ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
---|---|---|
Pee Wee Crayton | Blues After Hours | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Central Avenue Blues | Texas Blues Jumpin' in Los Angeles |
Pee Wee Crayton | Texas Hop | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Ivory Joe Hunter | Seventh Street Boogie | Ivory Joe Hunter 1945-47 |
Ivory Joe Hunter | Boogin' In The Basement | Ivory Joe Hunter 1945-47 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Louella Brown | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Please Come Back | The Modern legacy Vol. 1 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Rockin' the Blues | The Modern legacy Vol. 1 |
Pee Wee Crayton | When A Man Has The Blues | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Pee Wee Crayton | T for Texas | Texas Blues Jumpin' in Los Angeles |
Pee Wee Crayton | Brand New Woman | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Rosa Lee | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Ike Lloyd | Worrying Blues | Clyde Bernhardt Vol. 2 1949-1953 |
Ike Lloyd | Boogie On The 88 | Clyde Bernhardt Vol. 2 1949-1953 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Answer to Blues After Hours | Texas Blues Jumpin' in Los Angeles |
Pee Wee Crayton | Change Your Way of Lovin' | Texas Blues Jumpin' in Los Angeles |
Pee Wee Crayton | Blues Before Dawn | New Orleans Guitar 1953-1955 |
Pee Wee Crayton | When It Rains It Pours | California Blues: Dangerous Blues & Terrific Jumps R&B |
Pee Wee Crayton | Good Little Woman | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Poppa Stoppa | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Dave Bartholomew | Every Night Every Day | Dave Bartholomew 1952-1955 |
Dave Bartholomew | Shout Sister Shout! | Dave Bartholomew 1952-1955 |
Pee Wee Crayton | I Love Her Still | Vee Jay Screaming Blues Guitar |
Pee Wee Crayton | Huckle Boogie | Blues Guitar Magic: The Modern Legacy Vol. 2 |
Pee Wee Crayton | You Know, Yeah | Pee Wee's Blues: The Complete Aladdin And Imperial Recordings |
Pee Wee Crayton | Do Unto Others | Pee Wee's Blues: The Complete Aladdin And Imperial Recordings |
Al "Cake" Wichard Sextette | Boogie Woogie Upstairs | The Modern Legacy Vol. 1 |
Dave Bartholomew | Another Mule | Dave Bartholomew 1952-1955 |
Pee Wee Crayton | Runnin' Wild | Pee Wee's Blues: The Complete Aladdin And Imperial Recordings |
Pee Wee Crayton | Win-O | Pee Wee's Blues: The Complete Aladdin And Imperial Recordings |
Pee Wee Crayton | The Telephone Is Ringing | Vee Jay Screaming Blues Guitar |
Pee Wee Crayton | I Got News For You | Pee Wee's Blues: The Complete Aladdin And Imperial Recordings |
Big Joe Turner | Corrine, Corrina | In The Evening |
Sunset Blues Band | Piney Brown Blues | Sunset Blues Band |
Pee Wee Crayton | Git To Gittin' | California Blues: Dangerous Blues & Terrific Jumps R&B |
Pee Wee Crayton | Blues in the Ghetto | Johnny Otis Presents: The Best Of R&B Vol. 4 |
Pee Wee Crayton | The Things I Used To Do | The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey |
Show Notes:
There are certain artists I’ve played often on this program yet have never devoted a full show to them. One of those artists is the terrific Pee Wee Crayton, an outstanding guitarist and singer, who finally gets his proper due on today’s show. Like just about every guitarist from his era, he was influenced by T-Bone Walker but fashioned his own unique style. He was also a fine, smooth voiced singer equally at home on slow ballads and up-tempo numbers. Pee Wee made some records in 1945 and 1947 but came into his own when he signed with Modern in 1948. One of his first recordings was the instrumental “Blues After Hours”, which reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart late that year. He cut a pile of great records for Modern like “Texas Hop”, “Louella Brown”, “Central Avenue Blues”, “Change Your Way of Lovin'” through 1951 when his contract ended. He cut a few sides for other west coast labels like Aladdin before hooking up with Imperial and was in top form on numbers like ”Do Unto Others”, “I Got News for You” and “Runnin’ Wild” among others. He recorded for Imperial through 1955 when things got leaner but he did wax some strong sides during his short stint at Vee Jay. After that he cut a mixed bag of material in the 60s for small labels. Things picked up a bit in the 70s with recordings with Johnny Otis and Vanguard and some work backing Big Joe Turner. After that, Pee Wee’s profile was raised somewhat; he toured and made a few more albums prior to his passing in 1985. Thanks mainly to the Ace label, just about everything he recorded has been reissued. In addition to his own sides, we hear some of his session work backing folks like Ivory Joe Hunter, Ike Lloyd, Dave Bartholomew and others.
He was born Connie Curtis Crayton on December 18, 1914 in Liberty Hill, near Rockdale, Texas. He was nicknamed Pee Wee by his father. He learned to play trumpet and ukulele and played in his school band. After leaving school he shined shoes, and then pressed clothes at a cleaners in the University of Texas. In 1935 he followed his mother to California. A Modern Records’ press release written in 1950 said: “Delving into the past we’ve learned that Pee Wee spent many sunny days pounding the streets of our fair city looking for a gig as a porter, janitor, or dishwasher, then moved to Oakland where he secured a job at the Naval Supply Depot.”
In Crayton’s own words: ”On my vacation in 1941 I made a trip to Oakland where my brother lived. When war broke out I started working at Mare Island Naval Yards and at that time I started listening to Charlie Christian who played guitar with the Benny Goodman sextet. T-Bone Walker came to town and so I went to see him play [and] we became friends. He showed me how to string up the guitar to get the blues sound out of it.” Around the same time Crayton took lessons from Eddie Young, a guitarist who worked at the Shipyard. Later he met John Collins, who worked with the Nat “King'” Cole Trio. “Collins taught me to play with all four fingers” he recalled. “That’s the reason why I can play big chords.”
Crayton got his first musical gig with Count Otis Matthews, a blues pianist who had a four-piece band. In 1946 Crayton joined the Ivory Joe Hunter band and appeared on at least six sides of his Pacific records. In 1947, he made his debut as leader, though his four tracks were shelved until 1949, when they were issued by 4-Star and Gruv-V-Tone. Crayton formed his own trio an worked at various clubs in Oakland including the Clef, and Vellas. They later crossed the bridge to San Francisco and was seen by Tony Vallerio of Melody Sales, a big distributor of Modern’s discs. He called Jules Bihari and asked him to see this act at the New Orleans Swing Club. Bihari liked what he saw and invited Crayton and his pianist down to his studio. The recording ban was on, but at Modern’s new headquarters and pressing plant they had installed a recording studio, and this was where Crayton cut his early sessions that included “Texas Hop”, “Blues After Hours”and ‘”I Love You So.” “Blues After Hours,” a slow-blues instrumental that topped R&B charts for three weeks in November ’48, backed with “I’m Still in Love With You,” a bluesy pop ballad that foreshadowed his crossover tendencies. “Texas Hop,” a shuffling blues romp, was followed by “I Love You So,” a jazz-tinged ballad and his first vocal A side, reaching #5 and #6 respectively in1949.
Esther, Pee Wee’s wife, commented “He wasn’t all straight blues, so he had wider appeal than many of the other artists. He could play sweet mellow tunes like ‘I Love You So’ (His biggest hit, a #7 R&B chart entry on 22 July 1949). “At that time he had three popular records going and they appealed to different audiences. ‘Blues After Hours’, his first hit, was straight-ahead blues while ‘Texas Hop’ appealed to people who wanted to jitterbug. He was packing the Downbeat Club every night, and they were turning crowds away.” With an act that featured walking into the audience with a 300-foot guitar cord, he was a favorite performer on Central Avenue and in national blues venues. On June 25, 1950, he appeared at Cavalcade of Jazz, at L.A.’s Wrigley Field alongside Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Roy Milton, and Tiny Davis to a crowd of more than 16,000.
In October 1951 the Billboard noted that “Pee Wee Crayton has received his release from Modern Records and was immediately pacted with another local indie, Aladdin. Boss Eddie Mesner will return in a week from the east with material for Crayton to record.” In December 1951 Aladdin had put ads in the trade papers listing his new single “When It Rains It Pours.” The following year he was back at Modern for one more session. In 1953 he cut sides for John Dolphin’s Recorded In Hollywood label.
A new deal with Imperial was inked in 1954, with Lew Judd sending him down to New Orleans to record with Dave Bartholomew at Cosimo Matassa’s studio. He was now recording with his brand new custom-made red Strat, presented to him by Leo Fender. He backed Bartholomew on a few numbers. The guitar gave him extended range on the high notes in classics such as “Wino”, “You Know Yeah” and “Running Wild.” By this time Crayton had dropped his band and he had moved to Detroit to work as a singer and record for the tiny Fox label. In the autumn of 1956, he had cut a new deal with Vee-Jay in Chicago where he cut an all-time classic, “The Telephone Is Ringing.” However, he returned to Los Angeles in 1960, and the Biharis recorded him at the famed Goldstar studios, but those recordings stayed in the can until the Ace label issued the material on the album Memorial Album.
The early 60s saw Crayton making singles for Jamie/Guyden, Smash and Edco, and he also undertook a lot of session work playing guitar on recordings with artists such as Elliott Shavers, Gus Jenkins and others. He was an uncredited part of the Sunset Blues Band; later he featured on the Johnny Otis Live At Monterey Jazz Festival, 1970 LP released on Epic. In the 70s Pee Wee cut albums for Vanguard, Blues Spectrum and Jules Bihari’s new Big Town label, while re-issues appeared on Ace, Route 66 and other labels. He worked on sessions with Joe Turner for Pablo while his last recordings were made for the Murray brothers, who issued several albums. Crayton died in Los Angeles on June 25, 1985, just after returning from a triumphant return to his hometown of Austin to play at Antone’s. In his honor, a host of the area’s best guitar slingers later gathered to stage the “Pee Wee Crayton Battle of the Blues Guitars.” Crayton was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame by long-time friend Doug MacLeod.
-Blau, Ellen. “Living Blues Interview: Pee Wee Crayton. Pt. 2.” Living Blues no. 57 ((Autumn 1983): 6–9, 36–39, 41, 43, 45, 47.