Brownie was the affectionate name to a Fender Stratocaster that was used extensively by Eric Clapton during the early 70's, most notably with Derek and the Dominos on their album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

The guitar has an alder body, tobacco sunburst finish, maple neck, skunk-stripe routing and black dot inlays. It was manufactured in 1956 and the serial number is 12073. Clapton purchased the guitar at London's Sound City while touring with Cream on May 7, 1967 for $400 and used it for both concert and studio. The guitar appeared on his debut album Eric Clapton where it can be seen on the cover. Its most noteworthy usage can be heard on the Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs also recorded in 1970. But after 1971 Brownie served as the back-up for Eric's main Fender Stratocaster, Blackie. At the 1969 Blind Faith concert in Hyde Park, London Clapton played a Fender Custom Telecaster, which was fitted with Brownie's neck.

Brownie for auction

On June 24, 1999 Clapton sold the guitar through Christie's Auction House in New York City to help raise funds for his alcohol and drug treatment center, Crossroads Centre. Brownie sold for $450,000 becoming the most expensive guitar ever sold at the time only to be eclipsed by Clapton's other favorite guitar Blackie on June 24, 2004. Brownie can now be seen by the public at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington under the ownership of Paul Allen. In 2006, another Stratocaster, signed by a large group of celebrities, including Clapton, was auctioned to benefit the victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, selling for $2.6 million, shattering "Blackie"'s record.

See also

Blackie

Category:Eric Clapton Category:Fender Stratocasters Category:Individual guitars Category:Instruments of musicians

Name	Brownie McGhee
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Walter Brown McGhee
Born	November 30, 1915 Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Died	February 16, 1996 Oakland, California, United States
Instrument	Guitar, Piano, Kazoo, Vocals
Genre	Folk-blues Country blues Piedmont blues East Coast blues Blues revival
Associated acts	Stick McGhee Sonny Terry

Walter Brown ("Brownie") McGhee (November 30, 1915 - February 16, 1996) was a blues singer and guitarist best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.

Life and career

Brownie McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. As a child he had polio, which incapacitated his leg. His brother Granville "Sticks" or "Stick" McGhee was nicknamed for pushing young Brownie around in a cart. His father, George McGhee, was a factory worker known around University Avenue for playing guitar and singing. Brownie's uncle made him a guitar from a tin marshmallow box and a piece of board. McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, singing with local harmony group the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet and teaching himself to play guitar. A March of Dimes-funded leg operation enabled McGhee to walk.

At age 22, Brownie McGhee became a traveling musician, working in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and befriending Blind Boy Fuller, whose guitar playing influenced him greatly. After Fuller's death in 1941, J. B. Long of Columbia Records had McGhee adopt his mentor's name, branding him "Blind Boy Fuller No. 2." By that time, McGhee was recording for Columbia's subsidiary Okeh Records in Chicago, but his real success came after he moved to New York in 1942, when he teamed up with Sonny Terry, whom he had known since 1939 when Sonny was Blind Boy Fuller's harmonica player. The pairing was an overnight success; as well as recording, they toured together until around 1980. As a duo, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee did most of their work from 1958 until 1980, spending eleven months of each year touring, and recording dozens of albums.

Despite their later fame as "pure" folk artists playing for white audiences, in the 1940s Terry and McGhee also attempted to be successful black recording performers, fronting a jump blues combo with honking saxophone and rolling piano, variously calling themselves "Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers" or "Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five," often with Champion Jack Dupree and Big Chief Ellis. They also appeared in the original Broadway productions of Finian's Rainbow and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

During the blues revival of the 1960s, Terry and McGhee were very popular on the concert and music festival circuits, occasionally adding new material but usually remaining faithful to their roots and their audience. With Sonny Terry, he appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. In 1987, McGhee gave a small but memorable performance as ill-fated blues singer Toots Sweet in the supernatural thriller movie, Angel Heart.

Happy Traum, a former guitar student of Brownie's, edited a blues guitar instruction guide and songbook for him. Using a tape recorder, Traum had McGhee instruct and, between lessons, talk about his life and the blues. Guitar Styles of Brownie McGhee was published in New York in 1971. The autobiographical section features Brownie talking about growing up, his musical beginnings, and a history of the early blues period (1930s onward).

One of McGhee's final concert appearances was at the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival.

Discography

Traditional Blues - Vol. 1 (Folkways Records, 1951)

Get on Board: Negro Folksongs by the Folkmasters (Folkways, 1952)

Brownie McGhee Blues (Folkways, 1955)

Washboard Band - Country Dance Music (Folkways, 1956)

Folk Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Roulette, 1958)

Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Folkways, 1959)

Brownie McGhee Sings the Blues (Folkways, 1959)

Traditional Blues - Vol. 2 (Folkways, 1960)

Preachin' the Blues (Folkways, 1968)

Sonny & Brownie (A&M; Records, 1973)

Brownie's Blues (Prestige Records, 1984)

Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing (Smithsonian Folkways, 1990)

The Folkways Years, 1945-1959 (Smithsonian Folkways, 1991)

See also

American folk music

Woody Guthrie

American Blues

List of blues musicians

List of people from Tennessee

List of folk musicians

References

External links

Center for Southern African American Music - Brownie McGhee — McGhee bio and audio samples

Category:1915 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Acoustic blues musicians Category:Folk-blues musicians Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:Country blues musicians Category:East Coast blues musicians Category:Blues revival musicians Category:African American musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American male singers Category:American blues guitarists Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:American folk singers Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners Category:People from Kingsport, Tennessee Category:People from Knoxville, Tennessee Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:Jubilee Records artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Skiffle Category:Deaths from stomach cancer Category:Cancer deaths in California

Name	Sonny Terry
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Saunders Terrell
Born	October 24, 1911
Died	March 11, 1986
Origin	North Carolina, United States
Instrument	Harmonica, Jew's Harp
Genre	Harmonica blues Piedmont blues Country blues Blues revival Folk-blues East Coast blues
Years active	1930s — 1980s
Label	Atlantic, ABC
Associated acts	Brownie McGhee Sonny Terry and His Night Owls
Notable instruments	Harmonica, Jew's Harp

Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (24 October 1911 - 11 March 1986) was a blind blues musician. He was most widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.

Career

Terry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and lost his sight by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work himself.

Terry's song "Fox Chase" was used by the experimental filmmaker Len Lye as the soundtrack for his short film, Color Cry (1952). "Old Lost John" was used by Werner Herzog twice: at the conclusion of his 1977 feature film Stroszek and also during shooting scene in Bad Lieutenant. Port of Call: New Orleans (2009). He also appeared in The Colour Purple directed by Steven Spielberg. With Brownie McGhee, he appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. Terry collaborated with Ry Cooder on "Walkin' Away Blues" as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues" for the 1986 film Crossroads. More recently Terry's track "Whoopin' The Blues" was used for a EON Wind Farm brand commercial. It also appeared in the film 24 Hour Party People (Winterbottom, 2002).

Terry died from natural causes at Mineola, New York, in March 1986, the year he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Discography

Sonny Terry's Washboard Band (Folkways, 1955)

Folk Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Roulette, 1958)

Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Folkways, 1959)

"sing & play" (society,1966)

Sonny & Brownie (A&M; Records, 1973)

''Whoopin' (feat. Johnny Winter & Willie Dixon / Alligator, 1984)

Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing (Smithsonian Folkways, 1990)

Whoopin' the Blues: The Capitol Recordings, 1947-1950 (Capitol, 1995)

See also

List of blues musicians

Blind musicians

List of harmonicists

Harmonica

Jew's harp

American Blues

American folk music

List of people on stamps of the United States

References

Category:1911 births Category:1986 deaths Category:People from Greensboro, North Carolina Category:Acoustic blues musicians Category:Harmonica blues musicians Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:Country blues musicians Category:Folk-blues musicians Category:East Coast blues musicians Category:Blues revival musicians Category:American blues musicians Category:American blues harmonica players Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Blind bluesmen Category:Groove Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Chess Records artists Category:Elektra Records artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners

Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Lester William Polsfuss
Born	June 09, 1915 Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States
Died	White Plains, New York, United States
Genre	Jazz, Country, Blues
Occupation	Innovator, Inventor, Musician, Songwriter
Instrument	Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica
Years active	1928–2009
Url	lespaulonline.com
Notable instruments	Gibson Les Paul

Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)—known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which "made the sound of rock and roll possible". He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was certainly not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.

His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.

Among his many honours, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.

Biography

Early life

Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss outside Milwaukee, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to George and Evelyn (1888–1989) (née Stutz) Polsfus. His family was of German ancestry and Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the Stutz Bearcat automobile; his parents divorced when he was a child. The Prussian family name was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his stage name of Les Paul. He also used the nicknames Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red.

While living in Wisconsin, he first became interested in music at age eight, when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning the banjo, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. Paul's device is still manufactured using his basic design. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music singer, guitarist and harmonica player. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX.

Early career

Paul migrated to Chicago in 1934, where he continued to perform on radio. His first two records were released in 1936. One was credited to "Rhubarb Red", Paul's hillbilly alter ego, and the other was as an accompanist for blues-artist Georgia White. It was during this time that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.

Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt. After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow. (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1939, landing a featured spot with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians radio show. Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented the younger Atkins with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar that had been given to Jim Atkins by Les Paul. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.

Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber with a bridge, guitar neck and pickup attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.

While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio. He was drafted into the US Army shortly after the beginning of World War II, where he served in the Armed Forces Network, backing such artists as Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and performing in his own right.

As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, California, on July 2, 1944. The recording, still available as Jazz at the Philharmonic- the first concert- shows Paul at the top of his game, both in his solid four to the bar comping in the style of Freddie Green and for the originality of his solo lines. Paul's solo on 'Blues' is an astonishing tour de force and represents a memorable contest between himself and Nat 'King' Cole. Much later in his career, Paul declared that he had been the victor and that this had been conceded by Cole. His solo on Body and Soul is a fine demonstration both of his admiration for and emulation of the playing of Django Renhardt, as well as his development of some very original lines.

Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number-one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca label in the late 1940s.

In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Drumright, Oklahoma. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creekbed; they were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement; his arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation. Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle—just under 90 degrees—that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.

Guitar builder

, one of the world's most popular electric guitars, was named after the man who invented it.]] Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built after-hours in the Epiphone guitar factory in 1940, was one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and Leo Fender also independently created his own in 1946. Although Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire and Telecaster models.

The arrangement persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music-store window, and disliked it. Although his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Others claimed that Paul ended his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce to avoid having his wife get his endorsement money. Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG", which stands for "Solid Guitar", and it also became one of the company's best sellers.

The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335. Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards. His personal Gibson Les Pauls were much modified by him—Paul always used his own self-wound pickups and customized methods of switching between pickups on his guitars. To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitars are used all over the world by both novice and professional guitarists. A less-expensive version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone brand.

On January 30, 1962, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Paul a patent, Patent No. 3,018,680, for an "Electrical Music Instrument."

Multitrack-recording innovations

In 1948, Capitol Records released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master. ("Brazil", similarly recorded, was the B-side.) This was the first time that Les Paul used multitracking in a recording (Paul had been shopping his multi-tracking technique, unsuccessfully, since the 30's. Much to his dismay, Sidney Bechet used it in 1941 to play half a dozen instruments on "Sheik of Araby"). These recordings were made not with magnetic tape, but with acetate discs. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result he was satisfied with, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.

Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on automobile parts. He favored the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the acetate-disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his fifteen-minute radio show in his hotel room. He later worked with Ross Snyder in the design of the first eight-track recording deck (built for him by Ampex for his home studio.)

Electronics engineer Jack Mullin had been assigned to a U.S. Army Signal Corps unit stationed in France during World War II. On a mission in Germany near the end of the war, he acquired and later shipped home a German Magnetophon (tape recorder) and fifty reels of I.G. Farben plastic recording tape. Back in the U.S., Mullin rebuilt and developed the machine with the intention of selling it to the film industry, and held a series of demonstrations which quickly became the talk of the American audio industry.

Within a short time, Crosby had hired Mullin to record and produce his radio shows and master his studio recordings on tape, and he invested US$50,000 in a Northern California electronics firm, Ampex. With Crosby's backing, Mullin and Ampex created the Ampex Model 200, the world's first commercially produced reel-to-reel audio tape recorder. Crosby gave Les Paul the second Model 200 to be produced. Using this machine, Paul placed an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a mono tape recorder with just one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape; thus, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording.

Paul's re-invention of the Ampex 200 inspired Ampex to develop two-track and three-track recorders, which allowed him to record as many tracks on one tape without erasing previous takes. These machines were the backbone of professional recording, radio and television studios in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1954, Paul continued to develop this technology by commissioning Ampex to build the first eight-track tape recorder, at his expense. His design became known as "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronization), in which specially modified electronics could either record or play back from the record head, which was not optimized for playback but was acceptable for the purposes of recording an "overdub" (OD) in sync with the original recording. This is the core technology behind multitrack recording.

Les Paul & Mary Ford

Paul met country-western singer Colleen Summers in 1945. They began working together in 1948, at which time she adopted the stage name Mary Ford. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "How High the Moon", "Bye Bye Blues", "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", and "Vaya con Dios". These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself.

Like Crosby, Paul and Ford used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than from the singer's mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is or more from the microphone. When implemented using a cardioid-patterned microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to a cardioid microphone's proximity effect and can give a more relaxed feel because the performer isn't working so hard. The result is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing, as might be heard in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.

Radio and television programs

Paul had hosted a fifteen-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil" and "Tiger Rag". Over ten of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.

The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.

During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster.

Later career

In 1965, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to the studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced in December 1962, as she could no longer cope with the traveling lifestyle their act required of them. Paul's most-recognizable recordings from then through the mid-1970s were an album for London Records/Phase 4 Stereo, Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits; and, backed by some of Nashville's celebrated studio musicians, a meld of jazz and country improvisation with fellow guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester (1976), for RCA Victor.

By the late 1980s, Paul had returned to active live performance. In 2006, at age 90, he won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performed every Monday night, accompanied by a trio which included guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinksi (and later, Nicki Parrott) and pianist John Colianni, originally at Fat Tuesdays, and later at the Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway in the Times Square area of New York City.

Composer Richard Stein (1909–1992) sued Paul for plagiarism, charging that Paul's "Johnny (Is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian for "Sledge with Bells"). A 2000 cover version of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.

For many years Les Paul would sometimes surprise radio hosts Steve King and Johnnie Putman with a call to the "Life After Dark Show" on WGN (AM) in Chicago. These calls would take place in the wee hours of Tuesday Morning following his show at the Iridium Jazz Club. Steve and Johnnie continue to honor Les on Tuesday Mornings at 2:35 AM with their segment "A Little More Les" drawing from around 30 hours of recorded conversations with Les.

Death

On August 12, 2009, His family and friends were by his side Paul is survived by his four children and his companion Arlene Palmer. His attorney told the media Paul had been "in and out of the hospital" because of illness.

Upon learning of his death many artists and musicians paid tribute by publicly expressing their sorrow. After learning of Paul's death, former Guns N' Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash called him "vibrant and full of positive energy." U2 guitarist The Edge said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten."

On August 21, 2009, he was buried near Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin at Prairie Home Cemetery which indicated that his plot would be in an area where visitors can easily view it. Like his funeral in New York on August 19, the burial was private, but earlier in the day a public memorial viewing of the closed casket was held in Milwaukee at Discovery World with 1,500 attendees who were offered free admission to the Les Paul House of Sound exhibit for the day.

Awards and honors

Paul was initiated into the Gamma Delta chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Miami in 1952. He has earned the Presidential award from the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

In 1979, Paul and Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1983.

In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." In 1991, the Mix Foundation established an annual award in his name; the Les Paul Award which honors "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology". In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

A one-hour biographical documentary film The Wizard of Waukesha was shown at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (FILMEX) March 4–21, 1980, and later on PBS television. A biographical, feature-length documentary titled Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90 made its world première on May 9, 2007, at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul appeared at the event and spoke briefly to the enthusiastic crowd. The film is distributed by Koch Entertainment and was broadcast on PBS on July 11, 2007, as part of its American Masters series and was broadcast on October 17, 2008, on BBC Four as part of its Guitar Night. The première coincided with the final part of a three-part documentary by the BBC broadcast on BBC ONE The Story of the Guitar.

In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing his legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World in Milwaukee. The exhibit was facilitated by a group of local musicians under the name Partnership for the Arts and Creative Excellence (PACE). Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit.

Paul's hometown of Waukesha is planning a permanent exhibit to be called "The Les Paul experience."

In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Jose Feliciano and a number of other contemporary guitarists and vocalists, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the many guest performers were Duane Eddy, Eric Carmen, Lonnie Mack, Jennifer Batten, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Dennis Coffey, James Burton, Billy Gibbons, Lenny Kaye, Steve Lukather, Barbara Lynn, Katy Moffatt, Alannah Myles, Richie Sambora, The Ventures and Slash.

In February 2009, only months prior to his death, Les Paul sat down with Scott Vollweiler of Broken Records Magazine, in which would be one of Les Paul's final interviews. His candid answers were direct and emotional. Broken Records Magazine had planned to run that cover feature the following month but due to delays was held until the summer. 3 days before the release, Les Paul died. The issue would be his final cover feature of his storied career.

In August, 2009, Paul was named one of the ten best electric guitar players of all-time by Time magazine.

Personal life

Paul married Virginia Webb in 1938. They had two children, Gene (Lester Jr.), born in 1941 and named after actor-songwriter Gene Lockhart, and Russell (Rusty), born 1944, before divorcing in 1949. Later that year, Paul and Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers) were married. They adopted a girl, Colleen, in 1958 and their son Robert (Bobby) was born the following year. They had also lost a child, who was born prematurely and died only four days old. Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced in 1963.

Paul was the godfather of rock guitarist Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, to whom Paul gave his first guitar lesson. Miller's father was best man at Paul's 1949 wedding to Mary Ford.

Paul resided for many years in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Discography

Hit Singles

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |- ! rowspan="2"| Year ! rowspan="2"| Single ! colspan="4"|Chart positions |- ! width="35"|^US ! width="35"|^US
R&B; ! width="35"|^Country ! width="35"|^UK |- | 1945 | align="left"| "It's Been a Long Long Time"(with Bing Crosby) | 1 | | | |- | 1946 | align="left"| "Rumors Are Flying"(with Andrews Sisters) | 4 | | | |- | rowspan="3"| 1948 | align="left"| "Lover" | 21 | | | |- | align="left"| "Brazil" | 22 | | | |- | align="left"| "What Is This Thing Called Love?" | 11 | | | |- | rowspan="4"| 1950 | align="left"| "Nola" | 9 | | | |- | align="left"| "Goofus" | 21 | | | |- | align="left"| "Little Rock Getaway" | 18 | | | |- | align="left"| "Tennessee Waltz" | 6 | | | |- | rowspan="9"| 1951 | align="left"| "Jazz Me Blues" | 23 | | | |- | align="left"| "Mockin' Bird Hill"(gold record) | 2 | | 7 | |- | align="left"| "How High the Moon"(gold record) | 1 | 2 | | |- | align="left"| "Josephine" | 12 | | | |- | align="left"| "I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine" | 18 | | | |- | align="left"| "The World Is Waiting For the Sunrise"(gold record) | 2 | | | |- | align="left"| "Whispering" | 7 | | | |- | align="left"| "Just One More Chance" | 5 | | | |- | align="left"| "Jingle Bells" | 10 | | | |- | rowspan="9"| 1952 | align="left"| "Tiger Rag" | 2 | | | |- | align="left"| "I'm Confessin'" | 13 | | | |- | align="left"| "Carioca" | 14 | | | |- | align="left"| "In the Good Old Summertime" | 15 | | | |- | align="left"| "Smoke Rings" | 14 | | | |- | align="left"| "Meet Mr. Callahan" | 5 | | | |- | align="left"| "Take Me In Your Arms and Hold Me" | 15 | | | |- | align="left"| "Lady of Spain" | 8 | | | |- | align="left"| "My Baby's Comin' Home" | 7 | | | |- | rowspan="7"| 1953 | align="left"| "Bye Bye Blues" | 5 | | | |- | align="left"| "I'm Sittin' On Top of the World" | 10 | | | |- | align="left"| "Sleep" | 21 | | | |- | align="left"| "Vaya Con Dios"(gold record) | 1 | | | 7 |- | align="left"| "Johnny" | 15 | | | |- | align="left"| "The Kangaroo" | 25 | | | |- | align="left"| "Don'cha Hear Them Bells" | 13 | | | |- | rowspan="4"| 1954 | align="left"| "I Really Don't Want To Know" | 11 | | | |- | align="left"| "I'm a Fool To Care" | 6 | | | |- | align="left"| "Wither Thou Goest" | 10 | | | |- | align="left"| "Manolino" | 19 | | | |- | rowspan="3"| 1955 | align="left"| "Hummingbird" | 7 | | | |- | align="left"| "Amukiriki" | 38 | | | |- | align="left"| "Magic Melody" | 96 | | | |- | rowspan="3"| 1956 | align="left"| "Texas Lady" | 91 | | | |- | align="left"| "Moritat" | 49 | | | |- | align="left"| "Nuevo Laredo" | 91 | | | |- | 1957 | align="left"| "Cinco Robles" | 35 | | | |- | 1958 | align="left"| "Put a Ring On My Finger" | 32 | | | |- | rowspan="2"| 1961 | align="left"| "Jura" | 37 | | | |- | align="left"| "It's Been a Long Long Time" | 105 | | | |- |}

Albums

Feedback (1944)—compilation

Les Paul Trio (1946)—compilation

Hawaiian Paradise (1949)

The Hit Makers! (1950)

The New Sound (1950)

Les Paul's New Sound, Volume 2 (1951)

Bye Bye Blues! (1952)

Gallopin' Guitars (1952)—compilation

Les and Mary (1955)

Time to Dream (1957)

Lover's Luau (1959)

The Hits of Les and Mary (1960)—compilation

Bouquet of Roses (1962)

Warm and Wonderful (1962)

Swingin' South (1963)

Fabulous Les Paul and Mary Ford (1965)

Les Paul Now! (1968)

Guitar Tapestry

Lover

The Guitar Artistry of Les Paul (1971)

The World is Still Waiting for the Sunrise (1974)—compilation

The Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford (1974)—compilation

Chester and Lester (1976)—with Chet Atkins

Guitar Monsters (1977)—with Chet Atkins

Les Paul and Mary Ford (1978)—compilation

Multi Trackin' (1979)

All-Time Greatest Hits (1983)—compilation

''The Very Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford'

Famille Nombreuse (1992)—compilation

The World Is Waiting (1992)—compilation

(1992)—compilation

All-Time Greatest Hits (1992)—compilation

Their All-Time Greatest Hits (1995)—compilation

Les Paul: The Legend and the Legacy (1996; a four-CD box set chronicling his years with Capitol Records)

16 Most Requested Songs (1996)—compilation

The Complete Decca Trios—Plus (1936–1947) (1997)—compilation

California Melodies (2003)

''Les Paul - The Legendary Fred Waring Broadcasts (2004)

Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played (2005)

Les Paul And Friends: A Tribute To A Legend (2008)

Singles

"It's Been a Long, Long Time"—Bing Crosby & The Les Paul Trio (1945), #1 on Billboard Pop singles chart, 1 week, December 8

"Rumors Are Flying"—Andrews Sisters & Les Paul (1946)

"Guitar Boogie" (1947)

"Lover (When You're Near Me)" (1948)

"Brazil" (1948)

"What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1948)

"Nola" (1950)

"Goofus" (1950)

"Little Rock 69 Getaway" (1950/1951)

"Tennessee Waltz"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1950/1951)

"Mockingbird Hill"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)

"How High The Moon"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 9 weeks, April 21 – June 16; #1, Cashbox, 2 weeks

"I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)

"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)

"Just One More Chance"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)

"Jazz Me Blues" (1951)

"Josephine" (1951)

"Whispering" (1951)

"Jingle Bells" (1951)

"Tiger Rag"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Carioca" (1952)

"In the Good Old Summertime"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Smoke Rings"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Meet Mister Callaghan" (1952)

"Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Lady of Spain" (1952)

"My Baby's Coming Home"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)

"Bye Bye Blues"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)

"I'm Sitting On Top Of The World"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)

"Sleep" (Fred Waring's theme song) (1953)

"Vaya Con Dios"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 11 weeks, August 8 – October 3, November 7–14; #1, Cashbox, 5 weeks

"Johnny (Is The Boy For Me)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)

"Don'cha Hear Them Bells"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #13, Billboard; #32, Cashbox

"The Kangaroo" (1953), #23, Cashbox

"I Really Don't Want To Know"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"I'm A Fool To Care"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"Whither Thou Goest"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"Mandolino"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)

"Song in Blue"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #17, Cashbox

"Hummingbird"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)

"Amukiriki (The Lord Willing)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)

"Magic Melody"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)

"Texas Lady"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)

"Moritat" (Theme from "Three Penny Opera") (1956)

"Nuevo Laredo"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)

"Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1957)

"Put A Ring On My Finger"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1958)

"Jura (I Swear I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1961)

"Love Sneakin' Up On You"-Les Paul, Joss Stone & Sting (2005)

See also

Ampex

Discovery World

Gibson Les Paul

Gibson SG

List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

Mary Ford

References

External links

lespaulfoundation.org, Les Paul Foundation website (includes Legacy, Foundation & Community websites)

Remembering Les Paul Photos and extended interviews with Les on WGN Chicago's Steve & Johnnie early morning show

Staff writer (August 13, 2009). "Les Paul", obituary at The Daily Telegraph (Accessed August 24, 2009)

Staff writer (November 15, 2007). "Les Paul Receives 2007 National Medal of Arts", article at Modern Guitars Magazine (Accessed September 4, 2009)

"Les Paul, 'The Wizard of Waukesha'", a biography (undated) at the Wisconsin Historical Society's official website

Les Paul - Discovery World 2005 video (requires Adobe Flash)at Discovery World's (museum) official website

The Les Paul Show, archive of Paul's NBC radio show at the Internet Archive's official website (includes MP3 files (free) of eleven of their radio shows including their audition show)

The Wizard of Waukesha (1980), at Variety's official website

The Wizard of Waukesha (1980) at Allmovie's official website

Les Paul - 'Miles of Music', two video interviews of and performances by Paul (5–6 minutes each; requires Adobe Flash) with Bob Miles on Miles of Music (milesofmusic.tv), a cable-access television program

CLASSIC TRACKS: Les Paul & Mary Ford 'How High The Moon'

Photo Library from performances at Iridium

Les Paul's final interview

Category:American jazz guitarists Category:American musical instrument makers Category:American radio personalities Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Decca Records artists Category:American musicians of German descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Guitar makers Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York Category:Inventors of musical instruments Category:Lead guitarists Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Musicians from Wisconsin Category:National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Mahwah, New Jersey Category:People from Waukesha, Wisconsin Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:1915 births Category:2009 deaths

Happy Traum (b. Harry Peter Traum, May 9, 1938, The Bronx, New York City) is an American folk musician who started playing music in the Fifties. Happy is most famously known as one half of 'Happy and Artie Traum', a duo he began with his brother. They released three albums, 'Happy and Artie Traum' (1970, Capitol), 'Double Back' (1971, Capitol) and 'Hard Times In The Country' (1975, Rounder). He has continued as a solo artist and as founder of Homespun Tapes.

Music career

Collaborations with Bob Dylan

Happy first appeared on record at a historic session in 1963 when a group of young folk musicians, including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Peter LaFarge and The Freedom Singers gathered in Folkways Records studio for an album called "Broadside, Vol.1." With his group, the "New World Singers," Happy cut the first recorded version of "Blowin' In The Wind," and Happy sang a duet with Dylan on his anti-war song "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" (These tracks were re-released in August, 2000 by Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings as part of a boxed set, "The Best of Broadsides 1962 - 1988: Anthems from the American Underground"). Later that year, the New World Singers (Happy, Bob Cohen and Gil Turner) recorded an album for Atlantic Records, with liner notes by Bob Dylan and featuring the first released recording of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"

In 1971 Happy once again joined Bob Dylan in the studio, playing guitar, banjo, bass, and singing harmony on three songs, which appeared on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. Dylan also invited Happy to participate in a famous session with poet Allen Ginsberg, which resulted in the box set "Holy Soul Jelly Roll."

Discography

Solo: 1975, Relax Your Mind, Kicking Mule Records KM110 (LP) 1977, American Stranger, Kicking Mule Records KM301 (LP)

Homespun Tapes

Happy is the founder and president of Homespun Tapes, a company that makes and sells music lessons. Originally these lessons were on analog audio tapes, copied from a master tape to a daisy chain of tape recorders, set up on the family dinner table — hence the name "Homespun Tapes". Nowadays, most lessons are DVD video lessons, either sold by post-order as DVD disc, or sold as a computer download.

Most lessons available are for acoustic guitar, many oriented at blues and folk music, but there are also lessons for several other instruments, e.g. fiddle, banjo, bass, etc.

See also

American folk music

Artie Traum

Brownie McGhee

Bob Dylan

Guitarists

Banjo

Notes

External links

http://www.happytraum.com/ Official Website

http://www.myspace.com/happytraummusic Happy Traum on MySpace

http://www.homespun.com/ Homespun Tapes

http://www.bobdylan.com/#/node/6308 Album Info from "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Volume II" on Bob Dylan's website

Category:American folk musicians Category:Fast Folk artists Category:1938 births Category:People from the Bronx Category:People from Greenwich Village, New York Category:Living people

Name	Eugene "Buddy" Moss
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Eugene Moss
Alias	Buddy Moss
Born	January 16, 1914 Jewell, Georgia, United States
Died	October 19, 1984 Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Instrument	Harmonica, guitar, vocals
Genre	Blues
Occupation	Musician, vocalist, songwriter
Years active	1930 – 1976
Label	Columbia (1933, with Georgia Cotton Pickers) American Record (1933) Biograph (1967) Document (1992) Travelin' Man (1996) Classic Blues (2002)
Associated acts	Georgia Cotton Pickers (harmonica) Georgia Browns Fred McMullen Blind Willie McTell Joshua Daniel White, "The Singing Christian"
Past members	Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks (guitar) Curley James Weaver (guitar)

Eugene "Buddy" Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984) was, in the estimation of many blues scholars, one of two the most influential East Coast blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935 (the other being Josh White). A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob, Moss was part of a coterie of Atlanta bluesmen, and one of the few of his era lucky enough to work into the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s. A guitarist of uncommon skill and dexterity with a strong voice, he began as a musical disciple of Blind Blake, and may well have served as an influence on the later Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Although his career was halted in 1935 by a six-year jail term, and then by the Second World War, Moss lived long enough to be rediscovered in the 1960s, when he revealed a talent undamaged by time or adversity, but with major attitude problems.

In later years, Moss credited friend and band-mate Barbecue Bob with being a major influence on his playing, which would be understandable given the time they spent together. Scholars also attribute Arthur "Blind" Blake as a major force in his development, with mannerisms and inflections that both share. It is also suggested by Alan Balfour and others that Moss may have been an influence on no less a figure than Blind Boy Fuller, as they never met and Moss' recording career ended before Fuller's began—it is clear that Moss's first recordings display some inflections and nuances that Fuller didn't put down on record until some years later.

Biography

Moss was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper in the Warren County town of Jewell, Georgia, midway between Atlanta and Augusta. There is some disagreement about his date of birth, some sources indicating 1906 and many others of more recent vintage claiming 1914. He began teaching himself the harmonica at a very early age, and he played at local parties around Augusta, where the family moved when he was four and remained for the next 10 years. By 1928, he was busking around the streets of Atlanta. "Nobody was my influence," he told Robert Springer of his harmonica playing, in a 1975 interview. "I just kept hearing people, so I listen and I listen, and listen, and it finally come to me."

By the time he arrived in Atlanta, he was good enough to be noticed by Curley Weaver and Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks, who began working with the younger Moss. It was Weaver and Bob that got him onto his first recording date, at the age of 16, as a member of their group the Georgia Cotton Pickers, on December 7, 1930 at the Campbell Hotel in Atlanta, doing four songs for Columbia: "I'm On My Way Down Home," "Diddle-Da-Diddle," "She Looks So Good," and "She's Comin' Back Some Cold Rainy Day." The group that day consisted of Barbecue Bob and Curley Weaver on guitars and Moss on harmonica. Moss would not record anything more for the next three years.

By 1933, Moss had taught himself the guitar, at which he became so proficient that he was a genuine peer and rival to Weaver. He frequently played with Barbecue Bob until his death of pneumonia on October 21, 1931, he found a new partner and associate in Atlanta blues legend Blind Willie McTell, performing together at local parties in the Atlanta area.

In January 1933, however, he made his debut as a recording artist in his own right for the American Record Company in New York City, accompanied by Fred McMullen and Curley Weaver, easily cutting three songs cut that first day, "Bye Bye Mama," "Daddy Don't Care," and "Red River Blues." Another 8 songs followed over the next three days, and all 11 were released, far more than saw the light of day from McMullen or Weaver at those same sessions.

The debut sessions also featured Moss returning to the mouth harp, as a member of the Georgia Browns - Moss, Weaver, McMullen and singer Ruth Willis - for six songs done at the same sessions. But it was on the guitar that Moss would make his name over the next five years.

Moss's records were released simultaneously on various budget labels associated with ARC, and were so successful that in mid-September 1933, he was back in New York City along with Weaver and Blind Willie McTell. Moss cut another dozen songs for the company, this time accompanied by Curley Weaver, while he accompanied Weaver and McTell on their numbers.

These songs sold well enough, that he was back in New York City in the summer of 1934, this time as a solo guitarist/singer, to do more than a dozen tracks. At this point, Moss's records were outselling those of his colleagues Weaver and McTell, and were widely heard through the Southern and Border states. His "Oh Lordy Mama" from these sessions became well known as "Hey Lawdy Mama", a song interpreted by a variety of artists. This body of recordings also best represents the bridge that Moss provided between Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller - his solo version of "Some Lonesome Day," and also "Dough Rollin' Papa," from 1934 advanced ideas in playing and singing that Blind Boy Fuller picked up and adapted to his own style, while one could listen to "Insane Blues" and pick up the lingering influence of Blind Blake.

By August 1935, Moss saw his per-song fee doubled from $5 to $10 (in a period when many men were surviving on less than that per week), and when he wasn't recording, he was constantly playing around Atlanta alongside McTell and Weaver. When Moss returned to the studio in the summer of 1935, it was with a new partner, Joshua Daniel White, "The Singing Christian". The two recorded a group of 15 songs in August 1935, and it seemed like Moss was destined to outshine his one-time mentors Weaver and McTell, when personal and legal disaster struck.

In an incident that has never been fully recounted or explained, Moss was arrested]], tried, and [[Conviction|convicted for the shooting murder of his wife and sentenced to a long prison term. (The above photograph was taken of Moss at the prison where he was incarcerated.) With the death of Blind Boy Fuller in 1941, his manager, J.B. Long, made efforts to secure Moss's release as a Fuller replacement, all to no avail until 1941, when a combination of Moss' own good behavior as a prisoner, the bribery of two parole boards, coupled with the entreaties of two outside sponsors (Long and Columbia Records) willing to assure his compliance with parole helped get him out of jail. J.B. Long finally effected his release to his custody with the understanding that Moss stay out of the State of Georgia for a decade. It was while working at Elon College for Long under the parole agreement that he met a group of other blues musicians under Long's management that included Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

In October 1941, Moss, Terry and McGhee, a.o. went to New York City to cut a group of sides for Okeh Records/Columbia, including 13 numbers by Moss featuring his two new colleagues. Only three of the songs were ever released, and then events conspired to cut short Moss's recording comeback. The entry of the United States into World War II in December of the same year forced the government to place a wartime priority on the shellac used in the making of 78-rpm Gramophone records - there was barely enough allocated to the recording industry to keep functioning, and record companies were forced to curtail recordings by all but the most commercially viable artists; a ban on recording work by the Musicians' Union declared soon after further restricted any chance for Moss to record; and the interest in acoustic country blues, even of the caliber that he played, seemed to be waning, further cutting back on record company interest.

Moss continued performing in the area around Richmond, Virginia and Durham, North Carolina during the mid-'40s, and with Curley Weaver in Atlanta during the early 1950s, but music was no longer his profession or his living. His decade ban from Georgia is probably why he missed out on recording for Regal Records in Atlanta in 1949; the likes of Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, and Frank Edwards were recorded then. He went to work on a tobacco farm, drove trucks, and worked as an elevator operator, among other jobs, over the next 20-odd years.

Although he still occasionally played in the area around Atlanta, Moss was largely forgotten. Despite the fact that reference sources even then referred to him as one of the most influential bluesmen of the 1930s, he was overlooked by the blues revival. In a sense, he was cheated by the fact that his recording career had been so short - 1933 to 1935 - and had never recovered from the interruption in his work caused by his stretch in prison. His difficult character made it difficult for many, Black and White, to deal with him.

Fate stepped in, in the form of some unexpected coincidences. In 1964, he chanced to hear that his old partner Josh White was giving a concert at Emory University in Atlanta. Moss visited White backstage at the concert, and the Caucasian acolytes hanging around established legend White suddenly discovered a blues legend in their midst. Moss was persuaded to resume performing in a series of concerts before college audiences, most notably under the auspices of the Atlanta Folk Music Society and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. He also had new recording sessions for the Columbia label in Nashville, but none of the material was issued during his lifetime.

A June 10, 1966 concert in Washington, D.C. was recorded and portions of it were later released on the Biograph label. Moss played the Newport Folk Festival in 1969, and appeared at such unusual venues as New York's Electric Circus during that same year. During the 1970s, he played the John Henry Memorial Concert in West Virginia for two consecutive years, and the Atlanta Blues Festival and the Atlanta Grass Roots Music Festival in 1976, and later at The National Folk Festival held at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, VA.

Buddy Moss died in Atlanta on October 19, 1984, once again largely forgotten by the public. In the years since, his music was once again being heard courtesy of the Biograph label's reissue of the 1966 performance and the Austrian Document label, which has released virtually every side that he released between 1930 and 1941. While there were some who tried to get him to record, his difficult personality made that impossible - once again, he was his own worst enemy - in spite of his immense talent and importance. As a result, his reputation has once again grown, although he is still not nearly as well known among blues enthusiasts as Blind Willie McTell or Blind Boy Fuller.

Discography

{| class="wikitable" border="1" |- ! Album Name ! Record Label ! Release Date |- | Buddy Moss: The Essential | Classic Blues | August 6, 2002 |- | 1930–1941 | Travelin' Man | January 16, 1996 |- | Complete Recorded Works, Vols. 1-3 | Document | January 16, 1992 |- | Complete Recorded Works, Vols. 1: 1933 | Document | January 1, 1992 |- | Complete Recorded Works, Vols. 2: 1933-1934 | Document | January 1, 1992 |- | Complete Recorded Works, Vols. 3: 1935-1941 | Document | January 1, 1992 |- | Georgia Blues | Document | January 1, 1983 |- | Rediscovery | Biograph | |- | Atlanta Blues Legend | Biograph | January 1, 1967 |- | Buddy Moss 1933-1935 | Document | January 1, 1935 |- | Buddy Moss 1933-1941 | Document | January 1, 1935 |- | Red River Blues: 1933-1941 | Travelin' Man | |- | Barbecue Bob: Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3 | Document | |- | Josh White: The Essential | Document | |}

References

[ Bruce Eder, Allmusic]

External links

Illustrated Buddy Moss discography

Category:1914 births Category:1984 deaths Category:People from Warren County, Georgia Category:Columbia Records artists Category:American blues guitarists Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)