[NOTE: James "Yank" Rachell passed away in April of 1997, about a year or so after I first made this web page public. I've tried to think of a worthy tribute to him, but I can't. It's beyond this public university graduate, so I'm leaving this page as is. The Sunday after Yank passed away, I met David Morgan, Yank's longtime friend and partner, between his sets at the Slippery Noodle in dowtown Indianapolis; he and I had been exchanging e-mail for a week or two. We talked for longer than I'd expected, and he said that Yank had seen a copy of my web page and was touched that someone liked his music enough to make the it. According to Morgan, Yank sometimes felt that he'd been forgotten. Enough of you have sent e-mail to me about how much you loved Yank and his music that he need never have worried. There were probably as many fans of the man as there were fans of his music.]

[Come to think of it, that in itself is one hell of a tribute. Goodbye, Yank, and thanks. You will be missed.]

(Scanned from picture of Yank Rachell (with Sleepy John Estes, not included here) in Newport, RI, in July, 1965. Photo by Dick Waterman; thanks to him for loaning me the picture for scanning. Mr. Waterman asks that neither of these images be copied, duplicated, or reprinted without his permission.)

""I've had the blues so long they done turned into the blacks." - Yank Rachell

His Life
James "Yank" Rachell was born to George Rachell and Lula Taylor on March 16, 1910, on a farm outside of Brownsville, Tennessee. Rachell is one of the few blues musicians to play mandolin at all, let alone as a primary instrument. How he came to choose the mandolin is a great blues story. His mother had given Yank, then eight, a young pig to be raised for butchering that fall. One day Yank was walking down the road and saw a neighbor playing a mandolin on his front porch. He loved the sound and was determined then and there to get the mandolin. Yank asked the guy how much he wanted for the instrument, and the man said he wanted five dollars. Yank didn't have that kind of money, of course, so he offered to trade the pig for the instrument. When Yank went home, he was surprised to find how upset his mother was. He recalled her saying, after giving him some considerable grief, "Next fall when we're all eating pork, you can eat that mandolin."

It turns out Yank got the better of the deal. He taught himself to play the mandolin, inventing his own system because there was no one around to teach him. He picked up the blues by playing with his two brothers and relatives on the front porch. As a young man, Yank met local musician Hambone Willie Newbern, who played mandolin and helped fill in some of the gaps in his learning. (Newbern made the first known recording of the Delta classic Rollin' and Tumblin' in 1929.) The two performed in and around Brownsville at house parties and fish fries. It was at one of these that Yank first met and played with fellow Brownsville musician Sleepy John Estes. The two were soon hanging around and playing together, and remained friends until Estes' death in 1977. They teamed up with another Brownsville musician, harmonica and (in the spirit of the day) jug player Hammie Nixon. According to Rachell, "Me and Sleepy John was stickin' around together and then picked up Hammie and taught him how to play." The trio played as a jug band throughout Tennessee and other parts of the South, for both black and white audiences. Playing for the white farmers, Rachell recalled, they would get as much as four dollars a day apiece, pretty good pay at that time and place. In the mid-20s, the trio relocated to Memphis, where there were more and better-paying gigs, plus busking in Handy Park, of course. Later in the decade, Rachell, Estes, and pianist Jab Jones formed the Three J's Jug Band and became a popular attraction in clubs and on Beale Street during Memphis' jug band craze.

In 1929, Yank, who supposedly had the most forceful personality of the group, got The Three Js a chance to record for Victor. Their first recording, Broken-Hearted, Ragged and Dirty Too, was good enough that Victor brought them back to record five more songs in September and October of that year. Their records sold well (especially Divin' Duck Blues), and they were brought back into the studio the following May. In addition to recording on their own, the group backed up harmonica wizard Noah Lewis for his last sessions. (These sessions for Victor, including those where Estes and Rachell aren't featured artists, are available on the JSP release; see below.)

This stint with Victor soon ended when the Depression kicked in and killed off most recording, particularly in the "race" field. Estes, who'd already had more than his fill of farming (and, one might assume, the South), decided to go to Chicago to continue his career, making records for Decca and Bluebird. Rachell was less of a rambler, though, and returned to Brownsville. There he farmed and, lying about his age, got a job for the L&N Railroad, which he kept for several years. He married, settled down, and started a family. He didn't completely turn his back on his music, though; Yank continued to play at house parties and fish fries on weekends, making needed cash. Once he was working on a dairy farm and "picking up extra money playing in Jackson one night when Sonny Boy Williamson came riding by on his bike."

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson lived in Jackson and the pair would play each weekend in Jackson or Brownsville. The two became friends and soon they were playing together constantly. Sonny Boy and Yank went to Chicago in 1938 to record for Bluebird, appearing on each other's records. Sonny Boy is the one who is remembered today, and deservedly so, but Yank's steady mandolin and guitar playing gave Williamson a solid, familiar base from which to launch his frenetic harp solos. Yank and Sonny Boy were musical partners until the latter's death in 1948. Yank, like many bluesmen, moved north during this time: first to St. Louis then to Indianapolis (where he still lives) in 1958. Yank wasn't as well-known in the North, though, so most of his gigs were still down South. However, his wife's health was not good, and he didn't travel too often.

After she passed away in 1961, Yank began performing more frequently and started to record again. The following year, his old friend Sleepy John Estes was "rediscovered" living in Brownsville. The two soon teamed up again with Hammie Nixon, playing coffeehouses, concerts, and festivals. Yank also played some solo dates (mainly for college clubs in the Midwest, but travelling as far as Europe) and recorded for labels like Blue Goose. After Estes' death in 1977, Yank cut back on his performing; he still plays the occaisional festival and tour, though, and has recorded sporadically for Delmark and other labels. He was still a quasi-regular at The Slippery Noodle in Indianapolis when I moved in 1993. In November of that year, he was recorded live for two tracks on a compilation cd of artists appearing at the Slippery Noodle Inn. Recently, Yank was in the studio with local musician David Morgan to record an all-acoustic album. (This cd can be ordered by calling 1-800-SN1-BLUS. Yank Rachell's sixty-six year recording career must be some sort of record.) But no matter the time or place, live or on record, he still sings and those same great, down and dirty blues that he learned back in Brownsville. Though now in his mid-80s, Yank leaves everything on the stage and tries to give the crowd their money's worth. Rare is the time that he fails. Yank is a more-or-less unknown blues treasure; if you get the chance, see him. You won't be disappointed.

His Music
First things first: I have to admit that I'm biased towards Yank Rachell. He was the first professional bluesman I ever saw live, when my grandfather took me (then four) to a blues festival in Indianapolis. When Yank came out on stage, I thought "What the hell is he doing with a mandolin? That's not a blues instrument!" Boy, was I ever wrong. Yank just blew everyone away, and I became more than just a casual blues fan that day.

Blues mandolinists are not exactly commonplace, so comparing Yank's playing to others' is not easy. Because he is also largely self-taught, his music is even more unique. Playing a mandolin well requires a quick, supple wrist and the ability to brush the strings rapidly. Yank Rachell makes this seem effortless, a testament to his prowess as an instrumentalist. Like many musicians who played country picnics or medicine shows, he had some visually impressive tricks, like throwing the mandolin in the air and strumming a chord as he caught it. Yank had a reputation for "clowning" which isn't apparent on his records, probably because such things wouldn't matter on a recording, and possibly because he began to see himself as a professional musician after he first recorded. He uses this instrumental prowess and sophistication, Yank still plays those backwoods, downhome blues that he played back in Brownsville. One advantage Yank has is that Sleepy John Estes was (to put it kindly) a somewhat limited guitarist. This forced Yank's mandolin, which could better pierce the noise at a party, into the foreground. Thus, Yank's experience in ensemble playing and in playing "lead mandolin" gave him a leg up when he began recording in Chicago with John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. Unfortunately, Yank's willingness to "fit in" with the rest of the band, vital though it is, is not the stuff of which legends are made. Yank still remains a lesser known bluesman today, but because of this, Yank is a musician's musician. B.B. King once told Yank "It's people like you that made people like me possible." Granted, that's the kind of quote that musicians will occaisionally make without sincerity and that publicists live for, but it is nonetheless true. "Yeah, ol' B.B. King'd always come to hear me," Yank once remembered, "and he'd tip too. One time he layed five twenty dollar bills on me." One can hear some of Yank's approach in the music of B.B. King and other Memphis bluesmen after the 1920's. Certainly, Divin' Duck Blues became a blues standard after Sleepy John and Yank's record. (I believe that Jelly Roll Morton later recorded the song for the Library of Congress.) Yank's guitar and mandolin playing on John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's records were certainly heard by and influenced lot of musicians, and Yank had some hits of his own on Bluebird as well. Many artists ``reworked'' (i.e. stole) Yank's songs. Loudella Blues, for example, was later a hit for Jimmy Rogers, and Blind Boy Fuller turned Yank's Gravel Road Woman into I Don't Want No Skinny Woman. Still, Yank is pretty unique musician, and not just because he is a blues mandolinist. His and Sleepy John's music seem to reach back to earlier times, even in the 20s, and Yank's music hasn't changed too much since then. Oh, granted, the mandolin and guitar are electric now, as is the bass, and there's a drummer keeping the beat. But at heart it's still those blues he played with Hambone Willie Newbern, Sleepy John Estes, and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Don't think that his music lacks depth, though; Yank is not just a great instrumentalist straight off the farm. He's got a nice, compelling voice and is a pretty gifted and innovative songwriter as well. Like other great bluesmen, Yank can rework well-known songs and make them his own. He used The Mississippi Sheiks' Sittin' on Top of the World as the basis for It's All Over, and My Mind Got Bad is based on Leroy Carr's classic How Long How Long Blues. Yank can also write his own melodies, though, and this is his best work. As proof, check out Yank's Expressman Blues, recorded in May 1930, on the JSP release (see below). I can still remember the first time I heard the song on an old 78. The piano intro made me turn my head, because it didn't sound like it belonged on a blues record from 1930. After Yank's strong vocals comes the instrumental break (itself not overly common in country blues recordings back then) which is really surprising. Sleepy John's guitar riffs away on the rhythm; Yank's mandolin playing sounds a lot like Chuck Berry twenty-five years later; and Jab Jones' swirling, rolling piano made me think immediately of Johnny Johnson and Lafayette Leake. Put bass and drum on this record, and have it recorded across town in what would become Sun Studios, and it would be hailed almost unanimously as the first rock-and-roll record. (And I'm not so sure it isn't anyway.)

Yank also has a nice touch with lyrics, but it's subtle and you may not hear it until you've listened to his songs several times. Depression Blues, on the Chicago Style cd, is a nice song about wages going down, prices going up, etc etc. It's a theme that's been milked to death in the blues, but Yank's way with words makes the song seem fresh. Insurance Man Blues, from the '40s, has a theme unusual in the blues, or any genre, for that matter. It's about "Drinkin' Slim's sister", who writes a letter to the insurance company after Slim is electrocuted; the song may relate to an actual event. Or take Rainy Day Blues, also on the Wolf collection, which is about a topic surprisingly rare in country blues: the weather.

This subtle variety in music and lyrics may have been a by-product of Yank's recording for Bluebird in the late '30s and '40s. Many of the records made for Lester Melrose have a certain sameness about them, to put it kindly. To be blunt, it often seems that if you've heard one, you've heard 'em all. A compilation cd of old Bluebird 78s can be pretty monotonous by the time you get to song fifteen or twenty. (In Melrose's defense, he was a business man who found a winning formula, much in the same way Barry Gordy and Leonard Chess later did.) But Yank's music from this time avoids the monotony. He favored medium-tempo song, but he'd throw in a faster number like Tappin' That Thing or It Seems Like a Dream for a change of pace, use different melodies, and display a way with words that keep you coming back to his music again and again.

Recommended Listening
Yank's music isn't as easy to find as Muddy's or B.B.'s, so don't pass up an available cd because another, "better" disc is currently unavailable. Three good cds are two from Delmark (Chicago Style (Delmark 606) and Mandolin Blues (Delmark 649)), and Blues Mandolin Man (BP 1986), a more recent release on Blind Pig. Of these, I prefer Chicago Style, but they are all good. There is also an earlier, accoustic release on the Blue Goose label, but I haven't seen it on cd yet. You might also try Sleepy John Estes: First Recordings (JSP 601) on the British JSP label. This cd features Sleepy John, of course, but Yank's playing and singing are superb throughout. You also get three Noah Lewis harmonica solos. Titles to watch for which feature Yank are Divin' Duck Blues, Little Sarah, and the aforementioned Expressman Blues.

There is also a recent acoustic recording of Yank with Indianapolis guitarist David Morgan called Pig Trader Blues. (This disc, on the new label Slippery Noodle Sound, can be ordered by calling 1-800-SN1-BLUS.) Morgan has played with Yank for years, and it shows on this release. I doubt that anyone around today knows Yank's music better than Morgan; he claimed that this was the album Yank should have made twenty years ago, and he called it. Pig Trader Blues was recorded in late 1995 when Yank was 85 years young (giving Yank a recording career of sixty-six years). Yank Rachell has been in better voice, but his singing still has that certain something and his mandolin playing is fantastic, as always. I love the feel of this disc; it sounds like Yank and David just sitting around having fun. Though the music is great, the best track may be Yank telling the full story of how he got his first mandolin. Pig Trader Blues has one or two below average tracks out of the fourteen, but with Morgan providing great backup on guitar and Yank having fun, it's a really good cd that stayed in my player for a while. If you prefer acoustic blues to electric, this is the disc to get.

There is also an even more recent recording, Too Hot for the Devil, which Yank recorded with Allen Stratyner and Pat Webb in the summer of 1996. I haven't heard it yet, so I can neither recommend nor pan it. However, knowing Yank and having heard Mr. Stratyner and Mr. Webb elsewhere, this is one to look into. There is quite a bit of info about it on the recording's web page. According to Mr. Stratyner, who contacted me via e-mail, it has been well-recieved by fans and has just been released on the Flat Rock Records label.

Finally, there are two disks available on Wolf Records, James "Yank" Rachel, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (WSE 106 and 107). I haven't seen the first of these, but I have purchased Volume 2 and listened to it repeatedly. Yank's playing and singing are great, perhaps his best, and Sonny Boy Williamson is forced to actually play the blues; Sonny Boy preferred a much quicker pace, often to the detriment of the song. Most of Yank's songs are at a more moderate tempo, so Sonny Boy and Yank get more emotion out of the music here than they did with Williamson's own songs. Yank's songwriting and his touch with lyrics are at their peak, so the songs bear well under repeated listening. If Volume 1 is as good as Volume 2, these discs are definitely worth the extra few bucks that one must pay for imports. However, since these are imports, I don't think that Yank sees any of the money you put down for them, so I'd really suggest you go with one of the domestic cds before the Wolf or JSP releases.

Bibliography
The following are the written resources I used in creating this page. Those with a are the ones I recommend.

Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition of the Southeast. The University of Illinois Press, 1986 (ISBN 0-252-06521-2).

Barlow, William. Looking Up at Down. Temple University Press, 1989 (ISBN 0-87722-583-4).

Charters, Samuel B. The Country Blues. Da Capo Press, 1975 (ISBN 0-306-80014-4).

Harris, Sheldon. Blues Who's Who. DaCapo Press, 1979 (ISBN 0-306-80155-8).

Herzhaft, Gerard. Encyclopedia of the Blues. The University of Arkansas Press, 1992 (ISBN 1-55728-253-6).

Santelli, Robert. The Big book of the Blues. Penguin, 1993 (ISBN 0 14 01.5939 8).