Please read the names of the following individuals and consider the question, “What do they all have in common?”  Louis Ford, Howard Armstrong, Carl Martin, Johnny Young, Billy Flynn, Sonny Terry (yes, that Sonny Terry), Gerry Hundt, Steve James, Jimi Hocking, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Lino Muoio, Bogus Ben Covington, Floyd Council, Papa Charlie McCoy, Sonny Boy Nelson, Andra Faye, and John Cephas.

Perhaps to some of the more seasoned blues fans, the answer is obvious.  But to the novice blues enthusiast, maybe the answer proves elusive.  The correct answer is, “They all play or have played mandolin-based blues.”

Yes, even noted blues harmonica giant Sonny Terry, who was known for his energetic and rhythmic style of harmonica playing, played blues mandolin, and he often incorporated the percussive techniques found in his harmonica playing into his mandolin performing, as well. 

A mandolin, as most of us know, is a small lute family stringed instrument whose player most likely stimulates the strings with the aid of a pick.  Usually, a mandolin has four sets of double strings that are tuned in harmony, for a total of eight strings, though there are mandolins with both ten and 12 strings total.  Generally, steel strings are used.  The individual sets of strings, known as courses, are normally tuned in intervals of perfect fifths from G, D, A, E, much like that of a violin.

The mandolin has a very identifiable sound, and it is dissimilar to that of a guitar, in that it seems to ring and sear, being capable of cutting through the din of an ensemble, becoming a terrific instrument if one’s desire is to do a good amount of soloing.

To this day, a couple of my favorite contemporary bluesmen have a dedication to blues mandolin efforts; Gerry Hundt and Billy Flynn.  I am confident that if you do an Internet or YouTube search for the work of either or both of Hundt and Flynn that you will find numerous examples of their blues mandolin craftmanship.  In fact, in 2005 Flynn put out a CD entitled Chicago Blues Mandolin on the Easy Baby Records label, and as the title suggests, the 11-track collection is dedicated to the blues mandolin art form.

But let me refocus here.  Of course, as something of a blues scholar, my initial research of the music led me to those early blues artists who played mandolin, including some of the individuals mentioned at the beginning of this writing.  Another of the blues mandolin players I came across was Yank Rachel, with my first exposure to him being through his work in the 1930s with guitarists Sleepy John Estes, Dan Smith, and Elijah Jones, harmonica titan Sonny Boy Williamson I, and washboard player Washboard Sam.  And then, as I continued to move deeper into my blues research and appreciation, my attention obviously continued to expand to include countless other blues artists, male and female, and my energies drifted away from mandolin-based artisans.

But I remember my reawakening to Rachel and his blues talents through Delmark Records’ 1987 release entitled Chicago Style (under the name “Yank Rachell” with two “l”s in his last name), and I was once again highly intrigued with his mandolin-based blues style.  It was a pared-down recording, having only Rachel and his vocals and mandolin playing highlighted, along with the sympathetic bass work of Chicago blues legend Floyd Jones, and the rock-solid drumming of Chicago great Odie Payne, Jr.  Simply, the outing reinvigorated my interest in Rachel. 

So, as I reminisce about all this, I feel a little bit of a dive in Yank Rachel’s life, and his impact upon the blues, is in order.

This is probably getting repetitive as I again premise that the birthdate of yet another blues artist is of debate.  James Rachel is said to either been born in mid-March 1903 or 1910, though most researchers seem to side on the 1910 date, nearby Brownsville, Tennessee, an area in Haywood County in the lower southwestern portion of the state.  By all accounts, Rachel’s family were involved in farming, and Rachel assisted the family with their work early in his life.  Like so many of the blues artists profiled here, music was a large part of his community, and Rachel’s earliest introductions to music inspired him to have a keen desire to also pursue it as his craft. 

It is said that around the age of eight years-old, Rachel acquired a mandolin through a very interesting bartering exchange.  The story goes that while walking in his rural locale he happened upon a neighbor who was playing the mandolin, the sound of which was very agreeable to Rachel.  He was not shy about his interest in the instrument, as he simply asked the man playing the mandolin if he could have it.  When the man laughed off Rachel’s rather brazen request, he countered that he would exchange the mandolin for a pig, and Rachel obliged.  The tale further goes that when Rachel’s mother learned of the bartered exchange she was enraged and impressed upon the young Rachel that the next time his stomach was empty he should then consider eating the mandolin.  Nonetheless, young Rachel had now acquired his musical instrument of choice, and he proceeded to teach himself the intricacies of the mandolin.

A fortuitous meeting was about to forever change young Rachel’s life.  The Brownville, Tennessee locale was rife with superb blues talent, including vocalist, harmonica player, and jug player Hammie Nixon, guitarist and vocalist Sleepy John Estes, and guitarist and vocalist Willie Newbern aka Hambone Willie Newbern.  Rachel happened upon Newbern, and Newbern became a mentor to young Rachel, in both the blues itself and the business side of it.  This period in the early 1920s were formative for Rachel, as he then joined forces with Nixon and Estes in a jug band that worked the Brownsville area.

In 1929, Rachel made the move to Memphis, Tennessee, and by all reports, became involved in the vibrant Beal Street music scene.  Soon, he coupled his talents with Estes and a piano player named Jab Jones in an aggregation named The Three J’s Jug Band, a group that gained significant popularity at area dances capitalizing on the-then highly popular jug band musical form.  The group also took their talents into Kentucky, as well.  This led to the band being recruited to record for the Victor label, with the group eventually cutting 14 songs between the years 1929-1930, including the wildly well-liked “Diving Duck Blues”.

However, all the momentum for Rachel’s band was seemingly lost in an instant with the onset of The Great Depression and the resulting lack of recording, plus the inability of folks to have the extra cash to be able to support fun times out listening to “live” music and drinking.  The Three J’s Jug Band disbanded, and while Estes made his way northward to Chicago, Rachel returned to farming in Brownsville, along with picking up work upon the railroad.

However, while living in Brownville, Rachel made an acquaintance that would again alter the arc of his life and career.  In Jackson, Tennessee, Rachel met a fellow musician, a harmonica player and vocalist of sizeable talents name John Lee Williamson, a man who would ultimately become to be known as Sonny Boy Williamson I, an artist who would forever alter the landscape of Chicago blues harmonica, pre- and post-war.  Rachel played with Williamson in the Jackson area as early as 1933, by all accounts, and they are said to have been very popular at a club there named The Blue Flame.

When Williamson decided to take his skill sets north to Chicago in 1934, it was with the hopes of establishing a blues career in the big city.  Williamson’s initial Bluebird label recordings in 1937 proved so popular that Rachel also made the trek north to Chicago to accompany Williamson on scheduled March and June, 1938 recording sessions for Bluebird, also ultimately enjoying the chance to record four songs during each date under his own name. 

Also in 1938, while performing for a bit with Peetie Wheatstraw (aka “The Devil’s Son-In-Law”) in St. Louis, Missouri, Rachel married and started his family.  This period was one where Rachel was at the pinnacle of his musical capacities; however, despite that fact, he kept to raising his family and working a day job, playing music on the side, and making a conscious effort to avoid the trappings of the blues music life as he saw it through his friend and musical partner Williamson I.  It was, in some ways, a prophetic strategy, as by 1948 Williamson I was dead after being murdered on his way home from a Chicago club.

Williamson I’s murder proved to be too much for Rachel, and for ten years he continued to apply himself to his familial duties and working a conventional day job.  However, in 1958, Rachel moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.  This was a very important period in American musical history.  The folk music craze was happening at the time, and artists such as Rachel were seeing a renewed interest in their brands of music.  Unfortunately, Rachel’s wife died in 1961.  This was the impetus for Rachel to once again more vigorously ply his musical trade.

It was one short year later in 1962 when Rachel again joined Nixon and Estes and took advantage of the revived interest in their music.  The three played the folk festival circuit, at the coffee houses that presented acts like theirs, and there were also tours in the U.S. and Europe, with and without Nixon. 

During this period, Rachel took part in a 1963 session that was released on Delmark Records entitled Yank Rachell’s Tennessee Jug Busters, and outing that included guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Big Joe Williams, along with harmonica and jug work by Hammie Nixon, with Estes providing guitar and vocal work.  It is also important to note that Delmark Records eventually released a 1964 session with Rachel, Bloomfield, Estes, Nixon, and Williams entitled Newport Blues, a session that did not see the light of day until 2002.

Rachel continued his reinvigorated musical career, and recorded a full-length album for Blue Goose Records entitled Yank Rachell that was released to very good reviews in 1973.

Now, Rachel’s career was renewed.  However, his long-time collaborator Estes passed away in 1977.  This led to Rachel primarily becoming a solo act or sometimes being backed by local adoring musicians in clubs and on the festival circuit.  For a considerable time, Rachel was something of an artist-in-residence at Indianapolis, Indiana’s famed Slippery Noodle club, the patriarchal hub of all things blues in Indiana. 

By all narratives, Rachel was an extremely agreeable fellow during this period of his life and career, and was gracious to all. 

In 1985, Rachel had the opportunity to participate in a very unique project that offered further visibility for him and his career, while also shining a light on his playfulness and humor.  The film director Terry Zwigoff had envisioned a documentary focusing on Howard Armstrong, the legendary country blues and string band musician, and Rachel made cameos in the movie that virtually steal the show from Armstrong and his musical partner Ted Bogan, the superb country blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter.  I will leave the curious to seek the documentary out and watch the hilarity that surrounds Rachel’s desire to enjoy his chicken lunch.  It is uproarious! 

1986 saw Rachel release yet another acclaimed album on the Blind Pig Records label entitled Blues Mandolin Man, an outing that included Peter “Madcat” Ruth on harmonica, and Rachel’s granddaughter Sheena playing bass. 

Then in 1987, Delmark Records released the aforementioned Chicago Style collection, and again, it was the impetus to once more turn my attentions to Rachel.  There is just a crispness and refreshing combination of pre-war blues and modern sensibilities to this excellent outing that for this writer, causes it to remain a favorite in my broad blues collection.  Rachel is found in strong voice, his mandolin playing is invigorating and time-defying, and the backing of Floyd Jones and Odie Payne, Jr. is idyllically sympathetic, never getting in the way, but offering foundational structure.  Recommended on this collection is Rachel’s version of “Diving Duck”; is just stupendous.

It is important to note that Rachel continued to gig while between recording opportunities, and for the inquiring, many of his “live” performances from the late 1970s up to his appearance at 1993’s Chicago Blues Festival with Homesick James can be found on YouTube.

This blogger’s long-time friend, and Midwest-to Southern California-back to the Midwest blues harmonica great, vocalist, and bandleader Tom Moore had the privilege to perform with Rachel for a roughly four-year period, and provides this account of that experience; “I was fortunate to have been Yank’s bandleader on 25-30 occasions (1988-91) along with my brother David on guitar.  Yank was consistently fiery and inventive in his playing.”  Further, Moore relays the following hilarious story, “I will never forget one night at Columbia Street West in Fort Wayne.  In the crowd was almost all college kids and Yank had to play six encores!  Some young thing threw her panties on the stage and Yank exclaimed, ‘Who said young people got no sense?’  He was amazing to be around.  I am grateful to Allan Stratyner for introducing me to Yank and for all his kindness to Yank.”

1995 saw the release of Pig Trader Blues on the Slippery Noodle Sound imprint, a recording Rachel shared with David Morgan, a guitar and ukulele player, and a long-time guitar teacher now with Meridian Music in Carmel, Indiana. 

Late in his life, Rachel suffered with arthritis, and this obviously had an adverse impact upon his mandolin playing.  However, just before his death at home in Indianapolis in 1997, he finished a recording that was released posthumously in 1998 entitled Too Hot For The Devil, a collection on the Flat Rock Records label, a recording Rachel shared with the famed singer and songwriter Pat Webb, and Allan Stratyner, the outstanding harmonica player. 

It is difficult to definitively say where one interested in Rachel’s mandolin-based blues should start exploring his broad base of music.  Certainly, any of his Delmark Records collection are uniformly superb, as is the Blind Pig Records outing.  Wolf Records makes available two volumes of Rachel’s earliest work from 1934-1941 (link below), while the great Document Records (link below) makes available his early work with Sleepy John Estes. 

Those interested in the Rachel’s work with Estes on Document Records are advised to check out those collections under either Estes’ name or searching under James “Yank” Rachel in the search feature.  Again, the link to Document Records is below.  The “Search 2.” feature found after one clicks the “Search” link on the company’s web home page allows for a drilling-down by artist.

There also used to be a Document Records CD entitled Country Blues Live! (label #DLP 525) that included work by Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachel; it is unclear whether this is still in print.

You searched for james yank rachel – Wolf Records International Home

Document Records – Vintage Blues and Jazz (document-records.com)