Various Artists – Blues, Blues, Hoodoo Halloween Vol. 2
18 Tracks – 56 minutes
Down in the depths of the Louisiana swamps, practitioners of voodoo practiced their arts of magic alongside the rise of blues in the south. The growth of the religion crossed with the ancient African spiritual system known as Ifa mixed with Haitian followers in the practice of Vodou led to the magical practice being referenced as Hoodoo first around 1870 and by 1880 had been clearly defined as “something that causes or bring bad luck”. The booklet that is attached with this album provides a significant history of the creation of Vodou as part of the Haitian fight for independence to the rise of the black arts that linked Black Caribbean and North American cultures that became heralded in song alongside the blues. It should be noted that the booklet begins with a graphic description of how the Voodoo priestesses created a black cat bone.
The album consists of eighteen songs recorded between 1925 to 1953 that deals with the Hoodoo spells and magic that ran rampant through Louisiana. The album opens with “Louisiana Hoo Doo Blues” from Ma Rainey and Her Georgia Band, a song from 1925 in which she says, “I’m bound for New Orleans, down in goofer dust land, down where the hoodoo folks can fix it for you with your man”. Thelma La Vizzo’s 1924 song “New Orleans Goofer Dust Blues (Take 1)” advises, “To keep a good man nowadays, you’ve got to use some goofer dust”. Goofer dust was a powder that was used for magic spells and could be used for good or evil depending on the concoction that was produced.
On Papa Charlie Jackson’s 1926 song, he declares my “Bad Luck Woman” “is a jinx and a worry too, I can’t get rid of her no matter what I do”. The other side of the coin comes with Hattie Hudson’s 1926 song “Doggone My Good Luck Soul” who proclaims she has a gold horseshoe hanging on my door and “Bad luck is gone from here, it can’t come back no more”. Ida Cox’s 1927 song “Mojo Hand Blues” advises she is “going to Louisiana, to get myself a mojo hand cause these backbiting women trying to take my man”. A mojo hand references a small bag that contains magical charms with a spell for good luck that may be made from herbs or in some instances from the fingers and/or hand of a dead man ground into powder.
Sylvester Weaver’s 1927 song “Black Spider Blues” addresses ways to kill noting that “A rattlesnake is dangerous, a black spider is worser (sic) still”. Charley Lincoln cites “she went to the hoodoo, she went there all alone cause every time I leave her, I have to hurry back home” in 1927’s “Mojoe Blues”. In 1930, Barbeque Bob sang “I’m get me a new mojo and drive bad luck away” on New Mojo Blues”. “J.T. “Funny Paper” Smith sometimes went by the name “The Howling Wolf”. His 1931 song “Seven Sisters Blues (Part 1)” is about New Orleans sisters who “Can really fix a man up right”.
Jaydee Short’s 1932 “Snake Doctor Blues” is about a man who “has got roots and herbs, steal a woman, man, everywhere he land”. Kokomo Arnold’s 1935 “Old Black Cat Blues (Jinx Blues)” is about a man cursed with bad luck “Lord if I win on Friday, please Saturday night I’m sure to lose”. Washboard Sam’s 1938 “Suspicious Blues” provides a rundown of all of the bad omen beliefs that existed at the time and concludes with “Somebody stole my rabbit’s foot, and I’ve got the suspicious blues”
Sweet Georgia Brown in her 1941 song brags that her man “has got a “Black Cat Bone”… and “teeth that shine like diamonds”. “He plays black magic, and I crave it all the time”. John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson joins with Blind John Davis on harmonica on the 1946 song “Hoodoo Hoodoo” as he says that “somebody done hoodooed the hoodoo man”. On Jazz Gillum’s 1947 “Hand Reader Blues” he sought “the hand reader to have his fortune told” and was given a potion to cure his ills and pills to cure his blues.
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup heads to Louisiana in his 1947 song “Hoodoo Lady Blues” and begs “Now miss hoodoo lady, please give me a hoodoo hand. I wanna hoodoo this woman of mine, I believe she’s got another man”. The Ralph Willis’ 1951 song “Hoodoo Man” seems a replica of the Sonny Boy Williamson song as he again states, “Somebody done hoodooed the hoodoo man” as he has lost his woman. The album concludes with Little Willie Littlefield’s 1953 song “Goofy Dust Blues”, which adds a bit of rock into the music reflecting changing times, but the belief in magic still persisted as he tells her “you can have my sack if I don’t come back” as he is “going to the city where they have lots of goofy dust and I’m going to spread on some”.
The album reflects the beliefs in Hoodoo, a black magic that persisted over the 28 years represented in this collection. It provides a history lesson reflecting the continuation of the original cultures before a slow shift into American Christianity. Those cultural beliefs in magic and Hoodoo continued even after the performers moved away from the south and into the big city as reflected in Littlefield’s concluding song. Study the songs for that history lesson or just accept them for a little bit of magic for a Halloween gathering.
