 Q:
Please tell me what you know about Barrelhouse Buck and is it true
he used to play with Henry Townsend?
Tom
M.
A:
Barrelhouse Buck is a prime example of the debt St Louis
owes to the work of Bob Koester and Charlie O'Brien. Koester and
O'Brien rediscovered the aged St Louis blues musicians in the late
1950s and if not for them, Thomas (Barrelhouse Buck) McFarland would
be one of the obscure and unknown names on a number of pre-war blues
recordings.
Koester and O'Brien asked Big Joe Williams and Speckled Red
about the piano player who made records for Paramount and
Decca between 1929-35 credited as Barrelhouse Buck.
In 1960 they found Buck living in Alton, Illinois, after having
been in Detroit, Michigan since the thirties. O'Brien arranged
for Buck to be recorded one last time for Folkways Records
by Sam Charters in 1961. On that record Buck pays tribute
to St Louis police Lieutenant O'Brien with the song "Lieutenant
Blues".
Buck had played with St Louis' Creath band in the twenties
and formed his own jug band called Buck's Jazz Hounds and
made recordings with St Louis talents like Peetie Wheatstraw
and Wesley Wallace and was a friend of St Louis guitarist
Charley Jordan and singer Alice Moore. Henry Townsend tells
stories of playing parties with Buck in the thirties.
Post-war artist Jimmy Vaughn grew up in Alton next door to
Buck and was inspired by him to play music.
Buck passed away in 1962. Koester's Delmark records in Chicago
has other recordings of the 1961 session soon to be released.
(www.delmark.com)
Sound clips from the 1961 recording can be heard
right here
Kevin
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