Bearcat Blues (Lonnie Johnson) vs Bear Cat Blues (John Jackson)

I just added a 1968 blues solo guitar song with lyrics by John Jackson called Bear Cat Blues and a cover performance that credited Jackson and he has a BMI registry. I then went searching for more covers and ran across a Dec 8 (or 14th), 1927 instrumental by Lonnie Johnson called Bearcat Blues (that he has a registry for) and they seem similar. So I would appreciate someone's listening to them and letting me know if Jackson copied Lonnie's tune or not. Frankly I'm hoping the answer is no because the recording for Lonnie is on a release that is very confusing. The video of his performance seems to be just him playing solo guitar with no accompaniment or singing. However it appears this was released on Gennett 6378 and credited to "Jimmy Blythe" (who isn't a guitarist and who Lonnie did record with on a number of songs that same day, but they all seem to be credited to Blythe - but I can't confirm that without the visuals). Since it's so confusing I'm hopeful the answer is John Jackson's song is his own (plus someone presumably other than Lonnie wrote the lyrics)

Lonnie's 1927 recording

John Jackson's 1968 song:

This is from Jimmy Blythe's Discography website:

Bearcat Blues with Lonnie Johnson (Blythe as Buddy Woods) 13300 Gennet 6378 Chicago, December 14, 1927

This is from 78 Discography Gennet 6000 series:

6378 JOHNSON HENRY DOWN HOME SPECIAL G12725 - - 4/20/27 -

6378 BLYTHE JIMMY BEARCAT BLUES G13300 - - 12/8/27 -

Last edit: 2020-09-23 17:56:04 UTC by mduval32323

Actually the cover by Lauren Sheehan I added. She has extensive song notes on every track and is spot on with who authored all the old songs she covered. On this one she refers to hearing John Jackson play it but her notes actually credit "Traditional" for this one so maybe there are many Bearcat Blues performances.

From the liner notes for John Jackson's 1968 album John Jackson Vol. 2 - More Blues and Country Dance Tunes from Virginia (via Discogs):

John learned this from one of his neighbors in Rappahannock County (Benzine Burles), who picked it up in prison where he was spending a little time for murder

Sounds like traditional might be the way to go here unless we can find evidence that Johnson wrote the song

Sweet thx. That solves my not wanting to add the Lonnie Johnson release as it’s complicated.

I picked up a 78 Gennett 6378-B. It lists the Bearcat Blues (O’Brien) by Geo. Jefferson & Willie Woods. If I can get a photo of the label I’ll attach it. The flip side is Down Home Special (Johnson) by Watson’s Pullman Porters.

For some reason I can not add the photos.

Thx. If you can’t add photos you can email them to me at mduval3232@yahoo.com

Mark, I made 2 scans from Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943.

The notes might be of some help to you.

See the 2 attachments below

JoJo greets

Thx so it's Lonnie Johnson.

Quote from mduval32323

Thx so it's Lonnie Johnson.

The composer yes.

The performers Lonnie and Jimmy.

Jojo greets