100 Records

Bobbie Hawkins - Minimum Wage (1972 Crucifix)

Here’s a great little record, Bobbie Hawkins’ s “Minimum Wage.” A sad sort of bluesy song about the plight of the working man. Not your run-of-the-mill story though, as Hawkins really did get screwed by his employer. The story goes something like this:

Detroit 1972, an auto worker, Hawkins had a run in with a supervisor while working at Chrysler’s old Jefferson Avenue Assembly Plant. There was an argument and Hawkins was left blinded in one eye. Later that year he began recording his songs at a local Detroit Studio owned by his brother-in-law. Eerie, instrumental ballads with a signature falsetto hum in layers became a trademark sound.

A small Detroit label, Crucifix, billed Hawkins as a blues singer and set him up at a string of restaurants to play his songs. Attendance was poor and Hawkins gave up public performances forever.

The lyrics seem to fit with the times–the ’70s, a time of social change and whatnot, but something about Hawkins’s voice makes the song seem timeless. Reminds me of that old song, “Joe Hill,” which Joan Baez does a version of.

soumeya Albums "Minimum Wage", Bobbie Hawkins, Crucifix Records

Rare South East Land Otter Champs 7" on Tlinket

If you ever get your hands on this record, grab it right away. On side A, a track called “Wolf-Like Howls from the Bathhouse,” accompanied by the meandering but brilliant B-side, “O Cities, Infamous, Cruel, Undeserving.” Wild, earnest, and far-reaching recordings–halfway between songs and tundra wind.

The South East Land Otter Champs recorded for Tlinket Archives between 1963-1967. Led by Vernon Wright, an almost mythic adventurer of Tlinket and Russian descent, they toured throughout the Alaska region and into Northern Canada, often delivering food and medical supplies to hard-to-reach regions. An early photograph of his cargo showed toiletry supplies, medical crates, blankets, and record crates.

One of the performance posters described Wright as the “tobacco king of the south east,” most likely due to delivering cigarettes to the coastal fishing villages.

The S.E. Champs (commonly called) stopped recording in 1968, after which Wright and two others worked at an auto parts store in Funny River, Alabama. Re-contacted and reunited in 1987, they recorded a few more songs for the then-dwindling Tlinket Archives label, with Wright’s son Wesley on accordian.

It’d be great to see the footage from the reunion shows, but so far I haven’t been able to find anything.

soumeya Albums, experimental S.E. Champs, The South East Land Otter Champs, Tlinket Archives, Vernon Wright

Here’s a classic Hank Champion hit set to a cartoon by Teppei Ando.

admin Hits Hank Champion