Dick Justice - Cocaine and other recordings

 

Dick Justice (born Richard Justice in 1906, died September 12, 1962), was an influential blues and folk musician who hailed from West Virginia, United States. He recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. On four of the ten sides he recorded, he play back guitar to the fiddle of Reese Jarvis.

Unlike many contemporary white musicians, he was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan who recorded in 1927 and 1929 for Victor Records. Justice's "Cocaine" is a verse-for-verse cover of the Jordan track of the same name recorded two years earlier. The song "Brownskin Blues" is also stylistically akin the much of Jordan's work but stands on its own as a Justice original. As Jordan hailed from around Lynchburg, Virginia it is perhaps worth speculating that the two may have been associates. Justice is also musically related to Frank Hutchison (with whom he played music and worked as a coal miner in Logan County, West Virginia) and The Williamson Brothers. His recording of the traditional ballad 'Henry Lee' is the opening track of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.

Here’s a one-hour compilation posted originally on http://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/ that includes all of Dick Justice’s recordings, a few tracks from his friend Frank Hutchinson and four tracks by Luke Jordan. Check out this really interesting blog using the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore american folk music. Thanks a lot for all your great work!

Tracks list:
1.Henry Lee (Dick Justice)
2.Old Black Dog (Dick Justice)
3.Little Lulie (Dick Justice)
4.Brown Skin Blues (Dick Justice)
5.Cocaine (Dick Justice)
6.One Cold December Day (Dick Justice)
7.Guian Valley Waltz (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
8.Poor Girl’s Waltz (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
9.Poca River Blues (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
10.Muskrat Rag (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
11.The Miner’s Blues (Frank Hutchison)
12.Logan County Blues [1927] (Frank Hutchison)
13.The Chevrolet Six (Frank Hutchison)
14.Cumberland Gap (Frank Hutchison)
15.The Deal (Frank Hutchison)
16.K.C. Blues (Frank Hutchison)
17.Pick Poor Robin Clean (Take 1) (Luke Jordan)
18.Cocaine Blues (Luke Jordan)
19.Won’t You Be Kind (Luke Jordan)
20.My Gal’s Done Quit Me (Luke Jordan)

Dick Justice - Cocaine and other recordings

(192 kbps)