If you’ve been keeping up with the posts on the Facebook page that complements Curt’s Blues Blog (link at the end of this page), you’d know that I’ve been digging into various Texas piano CD compilations the past couple of days, enjoying the works of Texas Bill Day, Billiken Johnson, Neal Roberts, Jack Ranger, Kitty Gray, George and Hersal Thomas, Robert Shaw, and Moanin’ Bernice Edwards, among others.  The state of Texas has a long history of superb blues piano masters, with others being Dr. Hepcat and Whistlin’ Alex Moore, two legendary giants of the field I had the honor to see and hear perform one year at the Chicago Blues Festival.

Texas plays a large part in the history of the blues, what with the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Zuzu Bollin, Albert Collins, Johnny Clyde Copeland, Anson Funderburgh, Joe “Guitar” Hughes, and Mance Lipscomb being among so many other artists tied to the state’s vast blues narrative.  As I was enjoying my Texas blues piano collections, I was struck by one artist in particular whose blues, for whatever reason, resonated strongly with me.  That bluesman’s performing name was Black Boy Shine, and since he and his excellent blues work is in the forefront of my mind, now’s the time to take a brief look at his life and musical career.

He was born Harold Holiday in mid-September, 1908 to his father and mother, Walter Holiday and Hattie Griffin, in Fort Bend County, Texas, a region located in the lower southeastern portion of the vast state, roughly 33 miles southwest of Houston. 

Little is known of the early formative years of Shine (even how and when he adopted his stage name), so unearthing how he came to the piano and developed his broad skill set on the instrument remains shrouded in mystery.  However, Texas has always had a considerable contingent of great piano players, so it is not unreasonable to offer that Shine was surrounded by these players and their music from a young age, grew greatly fond of it, and sought the means to advance his aspirations to learn the intricacies of performing on the instrument.  Research has not yielded any conclusion whether he and his family had a connection to a religious order, one where perhaps he also could have been exposed to the piano and or organ.

By what means and influences Shine decided upon his silky vocal quality style and mellow, sophisticated piano manner will thus be open to any reasonable hypotheses, though it should be said that he could also play and sing in the more predominant barrelhouse style, one that calls for a stronger, more rhythmic approach that also employs a call-and-response singing flair, when he felt the urge.  But overall, Shine’s approach ran counter to the more prevalent barrelhouse framework that many of the Texas blues piano artists used.

And this insistence on an easier going approach to piano playing and singing ran counter to one other aspect of Shine’s career.  Shine had aligned himself with a contingency of blues piano players named The Santa Fe Group, an assemblage of blues talent known as such for their plying their trade along the Atchison, Topeka, and Sante Fe Railway route where a great many juke joints and barrelhouses were located.  These places were rough-and-tumble sorts of dives where working men blew off steam after a day of hard labor.  In these venues, a piano player was generally the only entertainment, and that artist had to be able to capably deliver just about any form of music demanded by the rowdy crowd including ragtime, boogie, blues, dance, and ethnic selections.  Shadowy performers with names like Black Ivory King, Pinetop Burks, Andy Boy, and Buster Pickens among others were the men who worked these joints with their body of skills.  But again, Shine’s more mellow approach to the blues ran very much counter to these other artists, though he was equally as popular within the places as his tougher playing fellow piano artisans.

Dating to the middle of the 1930s, Shine also fashioned a partnership with a fellow piano artist, Moon Mullican, the Caucasian “King Of The Hillbilly Piano Players.”  The two jointly presented their artistry in a double act they named “Moonshine,” a take on their two names.

Finally, in both 1936 and 1937 Shine was able to draw enough notice to his considerable overall blues skill set to record for the powerhouse Vocalion label, laying-down tracks, 18 in all, in Dallas and San Antonio (though there is some debate as to whether some recording was also done in Fort Worth).  The final 78rpm under Shine’s name was released in 1938.

He was included on a 78rpm release on the label with Bernice Edwards and Howling Smith, as well. 

The details of the remaining decade of Shine’s life are scant, though it is reasonable to adopt the position that based upon his recorded output he continued to perform.  However, by 1948 Shine was suffering with tuberculosis and its ravages, and he succumbed to the disease in late March, 1952.

Yet again, thank goodness that Document Records has made available the works of Black Boy Shine, with the ideal collection to hear his magnificent work on the CD entitled Black Boy Shine And Black Ivory King 1936-1937 – Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (DOCD-5278).  All 18 of Shine’s recordings can be found on the CD.  There is a second Document Records CD of alternate takes that also includes works by Leroy Carr, but the one first above is the place to start.

The blues is abounding with magnificent works by artists whose names remain obscure to the most casual fans.  The brilliant work of Black Boy Shine deserves your attention.  With his blues piano titles being readily available, now’s the time for you to give his musical gifts a listen.