Bo Carter's Historical Accuracy in "The County Farm Blues"

“The County Farm Blues”: 

A Short Revisionist History

by T. DeWayne Moore

It is difficult to exaggerate the historical significance of Armenter Chatmon in regards to the Mississippi blues. As blues historian Steve Calt points out, only one Mississippian—Memphis Minnie—made more pre-World War II records. His music, moreover, proved some of the most original of all the recorded musicians in the South. Considering the deep well of traditional material that he could have drawn from, his inventiveness is even more remarkable. The majority of his estimated 150 sides reflect the work of a prodigious composer and astute businessman, who managed to keep heading into recording studios long after most blues musicians’ careers had ended. Despite his massive recording catalogue, his life and career has suffered from serious neglect among scholars of the pre-World War II music industry, largely due to his reputation for using sexual metaphors in his songs. Myths, debauchery, itinerant lifestyles, and religious folklore proved too enticing for some who simply hoped to perpetuate blues stereotypes, while the integrity, dependability, longevity, versatility, and creativity of Armenter Chatmon was too easy to dismiss as footnotes in the career of a purveyor of crude hokum blues. This text demonstrates that his career and work has not succumbed, nor diminished in significance, despite such attempts to mar his historical legacy.

Vicksburg Evening Post, Sep 13, 1917.

"The County Farm Blues" was recorded on February 12, 1940 in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the last of in upwards of 150 sides recorded by arguably the most professional songwriter and recording artist of the Pre-World War II South. Born to Henderson Chatmon while staying on the county convict farm of Dr. Dupree in Bolton, Mississippi, Armenter Chatmon came up in the highly musical world that seemed to reverberate around his father and mother on the farm (see, "Dr Dupree's Convict Farm," Hinds County Gazette, Oct 8, 1887). The family string band performed all around at different house parties and tourist destinations, some of which impressed so much that local journalists made note of these troubadours in brevities included in the Jackson Daily News (below).

Armenter (his brothers called him Bo) Chatmon later served as the central organizing force in The Mississippi Sheiks, a string band that has since achieved legendary status in the annals of American music. Due to the rest of the groups penchant for the nightlife of the Roaring 20s (so to speak), Bo was the group's manager and he held all of the group's money for travel, lodging, and other necessities during their excursions to record in such cities as 1) San Antonio, TX 2) Jackson, MS 3) Atlanta, GA 4) Grafton, WI 5) New Orleans, LA 6) Chicago, IL &7) Shreveport, LA. Major Records Companies--such as Okeh and Paramount--demonstrated their complete trust in him over and over again to handle everything involved with transporting the group safely and on time to recording sessions in major industrial cities--urban locales that contrasted sharply with the rural, flatness of the Delta.

Jackson Daily News in the 1910s

Though all of the brothers settled down to farming and started families of their own (Bo in fact believed he would have been a very successful farmer), Bo maintained his relationships with the different recording companies, all of which seemed to hold him in high regards not only as a competent studio musician but also a reliable talent scout. His failing eyesight may have cut his career as a sharecropper short, but it did not in any way impede his creativity and reliability. Recording under the name "Bo Carter," he made several more trips to these cities, recorded scores of original--not traditional--material, and was responsible for the only recordings of artists such as Eugene Powell and Mississippi Matilda.

Vicksburg (MS) American, July 6, 1907

Not all his originals were risque and comical--what some scholars consider commercial blues. "The County Farm Blues" is so historically accurate in its depiction of sentencing as a means to obtain free labor on any one of the work farms in every county in Mississippi. Bo Carter makes the listener understand what it was like to face an unsympathetic judge who needed bodies to work and passed sentence of ninety days or $100 fine. Most folks, of course, lacked the cash on hand to dole out $100 in the 1930s Great Depression. In the end, Bo Carter reveals his opinion that it's impossible to experience true freedom under such an oppressive system. He plans to leave that place upon his release and make the unincorporated territories his new home. 

Boy when I got arrested 

What do you reckon man was my fine, hey boy
Boy when I got arrested,
What do you reckon man was my fine
I mean it twas a pick and a shovel,
And I tripped right on down the line 

Said the jury they found me guilty,
And the clerk sure wrote it down, sweet baby
I mean the jury they found me guilty
And the clerk sure wrote it down
I mean the judge gimme ninety [days] and a hundred [dollar fine]
Down on the man’s little ole county farm 

Said the hundred wasn’t so bad
But the ninety is so doggone long, sweet baby
I mean the hundred wasn’t so bad
But the ninety is so doggone long
I didn’t mind rollin’ up the ninety
But I got to be there all alone 

I’d rather pay two hundred dollars
Than work them ninety long days
I’d rather pay two hundred dollars
Than work them ninety long all days
I didn’t have no idea the judge
You’d treat a poor prisoner this way 

But I’m gonna roll up my ninety
Gon’ pay my fine and get gone,
Sweet baby I’m gonna roll up my ninety
Gon’ pay my fine and get gone
I’m gon’ wonder back in the Nation
Gon’ make the territo[ry] my home

The truth of his story knows no entendres, no comical theme, no slick language. Bo Carter was perhaps the most gifted individual who navigated the recording industry in the 1920s and 1930s. The historical truth of his more than legendary status challenges stereotypes about blues artists of the period and explodes the myths about blues musicians from the country. He was an efficient manager in almost every aspect of the business. He really was "an all-around man."

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