TRAVELIN WITH THE BLUES

In February 1957, Bob Koester wrote in his newsletter, the Jazz Report, that recent rediscoveries of legendary artists Big Joe Williams and Speckled Red gave information on other forgotten musicians from the 1920s. Koester was told that Paramount and Decca recording artist Barrelhouse Buck McFarland was still around St Louis and he passed that info along to Charlie O'Brien, a fellow member of the St Louis Jazz Club and a St Louis policeman. Buck, the aged entertainer, rugged barrelhouse pianist and marvelous blues singer enjoyed the new interest in his work. Henry Brown, and especially Speckled Red, created new careers and Buck might have as well, but he passed just 8 months after this 1961 recording.