Trouble In Mind 1935-1941

Georgia-born Georgia White (1903-1980) had a pleasantly passionate way of singing the blues and specialized in bawdy barrelhouse tunes. The records she made between the years 1930-1941 are well worth investigating. This can be accomplished in detail by perusing four volumes of her complete works as reissued during the mid-'90s by Document Records. If 93 consecutive Georgia White performances in chronological order seem like a lot to digest, you could begin by consulting a 25-track sampler of titles dating from 1935-1941 which were released in 1995 on the Blues Collection label. While better choices could have been made in order to present the maximum range of styles, moods, and melodies, even this carelessly contrived core sample conveys her warmth and honesty well enough, largely because every White recording is worth hearing at least once. At times she played piano herself, but usually on this collection she is accompanied by Richard M. Jones or Sammy Price. Her various backup groups also included guitarists Teddy Bunn, Ikey Robinson, and Lonnie Johnson; bassist John Lindsay, drummer Walter Martin, and, on a fine version of "Jazzin' Babies' Blues," Cab Calloway's trumpeter, Jonah Jones, and clarinetist Fess Williams, known in the 1920s as flashy leader of his own hot big band. What you get here is a healthy blend of blues, boogie-woogie, and swing. White's handling of "Trouble in Mind" is quite powerful. Her most famous recordings, however, are those that celebrate partying and pleasures of the flesh. "The Stuff Is Here" is a lively incitement to group intoxication. White's penchant for singing about human sexuality is well represented here by "I Just Want Your Stingaree," the defiant "I'll Keep Sittin' on It" and "Hot Nuts," a party tune revived years later by an African-American fraternity band who went so far as to call themselves Doug Clark & the Hot Nuts. ~ arwulf arwulf|