PhilPaine.com

I’ve played the Blue Suit Records com­pi­la­tion of Louie Bluie’s coun­try blues about twen­ty times since I got it. Arm­strong had an appeal­ing per­son­al­i­ty, and was a far cry from the trag­ic and self-destruc­tive fel­lows that fill blues his­to­ry. Mul­ti-tal­ent­ed, able to speak sev­er­al lan­guages and to engage audi­ences as a racon­teur, he died at the age of 95, respect­ed and com­fort­able though not rich. Between the two world wars, he played with Sleepy John Estes and Big Bill Broonzy, among many. His cheer­ful style on fid­dle, man­dolin and gui­tar, often accom­pa­nied by bril­liant­ly-told per­son­al anec­dotes, dis­tin­guished him from the surli­er, less artic­u­late per­sonas that dom­i­nat­ed coun­try blues. After serv­ing in WWII, he worked for twen­ty-five years in a Detroit auto plant, then start­ed to per­form and tour exten­sive­ly when pub­lic inter­est in old blues revived. Check out, if you can, his unusu­al and delight­ful fid­dle ver­sion of Gershwin’s “Sum­mer­time”, which segues ele­gant­ly into a beau­ti­ful ren­di­tion of the old hymn “When He Calls Me, I Will Answer.”