Houston Stackhouse

By: Terry Currier

Article Reprint from the May 1995 BluesNotes
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Thomas Edison invented the phonograph long ago, yet many great musicians have never been recorded. Music is a major part of our culture and many people grow up playing music, but only a few are ever recorded. It is a shame when great singers and players pass through life and their talents are not documented. If you know someone you believe is very talented, but who has not been recorded, it is important for you to encourage them to do so. In this modem age of technology, every major city and town has facilities, including DAT tape recorders. Today, there is no reason for these artists not to be recorded. In the past, this happened to many Blues players and we will never get an opportunity to hear them. Luckily, some, at least, were recorded in their later years. Many were in their 50's, 60's, 70's and even 80's when they recorded for the first (and sometimes only) time.

In 1967, while visiting Mager Johnson (one of the musical Johnson brothers, which included Tommy, Clarence and LeDell), Dr David Evans ran into Houston Stackhouse, a great Blues player who had never before been recorded. Houston was 57 years old when he made his first recording.

Houston Garth was born on September 28, 1918 in Wesson, Mississippi on The Randall Ford Plantation. When he was a teenager, he took his stepfather's name, Stackhouse. He took an interest in music when he was very young. By watching Lace Powell, a fiddler who also lived on the plantation, he learned to play harmonica. Because of his interest in the violin, his uncle (who was also a fiddler), gave him his own violin. Lonnie Chatmon of The Mississippi Sheiks helped teach him how to play the violin. He also learned how to play the mandolin. His family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi in the mid-1920's, where he learned songs from Tommy Johnson and his brothers. He also took up guitar. It may have been Tommy's success (being recorded by the Victor label in 1928) that influenced Houston to really dig into his music.

In the late 1920's, he sometimes played with Tommy in clubs. However, the story goes that Houston turned down many opportunities to play with him because Tommy would get drunk and Houston was ashamed of him.

In the early 1930's, he moved to Hollandale, Mississippi where his cousin, Robert Lee McCullum (later known as Robert Nighthawk) lived. (It was Houston who taught Robert Nighthawk how to play the bottleneck guitar). They played together a lot, with Houston playing harmonica. Legendary country star Jimmie Rodgers heard them on a live broadcast on WJDX in Jackson, and asked them to back him on his performance in town. The Mississippi Sheiks asked them to record with them in Atlanta in the fall of 1931, but for some reason they missed the trip.

Houston met Robert Johnson in 1936 and the two became good friends. In fact, he bought Robert a guitar slide for his recording session that year. Over the next year, they played together a couple of times. Robert encouraged Houston to write some songs they could record together at his next session. However, Robert was killed shortly after that and Houston's second opportunity to record was gone.

He continued to play, and put together a string band known as The Mississippi Sheiks No. 2. Carey "Ditty " Mason and Coochie Thomas were the guitarists. However, by the time World War II ended, string bands had lost their popularity.

In 1946, Houston moved to Helena, Arkansas. Robert Nighthawk bought him an electric guitar and taught him a few electric guitar tricks. From then on, he rarely played any other instrument (except for his harmonica). They played together on The Mother's Best Flour Hour on KFFA Radio with fellow band members, Pinetop Perkins (piano), Albert Davis (bass) and various drummers, including Sam Carr. He also played with Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) on The King Biscuit Time show, also on KFFA Radio. His association with the King Biscuit show and his living in Helena brought him in contact with many of the great Blues players. He played with Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Roosevelt Sykes and Earl Hooker. He taught Hooker to play slide and also helped Jimmy Rogers with his playing.

From the late 1940's and up until 1954, Houston worked for the Chrysler Corporation in Helena. He continued to play, but less frequently after he married in the late 1950's. Periodically, he returned to the King Biscuit show. Houston left Chrysler in 1956 to work on a boat on the Mississippi River, but was let go because of his high blood pressure. He worked in a power plant until 1961, when he was re-hired to work on the boat. He worked on the boat until 1965. The playing bug set in again about this time. He played with Sonny Boy the last few months of Sonny's life.

In 1967 he made his first record for the Flyright label. His second recording was for Testament and had Carey Mason accompanying him on most tracks and his old friend, Mager Johnson on one of the tracks. Houston mostly stuck with covering his favorite songs by his friends, Tommy Johnson, Elmore James, and Robert Johnson. He rarely wrote or performed his own material.

Over the next few years, Houston continued to play with Mason and "Peck" Curtis. In 1969, Mason was killed when his car was hit by a train. This ended a 33 year musical relationship. Curtis died the following year. Shortly after, Houston left Helena and moved in with fellow King Biscuit player, Joe Willie Wilkins, in Memphis.

In 1972 he recorded again, this time for the Adelphi label. He was part of The Memphis Blues Caravan and traveled around the Eastern states and toured Europe in 1970. He also appeared on an episode of BBC's "The Devil's Music - A History of the Blues". After his European tour, he moved back to Crystal Springs. He played at the first couple of Delta Blues Festivals in Greenville, Mississippi in 1978 and 1979, and occasional out-of-town gigs, but age was catching up with him. His live performances were rare. In 1978 he made an appearance on PBS film, "Good Morning Blues". His friend, Joe Willie Wilkins, passed away the following year. On September 23, 1980, Houston joined Joe Willie, "Peck" Curtis, "Dittie " Mason, Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson and many of his other old friends in "Blues heaven."

All Blues fans should hear Houston's recordings. The Adelphi recordings have been released on the Genes label. The Testament sessions should show up in Testament's recent efforts to put out their catalog on CD. The exciting piece is a Shanachie video of the PBS film "Good Morning Blues" which gives everyone a chance to see him play.

He is remembered as both a great Bluesman and a great person. His son, Houston Stackhouse Jr., is helping to keep him and other great Helena-area Bluesmen alive by working with The King Biscuit Blues Festival and The Sonny Boy Blues Society. You too can help, by sharing the music of the late, great Houston Stackhouse and his many friends with others.

Houston Stackhouse

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