Re: Inspiration - compilation from J.J. Milteau

[Pat Missin <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom wrote:
>
>That's not Robert Lee McCoy playing harp on Lee Brown's "My Driving 
>Wheel" -- it's Rhythm Willie Hood.
>
>I believe the first case of this performance being misidentified was 
>in an old version of Godrich & Dixon's discography -- and since G&D 
>was used as a resource by reissue labels, when the song was reissued 
>on a Yazoo comp years later, this wrong ID was perpetuated. 


If my memory serves me correctly, G&D actually listed the harp player
on this session (and the one with Peetie Wheatstraw recorded later
that same day) as being simply "Lee McCoy". It seems to have been
later writers who assumed that this meant "Robert Lee McCoy". Another
session with Peetie Wheatstraw actually did have Robert Lee McCoy
playing harp, but he was listed under his full name, not as "Lee
McCoy". Things were complicated even further by the first edition of
Kim Field's "Harmonicas, Harps and Heavy Breathers" which suggested
(wrongly) that Rhythm Willie was actually pianist W.E. "Buddy" Burton.

Although he was later much better known as a singer/guitarist, Robert
Lee McCoy played harp on many of his early recording sessions, but his
style was totally unlike Rhythm Willie's. McCoy played mostly in cross
harp, whereas Willie played straight harp almost exclusively in a very
jazz-influenced style - it's hard to imagine how they could be
mistaken for each other. As far as I know, Robert Lee McCoy was never
called "Lee McCoy" on any of his recordings, nor did he ever use his
real name of Robert Lee McCollum, although he did use the names
"Rambling Bob", "Peetie's Boy" and later became best known as "Robert
NIghthawk".

The late Bob Shatkin was particularly curious as to why that 1939
session was credited to "Lee McCoy" and speculated that perhaps Willie
Hood had to use a pseudonym for contractual reasons. I guess we will
never know.

I agree with Tom that is it disappointing that the error is being
perpetuated on the "Inspiration" CD, but fortunately it is the only
disappointment about this album.

 -- Pat.