re: #332 Bagua

It’s Stavin’ Chain singing the Ballad of “Batson,” in Lafayette, La.

You can recognize all the faces from that era?

I did a quick search and his real name was Wilson Jones.

On page 22 of the July 1939 issue of Down Beat, Onah L. Spencer wrote that songwriter Richard M. Jones witnessed Stavin Chain (possibly A.K.A. Wilson Jones) playing Boogie Woogie in 1904 at Bully Reynolds’ T P Saloon in Donaldsonville, Louisiana adjacent to Texas & Pacific Railroad camps 21. Moreover, Richard M. Jones indicated that Stavin Chain had traveled from Arkansas. Since Stavin Chain was heard in Donaldsonville performing for Texas & Pacific railroad workers, he likely had traveled from Shreveport on the Texas & Pacific line. Prior to Shreveport, Stavin Chain could have come from Texarkana directly, or from Texarkana by way of Marshall. Prior to Texarkana, Stavin Chain could have arrived via the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railroad.

Since the Texas & Pacific Railroad had built eastward from Marshall, TX to Shreveport, LA, and then to Donaldsonville, and then to New Orleans, it is plausible that the T&P railroad was responsible for bringing Boogie Woogie out of Texas to from Marshall to Shreveport, then to Donaldsonville, and then to New Orleans. (Since 1871, the New Orleans, Mobile, and Chattanooga Railroad had an operational line between Donaldsonville and New Orleans. Thus, upon T & P’s reaching Donaldsonville, Boogie Woogie could have spread quickly to New Orleans. Thus, if we were able to go back in time, following T&P’s railroad route from Donaldsonville towards Texas points back to Shreveport, and from there, back to Marshall. Thus, this is still another line of thought that causes me to regard the Texas & Pacific Railroad as The Boogie Woogie Railroad.

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