Part IVb: Postwar Blues:
Name Birth Year Death Year
James Crutchfield (May 25, 1912 – December 7, 2001) was an American St. Louis, Missouri based, barrelhouse blues singer, pianist, and songwriter, whose career spanned seven decades. His repertoire consisted of original and classic blues and boogie-woogie and depression-era popular songs.
Known as the 'King of barrelhouse blues', Crutchfield's better known songs include "I Believe You Need A Shot" and "My Baby Cooks My Breakfast". He worked with Elmore James and Boyd Gilmore.
During his performances, Crutchfield would sometimes improvise lyrics on the spot, about individual audience members while smiling and winking at them. It was usually well-received.
In the early 1990s, Crutchfield replaced the "tub" and "rub-board" with Sharon Foehner (bass) and Bill Howell (drums), and added Andy Milner (harmonica). In addition to weekly engagements, one-nighters, parties and weddings; he appeared at the 1993 St. Louis Blues Festival on the riverfront; Harp Attack at Mississippi Nights; and the Casa Loma Ballroom. A well-known and popular character around the neighborhood, Crutchfield's annual birthday celebration at Molly's began the summer beer garden season in Soulard.
Crutchfield appeared at the 1997 St. Louis Blues Festival and continued working regularly, performing with local rock and roll pioneer Bennie Smith and the Urban Blues Express in his last years. Ironically, the sources differ on the exact day of his death from complications from heart disease. He died on December 7, or 8, 2001 in St. Louis; almost the last bluesman of his era. An impromptu parade through the streets of Soulard was held in his honor.
James Crutchfield 1912 2001
Larry Davis (December 4, 1936 – April 19, 1994) was an American electric Texas blues and soul blues musician. He is best known for co-composing the song "Texas Flood", later recorded to greater commercial success by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Davis swapped playing the drums to learn to play the bass guitar. In the mid 1950s, Davis had a working partnership with Fenton Robinson, and following the recommendation of Bobby Bland was given a recording contract by the Duke label. Davis had three singles released, which included "Texas Flood" and "Angels in Houston". Thereafter, Davis had limited opportunity in the recording studio. He resided in St. Louis, Missouri for a while, and played bass in Albert King's group. He also learned conventional guitar at this time, as the original guitar playing on Davis's recording of "Texas Flood" was by Robinson.Several single releases on the Virgo and Kent labels followed, but in 1972 a motorcycle accident temporarily paralyzed Davis' left side. He returned a decade later with an album released by Rooster Blues, Funny Stuff, which was produced by Oliver Sain He won four W.C. Handy Awards in 1982, yet a decade on he was known only to blues specialists. His 1987 Pulsar LP, I Ain't Beggin' Nobody, proved difficult even for blues enthusiasts to locate.
In 1992, Bullseye Blues issued another Davis offering, Sooner or Later, that highlighted his booming vocals and Albert King influenced guitar work. Fate then came calling again and Davis died of cancer in April 1994, at the age of 57.
Larry Davis 1936 1994
Little Sammy Davis (born November 28, 1928) is an American blues musician based in New York's Hudson Valley. Although his musical career began in the 1940s, he was not widely known until the mid-1990s when he began working in radio, singing, playing live on tour, and recording studio albums.
Born in Winona, Mississippi, United States, and raised in a one-room shack, Davis learned to play the harmonica at the age of eight. He eventually left home and settled in Florida, where he continued to play the blues in the Miami area while working in orange groves and saw mills to make ends meet.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Davis traveled with medicine shows and played with blues musicians like Pine Top Perkins, and Ike Turner. He spent a total of nine years on the road with Earl Hooker, including with the short-lived band of Hooker and Albert King, and recorded four sides for Rockin' Records in 1952 and 1953 (as Little Sam Davis).
In the late 1950s, Davis lived in Chicago, Illinois, performing with Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed. He later married and settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, during which time he recorded a session for Trix Records that resulted in one "45" single. After the sudden death of his wife in 1970, Davis stopped playing and dropped out of the music scene for the next two decades.
Little Sammy Davis 1928
Floyd Dixon (February 8, 1929 – July 26, 2006) was an American rhythm and blues pianist and singer.
Dixon was born Jay Riggins Jr. in Marshall, Texas, United States. He was influenced by blues, gospel, jazz and country music growing up. His family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1942 and Dixon met his influence Charles Brown there.
Self-dubbed "Mr. Magnificent," Dixon signed a recording contract with Modern Records in 1949, specializing in jump blues and sexualized songs like "Red Cherries", "Wine Wine Wine", "Too Much Jelly Roll" and "Baby Let's Go Down to The Woods". When Brown left Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in 1950 to go solo, Dixon replaced him as pianist and singer and recorded with the band for Aladdin Records. Staying with the record label, Dixon had a small hit under his own name in 1952 with "Call Operator 210".
Dixon switched to the Specialty Records label in 1952, and the Atlantic Records subsidiary Cat Records in 1954. "Hey Bartender" (later covered by The Blues Brothers) and "Hole In The Wall" were hit singles during this time.
In the 1970s Dixon left the music industry for a quieter life in Texas, though he did occasional tours in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984 he was commissioned to write "Olympic Blues" for the 1984 Summer Olympics.
In 1993, Dixon received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In the mid 1990s, he secured a contract with Alligator Records, releasing the critically acclaimed album, Wake Up And Live.
Dixon died in Orange County, California in July 2006, at the age of 77, from kidney failure, having suffered with cancer. A public memorial service was held at Grace Chapel, in the grounds of the Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Floyd Dixon 1929 2006
William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. Dupree’s birth date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.
Champion Jack Dupree 1909 1992
Bob Gaddy (February 4, 1924 – July 24, 1997) was an American East Coast blues and rhythm and blues pianist, singer and songwriter. He is best remembered for his recordings of "Operator" and "Rip and Run," and musical work he undertook with Larry Dale, Wild Jimmy Spruill, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
Gaddy was born in Vivian, West Virginia, a small town based around coal mining. He learned to play the piano at a young age, both playing and singing in his local church. In 1943 he was conscripted and served in the Navy, being stationed in California. He progressed from learning the blues and, using his gospel background, graduated towards the boogie-woogie playing style.
He played in blues clubs in Oakland and San Francisco, but after World War II finished he relocated to New York in 1946. Gaddy later commented "I came to New York just to visit, because I was on my way to the West Coast. Somehow or other, I just got hooked on it. New York got into my system and I've been stuck here ever since."
He found work as a blues pianist, and in the late 1940s Gaddy provided accompaniment to both Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. He later backed Larry Dale, and befriended Champion Jack Dupree. Dupree penned "Operator" for Gaddy, one of his best selling numbers. Gaddy recorded firstly for Jackson Records with his debut single being "Bicycle Boogie" in 1952. Gaddy later spent time with the Jax, Dot and Harlem record labels, before joining Hy Weiss' Old Town Records in 1956. It was here that Gaddy had his most commercially successful period, particularly with "I Love My Baby," "Paper Lady," and "Rip and Run." His earlier recordings often had McGhee in the recording studio with Gaddy, although his Old Town recordings utilized the guitarists Jimmy Spruill and Joe Ruffin, plus saxophonist Jimmy Wright.
Gaddy ceased his recording activities around 1960. However, along with his long time friend Larry Dale, Gaddy remained a mainstay of the ongoing New York blues scene.
In April 1988, Gaddy, Dale and Spruill reunited to play at the Tramps nightclub in New York.
Bob Gaddy died of lung cancer in the Bronx, New York in July 1997, at the age of 73.
Bob Gaddy 1924 1997
Terry Garland (born June 3, 1953, Johnson City, Tennessee, United States) is an American blues guitarist, songwriter and singer. Allmusic journalist, Niles J. Frantz stated "Garland is country blues interpreter who plays a National steel guitar, often with a slide, in the style of Bukka White and Fred McDowell."
His two earlier albums were released on BMG/First Warning.
The harmonica player, Mark Wenner, from “The Nighthawks” contributed to Garland's records.
His most recent release was “Whistling in the Dark”, issued in 2006.
Terry Garland 1953
Well, once again we come to the end of another very exciting post full of blues artists with a myriad of accomplishments. These artists are not as well known as most, but have certainly left their mark on the music industry.
I will continue this section (Part IVc: Postwar Blues) in a few days as I gather more information and photos to share with you. As always, I hope you found this post enjoyable.
Until next time ~ ~ ~
Musician By Night . . .
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