Currently, I am reading The Biography Of A Phantom – A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey by Robert “Mack” McCormick, and as McCormick’s twisting and turning journey to learn and place into context the life and times of the famed Delta bluesman unfolds, he visits Houston Stackhouse at his home.  This is a particularly interesting passage in the book, and it prompted me to recall just how much I enjoy Stackhouse’s blues.

By the way, The Biography Of A Phantom – A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey is a highly recommended read for any blues fan.

Having worked with Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Charlie McCoy, Walter Vinson, Joe Willie Wilkins, and Robert Nighthawk, among many others, Stackhouse played an important part, primarily, on the blues scenes in Arkansas and Mississippi.  In addition to the renowned blues artists he played with, he also schooled other notable bluesmen on the guitar including the famed slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk, and both Sammy Lawhorn and Jimmy Rogers, two of Chicago’s post-war blues greats.

Stackhouse’s vocals and guitar playing were not especially exceptional; however, they were authentic, spirited, and his devotion to carrying the true character of the Delta blues forward all throughout his long career was highly evident.  The wide swath of gratitude his guitar students showered upon him, and the myriad of artists who called upon his services, are lofty indicators of his much-deserved role in blues history.

His given name was Houston Goff, and he came into the world in late September, 1910 on a plantation in Wesson, Mississippi, an area in both Copiah and Lincoln Counties in the bottom southwestern third portion of the state.  Research indicates that his father’s name was Garfield Goff, and early on he was brought up on the Randall Ford Plantation.  It was here that Stackhouse first was bitten by the music bug by being exposed to the music of the fiddle playing Lace Powell.

Still early in his life, Stackhouse was moved to Crystal Springs Mississippi (further north in Copiah County) by a man named James Wade Stackhouse.  Houston made the decision to take his surname as Stackhouse.  It is interesting that research also indicated that Stackhouse never knew of the demise of his parents and that James Wade Stackhouse was not his biological father until many years later when he went through the process of applying for a passport.

The musical influences on Stackhouse were many.  In the Stackhouse home he heard blues recording artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, and Lonnie Johnson via their 78rpm releases.  Also, musical inspiration came via his uncles Charlie Williams and Luther Williams, and by way of other local and regional artists such as Tommy Johnson, and the famed member of the Mississippi Sheiks Lonnie Chatmon.

These influences and associations spurred a young Stackhouse to dive into his musical aspirations with vigor, as he studied and devoted himself to numerous instruments including the harmonica, mandolin, and violin, all before he decided that the guitar was to be his primary focus.  Due to his instrumental versatility, Stackhouse was a regular member of varied string bands where his energies were deployed into whatever group he was playing with, performing at both White and Black dances, frolics, and other events.

It is generally believed that in 1946 Stackhouse moved to Helena, Arkansas.  Once there, he teamed with his former pupil Robert Nighthawk to work in his band.  At that time, Nighthawk had a regular performance slot on the famed KFFA radio station. 

It has been said that Stackhouse stayed with Nighthawk for about one year before he left his band, at which time he joined forces with renowned drummer James “Peck” Curtis, guitar player Joe Willie Wilkins, and both feted pianists Robert Traylor and Pinetop Perkins broadcasting over KFFA on the famous King Biscuit Time radio program, a 15-minute blues show that was designed to push King Biscuit Flour.  Sonny Boy Williamson II eventually entered the band and was the featured musician.  The KFFA band traveled regionally to advertise their radio and upcoming club shows, and to also encourage folks to buy King Biscuit Flour.  These forays often took place on a flatbed truck that acted as a stage at the various stops along the way.

During this same period while in Arkansas, Stackhouse held other jobs, including farming, being employed in vehicle and power generation facilities, doing construction, working on a river boat on the Mississippi River, and logging.   

Also, while working in Helena, Stackhouse continued to ply his blues talents in both Mississippi and Arkansas, playing with quite a stunning collection of major blues talent, including piano man Roosevelt Sykes, guitarist and bandleader Ike Turner, guitar master Robert Lockwood, Jr., harmonica giant Little Walter, and slide guitar great Elmore James, again, among many others.

One of the main aspects of Stackhouse’s life is that he never joined the Great Migration and came northward in search of the perceived freedoms offered there.  He was comfortable in the south, and research shows that he only moved as far north as Memphis, Tennessee in his lifetime.

In 1965, with Williamson II still in the King Biscuit Time band, renowned musical producer and Arhoolie Records label founder Chris Strachwitz recorded a collection entitled King Biscuit Time under Williamson II’s name with Stackhouse as the guitarist.  Shortly thereafter, Williamson II passed away.

In 1968, George Mitchell, the notable music producer, recorded Stackhouse, Peck Curtis, and Robert Nighthawk for a Testament Records album that also included works by Johnny Young, John Wrencher, and Little Walter.  Rober Nighthawk appeared with both groups, with one presented as the Houston Stackhouse Trio, and other as the Rober Nighthawk Trio.

The year 1969 saw the release of Mississippi Delta Blues Vol. 1 on the Arhoolie Records label, an outing that featured Houston Stackhouse And The Blues Rhythm Boys Blues (an aggregation that included James “Peck” Curtis and Nighthawk) and James “Peck” Curtis And The Blues Rhythm Boys (an aggregation that included Stackhouse and Nighthawk).  Other Delta bluesmen were also featured on this release.

In 1970, Stackhouse moved to Memphis, Tennessee to begin regularly performing with while also living with guitarist Joe Willie Wilkins and his spouse.  This move came a good time, as the blues revival was still occurring among younger folks.  It allowed Stackhouse to graduate, if you will, from the joints he normally played to college campuses, festivals (often with a group named the Memphis Blues Caravan), and other music venues.  On these shows he, as either a solo act or with Wilkins, would feature the strong influences he carried from Robert Nighthawk, Robert Johnson, and particularly Tommy Johnson, someone who so profoundly shaped him that his interpretations of Johnson’s music were eerily similar in sound, right down to Johnson’s falsetto voice.

In 1972, Stackhouse recorded Cryin’ Won’t Help You, a 13-song collection that brings his vast influences to the fore.  It was finally released in 1994 on the Genes label.

In 1976, Stackhouse made his sole overseas tour to Vienna, Austria, bringing the blues of his influences and life to yet another audience of eager young fans.

In the late 1970s, Stackhouse returned to his roots in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.  He did little public performing after that move, but he was on the bill for the first two Mississippi Delta Blues Festivals.

Stackhouse passed away in Crystal Springs in late September, 1980.

A most genial man by all accounts with a broad, sincere smile, and someone of such significant talent to have taught many great blues guitarists, Stackhouse never really sought the limelight.  His impassioned readings of works by his man influence. Tommy Johnson, indicate, to a degree, how much he valued his origins.  While he was featured in an issue of Living Blues Magazine, and in documentaries made in the U.S. and Great Britain, unfortunately Stackhouse doesn’t enjoy the notoriety his broad skill set should allow. 

Eventually, the Wolf Records label released Bye, Bye Blues, a set of his music, and he appears now on many CD compilations, but Stackhouse should be a household blues name for his vast blues capabilities.

In Copiah County, Stackhouse’s home area, he played with what are literally considered to be a great many, perhaps in the dozens, of bluesmen, celebrated names and those more in the shadows, including the previously mentioned Robert Johnson and Tommy Johnson, Mager Johnson, Clarence Johnson, Cootsie Thomas, Eddie Mason, Mott Willis, Carey Mason, Boyd Gilmore, Houston Boines, Jimmy Smith, Willis Taylor, John Patterson, Charlie Taylor, T.J. Patterson, and John Patterson, among so many others.  Such was Stackhouse’s blues reach.

Stackhouse was a bluesman who comfortably chose the Delta boundary towns as his center of activity.  Thank goodness that in this digital age we now have access to his recorded work and videos via YouTube.  Please discover Stackhouse’s exemplary blues for yourself.