Show Me the Way Home, Honey

The three Memphis blues musicians featured in this album were all recorded on the memorable day of 27 December 1972: Bukka White at his home; Laura Dukes at Furry Lewis’ home; and Dewey Corley at Memphis Piano Red’s home.

The seventh volume of the “Blues At Home” Collection, this CD features one of the major Mississippi bluesmen to be rediscovered during the blues revival of the '60s. Born near Houston, Mississippi, sometime between 1903 and 1909, Bukka White learned to play guitar and piano at an early age. From 1930 through 1940, he recorded for Victor, Vocalion, OKeh, and the Library of Congress several amazing titles characterized by strong rhythms, powerful bottleneck slide guitar, and original, very personal lyrics. In 1963, after nearly 20 years of obscurity, he was luckily rediscovered in Memphis, Tennessee. From that moment, Bukka entered the Blues Revival folk festival circuit, performing in the U.S. and abroad and also recording various albums, mostly in studios or during public appearances on concert stages and in coffeehouses. This CD features the complete relaxed session recorded at his private home in Memphis on December 22, 1972, in the stately presence of Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon. Although very short in duration (23:29), the session delivers surprisingly crisp and clear sound quality and contains some of Bukka's most spirited and authentic material ever recorded after his rediscovery. Also featured on this CD is some unusual material by former jug band members Dewey Corley on piano and Laura Dukes on ukulele, recorded on the same day, December 22, 1972.
Son of the accordion player Will Corley, Dewey Corley was born in 1897 in Memphis, Tennessee; other sources report St. Louis, Missouri, or Halley, Arkansas. He left home when he was a boy and starting hoboing on freight trains until he settled in Memphis in 1916, where he lived ever since. As a child he learned how to play harmonica; then, in Memphis, the bull-fiddle (one-string bass), kazoo, jug, and piano. In 1934, he recorded for the OKeh label with the Memphis Jug Band, playing the jug. During the late '30s and '40s, he collaborated with several artists and bands, including Jack Kelly's South Memphis Jug Band, Laura Dukes, Van Hunt, Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Joe Hill Louis, John “Piano Red” Williams' trio, and Willie Borum with whom he teamed up quite often. In 1940, the Application for a Social Security Number reports his home address as 316 Beale Street, and he was not married. According to Willie Borum, Dewey then married a "fat lady" whom Borum mentions as Mrs. Emma Corley. They separated later at an unknown date. Dewey sings about this woman in several blues featured on the CD. After World War II he started his own Beale Street Jug Band, performing on the bull-fiddle until the early '60s. Rediscovered by George Mitchell in 1967, he recorded several pieces on vocal, bull-fiddle, and kazoo, accompanied by Walter Miller on guitar, released on Arhoolie and Fat Possum Records. He also recorded material for Bengt Olsson and Gene Rosenthal (Adelphi Records) with different accompanists, Willie Morris among others. In 1969 and 1971, he participated in blues festivals held in Memphis and Wolf Trap National Park, Virginia. After the recordings I made in Memphis in December 1972, at John Williams' and Mose Vinson’s homes, Dewey fell into oblivion, and there is no report of further musical activities before his death in 1974.
Laura Dukes was born in 1907 in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father, Alex Dukes, had been a drummer in W.C. Handy's band at the turn of the century, just when Handy composed his three famous blues. One of four children, Laura made her first appearance on stage as a performer in 1912 at the age of five. Starting her professional activities in the early '20s as a dancer and singer in local clubs on Beale Street, she performed during the late 1920s and 1930s for medicine shows and carnivals touring in various states. She also regularly performed on Beale Street during those years. In 1933, she met the blues guitar player Robert Nighthawk (Robert McCollum) and learned guitar from him, but she soon preferred to switch to the banjo-ukulele. The two spent several years traveling together and performing, especially in juke joints in the East St. Louis area where they had met. In 1934 she recorded with the Memphis Jug Band; Laura knew and gigged with Dewey Corley when he played bull-fiddle with the band. From 1944 to circa 1956, she performed with the South Memphis Jug Band at house parties and clubs in and near Memphis. Between 1956 and 1966, she played only at home and for neighbors; she made a comeback in the late 1970s, appearing frequently in the Memphis area, in particular at the Blues Alley nightclub, and is featured in several documentary programs. She also worked for 27 years in a church nursery, taking care of children through the 1970s and '80s. The December 1972 recordings cut at Furry Lewis’s house present her only and probably best work as a solo performer for variety and skill on the ukulele. This material has been remastered and republished for the first time in its total integrity on this CD. The 1982 interview with Laura Dukes can be found in volume 14 of this series. All tracks have been fully digitally remastered in 2013 from the original tapes. ~Giambattista Marcucci