SET OF 4 SAVOY TESTS: MARYLYN SCOTT aka MARY DELOATCH

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120

This is a set of 4 white-label, single-sided test pressings that were issused by Savoy on its subsidiaries, Regent and Acorn. The tests date from a single session on 9/19/50 and feature a single singer/guitarist/songwriter who recorded two of her songs as Marylyn Scott and the other two as Mary DeLoatch. It appears now that the lady's real name was Mary DeLoatch, and this is the name she used when she recorded gospel, but she also seems to have begun her career singing down-home blues under the name Marylyn Scott. Savoy picked her up on the strength of a few records she made in the late 40s in her native North Carolina, brought her to New York City, and paired her with the Johnny Otis Orchestra to record a pair of blues and a pair of gospel numbers, all written by herself. The blues came first: "Beer Bottle Boogie" is matrix SS6836 and "Uneasy Blues" is SS6837. The first is a spirited romp about getting high on beer; the second is a slow and mournful tune about the man who left. This last tune is appropriately titled--she definitely sounds uneasy singing these blues. She then moved into a much different world with a pair of soulful gospel numbers: "I Want to Die Easy" (SS6838) and "I Really Believe (SS6839). Here, the Otis band is stripped down to piano, bass and drums, and they give her a very sympathetic backing indeed (Mary's electric guitar is also heard throughout). It is striking how much more at ease she sounds in these last two numbers, the last one especially. In fact, she never recorded blues again after this date, and instead committed herself exclusively to gospel, although she only had two more sessions with Savoy before she vanished. Marylyn Scott/Mary Deloatch is one of the more intriguing and obscure figures in the post-war scene, but even though we know next to nothing about her life, something of her story is told in the miniature musical journey of this session. The sound on the tests is phenomenal. Three of the four records are graded N-; one record, "I Want to Die Easy," starts with some surface noise which decreases as the record continues. A tiny bubble at the beginning of "Uneasy Blues" causes a tic in the first 3 or 4 revolutions. The labels are beautiful, with writing in lead pencil, blue pencil and red grease pen. The title of "Beer Bottle Boogie" appears on the label of the test as "Beer Barrel," and even though "I Really Believe" was issued under the name Mary DeLoatch, it appears on the test as Marylyn Scott, her blues name.