Ivory Joe Hunter
October 10, 1914 – November 8, 1974
Ivory Joe Hunter was an early R&B singer, musician and songwriter who penned over 7000 songs, his biggest hit being 1956’s “Since I Met You, Baby.” Born in Texas, Hunter was playing the piano by his early teens. In the early ’40s, he began hosting his own radio show, and within a few years, he moved to Los Angeles to perform and record. He soon started his own record label on which he released his first record, “Blues at Sunrise.” He wrote and recorded many songs during his career, one of which, “I Almost Lost My Mind” later became a hit for Pat Boone. He also wrote songs that were recorded by Sonny James and Elvis Presley. In the mid ’50s, he moved over to the legendary Atlantic Records for which he recorded “Since I Met You, Baby,” his only Top 40 hit. During the ’60s, he found new life as a country artist, appearing on the Grand Ole Opry several times. Ivory Joe Hunter was 59 when he died of lung cancer on November 8, 1974.
Robert Lee McCollum
November 30, 1909 - November 5, 1967
Robert Lee McCollum was a blues guitarist who for some reason changed his name at least twice during his music career. During the mid ’30s, he went by Robert Lee McCoy and landed in St. Louis where he played and recorded with Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Joe Williams. A nomadic person, McCollum soon changed his name to Robert Nighthawk and moved on. He resurfaced as an electric slide guitarist and landed a deal with Chess Records during the ’40s. Unfortunately, Muddy Waters was also on the label, so Nighthawk soon found he wasn’t as much of a priority. During the folk revival of the early ’60s. Nighthawk was rediscovered while busking on the streets of Chicago. He experienced upswing in his career, making a few more records and playing club dates before he died of a heart attack on November 5, 1967.
Eugene Powell
December 23, 1908 – November 4, 1998
Eugene Powell was a Mississippi born Delta blues musician who, like so many of his peers, picked up the guitar while still a child. During his early career, Powell, who was also proficient on the banjo, violin and harmonica, occasionally performed and recorded with the Mississippi Sheiks. Sometimes performing under the name of Sonny Boy Nelson, Powell built a strong regional following throughout the ’30s and ’40s. But as rock ‘n roll and R&B began to take root, his music began to fall out of favor with young audiences so he was all but retired during the ’50s. He experienced a bit of a comeback during the folk revival of the ’60s, and was encouraged to record and tour the festival circuit. He signed to Adelphi Records in the early ’70s and recorded such sides as “Street Walkin’,” “Suitcase Full of Trouble,” “44 Blues,” and “Meet Me in the Bottoms.” By the ’90s, Powell’s health began to ail so he was living in a nursing facility. He passed away on November 4, 1998.
Mississippi John Hurt
July 3, 1893 (or March 8, 1892) – November 2, 1966
Although he was small in stature, picked the guitar lightly, and sang almost in a whisper, Mississippi John Hurt’s influence on folk and blues was huge. He learned to play the guitar before he was ten, and by the early 1920s, he had already been playing in front of crowds at local barn dances. In 1928, and on the recommendation of a friend who had recently won an Okeh Records contract in a talent contest, Hurt was asked to audition for the label. He was signed that same year and given two recording sessions that produced collection of sides that sadly, never had a chance to develop since Okeh soon went under due to the Great Depression. Hurt soon retired from the music business and went back to his life as a sharecropper. Fast forward about 35 years to 1963. The folk revival was in full swing when music historian, Tom Hoskins heard those old recordings and sought out to find Hurt. He tracked him down still living in Avalon, Mississippi and convinced him to move to Washington DC and relaunch his music career. Hurt’s set at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was that of legend, and he was subsequently signed to legendary folk label, Vanguard Records. He went on to tour the country and even perform on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Hurt’s music influenced a new generation of singer-songwriters from blues to country to folk. Mississippi John Hurt died of a heart attack on November 2, 1966. In 2001, Morgana Kennedy and the fine folks at Vanguard records released Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt. It contained versions of John Hurt songs by the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Ben Harper, Beck and John Hiatt.
Nathaniel Mayer
February 10, 1944 – November 1, 2008
Nathaniel Mayer was a Detroit R&B singer who first surfaced in the early ’60s when he was signed to the legendary Fortune Records. Mayer made several records for Fortune, including 1962’s “Village of Love,” which became a Top 40 hit and continues to be a favorite cover song to this day. Six years after signing to the label, Mayer left the music business and all but vanished, becoming a part of blues folklore and urban legend. He did resurface in the early ’80s to cut one side, but was gone again until 2002. It was that year that reissue specialists, Norton Records released a previously unissued 34 year-old track by Mayer, prompting him to come out of his self-imposed exile. He mounted his biggest tour ever and signed with hip indie label, Fat Possum Records. He toured with the Black Keys in 2005, turning on a new generation of fans with his raunchy and energetic live show. Just three years into his renaissance, Nathaniel Mayer, 64, died following a series of strokes.
Tommy Johnson was a Mississippi-born blues musician whose career began around 1915, with his first recordings coming in the late ’20s. He is considered one of the foundations of Delta blues due to his solid songwriting and his strong falsetto voice. The band Canned Heat took their name from his “Canned Heat Blues.” Johnson was the first known blues musician’s to claim that he sold his soul to the devil. A primary character in the 2000 film O’ Brother Where Art Thou, also named Tommy Johnson, is said to be based upon him and not Robert Johnson as has been assumed. Tommy Johnson, age 60, suffered a fatal heart attack after playing a party on November 1, 1956.
Rosetta Reitz
September 28, 1924 – November 1, 2008
Photo By Jill Lynne
Rosetta Reitz was a much-respected feminist and music authority who formed her own label, Rosetta Records in 1979. The label specialized in lost recordings of female blues artist from the 1920s to the 1960s. Over the years, she released sides by the likes of Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Mae West. Her packages were noted quality remasters, extensive liner notes and rare historical photos. Reitz curated the Newport Jazz Festival’s “Women of Jazz” tributes in 1980 and 1981. The programs included performances by Big Mama Thornton, Nell Carter and Koko Taylor. Rosetta Reitz was 84 when she passed away on November 1, 2008.
Mae Mercer was an actress and blues singer who spent most of her music career singing in Paris. With a richly deep voice, she sang what Willie Dixon once called, “the real low-down blues.” She fronted a band that included Memphis Slim for the better part of the ’60s. Back in America during the ’70s, Mercer put her focus on acting. She appeared in the films, Dirty Harry, The Beguiled, and Pretty Baby, and such TV shows as Mannix, and Kung Fu. Mae Mercer, 76, passed away in her home after having been ill for some time.
Henry “The Sunflower” Vestine
December 25, 1944 – October 20, 1997
Henry Vestine is best remembered as a guitarist for boogie blues rock band, Canned Heat. His original tenure with the band ran from 1966 to 1969. Prior to that, he played in Frank Zappa’sMothers of Invention. He was one of rock music’s unsung guitar heroes, ranking in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list. Vestine, along with childhood friend and fellow music junkie, John Fahey, was responsible for finding a hospital-ridden Skip James in 1964 and helping him re-launch his career during the folk revival. In later years, Vestine did session work and toured with a reformed Canned Heat. While in Europe at the end of such a tour in 1997. Henry Vestine died of a heart failure at the age of 52.
Eddie “Son” House
March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988
Son House was a pioneering Delta blues musician who was an immediate influence on the likes of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. His innovative style of slide guitar playing and chain-gaing style of repetitive singing further influcnced a slew of contemporary artists as well. His songs have been covered by the White Stripes, John Mellencamp, and Gov’t Mule. Born outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi, House’s early teens were filled with gospel music while he was a practicing Baptist minister. He soon became intrigued by the blues and taught himself to play the guitar in his early 20s. He set his sites on music as a career and started playing with the likes ofCharley Patton and Robert Johnson from Clarksdale to Memphis. In 1928, House served about one year of a 15-year sentence at the notorious Parchman Work Farm for shooting a man in what he claimed was self-defense. The story goes that while House was performing at a juke joint, an unknown man came in and opened fire in an apparent random shooting spree. After being shot in the leg, House grabbed his gun and shot the man dead. Upon his release, House made several recordings for famed musicologist, Alan Lomax. But like so many of his contemporaries, House and his music fell out of favor as the ’50s dawned. Fortunately, he was “re-discovered” like many of the others during the folk revival of the mid ’60s. After years working on the railroad, House found himself touring again and playing high profile gigs at the Newport Folk Festival. Son House permenantly retired in 1974 due to health problems and died from cancer of the larynx in 1988.
Leonard Chess (Born Lejzor Czyz)
March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969
Born in Poland, a young (and not yet called) Leonard Chess moved with his family to Chicago in 1928. Leonard and his brother Phil got into the music business by way of the Macomba Lounge, a popular Black club they took over in 1946. Shortly thereafter, Leonard began working with a local jazz and black label called Aristocrat Records. He and his brother eventually took it over and began changing its focus to the down and dirty sound of the blues they had fallen in love with. By the time they were done, they had made seminal records with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, Etta James and Koko Taylor, to name just a handful. In the early ’60s, Chess purchased a couple of radio station, and in 1969, he sold Chess Records. He died of a heart attack just a few months later.
A self-taught musician whose first banjo was made of a frying pan and raccoon skin, Gus Cannon was one of the first popular jug band artists of the ’20s. He was so talented, he reportedly could play the banjo AND the jug at the same time. By 1914, he had his own band, Cannon’s Jug Stompers and was touring with medicine shows. He made his first recordings for Paramount Records in 1927, with Blind Blake providing back up. His most famous song of that era was perhaps, “Walk Right In,” which was made into a hit by the Rooftop Singers in 1962. Although his records were well received and he was growing in popularity outside of his later home of Memphis, Cannon stopped recording in 1930. He and his band, however, continued to be one of he biggest draws along Beale Street. Cannon was all but retired by the late ’30s, but made a comeback in time for the blues and folk revival of the early ’60s. During this later part of his career, he toured coffeehouses with Bukka White and Furry Lewis. He also made a couple of albums for Folkways and Stax. Gus Cannon continued making guest appearances – occasionally in a wheelchair – right up until his death at the age of 96.
Johnny Jones was a Nashville blues guitar master who got his first big break playing behind Junior Wells back in the 1950s. By the ’60s, Jones was playing in a band called the King Casuals alongside Billy Cox and a young Jimi Hendrix. It was in this combo that Jones reportedly tutored Hendrix in the fine art of guitar playing, helping to turn him into the icon we know of today. And legend has it that one night while on a club stage during the ’60s, Jones and Hendrix went head to head in a guitar duel that rivaled anything Robert Johnsonand the devil might have thrown at each other at the crossroads. Those in attendance clearly cheered Jones on as the “winner.” Johnny Jones stayed a constant fixture in the Nashville music scene through recent years. He was found dead in his apartment during the morning hours of October 14, 2009. He was 73 years old.
Thanks to Jon Grimson who produced the segment below for the lead
Frank Frost was a delta blues harmonica player who was arguably one of the best. He cut his musical teeth however, on guitar, most significantly as part Sonny Boy Williamson’s touring band. It was Williamson who taught him to play the harmonica. He left Williamson in 1959 and began working with drummer Sam Carr and guitarist Big Jack Johnson. It was this combo that caught the eye of legendary producer, Sam Phillips who produced his first album, Hey Boss Man!. In later years, Frost formed his own record label, Earwig Music Company to showcase his music. Frank Frost continued making records until into the late ’80s and died of cardiac arrest on October 12, 1999 at the age of 63.
Abu Talib (Born Freddy Johnson)
February 24, 1939 – October 8, 2009
Photo by Tony Berg
Freddy Johnson, who changed his name to Abu Talib when he converted to Islam during the ’70s, was a blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player. Very diverse in his playing, Talib was comfortable in both blues and jazz combos. During the ’50s and ’60s, he worked with Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers. In the ’70s and ’80s, he played with the likes of Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Bland, John Mayall and Blue Mitchell. He also played with Ray Charles. Abu Talib died of cancer at the age of 70.
Francis “Scrapper” Blackwell
February 21, 1903 – October 7, 1962
Photo by Duncan Schiedt
Scrapper Blackwell was a Piedmont blues guitarist and singer best rememembered for his work with pianist, Leroy Carr, with whom he began working with during the late ’20s. Together, they recorded “How Long, How Long Blues,” which became one of 1928’s most popular records. Together Blackwell and Carr recorded some 100 songs and became one of the most popular touring acts of the early ’30s. After a bitter split between Blackwell and Carr and Carr’s subsequent death in 1935, Blackwell retired from the music business. Scrapper Blackwell made his comback in 1958, but was shot to death during a random unsolved mugging on October 7, 1962. He was 59 years old.
Known around the Los Angeles blues scened as “Mama,” Laura Mae Gross was the owner of Babe and Ricky’s Inn which she opened on the storied Central Avenue in 1964. In no time, the club became a destination of local and traveling blues musicians alike. She hosted the likes of B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Big Mama Thornton, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, John Lee Hooker and Albert King to name just a few. In 1987, the mayor of Los Angeles signed a proclamation honoring Gross for her commitment to keeping the Central Avenue music scene alive. After a downturn in the area during the ’90s, Gross moved the club to the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. Laura Mae Gross died of heart failure at the age of 89.
Nehemiah “Skip” James
June 21, 1902 – October 3, 1969
Skip James was a hard living bootlegger, a sharecropper and a hard laborer. But above all, he was one of the most influential of the early Delta bluesmen. With a unique and highly sophisticated style of picking coupled with a ghostly falsetto voice, James was indeed one of a kind. His form of playing and singing was a direct influence on many, such as Robert Johnson, but no one has ever truly been able to replicate it effectively. James’ professional music career began in 1931 when he began recording sides of Paramount Records. James re-recorded many blues standards at the time, but it was generally his versions of the songs that later got covered by the likes of Johnson and even later, Cream,Deep Purple and Beck. As quick as James came onto the scene, he vanished. Over the next three decades, he rarely performed live and made no new recordings, becoming not much more than a footnote in blues history, until the early ’60s when he was “re-discovered” during the folk and blues revival. After being descovered by folk guitarists John Fahey, Bill Barth, and Henry Vestine in a Mississippi hospital in 1964, James’ career was put back on track. During his later years, he was a featured performer at the Newport Folk Festival and recorded for Takoma Records and Vanguard Records, where he was dubbed a “Vanguard Visionary” by future Vice-President, Dan Sell. His influence on pop culture has been felt in recent years as well. Indie rock icon, Beck covered his “He’s A Mighty Good Leader” in 1994, while Chris Thomas King recorded his “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” for the O’ Brother, Where Art Thou flim and soundtrack. And his “Devil Got My Woman” was prominently featured both the plot of and soundtrack to the 2001 cult hit, Ghost World, starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson. With his health deteriorating in later years, Skip James passed away in 1969 at the age of 69.
Victoria Spivey
October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976
With Louis Armstrong
Victoria Spivey was a Houston born blues singer who came to prominence in the 1930s. Her career began with her singing at local parties and clubs while still in her teens. Before she knew it she was sharing the stage or singing on records with the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. Spivey transitioned to film during the ’30s, appearing in such movies as Hallelujah!. She retired from show business in 1951, but made a comeback during the folk revival of the early ’60s. During her later career she recorded with the likes such greats as Otis Rush, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, and even Bob Dylan who played harmonica and sang back-up on a 1962 recording. Victoria Spivey died of an internal hemorrhage at the age of 69.
Gary Primich was an Austin-based blues harmonica wiz who stood out in a city full of some of the best musicians in the country. He moved to Austin during the ’80s and formed the Mannish Boys with Jimmy Carl Black, a former drummer for Frank Zappa. Primich recorded eight solo albums over his career, one of which, Mr. Freeze, was called one of the twenty best blues albums of the 1990s by Chicago paper, New City. Gary Primich died at the age of 49 on September 23, 2007. Cause of death is not known.
Robert Lee McCollum was a blues guitarist who for some reason changed his name at least twice during his music career. During the mid ’30s, he went by Robert Lee McCoy and landed in St. Louis where he played and recorded with 
Eugene Powell was a Mississippi born Delta blues musician who, like so many of his peers, picked up the guitar while still a child. During his early career, Powell, who was also proficient on the banjo, violin and harmonica, occasionally performed and recorded with the Mississippi Sheiks. Sometimes performing under the name of Sonny Boy Nelson, Powell built a strong regional following throughout the ’30s and ’40s. But as rock ‘n roll and R&B began to take root, his music began to fall out of favor with young audiences so he was all but retired during the ’50s. He experienced a bit of a comeback during the folk revival of the ’60s, and was encouraged to record and tour the festival circuit. He signed to Adelphi Records in the early ’70s and recorded such sides as “Street Walkin’,” “Suitcase Full of Trouble,” “44 Blues,” and “Meet Me in the Bottoms.” By the ’90s, Powell’s health began to ail so he was living in a nursing facility. He passed away on November 4, 1998.
Although he was small in stature, picked the guitar lightly, and sang almost in a whisper, Mississippi John Hurt’s influence on folk and blues was huge. He learned to play the guitar before he was ten, and by the early 1920s, he had already been playing in front of crowds at local barn dances. In 1928, and on the recommendation of a friend who had recently won an Okeh Records contract in a talent contest, Hurt was asked to audition for the label. He was signed that same year and given two recording sessions that produced collection of sides that sadly, never had a chance to develop since Okeh soon went under due to the Great Depression. Hurt soon retired from the music business and went back to his life as a sharecropper. Fast forward about 35 years to 1963. The folk revival was in full swing when music historian, Tom Hoskins heard those old recordings and sought out to find Hurt. He tracked him down still living in Avalon, Mississippi and convinced him to move to Washington DC and relaunch his music career. Hurt’s set at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was that of legend, and he was subsequently signed to legendary folk label, Vanguard Records. He went on to tour the country and even perform on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Hurt’s music influenced a new generation of singer-songwriters from blues to country to folk. Mississippi John Hurt died of a heart attack on November 2, 1966. In 2001, Morgana Kennedy and the fine folks at Vanguard records released Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt. It contained versions of John Hurt songs by the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Ben Harper, Beck and John Hiatt.
Nathaniel Mayer was a Detroit R&B singer who first surfaced in the early ’60s when he was signed to the legendary Fortune Records. Mayer made several records for Fortune, including 1962’s “Village of Love,” which became a Top 40 hit and continues to be a favorite cover song to this day. Six years after signing to the label, Mayer left the music business and all but vanished, becoming a part of blues folklore and urban legend. He did resurface in the early ’80s to cut one side, but was gone again until 2002. It was that year that reissue specialists, Norton Records released a previously unissued 34 year-old track by Mayer, prompting him to come out of his self-imposed exile. He mounted his biggest tour ever and signed with hip indie label, Fat Possum Records. He toured with the Black Keys in 2005, turning on a new generation of fans with his raunchy and energetic live show. Just three years into his renaissance, Nathaniel Mayer, 64, died following a series of strokes.
Tommy Johnson was a Mississippi-born blues musician whose career began around 1915, with his first recordings coming in the late ’20s. He is considered one of the foundations of Delta blues due to his solid songwriting and his strong falsetto voice. The band Canned Heat took their name from his “Canned Heat Blues.” Johnson was the first known blues musician’s to claim that he sold his soul to the devil. A primary character in the 2000 film O’ Brother Where Art Thou, also named Tommy Johnson, is said to be based upon him and not 
Mae Mercer was an actress and blues singer who spent most of her music career singing in Paris. With a richly deep voice, she sang what 
Son House was a pioneering Delta blues musician who was an immediate influence on the likes of 
Born in Poland, a young (and not yet called) Leonard Chess moved with his family to Chicago in 1928. Leonard and his brother Phil got into the music business by way of the Macomba Lounge, a popular Black club they took over in 1946. Shortly thereafter, Leonard began working with a local jazz and black label called Aristocrat Records. He and his brother eventually took it over and began changing its focus to the down and dirty sound of the blues they had fallen in love with. By the time they were done, they had made seminal records with the likes of 
Known around the Los Angeles blues scened as “Mama,” Laura Mae Gross was the owner of Babe and Ricky’s Inn which she opened on the storied Central Avenue in 1964. In no time, the club became a destination of local and traveling blues musicians alike. She hosted the likes of B.B. King, 
Skip James was a hard living bootlegger, a sharecropper and a hard laborer. But above all, he was one of the most influential of the early Delta bluesmen. With a unique and highly sophisticated style of picking coupled with a ghostly falsetto voice, James was indeed one of a kind. His form of playing and singing was a direct influence on many, such as 
