Biography
While certain experts on early blues remain convinced that Dorothy Everetts left behind no verifiable personal history, other dedicated investigators have established details extending well past the existence of her two recorded numbers, “Fat Mouth Blues” and “Macon Blues.” She cut both titles in New Orleans, thereby anchoring the singer to a specific place, and an especially fertile one. Those sides formed part of Columbia’s concentrated field-recording campaign in the city throughout 1928, a stretch that also captured, inside a single week, bandleader Oscar Celestin, the full Halfway House Dance Orchestra, and the Jackson Blue Boys trio, which spotlighted the gifted Bo Carter.
On the identical day the latter group worked, Everetts laid down her own tracks to the spare support of a lone pianist, creating an unusually demanding schedule for Columbia’s veteran supervisor Frank Walker. A letter he addressed to his colleague and fellow producer Joe Davis while still in New Orleans contains information that may intrigue anyone tracing the deeper roots of punk music in America. Although colloquial usage has doubtless shifted since the late 1920s, Walker’s opening line can be read as an inadvertent rallying cry for those eager to trace Everetts’ wider influence: “Good trip so far and lots of good records (we hope) but who can tell, they may all be punk, but at least we’re trying.”
On the identical day the latter group worked, Everetts laid down her own tracks to the spare support of a lone pianist, creating an unusually demanding schedule for Columbia’s veteran supervisor Frank Walker. A letter he addressed to his colleague and fellow producer Joe Davis while still in New Orleans contains information that may intrigue anyone tracing the deeper roots of punk music in America. Although colloquial usage has doubtless shifted since the late 1920s, Walker’s opening line can be read as an inadvertent rallying cry for those eager to trace Everetts’ wider influence: “Good trip so far and lots of good records (we hope) but who can tell, they may all be punk, but at least we’re trying.”