Curley Weaver recorded for Columbia, Decca, and OKeh during the first commercial explosion of the blues, and still woke before dawn for manual labor and busked on Atlanta street corners to eat. Born March 25, 1906, in Covington, Georgia, and raised on a farm in Porterdale, he learned guitar from his mother, Savannah 'Dip' Weaver, a respected pianist and guitarist who also taught his friends Charlie Hicks and the future Barbecue Bob, with harmonica player Eddie Mapp rounding out a teenage group. Weaver moved to Atlanta in 1925 and entered the studio for the first time in 1928, going on to cut sides for Perfect, Vocalion, Melotone, Sittin' In With, Champion, and Savoy under his own name and the alias Slim Gordon.

This episode explains the flat-fee 'race records' business model that paid artists fifteen to fifty dollars a side with no royaltie ...