Page 20 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2021

but to be back in Texas when he was due to be on stage in Birmingham in a few hours times was a
bit extreme.

I asked him, probably not over-politely what he was doing in Houston, to which he responded that
he was waiting for a train. The truth slowly dawned on me, that he was maybe at Euston Station, on
the way to Brum.

I asked him if he meant Euston, and he responded, clearly becoming exasperated by this dumb

Englishman, “Yes man, Houston. Houston Station, London.”

He arrived at New Street Station, guitar case in one hand, suitcase in the other with a couple of
suits on a coat hanger hooked over the back of his collar. He told me that he wasn’t actually living
anywhere at the time, just hoboing from gig to gig, city to city, carrying with him all of his worldly
possessions.

Curtis Jones was born in Naples, Texas, in 1906, one of seven children of farmers Willie and Agnes.
Raised on a farm, he worked from the age of eight, learned guitar when he was ten and in his mid-
teens formed his own group to play Vaudeville shows. He ran away from home at 16, often working
outside of music, and serving a short prison sentence for bootlegging.

In 1925 he recorded with Papa Chitlins, a pseudonym of Alex Moore but, as far as anyone can tell,
the record remains to this day unreleased. Curtis was always on the move, to Dallas, through the

South, spending some time in New Orleans, somewhere along the way getting married twice to
Lula, known as Lulu, and then to Bertha, both sometime in the 1930s, before fetching up in Chicago.
There he recorded what was to become his signature tune, ‘Lonesome Bedroom Blues’, for Vocalion
in 1937. This not only became a hit, but is now a blues standard, still in the repertoire of many
bluesmen.

He was subsequently to cut sides for Okeh, but seemed to take a break from recording for 10 years

until 1952, when he recorded for Parrot, then Prestige/Bluesville and Delmark. In 1958 he was
discovered by Blues enthusiasts living in a run-down apartment in Chicago. Reportedly, they helped
him out and put him back on the road.

Curtis moved to Europe in 1962, first settling in France, notably featuring at The Trois Mailletz in
Paris. He continued to tour through the continent and Morocco where he took a residency at The
Basin Street Bar in Casablanca. In England he recorded for Decca and Blue Horizon and appeared in

1963 with the Chris Barber Band.

There must have been something in the make-up of Curtis Jones that gave him itchy feet. It appears
that he continued to hobo through Europe until his death of heart failure in 1971 at The
Schwabinger Krankenhaus hospital in Munich. He was buried in the Friedhof am Perlacher Forst
Cemetery, but as he had died in penury and no-one had paid for the upkeep of his grave, it was sold
off in 1979.

A lot of folk in Birmingham fondly recall this fine, under-appreciated musician whom blues
authority Paul Oliver described as “The bluesman’s blues singer.”

GENE “THE MIGHTY FLEA” CONNERS

When the Johnny Otis Show came to the UK in 1972, I got to hang out with them while they
rehearsed at The 100 Club in London, and found myself chumming up with the trombone player,
The Mighty Flea, otherwise known as Gene Connors, or, as on his passport, Eugene Conners.