This Historic Day In Music: “Sweetheart Land” & “It’s A Low Down Dirty Shame”

On March 1, 1938, singer/guitarist Big Bill Broonzy entered the NBC studios in Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Broonzy was a popular Chicago-based Blues musician who’d cut his first record in 1927. The names of the musicians playing piano, tenor sax and string bass on this March 1st session are uncertain, but it is known that the person playing electric guitar was 16-year-old George Barnes, the soon-to-be staff guitarist at the NBC studio.

The songs recorded that day – “Sweetheart Land” and “It’s A Low Down Dirty Shame” – were written by Mr. Broonzy.

These energetic, vibrant recordings mark the first time an electric guitar was used on a Blues record.

Listen for yourself.

P.S.: On March 18, 1938, The Kansas City Five, with Eddie Durham on guitar, cut the first Jazz records featuring an electric guitar. See my post from March 18, 2017 – “This Historic Day In Music: The Kansas City Five” – for more details.

P.S.S.: “Good music doesn’t get old.”

About sixstrstories

I am the son and only child of a registered nurse & a self-employed collector of wildflowers. I went on to become: a Beatles’ fan; a record collector; a drummer; a music magazine subscriber; a guitar player; a songwriter; a high school graduate; a college student; a music major; a performing singer/guitarist; a photography student; a yearbook photographer; a student teacher; a boyfriend; a letter writer; a college graduate; an elementary school music teacher; an apartment dweller; a husband; a guitar teacher/independent contractor; a homeowner; an independent music producer; the father of a daughter; the father of a son; a bandmate; a teacher of the history of popular music in America; an instructor of music/adjunct faculty member; a grandfather (x3); a condo dweller; and a blogger.

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1 Response to This Historic Day In Music: “Sweetheart Land” & “It’s A Low Down Dirty Shame”

Anonymous says:

October 17, 2024 at 11:08 pm

Fascinatingly, he same day, pianist Curtis Jones recorded the same two tracks, also with electric guitar, played by Hobson ‘Hot Box’ Johnson, plus alto sax and string bass. ARC split the difference, releasing Broonzy’s “Sweetheart Land” and Jones’s “It’s a Low Down Dirty Shame.”