Bukka White | |
|---|---|
 Bukka White, University of Chicago Folk Festival, 1968 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Booker T. Washington White |
| Born | November 12, 1906[1] betweenAberdeen andHouston, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | February 26, 1977 (aged 70[1]) Memphis, Tennessee |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | Late 1920s–1977 |
| Labels | |
Booker T. Washington "Bukka"White (November 12, 1906[1] – February 26, 1977) was an AmericanDelta blues guitarist and singer. His first full-length biography, The Life and Music of Booker "Bukka" White: Recalling the Blues (2024), has been published by the University Press of Mississippi.
Booker T. Washington White was born on a farm south ofHouston in northeasternMississippi on November 12, 1906.[1][2]Bukka is aphonetic spelling of White's first name; he was named after the African-American educator and civil rights activistBooker T. Washington. White was a first cousin ofB. B. King's mother (White's mother and King's maternal grandmother were sisters).[3] His father John White was a railroad worker,[4] and also a musician who performed locally,[2] primarily playing thefiddle, but also mandolin, guitar and piano. He gave Booker a guitar for his ninth birthday.[5] White started his career playing the fiddle atsquare dances.[citation needed] He got married at 16 years old, with his father giving him a newStella guitar as a wedding present. He and his wife lived at Houston, but after a few years she died of a burst appendix.[6]
White moved from the hill country to work on a farm atSwan Lake in theMississippi Delta.[7] He was a fan ofCharley Patton, telling friends, "I wants to come to be a great man like Charlie Patton".[8] He said he never met Patton,[9] though he also claimed to have done so, although this is doubted.[10] White was approached by Ralph Lembo, a white store owner and talent scout, who saw him walking past his store inItta Bena with a guitar. Lembo took him and his friend Napoleon Hairiston toMemphis, Tennessee, in May 1930 for White's first recording session, withVictor Records.[11][12] Like those of many other bluesmen, the recordings comprisedcountry blues andgospel music. The gospel songs were done in the style ofBlind Willie Johnson, with a female backing singer accentuating the last phrase of each line.[13] From fourteen songs recorded, Victor released two records under the name Washington White, two gospel songs on one released in 1930 and two country blues on the other, released in 1931. Victor published his photograph in 1930.
White's mother died in 1933 and in 1934 he married Susie Simpson, a niece of George 'Bullet' Williams, a harmonica player who White had started playing with atGlendora in 1932. White and his second wife started farming nearAberdeen, back in the Mississippi hill country east of Houston.[14] He probably first went to Chicago in 1935, travelling fromSt. Louis withPeetie Wheatstraw, where he made friends withBig Bill Broonzy,Washboard Sam,Memphis Slim andTampa Red.[15]
He was in Chicago again for a recording session with producerLester Melrose in early September 1937, where he recorded two songs, "Pinebluff Arkansas" and "Shake 'Em On Down". Back home in Aberdeen in October, he was arrested and charged with murder over shooting a man in the thigh. He was tried on 8 November, convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served inMississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman Farm.[16] His Chicago recordings were released on a 78 record byVocalion while he was serving time and "Shake 'Em on Down" became a hit. His version of the oft-recorded song[17] is considered definitive. The folkloristJohn Lomax visited Parchman Farm in 1939 to record White.[18] As a professional musician who had recorded commercially, White was reluctant to be recorded for free and allowed Lomax to record just two songs, "Po' Boy" and "Sic 'Em Dogs On". "Shake 'Em On Down" and "Po' Boy" became his most well known songs.
White was released from Parchman Farm after serving two years. Soon after, in early 1940, he went to Chicago to record for Melrose again. He arrived with transcripts of the songs he intended to record, but Melrose dismissed them as they were songs that others had recorded, so there would be little money in them. Melrose put him up in a hotel and told him to produce some original songs. White returned to Melrose with twelve songs, and recorded them on 7 March.[19] They included two relating to his experience in prison – "Parchman Farm Blues" and "Fixin' to Die Blues" along with "When Can I Change My Clothes".[18] After returning to Mississippi, where he and his wife decided to permanently separate, he went back to Chicago, playing in small clubs with his own four-piece band.[20]
In 1942, he settled in Memphis, where he worked for two years as a laborer at theMemphis Defense Depot, and then started a job in manufacturing storage tanks at the Newberry Equipment Company, where he remained for 20 years. He continued part-time with professional music, playing small gigs withFrank Stokes for several years, and also playing withMemphis Willie B. (Willie Borum).[21] In the second half of the 1940s his younger cousin B.B. King moved to Memphis and lived with White for a number of months. White helped introduce King to the Memphis music community and got him a job at Newberry Equipment.[22]
The 1950s were lean years for White musically, as new styles of music had largely supplanted the country blues he played.[23]
In 1959, White's recording of "Fixin' to Die Blues" was included on the albumThe Country Blues, compiled bySamuel Charters forFolkways Records to accompany his book of the same name and a key element in theAmerican folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s.Bob Dylan included a cover version of the song onhis first album, released in March of 1962. Dylan's cover aided a rediscovery of White in 1963 by guitaristJohn Fahey and his friendEd Denson which propelled him into the folk music revival. Fahey and Denson found White when Fahey wrote a letter to White and addressed it to "Bukka White (Old Blues Singer), c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Mississippi", assuming from White's song "Aberdeen, Mississippi", that White still lived there. The postcard was forwarded to Memphis. Fahey and Denson traveled there to meet him, and White and Fahey remained friends for the rest of White's life.[24]
White went to California later in 1963, where he played at university folklore classes and club gigs. He made new recordings of many of his early songs for theMississippi Blues: Bukka White album, which Denson and Fahey released on their ownTakoma Records. He also recorded new material for two LPs,Bukka White: Sky Songs Vol. 1 andVol. 2, released onChris Strachwitz'sArhoolie Records.[25] Denson became his manager. White was at one time also managed by Arne Brogger, an experienced manager of blues musicians.
White toured North America and Europe for the rest of the 1960s up to 1975.[4] He was friends with musicianFurry Lewis, and the two were recorded (mostly in Lewis's Memphis apartment) by Bob West in 1968 for an album,Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends: Party! At Home, released on the Arcola label.[26] White recorded two more albums in the 1970s.[27]
White playedNationalresonator guitars, typically with aslide, in anopen tuning. He was one of the few, along withSkip James, to use acrossnote tuning inE minor, which he may have learned, as James did, fromHenry Stuckey. He also played piano, but less adeptly.
He died of cancer in Memphis on 26 February 1977.
In 1990, White was posthumously inducted into theBlues Hall of Fame (along withBlind Blake andLonnie Johnson). On November 21, 2011, theRecording Academy announced the addition of "Fixin' to Die Blues" to its 2012 list ofGrammy Hall of Fame Award recipients.[28] In 2011, White was honored with a marker on theMississippi Blues Trail in Houston, Mississippi.[2] The Bukka White Blues Festival is an annualmusic festival onColumbus Day Weekend in Aberdeen, Mississippi.[29]
TheLed Zeppelin song "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", on the band's 1970 albumLed Zeppelin III, was based in large part on White's "Shake 'Em on Down". "Custard Pie", a song on their 1975 albumPhysical Graffiti, also references "Shake 'Em on Down."[30]
White's 1963 recordings of "Shake 'Em on Down" and spoken-word piece "Remembrance of Charlie Patton" were bothsampled byelectronic artistRecoil (mostly a one-man effort by Alan Wilder ofDepeche Mode) for the track "Electro Blues for Bukka White" on the 1992 albumBloodline.[31] The song was reworked and re-released on the 2000 EPJezebel.
In 1995, White's "Aberdeen, Mississippi" was covered as "Aberdeen" by guitaristKenny Wayne Shepherd on his debut album,Ledbetter Heights. It reached number 23 on theBillboard (North America) Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1996.[32]
On January 26, 2010,Eric Bibb releasedBooker's Guitar (TEL 31756 02) throughTelarc International Corporation, after being inspired by playing White's National steel guitar.[33] White's "Parchman Farm Blues" was recorded byJeff Buckley, and was released posthumously on the bonus disc of Buckley's albumGrace: Legacy Edition.[34]
Citations
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