When I think of the harmonica players who have called Chicago and nearby locales home, the numbers are staggering.  And without a doubt, the influence of the Chicago blues school of harmonica playing continues to inspire and shape countless musicians to this day.  Whether they were born in Chicago or not, once they hit Chicago, they were among a fraternity of players whose vast collected skills shaped the framework of a sound that is universally recognized.  They may have moved on from the great city at some point, but at one time, they contributed to the unmistakable Chicago blues harmonica sound and lofty reputation.  Want me to rattle off the names that immediately come to mind?  John Lee “Sonny Boy I” Williamson, Billy Boy Arnold, James Cotton, Billy Branch, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Big Walter Horton, Sugar Blue, Little Mack Simmons, Carey Bell, Lester Davenport, Little Arthur Duncan, Snooky Pryor, Little Willie Anderson, Corky Siegel, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Louis Myers, George “Harmonica” Smith, and Jimmy Reed are 20 plus of the more well-known blues harmonica artists who popped into my head with ease.

But for every familiar Chicago blues harmonica player, there have been multitudes that were and are extremely talented and for whatever reason or life circumstances never or have not yet achieved the eminence their more renowned colleagues received.  Bluesmen such as Good Rockin’ Charles, Gerry Hundt, Earring George Mayweather, Matthew Skoller. Big Leon Brooks, Rob Stone, Morry Sochat, Joe Nosek, Mervyn “Harmonica Hinds”, Rick “Cookin” Sherry, and Middle Walter all represent blues harmonica competencies of the highest meriting, yet, their places in the Chicago blues harmonica hierarchy are not as elevated, though again, their attributes on the blues harmonica ensure that their roles in shaping the Chicago blues harmonica sound and reputation are as rich as any others’.

Which brings me to a Chicago blues harmonica artist whose music I somewhat obsessed upon this week, and while listening to his blues offerings, I decided that I wanted to devote this week’s blues artist profile to this deeply talented man, someone who languished among that category of Chicago harmonica bluesmen who was not as familiar as others; Alex “Easy Baby” Randle.

As would be expected, not a wealth of information is available on Easy Baby, but enough so that something of an outline of his life can be pieced together.  He was born in Memphis, Tennessee in early August, 1934.  Research suggests that he spent roughly seven of his earliest years in Michigan City, Mississippi, a locale in the far north central part of the state, living with relatives before moving back to Memphis at the beginning of his school age years.  Research also proffers that the grandmother he lived with in Michigan City plus an uncle were both harmonica players, so rightfully it seems fitting for someone with an interest in music to form an interest in the instrument as well. 

While working a string of jobs around Memphis in the early 1950s period, his harmonica skills sufficiently developed, Easy Baby started playing on a semi-professional basis about the city.  This exposure to the nightlife and blue world afforded Easy Baby introductions to established bluesmen such as James Cotton, Joe Hill Louis, and Howlin’ Wolf, among others.  These more recognized professional bluesmen afforded Easy Baby the understanding of how to thrive and survive the juke and gambling house venues he was playing which were the normal blues lairs of the day.

At the age of 22, Easy Baby made a move northward to Chicago.  In the big city, Easy Baby sought to make himself known on the city’s bustling blues scene, plying his trade not only on the harmonica, but also singing, and even playing drums and bass in bands of others needing his skills, and also for his own group for a period.  His blues work took him all over Chicago’s south and west sides, those fertile areas where the blues was big business. 

Throughout the extended period of the 1950s through the 1970s (there was a period when Easy Baby put the blues on a shelf for a period, but like many blues artists who do so, the music drew him back into its fold in the mid-1970s), Easy Baby, all the while working as a mechanic, continued to hone his blues skills, gaining a reputation as a solid bandmate, band leader, and blues harmonica player. 

A couple of the obscure blues joints in Chicago (of which there were many in the city) where Easy Baby played his brand of blues included Kim’s Lounge, and at the old Rat Trap joint.  Easy Baby’s tenure at the Rat Trap proved especially fruitful as this was where writer and blues music producer Steve Wisner first was witness to his blues and encouraged Easy Baby to record.  These sides eventually saw the light of day on the Barrelhouse Records label (more on this below) and the Rooster Blues Records label blues harmonica compilation (Low Blows: An Anthology Of Chicago Harmonica Blues). 

1978 was a big year for Easy Baby as he saw the release of a solo album for Barrelhouse Records entitled Sweet Home Chicago Blues that included Mac Thompson on bass, Kansas City Red on drums, and Eddie Taylor on guitar, while Easy Baby handled the vocals and harmonica duties.

Easy Baby continued to soldier on in his blues career, but he played “live” less as the 1990s rolled around, and when he did perform, the majority of his shows were on Chicago’s north side where the clubs catered to a more tourist-focused crowd, though many Chicago blues greats played the venues.  He did record a collection for the St. George label in the later 1990s; however, that outing was never issued. 

But Easy Baby was not yet done recording.  2002 saw the release of his Wolf Records collection entitled If It Ain’t One Thing It’s Another.  Accompanying Easy Baby on this outing were both Eddie Taylor and Karl Myer on bass, Allen Batts on piano,             Ashward Gates, Sam Lay, and Tim Taylor on drums, Johnny B. Moore on both acoustic and electric guitar, and Sho Komiya on acoustic bass, while Easy Baby sang and blew harmonica.  This release should have given Easy Baby a wider recognition for his work, but in the end, it did not do so, despite its solid quality.

Also in 2002, Random Chance Records released Harmonica Blues Orgy, a compilation that included four cuts by Easy Baby, along with those of Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Martin Lang, and Little Arthur Duncan. 

While somewhat out of sequence here, it is also important to identify JSP Records as having included one Easy Baby cut on a 1983 compilation entitled Harpin’ On It: An Anthology Of Harmonica Blues.  Others on this collection include Mojo Buford, Jew Town Burks, John Wrencher, Hot Shot Love, Little Mac, Billy Branch, and Johnny Mars. 

Also, a 1997 release on the Pulse label entitled Blues Chicago Style included one Easy Baby selection, and a posthumous 2020 release for JSP Records entitled Barrelhousin’ Around Chicago – The Legendary George Paulus 1970’s Recordings included one Easy Baby cut.

So why am I writing all this about Easy Baby, and more specifically, what made his blues so enjoyable, in the face of him not being known known as a front-line name on the Chicago blues scene?  It is true that Easy Baby’s work would have been considered somewhat dated when compared to the more contemporary blues harmonica sound during the height of his recording activity.  Like the revolutionary and contemporary Chicago blues harmonica giant Little Walter, Easy Baby’s sound resonated with an echoing tendency, but conversely, where Little Walter formed his harmonica phrasings in the manner of a riffing saxophone, Easy Baby’s harmonica attack was shorter with succinct bursts, and then using a musical void to complete the stanza.  His tended to be an uncluttered approach; more restrained.

Make no mistake, though, when Easy Baby decided to skreich, shout, and yell on the harmonica, he could do so with vigor!

And, Easy Baby could sing with a fervor, often including both a tension and an eventual resolve to whatever a particular song’s subject matter demands.

At the age of 75 on December, 2009, Easy Baby succumbed to the ravages of pneumonia and passed away.

Easy Baby’s place in the Chicago blues world is secure due to his lofty standards and output, again representing the legions of the great city’s blues harmonica players who never ascend to the top ranks of the genre.