
Blind Arvella Gray played on Maxwell Street
in Chicago for 40 years and was noted for his robust vocals and his
unique work on a National slide steel guitar. Though he did have a
couple of performances captured on the …And This is Maxwell Street
collection from the early ’60s, he only recorded one album of his own,
which was recorded for Birch Records, and sold out after it’s initial
release of less than 1,000 copies.
Gray, who died in 1980, built quite
a following during his performing days, counting Bob Dylan among his
fans, along with a young man named Cary Baker, who made several trips to
Chicago to watch Gray perform. It was Baker, now president of Conqueroo
Recordings, who decided to reissue Gray’s only album, The Singing
Drifter, which had been unavailable for over 30 years.
Born in
1906, Gray (whose real name was James Dixon) was blinded in the 1930s,
possibly in a shooting, which also cost him two fingers on his fret
hand. The missing fingers led to his playing slide, since he wasn’t
able to do any elaborate fingerpicking.
The Singing Drifter
is a collection of 14 tracks (four of which are previously unreleased,
plus a hidden 15th track at the end of the disc), which consists of
old folk tunes, gospel numbers, blues, and a few work songs as well.
Probably the best song here is Gray’s stirring seven-minute version of
“John Henry,” in which John Henry’s wife even drives steel.
Gray’s
slide work really catches your ear on this track. On other songs, such
as “Arvella’s Work Song,” Gray sings accompanied only by his hand claps
and his strong vocals take center stage on these tracks.
This is a fine
set of previously hard-to-find music that would be a good fit in any
blues fan’s collection. Many thanks to Cary Baker for making this album
available for a whole new set of listeners to experience.