Curley Weaver Nono Blues 1929

Recorded in Long Island NYC May 1929. Curley Weaver vocals and Eddie Mapp harp. Nono blues is an example of the Newton County Georgia style of blues. Or as many people know it as the Curley Weaver style taught to him and many childhood friends at the turn of the 20th century by his mother and legendary musician Savannah Weaver. As these young boys grew into men their musicianship developed with the help of other greats in the area. Eventually they learned to hop the trains to Atlanta from Covington Ga which is only an hour away on the Interstate now but in those days was a days travel through a lot of dangerous ground across the Ga countryside. Weaver and his friends such as BBQ Bob Hicks made this style famous with Columbia and other recording labels that came to Atlanta in the spring and fall of each year looking for talent up until the early 1930s. This early recording was with harmonica wizard Eddie Mapp an example of the fantastic musicians in Georgia that have been left out of the history books for the most part. Weaver was known as the greatest of the greats in those days and hardly a person in the blues knows his name in modern times. A sad affair indeed along with the stealing of his songs by other artists and the industry. The family still lives and carrys on the music here in the N. Ga region and the blues is still alive. It's important to know that at the same time the famous musical families of the Delta were coming out of slavery days and giving birth to Delta blues these Georgia families were going strong and developing this truly American music sometimes in parallel and at times in cooperation with other artists through out the south. These families and people had connections, traveled in the non harvest seasons and that's how the blues was born across the south.

I digitally removed the static from this old classic which was barely listenable. Hopefully you can now hear the details of this wonderful harmonica and Weaver's amazing vocals. It's easy to see that Weaver could easily sing, yodel and literally play circles around legends like the father of country music and white artist of the day such as Jimmie Rodgers a fantastic musician on the other side of the fence. Weaver could also play tight sophisticated blues as well as this old country style. Weaver cut four versions of Nono Blues and this is one of the less popular and admittedly harder to hear the details of his guitar wizardry but the other cuts showcase those aspects. This version shows his amazing vocal range and how these Ga artists all sang, played harp and slide with the same phrasing and common stylist traits. Listen to the main riff played on the one chord by the harp. It's a direct copy of the phrasing in Peg Leg Howell's vocals in the song "Please Maam" and many other great Ga Blues hits. Not to forget to mention that string snapping on guitar was NOT something specific to the Mississippi Delta like many people think. A lot of things you read and hear about blues is wrong or just someone's hunch.

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Music

Tags:

• Tony
• Bryant
• Blues
• Curley
• Weaver
• Atlanta
• Newton
• County
• Covington
• Buddy
• Moss
• Blind
• Willie
• McTell