HC Speir

Henry C. Speir (born October 6, 1895 in Prospect , Mississippi , † 1972 in Jackson , Mississippi) was probably the most influential and important talent scout of the Delta Blues .

Life

In 1925 Speir opened a record store on Farish Street in Jackson's black neighborhood . In the following year he acquired a cutting machine for the production of unique records and began looking for talents that he wanted to pass on to record companies. He relied on "Race Records", that is, Afro-American music for an Afro-American market and concentrated on the Delta Blues, which had just been created but had not yet been recorded . Although this music was unusual and unusual for the record industry, pushed Speir with its artists on deaf ears, especially since recently, in 1926, the first plates of Blind Lemon Jefferson , the leading representative of the Texas Blues , published with great success and other performers of a similar color were sought.

In 1927 Speir was able to record his first success when he referred William Harris to the Gennett company, followed by Ishmon Bracey and Tommy Johnson for Victor Records . From 1929 until the closure in 1932, Speir brokered the majority of his artists to Paramount Records , including such illustrious names as Skip James , Charley Patton , Son House and Willie Brown . In April 1930 Speir was offered by Otto Moesner, the owner of Paramount, to buy the entire company for $ 25,000, but Speir was not liquid enough, received no credit and had to cancel the purchase.

Speir continued to work as a talent scout, key artists he placed were Bo Carter , the Mississippi Sheiks , Blind Joe Reynolds , Blind Roosevelt Graves , Washboard Walter , Geeshie Wiley , Elvie Thomas , Isaiah Nettles and Robert Wilkins . In addition to blues artists, he also discovered numerous white music groups, so-called string bands , his most famous white discovery was Jimmie Rodgers , one of the most important pioneers of country music .

His most famous discovery, however, came in 1935 when the unknown Robert Johnson came into his shop and took a test shot. Speir referred Johnson to ARC Records , for which he made his first recordings in 1936.

In 1942 Speir stopped working for the record industry and opened a furniture store. In 1964, the blues historian and record collector Gayle Dean Wardlow found Speir, who had since become a realtor and had become religious. From then on he repeatedly interviewed him about the artists he had discovered, although Speir was initially unwilling to speak about them. Regardless of his sympathies for music and artists, his own historical significance for the music of the 20th century did not seem entirely clear to him. Speir died in 1972.

reception

Gayle Dean Wardlow dedicated a separate chapter to it in his book “Chasin 'That Devil Music: Searching For The Blues” and described its meaning with the words “Speir was the godfather of the Delta Blues. HC Speir was to the country blues of the twenties and thirties what Sam Phillips was to rock'n'roll of the fifties - a musical visionary. If Speir had not existed, Mississippi's most important natural resource would have remained untapped. ”( “ Speir was the godfather of Delta blues. HC Speir was to Twenties and Thirties country blues what Sam Phillips was to Fifties rock & roll-a musical visionary. If it hadn't been for Speir, Mississippi's greatest natural resource might have gone untapped. " ). In 2005 Speir was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame (as a non-performer ) .

literature

• Pat Howse and Jimmy Phillips: Godfather of Delta Blues - HC Speir - An Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow . In: Peavey Monitor . 1995, pp. 34-44
• Gayle Dean Wardlow: Chasin 'That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues . Backbeat Books, 1998, ISBN 0879305525

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Laudation for admission to the Blues Hall of Fame, online ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Pat Howse and Jimmy Phillips: Godfather of Delta Blues - HC Speir - An Interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow . In: Peavey Monitor . 1995, p. 44. Online ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )