Kokomo Arnold – Bootlegger Turned Blues Influencer
Residing in northcentral Indiana in Osceola, when previously traveling to Indianapolis, which lies roughly 150 miles south of my hometown, I, like many, rued having to traverse the many traffic lights in Kokomo, an industrial city about 60 miles north of Indianapolis. Before the eventual completion of the U.S. 31 bypass, old U.S. 31 through Kokomo provided delays due to repeated stoppages at the myriad traffic lights. It seemed like it took forever to eventually make the trip through Kokomo, passing the massive Chrysler transmission plant, the sprawling Delco electronics factory, the various fast-food restaurants, and the mall and other retail establishments. In short, it made the southbound drive miserable.
In June, 1928, the great blues guitarist and vocalist Scrapper Blackwell recorded “Kokomo Blues” for the storied Vocalion label. Song lyrics seemed to indicate Blackwell’s desire to travel to Kokomo with a young woman who was the object of his affection. Blackwell was born in South Carolina, but early in his life moved to Indianapolis, where while also becoming a prolific recording artist under his own name, he also became partners with blues piano giant Leroy Carr, and the duo would go on to be one of the most successful of all pre-war blues artists, recording close to a total of 115 blues songs.
Blackwell’s “Kokomo Blues” would eventually be reworked in 1934 by Kokomo Arnold, a bluesman who acquired the “Kokomo” moniker due to his release of the song on the Decca Records label, and its success with the blues buying public. Born James Arnold, the “Kokomo” name stuck, and he was forever then known professionally by that forename.
As with many pre-war blues artists profiled here, Arnold’s birth date is the subject of debate, with the two years most commonly theorized are 1896 and 1901. What is known is that Arnold was born in Lovejoy, Georgia in Clayton County in the mid-to-upper northwestern part of the state. Akin also to many of the blues performers written about in this blog, Arnold’s first exposure to the blues seems to have come from a relative, a cousin by the name of John Wiggs. It was from Wiggs that Arnold learned the rudiments of the guitar.
In the early 1920s, Arnold found himself in Buffalo, New York working agricultural jobs, while also beginning his career as a blues musician. It has also been said that in the 1920s he worked as a steel worker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Due to the Volstead Act which outlawed the production and sale of liquor in the U.S. from 1920-1933, Arnold moved to Chicago in 1929 and became involved in bootlegging liquor. As an aside, this was a job that Arnold would stay active in until the Volstead Act was repealed in 1933.
However, after one year in Chicago, Arnold moved to Mississippi. It was during this period, in May, 1930, when he entered a Memphis, Tennessee recording studio for the first time for the Victor Records label, laying down two tracks under the name Gitfiddle Jim. Soon afterwards, Arnold moved back to Chicago to be closer to the bootlegging operation he established. But, when the Volstead Act was abolished, Arnold had a decision to make regarding his future, and he chose to make blues music his career.
Fellow bluesman Kansas Joe McCoy, a blues guitarist and singer, and a Mississippi native who moved to Chicago in 1930 with his partner, the famed blues star Memphis Minnie, had heard Arnold’s music and provided an introduction to the powerful record producer, J. Mayo Williams of Decca Records association. This led to Arnold eventually recording 88 total blues tunes with Decca, with some of his most famous songs being “Old Kokomo Blues” and “Milk Cow Blues,” both of which had tremendous influence upon other artists. None other than famed Deltas blues legend Robert Johnson reworked “Old Kokomo Blues” into the blues classic “Sweet Home Chicago,” while also redrafting “Milk Cow Blues” as “Milkcow’s Calf Blues.” Additionally, Johnson also borrowed Arnold’s phrase “dust my blues” (an expression most often interpreted as leaving one’s town or location) from Arnold’s blues song “Sagefield Woman Blues.”
Plus, none other than Elvis Presley recorded “Milk Cow Blues” as “Milkcow Blues Boogie” for Sun Records in late 1954.
Arnold is also thought to be the first blues artist to introduce the notion of bisexuality into the music with certain lyrics contained in his “Sissy Man Blues” from 1934.
Certain of Arnold’s blues involved accompanists including blues pianist Peetie “The Devils Son-In-Law” Wheatstraw, though the bulk of Arnold’s work was solo in nature. Arnold did record with Oscar’s Chicago Swingers, an aggregation headed by Sam Theard, in 1934.
In total, Arnold’s recording tenure with Decca Records lasted from 1934-1938, and with the summation of 88 total sides cut for the label, the reader is correct in assuming that he was a popular artist. Along with labelmates Bumble Bee Slim and Peetie Wheatstraw, the three men were truly the stars of the period within the Decca blues catalog. Arnold was an admired and in-demand Chicago blues club performer, and did make some trips to perform outside of the city, with New York City indicated as a site of his out-of-town performances.
So, what made Arnold’s style of music so appealing? First, he employed a very unique slide guitar style whereby he was left-handed artist with an intense approach. For whatever reason, his left-handed form created at times an almost Hawaiian steel guitar manner, coupled with a percussive drive; at times his guitar work could be very fast-paced. Arnold also had an unhesitating and speedy vocal delivery. Both of these qualities assuredly appealed to the blues record buying community of the 1930s.
1938 was a turning point year for Arnold, as he walked away from the blues music industry, turning to industrial factory work in Chicago. Arnold was discovered 24 years later in 1962 by blues scholars, but he showed no interest in returning to blues or the renewal of his musical career. This was at a period when young whites, chiefly in Britain, but also in the U.S., were discovering blues, and many fabled blues artists were reviving their dormant musical careers.
In the end, Arnold passed away due to a heart attack in 1968. He is buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, as are many other noted blues artists, including Willie Dixon, Big Walter Horton, St. Louis Jimmy Oden, Otis Spann, Dinah Washington, and the aforementioned Decca Records producer J. Mayo Williams, among others.
The great Document Records label offers the recorded output of Kokomo Arnold on four CDs, plus an “essential” two CD set, along with three related CD compilations. The link to Arnold’s work on the Document Records label is resented below. Document is to be applauded for its compilation of the blues’ pre-war artists.