excerpt from Elijah Wald (www.elijahwald.com):
Blake Alphonso Higgs was the other Blind Blake–I assume his nom de guerre was in emulation of the blues guitarist, but it may just be coincidence. For many years he fronted the house band at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Nassau. His music was a unique mix of old island favorites, more recent calypso compositions and a quirky grab-bag of minstrel songs and ballads from the United States.
Minstrelsy was an especially important element of Blake’s work, evident both in his choice of the banjo and songs like “Watermelon Spoilin’ On the Vine,” “You Shall Be Free,” and “J.P. Morgan” (“My Name Is Morgan, But it Ain’t J.P.”).
Blake has none of the self-conscious dialect and overdone comedy that was typical of the minstrel genre, though, and his sidemen combined the jazzy guitar licks and harmonies of groups like the Ink Spots with West Indian rhythms, with the result that his recordings have an easy humor and swing that few musicians from any continent can match.
Of course, Blake also played lots of island songs, which he performs in a style that falls somewhere between the string-band calypso of Wilmouth Houdini and Jamaican mento, the slicker sound of tourist bands like the Bermuda Strollers, and the vocal group jive of American combos like the Cats and the Fiddle.
They range from folk ballads like “Run, Come See” to upbeat tourist favorites like “Conch Ain’t Got No Bone” and calypsos like “Love, Love Alone,” the comic saga of King Edward’s abdication to marry an American divorcee.
There is also a Joseph Spence connection: Blake knew Spence and provided his contact information to Fritz Richmond when Richmond went to Nassau to record what became the Happy All the Time album, and there are several overlapping numbers in their repertoires–which means that people who want to know what Spence was singing can often find out by listening to the Blake versions.
Old Time Party 