My baby left town, she left me a mule to ride,
My baby left town, she left me a mule to ride,
When the train left the station, the mule lay down and died.
-- Yank Rachell, - "She Caught the Katy"
Blues mandolinist Yank Rachell, composer of She Caught the Katy, Gravel Road Woman, Divin' Duck Blues, and dozens of other classic country blues songs, died on April 9, aged 87. His death robs us of one of the last living links to the Memphis string bands of the 1920s.
He was born March 16, 1910, to a farming family in Brownsville Tennessee. He was christened James Rachell, but his grandmother nicknamed him Yank as a child, and the name stuck. When he was eight years old, his family gave him a piglet to care for and raise, but he traded it for a mandolin and taught himself to play.
As a young teenager, he worked as a track hand for the L&R railroad, and picked up extra spending money performing with Hambone Wille Newbern at dances and parties. Sometime in the 1920s, he met and began performing with guitarist Sleepy John Estes, eventually moving to Memphis to form the Three J's Jug Band with harmonica player Jab Jones. Estes and Rachel recorded several songs for RCA in 1929, including the original versions of Diving Duck Blues, Poor John Blues and Milk Cow Blues.
During the thirties and forties he performed with John Lee Sonny Boy Williamson, Peetie "The Devil's Son-in-Law" Wheatstraw, Elijah Jones, Henry Townsend and Big Joe Williams. Between 1938 and 1941 he recorded 24 songs for RCA's Bluebird label.
But none of this work provided enough income to support a family, so his musical career took second place to farming and factory work for over thirty years. Not until his four children had grown and his wife had passed away was he able to return to the uncertain life of a full-time blues musician. In 1962, he again partnered with Sleepy John Estes. Together they toured coffee houses and campuses as key figures in the blues revival: long-time Toronto residents may remember their appearances at the First Floor Club and The New Gate of Cleve in 1964 and 1965. They toured Europe and Japan, and played virtually every blues and folk festival in North America.
Rachell and his family had moved to Indianapolis in 1958. After Estes' death in 1977, he returned there to semi-retirement, although he continued to perform locally and appeared at the Chicago Blues Festival as recently as 1993. Cathi Norton, an Indiana-based singer-songwriter, describes Yank's support of and encouragement to younger musicians:
"From feeling `poorly' in his bed at home, he'd invite you in anyway, listen to you play some music, and before long, call for his mandolin. His eyes would light up and he'd holler `Now you gettin' it!' when he really enjoyed something. It was always great fun to jam with Yank. He was the real article, and I'm glad he stayed around as long as he did - to give us all a little bit of that '38 Pistol' and that crazy mandolin playing. We'll miss him sorely."
On April 12, Cathi attended Yank's funeral, attended by an overflow crowd at the Nazarene Baptist Church in Indianapolis. She writes: "Honeyboy Edwards, John Brim, Jimmy Walker, surviving older statesmen who shared early years with Yank were there, alongside the hundreds of us who adore his music and got to play along a little in the later years. People from all over the music industry, Yank's community, and the world, came or sent tributes testifying to the truth on one minister's claim: `He changed the world with his music.'"
Yank leaves behind a rich musical legacy. Although he performed with a host of different musicians in his long career, his music always always reflected his apprenticeship in Memphis stringbands, which played party and dance music emphasizing ensemble playing by virtuoso singers and instrumentalists.
And Yank was certainly a virtuoso! Four solo albums he recorded late in life -- Blues Mandolin Man (Blind Pig), Mandolin Blues and Chicago Style (Delmark), and Pig Trader Blues (Slippery Noodle) -- are all must-own recordings for anyone who is interested in stringband-style mandolin, an instrument which has all but disappeared from the blues tradition. And fans of his music are eagerly awaiting the release of yet another album, Too Hot for the Devil, which he recorded in the last year of his life.
Yank Rachell's wife and two sons predeceased him. He is survived two daughters and, as the funeral program said, "28 grandchildren, 40 great grandchildren, three great, great grandchildren, a host of nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends."
- Ian Angus
(My thanks to Cathi Norton for permitting me
to quote from two letters about Yank Rachell.)