JOHN LEE GRANDERSON/ Complete Recordings

JOHN LEE GRANDERSON/ Complete Recordings

           

John Lee Granderson is certainly not a well known figure among blues fans today. But he nevertheless was a great country blues performer who recorded a strong series of sessions during the 1960's, thanks to the few blues researchers of that decade, namely Pete Welding who discovered him in Chicago and put him on the blues circuit for some years.

            Granderson was born in Ellendale, Tennessee, April 11th 1913 and learned guitar and the blues with his father when he was nine years old, meeting in Memphis luminaries of the day and the place like Sleepy John Estes, Memphis Minnie and particularly Willie Borum who was a friend of the family. John Lee came in Chicago as early as 1928, learning car mechanic and making a living in several plants and garages. He didn't think himself talented enough to play professionally in the Chicago clubs but he regularly went to see and sometimes came to stage with Big Bill Broonzy, Jazz Gillum, Big Joe Williams or John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. During the late 1940's, Granderson became a familiar figure at the Maxwell Street Market, making some extra dollars playing on the streets by himself or with every other bluesman he could meet like Robert Nighthawk or Johnny Young. This is where Pete Welding found him in 1962 and was impressed with his skills as a bluesman, guitarist and composer of some original blues like A man for the nation that Granderson had written after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Welding then recorded John Lee quite prolifically during the following years, issuing those sessions on various anthologies. Granderson who had to quit the hard work of car mechanic due to an accident then tried to make an improbable living with his music, forming a little Chicago band with harmonica player Prezs Thomas. But the records didn't sell very well and he was rarely billed on concerts and festivals. In 1966, John Lee had to work as a janitor to make a decent living.

           

After a session for the fledgling Adelphi label alongside Big Joe Williams, Granderson quit definitively playing in public. He suffered a stroke in 1975 and died of pancreatic cancer in Chicago on 22 August 1979, largely forgotten from the blues world.

                                                           Gérard HERZHAFT

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Prez Thomas, hca; Jimmy Walker, pno; William Mack, g. Chicago, Ill. 30 september 1962

01. Death Valley blues

02. I don't feel good

03. Bumble bee

04. That's all right

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g. Chicago, Ill. 21 october 1962

05. Texas blues

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Prez Thomas, hca; Jimmy Walker, pno. Chicago, Ill. 24 july 1963

06. Decoration day

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g. Chicago, Ill. 8 july 1963

07. Bumble bee n°2

08. Minglewood train

09. Good morning little schoolgirl

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Mike Bloomfield, g. Chicago, Ill. 9 july 1963

10. J.L.'s blues

11. Everything's gonna be alright

12. That's all right

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g. Chicago, Ill. february 1964

13. A man for the nation

14. Rock me all night long

15. This is your last chance

16. One kind favor

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Jimmy Walker, pno; Johnny Young, mdln. Chicago, Ill. 4 april 1964

17. Please come back to me

18. Cold dark evening

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g. Chicago, Ill. 15 may 1964

19. Death Valley blues

20. Easy street

21. Minglewood blues

22. Bumble bee blues

23. That's all right

CD2

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Bill Foster, g. Chicago, Ill. april 1966

24. My home ain't here

25. That's doggin' me

26. Got to bend you over baby

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Bill Foster, g. Chicago, Ill. 2 may 1966

27. Hard luck John

28. Flora blues

29. County farm blues

30. Aching pain blues

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Johnny Young, mdln; Carl Martin, fdl. Chicago, Ill. 18 june 1966

31. The sun is sinking low

32. I got to find the woman

33. Watch out girl

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g; Big Joe Williams, g; Mike Stewart, g. Chicago, Ill. september 1968

34. Girl at the bottom

35. Going round the world

36. Stop breaking down

37. Yellow box blues

John Lee Granderson, vcl/g. Chicago, Ill. 1969

38. Lonesome blues

39. Rollin' and tumblin'