FREDDY SPRUELL ( II )

Cuando se trata de artistas pioneros es díficil encontar datos y las informaciones son a veces contradictorias , la imagen es prácticamente la única que existe nos consta en mas de una fuente por lo que consideramos que puede ser auténtica, de toda formas nos importa la música y la que hizo FREDDIE SPRUELL ha de  tenerse en cuenta .

                               

                

Freddie Spruell (December 28, 1893 – June 19, 1956) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer.

He was variously billed as Papa Freddie or Mr. Freddie, and he is generally regarded as the first Delta bluesman to be recorded ("Milk Cow Blues", 1926). However, both Mamie Smith (1920) and Blind Lemon Jefferson (1925), pre-dated him in waxing the first 'blues' records. Details of his life are sketchy and sometimes contradictory.

Spruell was probably born in Lake Providence, Louisiana, United States,but relocated with his family to Chicago, Illinois, as a small child. His Social Security records gave his birth date as December 1893. His recordings, although classed as Delta blues, were noted for reasons of his musical styling, rather than any geographical accuracy regarding his long-time place of residence.

On June 25, 1926, Spruell cut "Milk Cow Blues" in Chicago. The track was released by Okeh Records, alongside "Muddy Water Blues" which was recorded in November that year, both sides using the Papa Freddie name. His second single release included "Way Back Down Home" and the same "Muddy Water Blues" track.He recorded two more songs in 1928, one of which was "Tom Cat Blues", and were issued by Paramount Records as by Mr. Freddie Spruell. Five further songs were recorded in April 1935, and released under the shorter Mr. Freddie name on the Bluebird Records label. This latter recording session saw him cut "Let's Go Riding", his best known number. Carl Martin played second guitar behind Spruell, on the track

At the insistence of his own mother, Spruell's playing of secular music ended in the mid-1940s, and he became a Baptist preacher.

Spruell died in Chicago in June 1956, after a lengthy stay in hospital. He was aged 62. However, no death certificate has yet been uncovered.

All his recorded work was included in the compilation album, Mississippi Blues: Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1926-1935)

                             
              

Freddie Spruell was born in 1893, probably in or around Lake Providence, Louisiana, when he was still a young boy his parents moved to Chicago. 

He was one of the first self-accompanied bluesmen to record, for Okeh Records in 1926, releasing "Milk Cow Blues" and "Muddy Water Blues". 

Whilst he had grown up in Chicago, his music had a strong Delta influence. Sometimes also known as Papa Freddie Spruell, Mister Freddie and even Mississippi Freddie Spruell (although his only known links to that State are stylistic).

It has been cited that he gave up the blues in the mid 1940's when his mother asked him to go back to the church. Spruell, a Baptist, became a preacher and never performed again. He is said to have died in Chicago in 1956 although no records have been found to confirm this.



Freddie Spruell - Milk Cow Blues (1926)

El tema Milk Cow Blues no tiene nada que ver con el que posteriormente compuso e interpretó KOKOMO ARNOLD, versionado desde Robert Johnson hasta Aerosmith , pasando por innumerables artistas que hicieron su cover de la leche de vaca. Asimismo la fotografía que aparece en el video nos ofrece serias dudas de que el guitarrista que aparece sea el propio FREDDY SPRUELL, ya que en diferentes medios constan los figurantes como :  Sara Martin with Sylvester Weaver .