Pee Wee Crayton, T-Bone Walker, and Big Joe Turner all came out of the post-World War II California blues scene as friends, fellow-players, mutual fans. Crayton got to the Bay Area in the late ‘30s to work the Vellejo shipyards from his native Texas, where he was born on December 18, 1914 in Liberty Hill, near Rockdale, Texas. Crayton recorded for the Bihari Brothers’ Modern Records starting in 1948, after a few sessions for 4-Star, Gilt Edge and GruVTone Records. His instrumental, "Blues After Hours", got to No. 1 in the R&B charts. Ballads and uptempo numbers like "I'm Still in Love With You", the other side of “Blues After Hours” and "Texas Hop" helped characterize the blues scene in postwar L.A. in the 1940s.
Pee Wee Crayton got to Jamie Records in September, 1960, with Shorty Rogers, who arranged the session after the Jamie representative met with Pee in Los Angeles. Pee Wee produced his own contract and asked the company to substitute its own. The session Shorty and Pee Wee did produced four tracks, only two of which were released. The released ones were “”Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness” and “Little Bitty Things,” which came out as Jamie 1190 in May, 1961; the two unreleased ones are here for the first time since their recording, “My Baby’s Fine” and “Keep Your Hand on Your Heart.”
Pee Wee Crayton continued to work out of Los Angeles, performing and recording, until his death in 1985. He is buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery.
