The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 162

Conqueror records

This is my second special on a record label that wasn't a record company, but a store brand - of Sears, Roebuck & Co. , the store chain that is still around as Sears. Today some releases from 1938 and in these days their mail order catalogs were immensely popular in rural areas, being the only shopping opportunity next to the general store in a nearby town. In a place where nothing happened, it was a wonderful dreambook for children and a great source of entertainment for their parents.

The Conqueror label brought the popular tunes of the day, but also some great blues and jazz, re-issued from the Vocalion label. And I wonder, as the catalog listed every item that could be ordered at Sears Roebuck, if a farmer somewhere deep down in Ohio, Kentucky or Wyoming, may ever have ordered a record of an unknown musician whose name tickled curiosity - such as Peetie Wheatstraw.

Transcript

Playlist

  1. Blind Boy Fuller - Shaggy Like A Bear (9000)
  2. Blind Boy Fuller - Careless love (9012)
  3. Memphis Minnie - You Caught Me Wrong Again (9025)
  4. Memphis Minnie - Walking And Crying Blues (9026)
  5. Peetie Wheatstraw - Blues at My Door (9027)
  6. Peetie Wheatstraw - King Of Spades (9028)
  7. Curtis Jones - Lonesome Bedroom Blues (9030)
  8. Curtis Jones - Blues and Trouble (9031)
  9. Yas Yas Girl (Merline Johnson) - New Drinking My Blues Away (9033)
  10. Buddy Moss - Red River Blues (9034)
  11. Big Bill Broonzy - Hattie Blues (9036)
  12. Slim & Slam - The Flat Foot Floogie (9056)
  13. Bukka White - Pine Bluff Arkansas (9072)
  14. Big Bill Broonzy - New Shake 'Em on Down (9073)
  15. Blind Boy Fuller - Meat Shakin' Woman (9076)
  16. Curtis Jones - Palace Blues (9077)
  17. Cab Calloway - Mister Paganini, Swing for Minnie (9088)

Outtro:

  • Wild Bill Moore Sextette - Bongo Bounce
The following music served as background music during the spoken parts:
  • Kirk Kirkland - The Saxaphone Rag
  • Cab Calloway - Bugle blues (9090)
  • Cab Calloway - A Minor Breakdown (Rustle of Swing)
  • Earl Hines - Dominick Swing
  • Earl Hines - Everybody Loves My Baby