C. SMITH "Great Unknown Clarksdale Bluesman" The Complete Recordings

Robert Curtis Smith, born in 1930 in Cruger (Ms) near Clarksdale, is one of the best discoveries made by Chris Strachwitz and Paul Oliver during their joint journey in the South of the United States in July 1960. A singer and guitarist of the blues, in the style of the Delta, who composed pieces about his daily life and is barely 30 years old! Even for the time, it was really a major find. It is by chance that Chris and Paul crossed the path of R.C. Smith while he discussed with his friend, Wade Walton in the small barbershop that the bluesman owned in the black district of Clarksdale. After Wade had impressed his foreign visitors with a few pieces for the guitar, harmonica and especially by beating the rhythm with a blade and the strap razor shop (a "tip" that he demonstrated before each of its more and more many visitors as the years went on), R.C. did in turn play a few pieces with the guitar of Wade (he had put his own on a pawn shop to pay for Christmas gifts for his wife and his eight children). Impressed, Oliver and Strachwitz decided to record the two friends. Smith waxed some titles and also the following year in July 1962, when he recorded his Bluesville album, certainly one of the best and most enduring LP of this label. It includes some standards and also a few very personal compositions, such as the despairing Council Spur Blues. Unfortunately the Bluesville label has never shone with its distribution and the album was released at a time when the blues revival was in its infancy. It sold only a few dozen copies! Apart from a few welcome dollars, the disk yielded nothing for R.C. Smith, who returned to his farm, driving a tractor for a miserable wage. So hard was his life that he once claimed he was particularly very proud that only one of his children was deceased! About 1969, he abandoned the blues for religion, then left Mississippi in the 1970's for a better life in Chicago. The superb record unfortunately became very rare and was never reissued in LP or CD in the subsequent years. However, its huge qualities puzzled the growing circle of Delta blues fans around the world, especially the founder of Living Blues, Jim O'Neal who, (then based in Clarksdale and thanks to Wade Walton) never lost track of his friend, managed to find R.C. in 1997. He even persuaded Smith to appear on stage (probably his only appearance in concert) during the Sunflower blues festival. But Smith had to go back to Chicago and therefore didn't record the new album that O'Neal wanted so much to produce. The following year, Matthew Bock fell on him a little by chance while he was leading a congregation in the South Side of Chicago, continuing to play the guitar and sing, but this time only gospel material. The voice had become a little more hoarse but his religious music seemed also full of force and inspiration, even more than the blues he had recorded nearly 40 years before! Thanks to Bock, R.C. waxed five more titles, a welcome addition to a very limited but very rewarding recording legacy. R.C. Smith died in November 2010 in Chicago. One can only regret that this talent, which seemed to be a major one, could not be featured more in the blues festivals and attend more studios sessions. But anyway this is the real story of the blues! - Gérard HERZHAFT Compiled by Gerard Herzhaft from his collection.
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trax:
01 Stella Ruth 02 Going back to Texas 03 Lonely widower 04 Lost love blues 05 Please don't drive me away 06 Rock me mama 07 I believe we love each other 08 Put your arms around me 09 Catfish blues 10 I hate to leave you 11 Council Spur blues 12 I feel so good 13 I'm going away 14 Ain't that lovin' you baby 15 Get a real woman 16 See my chauffeur 17 Sunflower River blues 18 Katy Mae blues 19 Goody goody 20 Can you remember me 21 The Lord will make a way somehow 22 Lye Water conversion 23 Thank you 24 Calvary 25 milky white way
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