Alvan Tufts Fuller (February 27, 1878 – April 30, 1958) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He became one of the wealthiest men in America, with an automobile dealership which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership." He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916. He was then elected as Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1925-1929.

Biography[link]

He was born in Boston on February 27, 1878. He attended the public schools and first worked in the bicycle business. He founded and grew wealthy from his ownership of Boston's Packard dealership. He served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916. He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress and reelected to the Sixty-sixth Congress, serving from March 4, 1917, to January 5, 1921.^[1] Fuller served as the 48th Lieutenant Governor from 1921 to 1925, and he was elected 50th Governor in 1924. He was reelected to a second two-year term. He did not accept compensation for services while in public office.^[2]

As governor, Fuller faced a significant budget deficit that required initiatives to reduce expenditures and downsize government operations. His term as governor also coincided with the Sacco and Vanzetti affair, a series of trials for murder and robbery followed by legal appeals that culminated in calls for the governor to commute the death sentences of the two Italian immigrants. Governor Fuller appointed a three-member panel of Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, MIT President Dr. Samuel W. Stratton, and retired Probate Judge Robert Grant to conduct a complete review of the case and determine if the trials were fair.^[3] The committee reported that no new trial was called for and based on that assessment Governor Fuller refused to delay their executions or grant clemency. On May 10, 1927, while Fuller was considering requests for clemency, a package bomb addressed to him was intercepted in the Boston post office.^[4] A few months after the executions, he endorsed proposals to reform the state's judicial procedures to require a more thorough review of capital cases.^[5]

In 1928, he was an early supporter of Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign, after considering his own run for the presidency,^[6] and was rumored to be a candidate for a federal government if Hoover won,^[7] possibly as ambassador to France.^[8]

After leaving office, he became chairman of the board of Cadillac-Oldsmobile Co. of Boston and continued to develop his reputation as a patron of arts and music.^[9] He died in Boston on April 30, 1958.^[1]

He was a superb collector of art and among those painters represented in his collection were Renoir,^[10] Rembrandt, Turner, Gainsborough, Sargent, Monet, Van Dyck, Romney, Boccaccino,^[11] Boucher and Reynolds. His paintings were donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Donations include: Monet's "The Water Lily Pond," Renoir's "Boating Couple," and van Dyck's "Princess Mary, Daughter of Charles I."^[12]

His philanthropy was wide ranging and included art, hospitals, education, religion, municipalities and social services. He established The Fuller Foundation, Inc., during his lifetime and it was, and continues to be, the instrument through which many charitable agencies have benefited in the Greater Boston and Seacoast area of New Hampshire.

He was interred in East Cemetery in Rye Beach, New Hampshire,^[13] where he had a summer home.^[7]

His wife, Viola Theresa Davenport Fuller, died in 1959. She had a brief career as an opera singer, performing in Paris and then debuting in Boston in 1910. She and the governor had four children, two boys and two girls.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography
• Alvan T. Fuller at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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Blind Willie McTell
McTell recording for John Lomax in an Atlanta hotel room, November 1940. Photograph by the archivist's wife, Ruby Lomax.
Background information
Birth name	William Samuel McTier
Also known as	Blind Sammie, Georgia Bill, Hot Shot Willie, Blind Willie, Barrelhouse Sammy, Pig & Whistle Red, Blind Doogie, Red Hot Willie Glaze, Red Hot Willie, Eddie McTier
Born	(1898-05-05)May 5, 1898 Thomson, Georgia, U.S.
Origin	Statesboro, Georgia, U.S.
Died	August 19, 1959(1959-08-19) (aged 61) Milledgeville, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Country blues, Piedmont blues, ragtime, Delta blues, gospel
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, songster, accompanist, preacher
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, accordion, kazoo, violin
Years active	1927–1956
Labels	Victor, Columbia, Okeh, Vocalion, Decca, Atlantic, Regal
Associated acts	Curley Weaver, Kate McTell
Notable instruments
Stella Jumbo Twelve-String, Stella Grand Concert Twelve-String, Stella Long Scale Grand Concert Twelve-String, Harmony Twelve-String, Harmony-Stella 922[1]

Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959), was an influential Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues, although, unlike his contemporaries, he came to exclusively use twelve-string guitars. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voice types employed by Delta bluesmen, such as Charlie Patton. McTell embodied a variety of musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music, and hokum.

Born blind in the town of Thomson, Georgia, McTell learned how to play guitar in his early teens. He soon became a street performer around several Georgia cities, such as Atlanta and Augusta, and first recorded in 1927 for Victor Records. Although he never produced a major hit record, McTell's recording career was prolific, recording for different labels under different names throughout the 1920s and 30s. In 1940, he was recorded by John Lomax for the Library of Congress's folk song archive. He would remain active throughout the 1940s and 50s, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime associate, Curley Weaver. Twice more he recorded professionally. McTell's last recordings originated during an impromptu session recorded by an Atlanta record store owner in 1956. McTell would die three years later after suffering for years from diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his mainly failed releases, McTell was one of the few archaic blues musicians that would actively play and record during the 1940s and 50s. However, McTell never lived to be "rediscovered" during the imminent American folk music revival, as many other bluesmen would.^[2]

McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists, including The Allman Brothers Band, who famously covered McTell's "Statesboro Blues", and Bob Dylan, who paid tribute to McTell in his 1983 song "Blind Willie McTell"; the refrain of which is, "And I know no one can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell". Other artists include Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ralph McTell and Chris Smither.

Biography[link]

Born William Samuel McTier^[3] in Thomson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood and attended schools for the blind in the states of Georgia, New York and Michigan. He showed proficiency in music from an early age, first playing harmonica and accordion, learning to read and write music in Braille,^[2] and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens.^[2][3] Born into a musical family, both of his parents and an uncle played guitar; he is also a relation of bluesman and gospel pioneer, Thomas A. Dorsey.^[3] His father left the family when McTell was still young, and when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering musician, or "songster". He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta.^[4]

McTell married Ruth Kate Williams,^[2] now better known as Kate McTell, in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. Most of their marriage from 1942 until his death was spent apart, with her living in Fort Gordon near Augusta and him working around Atlanta.

In the years before World War II, McTell traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under many different names, including Blind Willie McTell (Victor and Decca), Blind Sammie (Columbia), Georgia Bill (Okeh), Hot Shot Willie (Victor), Blind Willie (Vocalion and Bluebird), Barrelhouse Sammie (Atlantic), and Pig & Whistle Red (Regal). The "Pig 'n Whistle" appellation was a reference to a chain of Atlanta barbecue restaurants, one of which was located on the south side of East Ponce de Leon between Boulevard and Moreland Avenue, which later became a Krispy Kreme. McTell would frequently played for tips in the parking lot of this location. He was also known to play behind the nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. McTell's style was singular: A form of country blues bridging the gap between the raw blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more refined east coast Piedmont sound^{[citation needed]}. He took on the less common and more unwieldy 12-string guitar because of its volume. The style is well documented on John Lomax's 1940 recordings of McTell for the Library of Congress. McTell earned $10 from these sessions, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011.^[4]

Postwar, he recorded for Atlantic Records and Regal Records in 1949, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta, but his career was cut short by ill health, predominantly diabetes and alcoholism. In 1956, an Atlanta record store manager, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him with a bottle of corn liquor into his store, where he captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These were released posthumously on Prestige/Bluesville Records as Last Session.^[5] Beginning in 1957, McTell occupied himself as a preacher at Atlanta's Mt. Zion Baptist Church.^[2]

McTell died in Milledgeville, Georgia, of a stroke in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. A fan paid to have a gravestone erected on his resting place. The name given on his gravestone is Eddie McTier.^[2] He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1981,^[6] and into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990.^[2]

Influence[link]

The record label of one of McTell's most notable works, "Statesboro Blues".

One of McTell's most famous songs, "Statesboro Blues," was frequently covered by The Allman Brothers Band and is considered one of their earliest signature songs^{[citation needed]}. A short list of some of the artists who also perform it includes Taj Mahal, David Bromberg, The Devil Makes Three and Ralph McTell, who changed his name on account of liking the song.^[7] Ry Cooder covered McTell's "Married Man's a Fool" on his 1973 album, Paradise and Lunch. Jack White of The White Stripes considers McTell an influence, as their 2000 album De Stijl was dedicated to him and featured a cover of his song "Southern Can Mama". The White Stripes also covered McTell's "Lord, Send Me an Angel", releasing it as a single in 2000.

Bob Dylan has paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions: Firstly, in his 1965 song "Highway 61 Revisited", the second verse begins with "Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose", referring to one of Blind Willie McTell's many recording names; later in his song "Blind Willie McTell", recorded in 1983 but released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3; then with covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong;^{[note 1]} also, in his song "Po'Boy", on 2001's "Love & Theft", which contains the lyric, "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".^[8]

A blues bar in Atlanta is named after McTell and regularly features blues musicians and bands^{[citation needed]}. The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia.^[9]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

As an accompanist

Long-plays[link]

Selected compilations[link]

• Blind Willie McTell 1927-1933: The Early Years - Yazoo L-1005 (1968)
• Blind Willie McTell 1949: Trying To Get Home - Biograph BLP-12008 (1969)
• King Of The Georgia Blues Singers (1929-1935) - Roots RL-324 (1969)
• Atlanta Twelve String - Atlantic SD-7224 (1972)
• Death Cell Blues - Biograph BLP-C-14 (1973)
• Blind Willie McTell: 1927-1935 - Yazoo L-1037 (1974)
• Blind Willie McTell: 1927–1949 The Remaining Titles - Wolf WSE 102 (1982)
• Blues In The Dark - MCA 1368 (1983)
• Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 1 - Document DOCD-5006 (1990)
• Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 2 - Document DOCD-5007 (1990)
• Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 3 - Document DOCD-5008 (1990)
  • these three albums were issued together as the box-set Statesboro Blues - Document DOCD-5677 (1990)
• Complete Library of Congress Recordings in Chronological Order - RST Blues Documents BDCD-6001 (1990)
• Pig 'n Whistle Red - Biograph BCD 126 (1993)
• The Definitive Blind Willie McTell - Legacy C2K-53234 (1994)
• The Classic Years 1927–1940 - JSP JSP7711 (2003)
• King Of The Georgia Blues - Snapper SBLUECD504X (2007)

Selected compilation inclusions[link]

• Blind Willie McTell/Memphis Minnie: Love Changin' Blues - Biograph BLP-12035 (1971)
• Atlanta Blues 1933 - JEMF 106 (1979)
• Blind Willie McTell and Curley Weaver: The Post-War Years - RST Blues Documents BDCD 6014 (1990)
• Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920's - Vol. 5 - Blues Images - BIM-105 (2007)

Notes[link]

Citations[link]

References[link]

• Charters, Samuel Sweet as the Showers of Rain (Oak Publications) pp 120–131

External links[link]

• New Georgia Encyclopedia - Blind Willie McTell article
• Illustrated Blind Willie McTell discography
• Works by or about Blind Willie McTell in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Blind Willie's gravesite
• "Statesboro Blues" MP3 file on the Internet Archive
• David Fulmer, producer "Blind Willie's Blues" Documentary film, 1996
• "The Dying Crapshooter's Blues" Novel by David Fulmer featuring McTell as a character
• John May interviews biographer Michael Gray
• Review of Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray