Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.
Arnold soon returned to Chicago, but when Prohibition ended in late 1933, bootlegging went with it. He became a full-time bluesman, and luckily, fellow musician Kansas Joe McCoy heard him and introduced him to producer J. Mayo “Ink” Williams, who’d just begun what would be a history-making run at Decca Records. In 1934, Arnold’s first recording for Decca gave him the handle he’d use for the rest of his short career: “Old Original Kokomo Blues” is the B side of that now-scarce 78.
Compilations featuring Arnold’s work continued to arrive after his death, including several devoted entirely to him. Saydisc imprint Matchbox released the Kokomo Arnold LP in 1969, and in 1991 Document Records assembled an exhaustive four-volume CD set called Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order. Most recently, the double CD The Kokomo Arnold Collection 1930-38 appeared this year on the Acrobat label. v
