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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZWHITE, Bukka(b Booker T. Washington White, 12 November 1906, Houston MS; d 26 February 1977, Memphis TN) Blues singer, guitarist; also played piano, harmonica. (He was billed as 'Bukka' on record labels, but signed himself 'Booker'.) He learned guitar from his father, also piano as a child; he worked in and outside music, in St Louis in the early 1920s, hoboed through the South; made 14 sides for Victor in 1930 as Washington White (only four issued then) with Napoleon Hairiston on second guitar, 'Miss Minnie' a second vocalist. Worked as professional boxer and baseball player mid- '30s; made two sides for Vocalion '37: 'Pinebluff, Arkansas' and 'Shake 'Em On Down', latter henceforth a classic with many variants ('Ride 'Em On Down', etc). Sentenced to Parchman Farm for assault, recorded by John Lomax there '39 for Library of Congress (offered no money, he refused to make more than two sides); after release he made twelve more sides '40 with Washboard Sam for OKeh and Vocalion incl. 'Parchman Farm Blues', 'Where Can I Change My Clothes' (protest at prison garb), 'District Attorney Blues', etc. His rough-hewn voice, passionate but not overstated style, driving and rhythmically inexorable guitar made some of the most beautiful and emotionally powerful music in the genre, 14 tracks compiled on LP Parchman Farm/Bukka White by Columbia USA c'70, later The Complete Bukka White on CD. This was at the end of the classic period of country blues; he was rediscovered '63 with power intact by John Fahey and Ed Denson, who recorded him that year in Memphis: Mississippi Blues on Takoma was also Legacy Of The Blues Vol. 1 on GNP USA, Sonet in Europe, playing piano on 'Drunk Man Blues' and remembering Charley Patton in conversation. Other albums: Sky Songs on Arhoolie, 1963 Isn't 1962 on Genes, Good Gin Blues on Drive, all Nov. '63 in Berkeley; also Baton Rouge Mosby Street on Blues Beacon; Big Daddy '73 on Biograph; Three Shades Of Blues on Biograph has '74 tracks, Skip James from '64, Blind Willie McTell '49. Washboard Sam (b Robert Brown, 15 July '10, Walnut Ridge AR; d 13 Nov. '66, Chicago) was prolific sideman and recording artist; recorded '41--2 tracks with his Washboard Band (incl. Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Slim); compilation Rockin' My Blues Away on Bluebird. 'Miss Minnie' was probably Memphis Minnie, who recorded the same day (b Lizzie Douglas, 3 June 1897, Algiers LA; d 6 Aug. '73, Memphis); acknowledged by contemporaries as one of the greatest female blues singers, she recorded prolifically, incl. with husbands Charlie McCoy and Little Son Joe (b Ernest Lawlers, 18 May 1900, Hughes AR; d 14 Nov. '61, Memphis); reissues on Blues Classics, Biograph. |