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Authenticity is Everything
The Great American Blues Players Signature Study: Please Add Your Examples
Hello everyone,
I have been wanting to start a thread on this for a long time, and i figure now is as good of a time as any. I collect primary guitar players, and have been selling alot of them off recently, but one thing i continue to collect are the great old blues guitar players. Their is something about the Delta Blues traveling lifestyle that holds alot of wonder for me. These guys laid the foundation of modern music and they inspired many, if not most, of the musicians working today. Most think of Robert Johnson when they think of the great Blues players, but their are so so many others that deserve mention and tons of respect.
As anyone who has ever studied early blues signatures knows, they are incredibly difficult to authenticate or even find at times. You have guys like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, BB King just to name a few whose signature examples can readily be found. But aside from a few key players, autographs from these guys are very hard to find. And when you find one, often you really have to trust your source or do some serious research. And even then you often cant find examples.
So i thought this would be a good thread that may help future collectors out with examples we think are authentic. Please post examples of blues signatures that you like and want to share. Guys like Buddy Guy and BB King probably dont need to be posted in mass b/c their signatures are so abundant, but dont hesitate if you would like to post some.
I hope this can turn into a good database, and really the only one of its kind on the net. I have many examples from many different sources and if someone doesnt want their picture posted just leave a comment and i will delete it.
I am going to start this off with Albert King. You can find Albert King signatures from time to time, and of the 3 King's, he is the next most available after BB. Alberts signatures are typically sloppy, shaky, and can take on a few forms. Albert often write "Love You" before his signature, and his typical signature takes the form of A. King. I have also seen variations including "A.B. King". King often would not write out King fully and the formation would flow from the K almost into the g. I have seen my fair share of forgeries with Albert, but his signature can be authenticated in most instances in my opinion. Here are some examples with sources:
This is one album i used to own and recently sold on RR Auction. It came from "Mr. Bebop", of Larrys Books and Autographs. He specializes in blues signatures and this was a great example of king.
These next images came from RR Auction
The Ace of Spades album is a nice example, and the rarer A.B. King signature. The middle cut display is more atypical. This one in my eyes can go either way but is probably good. The A looks typical but the King is a little more unusual. But he did do this from time to time in his shorter signature versions. The bottom example is a typical King signature.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nate on
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Hi Carl,
To continue with a few more years of the American Folk Blues Festivals: I’ll start with 1966, which had the following stars: Roosevelt Sykes, Yank Rachell, Little Brother Montgomery, Sippie Wallace, Robert Pete Williams, Big Joe Turner, Junior Wells, Otis Rush and Sleepy John Estes. Those that haven’t been looked at already are: Yank Rachell and Otis Rush.
James “Yank” Rachell is the final artist to be looked at from the Blues trio which also contained Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon. He was one of the last of the 1920’s recording artists. A master of the mandolin (the story of how he got his first mandolin is a bit like Jack and the Beanstalk – giving away a pig for the instrument only to go home to a furious mother!). His autograph is probably somewhere around the $40-$80 range. Here are some examples:
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Otis Rush is a hugely influential singer, songwriter and guitarist from the same stable (West Side) as Buddy Guy and Magic Sam. As an example of his, rightly deserved, influence on the Blues/Rock boom: Stevie Ray Vaughan named his band after one of Rush’s tracks “Double Trouble”. For value I would estimate somewhere around $75 + (depending on the item):
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Next was 1967, for me the greatest year for acts. It showed off the talents of: Ko Ko Taylor, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Little Walter, Bukka White, Hound Dog Taylor, Son House and Skip James. I mean – WOW! What a line-up. Obviously with such an amazing cast nearly all have been seen in this story before. The only one yet to be looked at is KoKo Taylor.
KoKo Taylor was an immense Blues vocalist. Nicknamed the “Queen of Chicago Blues”, she rose to prominence with Chess records and her belting brash Blues style won her more WC Handy awards than any other Blues female. Her autograph is quite commonplace and can be found on eBay most weeks. I would estimate a value of around $40 - $75 depending on the item. Here are a few examples:
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Then came 1968, another amazing year. It saw the following perform: Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, T Bone Walker, Big Joe Williams, Curtis Jones, Eddie Taylor and Big Walter Horton. Again, many great names, with only Eddie Taylor not being looked at previously.
Eddie Taylor was a great Blues guitarist. Though a fantastic front man he is most remembered as a side man for Jimmy Reed. Reed may have taken the glory but he can thank Taylor for much of it (the latter being an early guitar tutor to Reed). An Eddie Taylor autograph is not that expensive and can be found with time. I would estimate a value of around $40 - $50 (the first example is a pretty cool poster signed by Taylor and the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, James Cotton and Jimmy Rogers, the second image shows a close-up):
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Hi Carl,
Because of a couple of recent auctions I wanted to write a small piece on the Boogie Woogie Trio. The trio consisted of Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis, 3 of the greatest Boogie Woogie piano players of all time, and all, in their own ways, integral to the development of rock n roll and everything that followed.
The Boogie Woogie craze can be traced primarily to the ‘From Spirituals to Swing’ concert of 1938, Ammons, Johnson and Lewis all appeared in the show which was a roaring success. The concert is now probably most famous because of the organisers (John Hammond) attempts to book the legendary Robert Johnson only to find out that he had died a couple of months earlier, so Big Bill Broonzy took his slot.
From an autograph perspective the individual signatures of the Boogie Woogie Trio are pretty rare, Ammons passed away in 1949, Lewis in 1964 and Johnson in 1967. I don’t have an Albert Ammons autograph to show (though I know there are some out there), but recently a Pete Johnson autograph on a 78 sleeve sold for $113.50, a pretty good price IMHO, and a Meade Lux Lewis autograph recently went for $120, also a good price seeing as it was on an LP (which is very rare to find). Here are a couple of images:
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Permalink Reply by Tacoma Blues on
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Here are a couple example examples of Albert Ammons autograph as found on Heritage Auctions. These pictures were part of larger collections sold in 2016 and 2017 on that site.
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Shown is a 1939 picture signed by "The Boogie Woogie Boys." Group members included Pete Johnson, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Joe Turner, and Albert Ammons. The picture is from the Dave E. Dexter, Jr. Collection at the University of Missouri--Kansas City Library. Dexter was an American music journalist, record company executive, and producer.
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Here is another Pete Johnson example. This is a signed 45 which sold in early 2020.
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A couple of Christmas’s ago a question was posed by a member here – ‘What is on your Santa list’, I gave my answer as “1. A fully signed American Folk Blues Festival program from 1967”. That was always my Blues dream piece, I knew they existed but they just did not appear on the market, RR had previously sold some cut pages from the programme (for example in March 2014 they had a couple of pages each selling for a little over $2k), but I had never seen a complete programme. But now, although late (for which I forgive you Santa) the man with the bag has come through and delivered me exactly what I wanted!
I have to say I am over-the-moon-and-far-away, I mean 1967 was an amazing year for this Blues festival. It brought together the old and new in a way that no other American Folk Blues Festival had done. First there was Son House, a direct link to the Blues father Charlie Patton, then there was the other major 1960s ‘rediscovered’ artist Skip James, add to that the Country Blues master Bukka White and you had THE tryptic of Country Blues greats (well…maybe we should include Mississippi John Hurt in there as well). On top of that this year also gave people arguably the greatest ever Harp player Little Walter, the outstanding Hound Dog Taylor, the workhorses that were Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and finally the Queen KoKo Taylor. O…M…G what a line-up!
Anywho, I can’t quite believe I have one in my hands. Here are some pics:
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I am starting to slowly catalog my collection and may occasionally add some additional artists here of lesser fame. To start, we have S.P. Leary. He was the long time drummer for the Howlin' Wolf band and did a lot of side work with other artists like Muddy Waters.
Next there is Louis Myer. He was co-founder of the influential early 1950s Chicago Blues Band The Aces. Little Walter hired the Aces to be his back-up band after leaving the Muddy Water's band. The Aces were later re-branded as The Jukes.
These two graphs are amongst four found on a signed LP from the amazing collection of the late Barrelhouse Chuck.
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Although not strictly Blues, Roebuck "Pops" Staples was a contemporary of some of the earliest famous Blues musicians on the Dockery Plantation near Drew, MS. He is reported to have played with Charle Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson. He went on to form the highly influential Staples Singers, who were all inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Pops' daughter, Mavis, also shown here, is a 2017 inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Eddie Kirkland was known as the "Gypsy of the Blues." He played with and helped manage affairs for John Lee Hooker from 1949 to the 1962. He recorded for numerous record labels until his passing in 2011.
The next three autographs come from a partially signed 1969 American Folks Blues Festival (AFBF) program. Whistlin' Alex Moore (Alexander Herman Moore) was a Blues pianist. He first recorded for Columbia Records in 1929 and again for Decca Records in 1937.
John Jackson was a Piedmont Blues musician. He was "discovered" in the 1960s and toured throughout Europe and the folk music festival circuit of that era.He recorded for Rounder Records and Alligator Records.
Clifton Chenier was known as the "King of Zydeco" An accordion player, he was closely associated with the Blues music scene. He was the inaugural act at the original Antone's in Austin, TX and is a member of the Blues Hall of Fame.
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