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Tail Dragger
Stop Lyin’
Delmark DE828

Tail Dragger’s very first recordings! Tail Dragger, born James Yancy Jones, hadn’t seriously begun to make a career of singing before these recordings. He had made appearances for years with other bands—most notably the band of Howlin’ Wolf—whom he amused and impressed, eliciting an “anointment” of sorts when Wolf declared, “One day this boy gonna take my place”. This is the sound of genuine west side Chicago blues from the 1980s—a melding of traditional blues with some rule-bending rawness, long on groove and with a restless touch of youthful soul. Complete notes by Justin O’Brien enclosed.


1. So Ezee 3:44
2. Where Did You Go 4:21
3. Ain’t Gonna Cry No Mo 4:54
4. Don’t You Want A Good Man 3:32
5. My Head Is Bald 4:13
6. Alabama Bound 4:05
7. Don’t Trust Yo Woman 3:58
8. Please Mr. Jailer 5:02
9. Stop Lyin’ 3:11
10. Tail’s Tale 16:41

Recorded September 29, 1982
All songs by James Jones, Leric Music, BMI

Tail Dragger, vocals
Johnny B. Moore, Jesse Lee Williams, guitar
Eddie “Jewtown” Burks, harmonica
Willie Kent, bass
Larry Taylor, drums
Little Mac Simmons, harmonica on Se Ezee and My Head Is Bald
Lafayette Leake, piano on Se Ezee and My Head Is Bald


Album Production: Robert G. Koester
CD Production: Steve Wagner
Cover photo: Marty Green
Design: Dave Forte, ForDzign


Tail Dragger, born James Yancy Jones, hadn’t seriously begun to make a career of singing before these recordings, his very first. He was 42 years old and had made appearances for years with other bands—most notably the band of Howlin’ Wolf—whom he amused and impressed, eliciting an “anointment” of sorts when Wolf declared, “One day this boy gonna take my place”. Dragger earned his living as a truck mechanic and long-distance hauler, but soon before this recording he had helped his friend Oliver Davis get the music scene started at Davis’ Delta Fishmarket on Chicago’s west side. Dragger had been performing at the Fishmarket and hauling catfish from Mississippi for him, and they had used the truck bed for a stage before a bandstand was built, eventually attracting blues musicians from all over the city for weekly shows that lasted all day and into the night.

Drummer Larry Taylor, bassist Willie Kent and guitarist Johnny B. Moore lived near the Fishmarket, as did Dragger himself. In fact, all the musicians accompanying Dragger on this recording—Eddie “Jewtown” Burks, Little Mac Simmons and the rest—were part of that scene (except perhaps pianist Lafayette Leake, who was overdubbed by Dawkins on two tracks, and guitarist Jesse Williams of whom little is known and who died a few months after this session at age 36). This is the sound of genuine west side Chicago blues from the 1980s—a melding of traditional blues with some rule-bending rawness, long on groove and with a restless touch of youthful soul from Moore and Taylor.

Tail Dragger’s stage hook was (and still is) his physically over-the-top take on Wolf’s delivery, distorting his voice into a semblance of Wolf’s booming rasp, and crawling on the floor to howl and plead the blues. But by the time of these recordings he had expanded on this routine, using it as a base to build a body of work that combined the Wolf-like antics with his own personal brand of moralistic blues narratives, which he continues to compose and perform to this day.

His original compositions—as well as between song raps—are quasi-instructive stories, ‘public service messages’ and ribald proposals, often mixed with a good dose of self-deprecating humor. “I’m not perfect,” he croons to in particular the females in the audience, “but will you still take me home?” And, “you men out there, don’t be crackin’ jokes, you need to take care of business.” There is something compelling about these bluesy harangues that, taken in the context of Chicago’s chaotic and crumbling west side, seem to take on a peculiar logic. And at the very least, they are hilariously outrageous, not to mention intense.

Of this set of nine tracks, only two, So Ezee and My Head is Bald, were issued back in the ’80s as a 45 (those were also released in 2010 on Jimmy Dawkins Presents The Leric Story (Delmark 808), and only now are the other seven finally seeing daylight, reunited with their two brethren tracks. All of these numbers receive the full, unmistakable Dragger treatment. From his Howlin’ Wolf repertoire, “Where Did You Go” is set to a grooving “Smokestack Lightning” backdrop, “Don’t Trust Your Woman” recalls “How Many More Years”. Whereas “Ain’t Gonna Cry No Mo” is a patented example of one of Dragger’s customary stage directives, “Slow in A!,” “Don’t You Want a Good Man” and “Stop Lyin’” are straight Chicago uptempo shuffles. “Alabama Bound” dusts off the Elmore James’ classic riff and lyrical theme, and “Please Mr. Jailer” is a title he will return to in his later recordings.

While many of these songs have long been part of Dragger’s repertoire, this was the first time these now familiar themes were preserved on tape. As a bonus “Tail’s Tale” gives a palpable sense of the time and place in which these musicians performed and persevered. Dragger provides frank accountings of the murder of his business partner, Iron Jaw Harris, of pervasive drugs, crime and violence, but also cites a litany of musicians both great and small who comprised the west side blues scene of the time and kept the blue flame burning.

The vintage tracks and forthright stories from Tail Dragger make this yet another important historical document from Delmark which throws more illumination on a little explored corner of Chicago’s west side blues scene in the 1980s.
-Justin O’Brien, February 2013

Other Delmark albums of interest:
Tail Dragger, Live at Rooster’s Lounge (803, DVD 1803) with Rockin’ Johnny
My Head Is Bald, Live at Vern's Friendly Tavern (782, DVD 1782)
with Lurrie Bell, Billy Branch, Jimmy Dawkins
American People (728) with Billy Branch, Johnny B. Moore,
Jimmy Dawkins, Eddie Shaw, Aron Burton
It Ain't Over, Delmark Celebrates 55 Years Of Blues Live at Buddy Guy's Legends (800,
DVD1800) with Tail Dragger, Jimmy Johnson, Eddie Shaw, Zora Young...
West Side Blues (906) with Tail Dragger, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Luther Allison…
Jimmy Dawkins, Blisterstring (641)
All For Business (634) with Otis Rush, Voice Odom
Fast Fingers (623)
Rockin' Johnny, Straight Out Of Chicago (720) with Tail Dragger, Sam Lay
Man's Temptation (732)
Johhny B. Moore, Live at Blue Chicago (688) with Willie Kent, Karen Carroll
Troubled World (701)
Rockin’ In The Same Old Boat (769)

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