Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell

by Michael Gray

By the time he died in 1959, Blind Willie McTell was almost forgotten. He had never had a hit record, and his days of playing on street corners for spare change were long gone. But this masterful guitarist and exquisite singer has since become one of the most loved musicians of the prewar period, spurring Bob Dylan to write, “Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.” Now this richly evocative and wide-ranging biography illuminates for the first time the world of this elusive and fascinating figure, a blind man who made light of his disability and a performer who exploded every stereotype about blues musicians. 

Traveling the back roads of Georgia, interviewing relatives and acquaintances, and digging up fascinating archival material, author Michael Gray weaves together his discoveries to reveal an articulate and resourceful musician with a modest career but a mile-wide independent streak. Whether selling high-quality homemade bootleg whisky out of a suitcase, bragging about crowds of women chasing him, or suffering a stroke while eating barbecue under a tree, McTell emerges from this book a cheerful, outgoing, engaging individualist with seemingly limitless self-confidence. 

This moving odyssey into a lost world of black music and white power is also an unprecedented portrait of the culture, language, and landscape of the deep South--the violence, the leisurely pace of life--and of the blues preservationists who ventured into its heart. A long, thoughtful stare into the world of Blind Willie McTell, Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes is sure to find a place among the classics of American music history. 

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, History, African American

448 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2007

About the author

Michael Gray is a critic, writer, public speaker & broadcaster recognised as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan, and as an expert on rock’n’roll history. He also has a special interest in pre-war blues, and in travel.

His latest book, in 3 volumes, is the 50th Anniversary re-publication of his classic pioneering study of Bob Dylan's work, Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan. Instead of the 900+ page 1-volume whopper that has been out of print for over ten years, the new series is published by The FM Press (NYC). Volume 1: Language & Tradition, is out now either from http://amzn.to/43q3MHn or can be ordered from your favourite bookstore, ISBN 979-8-9-9882887-0-1.

Michael grew up near Liverpool, England, went to the Cavern, and graduated from the University of York with a BA in History & English in 1967, having interviewed (as a student journalist) the distinguished British historian A.J.P. Taylor and the distinguished American guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

His pioneering study Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan, published in the UK in 1972, was the first full-length critical study of Dylan’s work. US and Japanese hardback editions, and a UK paperback, were published in 1973. A second, updated edition was published in 1981 in the UK and 1982 in North America.

The massive third edition Song & Dance Man III - including a 112-page study of Dylan’s use of the blues - was published in December 1999 in the UK and early in 2000 in the US. A seventh reprint was issued in 2008, and the book remained in print until late 2010.

More: see http://www.michaelgray.net/biography....

Reviews

[Paul Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Gray did yeoman work on this book. He interviewed seemingly everyone who was connected with Willie McTell and who was still alive when he did the research - early 2000's. He visited places where Willie McTell lived; he visited not only Willie McTell's gravesite (with a story of both the original and replaced headstone), but also his second (common law) wife's gravesite; even the hospital where McTell died - the building where he died is now a prison, and Gray was threatened by a redneck warden and was almost arrested by redneck cops. (I probably shouldn't use that term but, from Gray's description of the incident, it fits.) Gray gives us a plethora of Georgia history from pre-Civil War days (Willie McTell's great-grandfather was a white Georgian who fought with the Confederacy) through reconstruction days, into the Jim Crow era of the twentieth century. He tells the story behind the discovery of the iconic photograph of Willie McTell which has served as the cover for many reissue recordings. Gray also tells the story behind Willie McTell's last recording in 1956. He even visits the funeral home where Willie McTell's body was taken after his death, as well as the funeral home that conducted his wife Helen's funeral.
If you want to learn about Willie McTell's history and the history of his times, this is the place to go.

The weak point of the book is that the music gets second shrift to the history. I was interested in how McTell developed his style, why he decided to play 12 string rather than the 6 string (although the 12 string was more common in the Atlanta region than elsewhere), and how he hooked up with Curley Weaver and others. Some of this is covered in passing, but I wanted more. Maybe most of that information had been swept away by the time Gray was doing his research. I would even have settled for some thoughts and opinions by Gray or others on McTell's music, but it's mostly not there.

All of the emphasis on history may make it seem like it would be a dry, boring book, but I didn't find it so. Recommended if you want to learn about Blind Willie McTell's life. If you want the music, listen.

Here are a few to get you started if you're new to Blind Willie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnWxZ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WEq...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKQHj...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds1xV...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxYRs...

And a couple by his running buddy, Curley Weaver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFh_w...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCvF...

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read in awhile. Bar none, the best biography on any Blues artist...not that I'm an authority.

This book is much more than a bio about recording sessions with the Lomaxes and various other pre-war hucksters. Gray (renowned for his impressive Dylan research) does a deep dive into Southern history, walking us through the social history of the South, namely middle and south Georgia. As a Georgian, I found his research to be quite compelling, especially his treatment of the Civil War, Jim Crow, as he interweaves the social complexities with Blind Willie's ancestors. Who knew that Willie's great grandfather was a white Confederate soldier that was on hand at Appomattox when Lee surrendered?

As a Georgian that grew up in Atlanta, I was delighted that Gray brought pre-war Atlanta to life, especially over-gentrified areas like Buckhead...that were previous haunt of some of the Country Blues greats, such as Curly Weaver, Barbecue Bob, Charley Lincoln, and Buddy Moss.....not to mention the great Blind Willie McTell.

An interesting subplot of the book is 'eccentric Englishman rambles around rural Georgia in the days right after 9/11.' I found it comical that Gray chooses to use public transport via bus to get to Thomson, Georgia. Quite the spectacle. His commentaries on 'America' are fascinating, sometimes a bit askew, but more than often, thought provoking and spot on.

Willie McTell lived a fascinating life, which I won't really get into here. Those reading this are likely already aware of his footprint on the world of music. If you are into the Country Blues, do yourself a favor and read this book.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spose after writing Song and Dance Man and The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Michael Gray learned that 'nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell', and so there began his next book.
Here is a sociological and genealogical trawl down the deep south. In his search for Blind Willie McTell, Gray is also telling the history of slavery, the civil war, segregation, Jim Crow and civil rights.
McTell died in 1959 in obscurity. His sparse and haphazard recording career only telling a very small part of his hidden musical story.
McTell, blind from birth, played 12 string acoustic guitar for nickels and dimes, mainly in his home state of Georgia. However, even without sight, he was often on a ramble around the country, unaccompanied, using his ears for eyes.
John and Ruby Lomax found him in Atlanta in the 40's and recorded him. Ahmet Ertegun did the same in the 50's, just found him playing on the street corner!
This book has the sweet smell of magnolia.

[Barry Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blind Willie McTell was unusual among acoustic blues players of his period in that he played 12-string guitar and played church/gospel/spirituals as well as playing any other kind of music his audience wanted to hear also: be it country, popular songs,rags, or folk ballads. British researcher, Michael Gray, has done an excellent job of pinning down much of what can now be known of this itinerant early recording artist. McTell comes vividly to life in these pages and the reader gets a feel for what he was like as a musician and as a person. One of the sad ironies revealed in the book is that a musician who was discriminated against and mistreated during his all-too-short life is now being fought over by the rival tourist industries of both Statesboro and Thompson, Georgia, as an icon, thanks to his wonderful music. - BH.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a fan of Willie McTells music I loved this book. Great biography. Well researched. I have actually been to his gravesite at Jones Grove Baptist church. A very interesting life indeed. And a person I wish more people had the pleasure of knowing. If you have never heard Blind Willie McTell, do yourself a favor, go to YouTube and listen to this man's music. You should be pleasantly surprised.

[Erik Steevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very overwhelming mission and this book gives a insight of American history in the 19th & 20th century

[Stephen Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book about 10 years and it's sadly sat on my reading list since then, finally got around to reading it this summer, and it's one of the finest books of it's kind, I did expect a blues biography, but what I got was, in addition to that, was a wonderful telling of the history of Georgia, the struggle of Black Americans from pre civil war to the civil rights movement and a slice of life from the American story.

All told expertly and engagingly, a beautiful experience all round

[Peter Metcalfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A better and clearer history of a Musician i have never read. This book is not just a journey through the life of Willie McTell , it is also a journey through his wider family and his community in the south of the USA where lynching Black people for some perceived insult even if it didn't apply to that person was the rule of law. And they went to Church on Sunday.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is more a rambling, self-celebrating narrative of someone trying to know as much as can be known about the great Georgia bluesman, Blind Willie McTell, than it is a coherent account of McTell’s life and work. If there was ever a biographical case of losing a forest for its trees this is it. Gray devotes pages, to cite one example, to describing his decades later visit to the mental hospital where a likely unconscious McTell spent the last week of his life and, beyond revealing the sweat of his efforts and the aggravating encounter with the adjoining prison hospital police, he comes up with only one fact that’s not worth a footnote—the identity of the exact building on the hospital campus that McTell died in. In the meantime, after taking more than a third of the book to get to McTell’s life (useful family, regional, and national history for context but disproportionate to the subject focus), he has lost the plot of summing up a great artist’s life in the book’s final pages to show off the discovery of a building’s name. The book is one of fractional virtues and vices—at times an able accounting of McTell’s recording and personal history, at others, and way too often, a digressive boast and whine feast of each trivial new fact uncovered and the difficulties of finding out credible information or the helpfulness or neglect or self-interest or unreliability of those entrusted with desired details. It’s a shame because McTell is an important figure and Gray is authoritative, just not disciplined about what he’s being authoritative about. All facts are equal, except the unknown ones, then regardless of their significance they (and the details of their discovery) are thrust to centerstage. The book is useful but frustrating to read. Worth the effort if you’re a McTell fan, particularly given that there isn’t much in the way of alternatives, and not if you have only a passing interest in the Blues. The best entry point, however, is the music, which is sublime. There is also a superb Bob Dylan song, “Blind Willie McTell,” that by itself can kindle an interest, as it did for me, in the bluesman’s life. In five verses, Dylan gets the important things right, succintly capturing the roots of the Blues—the ghosts of slavery ships, burning plantations, revival tents, bootleg whiskey, chain gangs, and “power and greed and corrutible seed” and concluding “And I know no one can see sing the blues / Like Blind Willie McTell.”

[Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up primarily because I was interested in the music of Willie McTell.

In that respect, I was somewhat disappointed. Gray covers McTell's recording sessions and musical career, and provides a thorough discography. But he has very little to say about McTell's musical influences, songwriting (much of which borrowed from earlier jazz and blues), or musical style. This is understandable because there is very sparse documentation available on those topics.

While the musical content was light, I enjoyed the book for what it is: A blend of back-story and ancestry of McTell going back to his (white) grandfather, a bit of Civil War history, an essay on culture and race in rural Georgia (where McTell was raised), and a travelogue. Some reviewers have complained that these are irrelevant, but I found that they created a rich context to understand the story of McTell's life.

Michael Gray has done extensive research on McTell's life and surroundings, interviewing the handful of survivors who knew him, digging up historical records, visiting the towns, churches, and schools where he lived. He weaves these elements together to bring the story of McTell to life.

Whether you are a fan of 1930's country blues or not, this is a fascinating and well written book.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The search would have been shorter and easier to read without all the digressive comments on fast food restaurants, southern architecture or lack thereof, the Civil War experiences of Willie McTell's white great-grandfather, and more. Maybe it's because he's British and writing primarily for British readers, but I don't feel that I began to learn anything about Willie McTell until about page 200 although I learned a lot about Michael Gray's taste, experiences, etc. He clearly did a lot of research, but I could have done without the accounts of the unfruitful interviews as well as the comments on strip malls and all that. In some places, he doesn't get it at all, as when he castigates a black preacher associated with Booker T Washington for exhorting black students to behave well.

[Jitte Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most awesome music books I've ever read! It helps if you're into old time acoustic blues... but in any event, it's also a great account of the South of the US of today and of days gone by...

Fantastic! On a par with Peter Guralnick's books.

Highly recommended for any self respecting blues fan out there.

[KM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book- more than just a biography, also about the history of the American South and McTell's story up to the present day in terms of his 'heritage' and the issue of where his royalties went.

[Marcel]

Detailed history of life for rural blacks in Georgia between the end of the Civil War and post-World War II. You can tell the effort that went into tracing the geneology of the McTier (McTell) family. Mixed in with all that...some biography of McTell.

[Wickovski Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really enjoying this book until I lost it in a hotel bedroom in Chicago. It's an englishman's search into American culture and history with Blind Wille as a guide. Well written and quite lovely.

[D. Michael Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful Book on a Forgotten Legend

Living in Atlanta I am familiar with many of the locations that populate the story of Willie McTell. This books really brings his life and times to vivid life.

[David Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. More travelogue than biography.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thing is thick, but has hilarious descriptors of the Lomaxes. Didn't know, would like to read about their crazy times more.

[John Devenny]

Very disappointed by this book. I love Blind Willie's music and also the great Bob Dylan song about him but this book didn't grab me at all.

[Chris Coburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely compelling read, bringing both Willies colourful life and the history of Georgia to life. Written and researched with passion by Michael Gray.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good account of the author's journey in search of the enigmatic McTell. More interesting for the effort it took to find information and for the descriptions of the Georgia area that McTell lived in than for any new insights into the blues as music or popular music of the time.