John Lee Hooker in Frogtown: The Secret Session at Toledo's Sweeney Sound Engineering

Dig below the surface of Toledo's rich and diverse music history and you'll inevitably uncover vague references to  John Lee Hooker recording at Toledo's Sweeney Sound Engineering. While the bluesman's affinity for the Toledo-adjacent Hines Farm blues club is well documented, the link between Hooker and Sweeney Sound is far more tenuous.

Hooker's notoriously cavalier attitude regarding the signing of and adhering to binding contracts makes verification difficult, but Sheldon Brown, son of Detroit Based Fortune Records founder Jack Brown, has long maintained that John Lee Hooker’s first recording session was actually conducted under his father’s supervision at Toledo’s Sweeney Sound Engineering. The session, which reportedly produced the tracks “Miss Sadie Mae: Curl my Baby's Hair” and “609 Boogie,” went unreleased at the time. Additionally, David A Carson confirms the session in his exhaustive Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll. This is significant as historians have for years generally credited Hooker's late 1948 recording of "Boogie Chillen" at United Sound Systems in Detroit as his first session. These claims instead indicate that Hooker's first session was, in fact, in Toledo.

Information detailing the history of Sweeney Sound Engineering is similarly hazy, a lazy google search turning up a 1950 recording of Fred Harris & his Uptown Band. Ripped from the 1980 release, Vintage Toledo Blues 1950-1980 (TRH Records #8001), Fred Harris--not to be confused with the legendary Canadian TV host of the same name--apparently went on to form Fred Harris' Red Tops who recorded this jam in the studio at Toledo's WTOD radio station in 1957.

Given the willingness of Fortune Records founder Brown to travel to Toledo for a session, what other gems may have been committed to tape or acetate inside the walls of Sweeney Sound Engineering? Those with even cursory knowledge of the studio and or the owners/employees are encouraged to chime in in the comments.

Linkapalooza: 
The Bull- Fred Harris' Red Tops Organ Trio- New Song
Remembering Hines Farm, a legendary African-American mecca for the blues
Hines Farm Movie

Free-Range Art of the Toledo Region #1

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We haven't a clue regarding the identity of the resident artist (artist resident?) who transformed so much junkyard detritus and industrial-sized scrap iron into this clever display of garden fauna, but we do know that it represents one of the purest forms of Free-Range Art we've seen.

Our feet never left public soil during our short visit, ninety-nine percent out of respect to the homeowner, and one percent because you gotta' figure anyone this talented with a welder is equally as handy with the old shootin' iron when sufficiently agitated. We happily settled for the long-distance photos you see here. If and when a proper introduction is arranged, we'll gladly shoot some close-ups and elaborate on the artist and their work if they are so inclined.

Numerous additional sculptures dot the yard, and like most free-range exhibits, finding them is half the fun. Here's a hint that should make your search an easy one: It's situated east of Oak Openings Preserve, on a road beginning with the letter "R."

It seems the purest examples of free-range art are the result of a direct conduit between the creator's mind and their hands, a passion undiluted by rational thought and outside influence.

If you do visit, please practice common courtesy.