Luke
Jordan
They called
him Lynchburg Luke
One of the many things not known about Lynchburg street performer Luke Jordan (1894-1954) is how he managed to get a recording stint with a major record label. One theory goes that he was referred to a label rep by a Richmond piano dealer; another that he simply hopped a freight to New York City unsolicited, as several white country artists had.
However
he did it, the wry Jordan was the first Virginia folk-blues artist to record
professionally, a shadowy songster who left behind a sparse but classic discography
from two separate sessions for the Victor company in 1927 and 1929, period
jewels like "Cocaine Blues," "Pick Poor Robin Clean,"
and "Church Bell Blues."
Not really a bluesman, the World War I veteran’s tongue-in-cheek tuneage had more in common with minstrelsy and bawdy vaudeville. A synthesis of African-American and faux-black sources, the recordings sold well with both blacks and rural whites, and Jordan apparently sang for all of Lynchburg until the ‘40’s, when he lost his voice. There is believed to be but one surviving photo of the man they called Lynchburg Luke. Worse still, one of his four Victor 78s has never surfaced, lost to the ages.*
Happily, time hasn’t forgotten Jordan and his musical contributions. Thanks to the James River Blues Society, there is now a marker in downtown Lynchburg honoring this pioneering Virginia song stylist.
* The missing
78 has since been found and is featured on Document Records' Too
Late, Too Late Blues, Vol. 8.
- Don Harrison
-- Text originally published in 64 Magazine, Jan.-Feb. 2001.
--- Photo courtesy of DeadBluesGuys.com.
_________________________________________
Born January 28, 1892
, possibly either Appomattox or Campbell county, Virginia. Died June 25, 1952,
Lynchburg, Virginia. The blues scene in pre-war Virginia was poorly documented
at the time and few of its members 
managed
to record. Post-war research by Bruce Bastin reveals that Luke Jordan was
a prime-mover in the blues enclave centred around Lynchburg. It seems that
he did not work outside music but relied on his talent and local fame to see
him through. Victor Records discovered him in 1927 and he recorded for them
in Charlotte, North Carolina, in August of that year. Jordan's records sold
well enough to justify transporting him to New York for a further two sessions
in November 1929. Of the total of 10 tracks that he recorded, eight saw release,
although only six have been located.* The extant sides present a high pitched
singer given to a fast delivery backed by a niftily picked Gibson guitar.
From the evidence of his records it would seem that a large part of his repertoire
was made up from vaudeville songs, though the gambling song Pick Poor Robin
Clean may have its roots in the folk tradition. His masterpiece was Church
Bell Blues, a bravura performance forever associated with him in local tradition,
while Cocaine Blues became an early ‘crossover’ when it was recorded
by white bluesman Dick Justice in 1929.
* The missing
78 has since been found and is featured on Document Records' Too
Late, Too Late Blues, Vol. 8.
- Encyclopedia of Popular Music - Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 2002.
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This tribute
is brought to you by the folks at Rappahannock River Oysters, LLC.
