Pioneering Louisville blues guitarist Sylvester Weaver — promoted as “The Man with the Talking Guitar” when he recorded in the 1920s in New York — will receive an encore tribute Saturday.
Member of the Kentuckiana Blues Society and organizers of the annual Jug Band Jubilee waterfront festival held each September in Louisville will hold a public dedication ceremony for a new illustrated headstone for Weaver (1896-1960) on his birthday, July 25, at Louisville Cemetery.
Weaver, who grew up on Finzer Street in the Smoketown neighborhood, also “discovered” Louisville jazz singer Helen Humes and recorded with her, says Keith Clements, a Blues Society leader. Humes went on to become a famed jazz vocalist who was a featured soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra.
While Weaver’s achievements were not widely known after his initial splash, local blues aficionados have sought to recognize him in recent years.
The dedication event will be at 3 p.m. at the cemetery, 1339 Poplar Level Road, near Eastern Parkway, where Weaver is interred at a site with a small marker that was installed in 1992 at his then-unmarked grave through the efforts of the Blues Society.
Last year, both groups raised money to put in an illustrated headstone for classic blues singer Sara Martin (1884-1955), also from Louisville, who was buried at an unmarked site nearby in the cemetery.
With about $1,300 left over from the fund raising campaign for Martin’s marker, which brought in contributions from around the country, the group had the Weaver headstone made. Both were done by Bays Brothers Laser Engraving service in New Albany, Ind., which will have the monument ready for installation before Saturday.
“He deserves something just as nice,” Clements said, adding that both markers tie in the with society’s mission to “preserve, promote and perpetuate the blues.” The front shows an image of Weaver from a painting by local blues musician and artist Jim Masterson, who worked from an old photographer of Martin and Weaver together.
Another local group that has promoted the headstone effort is the Soulful Sounds of Derbytown Entertainment Committee, which is working to have Martin inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. The group, including Ron Lewis of the Shively area, successfully campaigned to have Louisville native and rhythm & blues singer Harvey Fuqua and his group The Moonglows inducted this year at a ceremony April 10 in Lexington.
Saturday’s dedication event at Louisville Cemetery will include performances of some of Weaver’s numbers by Mark “Big Poppa” Stampley, a local traditional blues player. Michael L. Jones, local author of “Louisville Jug Music: From Earl McDonald to the National Jubilee,” also is expected to be there, along with Smoketown Pride and Heritage movement coordinator Ruby Hyde and historian Pen Bogert. Bogert, a past Blues Society member who now lives in Bardstown, performed at the original headstone dedication in 1992.
The back of Weaver’s headstone has biographical information, and Weaver also is mentioned on a state highway historical marker at the entrance to Louisville Cemetery. “He had a very nice finger-picking style” and also played slide guitar, Clements said.
Aside from the fact that both Weaver and Martin are buried in Louisville Cemetery, they also had another connection in life. Weaver had accompanied Martin on “Longing For Daddy Blues” in 1923, recorded for Okeh Records in New York, in what was thought to be the first recorded blues vocal backed only by guitar.
Weaver also also was known for instrumental recordings “Guitar Blues” and Guitar Rag,” which were among more than than 50 titles he recorded through 1927, also in Atlanta and St. Louis.
Weaver’s later life was spent as a chauffeur and butler for the family that owned the Lemon & Son jewelry business, his new headstone says. His interest in music is thought perhaps to have waned after the death of his wife, Anna,who had been a cook for family member Gertrude Lemon.
Weaver occasionally played guitar to entertain the children, and, “He was fondly remembered by his friends as easy-going and dignified,” the headstone says.
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/south/2015/07/20/new-headstone-pioneering-blues-guitarist-sylvester-weaver-louisville/30421923/