Boll Weevil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Family:	Curculionidae
Genus:	Anthonomus
Species:	A. grandis
Binomial name
Anthonomus grandis Boheman, 1843

The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central America, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American south. During the late 20th century it became a serious pest in South America as well. Since 1978, the Boll Weevil Eradication Program in the U.S. allowed full-scale cultivation to resume in many regions.

Life cycle[link]

Adult weevils overwinter in well-drained areas in or near cotton fields after diapause. They emerge and enter cotton fields from early spring through midsummer, with peak emergence in late spring, and feed on immature cotton bolls. The female lays about 200 eggs over a 10–12 day period. The oviposition leaves wounds on the exterior of the flower bud. The eggs hatch in three to five days within the cotton squares (larger buds before flowering), feed for eight to ten days, and finally pupate. The pupal stage lasts another five to seven days. The life cycle from egg to adult spans about three weeks during the summer. Under optimal conditions there may be eight to 10 generations per season. According to the book "From Can See to Can't" by Thad Sitton and Dan Utley, "Under ideal conditions for reproduction – which fortunately seldom existed – the progeny of a single pair of weevils emerging in the spring could reach something like 134 million before the coming of frost.

Boll weevils will begin to die at temperatures at or below −5 °C (23 °F). Research at the University of Missouri indicates they cannot survive more than an hour at −15 °C (5 °F). The insulation offered by leaf litter, crop residues, and snow may enable the beetle to survive when air temperatures drop to these levels.

Other limitations on boll weevil populations include extreme heat and drought. Its natural predators include fire ants, insects, spiders, birds, and a parasitic wasp, Catolaccus grandis. The insects at times engage in what seems to be almost suicidal behavior by emerging from diapause before cotton buds are available.

A female Catolaccus grandis wasp is attracted by a boll weevil larva.

Infestation[link]

The insect crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas to enter the United States from Mexico in 1892^[1] and reached southeastern Alabama in 1915. By the mid 1920s it had entered all cotton growing regions in the U.S., travelling 40 to 160 miles per year. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America. Mississippi State University has estimated that since the boll weevil entered the United States it has cost U.S. cotton producers about $13 billion, and in recent times about $300 million per year.^[1]

The cotton boll weevil: a, adult beetle; b, pupa; c, larva.

The boll weevil contributed to the economic woes of Southern farmers during the 1920s, a situation exacerbated by the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The Library of Congress American Memory Project contains a number of oral history materials on the boll weevil's impact.^[2] In one of the project's features, a 1939 interview for the Federal Writers' Project, South Carolina native Mose Austin recalled that his employer was adamant. "He don't want nothin' but cotton planted on de place; dat he in debt and hafter raise cotton to git de money to pay wid." Austin let out a long guffaw before recounting, "De boll weevil come...and, bless yo' life, dat bug sho' romped on things dat fall." Austin remembered that the following spring, his employer insisted on planting cotton in spite of warnings from his wife, his employees, and government agricultural experts:

De cotton come up and started to growin', and, suh, befo' de middle of May I looks down one day and sees de boll weevil settin' up dere in de top of dem little cotton stalks waitin' for de squares to fo'm. So all dat gewano us hauled and put down in 1922 made nuttin' but a crop of boll weevils. ^[3]

The next year, Austin's employer tried the same ill-fated experiment. Ultimately, the man lost his farm and moved with his disgruntled wife to California.

The boll weevil infestation has been credited with bringing about economic diversification in the southern US, including the expansion of peanut cropping. The citizens of Enterprise, Alabama erected the Boll Weevil Monument in 1919, perceiving that their economy had been overly dependent on cotton, and that mixed farming and manufacturing were better alternatives.

The boll weevil appeared in Venezuela in 1949 and in Colombia in 1950.^[4] The Amazon Rainforest was thought to present a barrier to its further spread, but it was detected in Brazil in 1983, and it is estimated that about 90% of the cotton farms in Brazil are now infested. During the 1990s the weevil spread to Paraguay and Argentina. The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has proposed a control program similar to that used in the U.S.^[4]

Control[link]

Following World War II the development of new pesticides such as DDT enabled U.S. farmers again to grow cotton as an economic crop. DDT was initially extremely effective, but US weevil populations developed resistance by the mid 1950s.^[5] Methyl parathion, malathion, and pyrethroids were subsequently used, but environmental and resistance concerns arose as they had with DDT and control strategies changed.^[5] In 1978 a test was conducted in North Carolina to determine feasibility of eradicating the weevil from the growing areas. Based on the success of this, area-wide programs were begun in the 1980s to eradicate the insect from whole regions. These are based on cooperative effort by all growers together with the assistance of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The program has been successful in eradicating weevils from Virginia and the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, south Alabama, California, Arizona, and Louisiana. Efforts are ongoing to eradicate the weevil from the rest of the United States. Continued success is also based on prohibition of unauthorized cotton growing, outside of the program, and constant monitoring for any recurring outbreaks.

In the 1980s, entomologists at Texas A&M have pointed to the spread of another invasive pest, fire ants, as a factor in the weevils' population decline.^[6]

Other avenues of control that have been explored include weevil-resistant strains of cotton, ^[7] the parasitic wasp Catolaccus grandis,^[8] the fungus Beauveria bassiana,^[9] and the Chilo iridescent virus. Genetically engineered Bt cotton is not protected from the boll weevil.^[10]

Further reading[link]

• Lange, Fabian, Alan L. Olmstead, and Paul W. Rhode, “The Impact of the Boll Weevil, 1892–1932,” Journal of Economic History, 69 (Sept. 2009), 685–718.

See also[link]

• Lixus concavus, the Rhubarb curculio weevil
• Female Sperm Storage

References[link]

External[link]

• Boll weevil life cycle
• Boll weevil biology

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anthonomus grandis

Wikispecies has information related to: Boll weevil

• Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation
• Arkansas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation
• The boll-weevil problem, hosted by the UNT Libraries Digital Collections
• Alabama Tourism Board
• Boll Weevil in Georgia
• A 1984 paper on the effect of a parasitic wasp on the boll weevil

Brook Benton (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988) was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.

He made a comeback in 1970 with the ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia." Benton scored over 50 Billboard chart hits as an artist, and also wrote hits for other performers.

Biography[link]

Rise to fame[link]

Benjamin Franklin Peay was born on September 19, 1931 in Lugoff, South Carolina. When Peay was young he enjoyed gospel music, wrote songs, and sang in a Methodist church choir in nearby Camden, where his father, Willie Peay, was choir master.^[1] So in 1948 he went to New York to pursue his music career. He went in and out of gospel groups such as The Langfordaires, The Jerusalem Stars, and The Golden Gate Quartet. Returning to his home state, he joined a R&B singing group, The Sandmen, and went back to New York to get a big break with his group. The Sandmen had limited success, and their label, Okeh Records, decided to push Peay as a solo artist, changing his name to Brook Benton, apparently at the suggestion of label executive Marv Halsman.^[2]

Brook earned a good living writing songs and co-producing albums. He wrote songs for artists such as Nat King Cole, Clyde McPhatter (for whom he wrote the hit "A Lover's Question"), and Roy Hamilton. Soon he released his first minor hit, "A Million Miles from Nowhere". Later he went on to the Mercury label, which would eventually bring him larger success. Also he appeared in the 1957 film Mr Rock And Roll with Alan Freed

Big break[link]

Finally in 1959 he made his breakthrough with his hits "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly". "It's Just a Matter of Time" peaked at #3 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart, while "Endlessly" made it to #12. Both of the first two hits were written by Benton with Clyde Otis. They were originally offered to Nat King Cole, but when Otis became an A&R official at Mercury, he convinced Benton to sign with the label and record them himself, while asking Cole not to record the songs as planned.^[3] He followed this success with a series of hits, including "So Many Ways" (#6), "Hotel Happiness" (#3), "Think Twice" (#11), "Kiddio" (#7), and "The Boll Weevil Song" (#2). In 1960, he had two top 10 hit duets with Dinah Washington: "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" (#5) and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)" (#7).^[4]

He also recorded his own version of "Take Good Care of Her" in 1962. In the mid- and late 1960s, Benton recorded for RCA Records and Reprise Records with minimal commercial success. In 1969 he signed with Cotillion Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, where the next year he had his last major hit with "Rainy Night in Georgia".^[4]

Benton eventually charted 49 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with other songs charting on Billboard's rhythm and blues, easy listening, and Christmas music charts.^[5] The last album made by Benton was Fools Rush In, which was released posthumously in 2005. At one point he was recording on Groove Records.^[6]

Death[link]

Weakened from spinal meningitis, Brook died of pneumonia in Queens, New York City, at the age of 56 on April 9, 1988.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Soulwalking.co.uk - Brook Benton Fan Page
• VH1.com - Artist Listing
• Tsimon.com - Brook Benton Fan Page
• http://www.shewins.com/bio.htm
• Brook Benton at Discogs
• Brook Benton at Find a Grave

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974), better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting (son John and grandson Jason). He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early life[link]

Ritter was born in Murvaul, Texas, the son of Martha Elizabeth (née Matthews) and James Everett Ritter. He grew up on his family's farm in Panola County and attended grade school in Carthage. He attended South Park High School in Beaumont. After graduating with honors, he entered the University of Texas at Austin; he studied pre-law, majoring in government, political science and economics.

Career[link]

Radio and Broadway[link]

An early pioneer of country music, Ritter soon became interested in show business. In 1928, he sang on KPRC-AM in Houston, a 30-minute show featuring cowboy songs. That same year, he moved to New York City and landed a job in the men's chorus of the Broadway show The New Moon (1928). He appeared as cowboy Cord Elam in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs (1930), the basis for the musical Oklahoma!. He also played the part of Sagebrush Charlie in The Round Up (1932) and Mother Lode (1934).

In 1932, he starred in New York City's first broadcast Western, The Lone Star Rangers on WOR-AM, where he sang and told tales of the Old West. Ritter wrote and starred in Cowboy Tom's Roundup on WINS-AM in 1933, a daily children's cowboy program aired over two other East Coast stations for three years. He also performed on the radio show WHN Barndance and sang on NBC Radio shows; and appeared in several radio dramas including CBS's Bobby Benson's Adventures and on the syndicated TV show Death Valley Days.

Ritter began recording for American Record Company (Columbia Records) in 1933. His first release was "Goodbye Ole Paint". He also recorded "Rye Whiskey" for the label. In 1935, he signed with Decca Records, where he recorded his first original recordings, "Sam Hall" and "Get Along Little Dogie". He recorded 29 songs for Decca, the last in 1939 in Los Angeles, California as part of Tex Ritter and His Texans.

Movies[link]

In 1936, Ritter moved to Los Angeles. His motion picture debut was in Song Of The Gringo (1936) for Grand National Pictures. He starred in twelve B-movie Westerns for Grand National, including Headin' For The Rio Grande (1936), and Trouble In Texas (1937) co-starring Rita Hayworth (then known as Rita Cansino).

After starring in Utah Trail (1938), Ritter left financially-troubled Grand National. Between 1938 and 1945, he starred in around forty "singing cowboy" movies. He made four movies with actress Dorothy Fay at Monogram Pictures: Song of the Buckaroo (1938), Sundown on the Prairie (1939), Rollin' Westward (1939) and Rainbow Over the Range (1940).

Ritter then moved to Universal Pictures and teamed with Johnny Mack Brown for films such as The Lone Star Trail (1943), Raiders of San Joaquin (1943), Cheyenne Roundup (1943) and The Old Chisholm Trail (1942). He was also the star of the films Arizona Trail (1943), Marshal of Gunsmoke (1944) and Oklahoma Raiders (1944).

When Universal developed financial difficulties, Ritter moved to Producers Releasing Corporation as "Texas Ranger Tex Haines" for eight features between 1944 and 1945. Ritter did not return to acting until 1950, playing mostly supporting roles or himself.

Recording[link]

Ritter's recording career was his most successful period. He was the first artist signed with the newly-formed Capitol Records as well as its first Western singer. His first recording session was on June 11, 1942.

In 1944, he scored a hit with "I'm Wastin' My Tears on You", which hit No. 1 on the country chart and eleven on the pop chart. "There's a New Moon Over My Shoulder" was a country chart No. 2 and pop chart No. 21. In 1945, he had the No. 1, 2, and 3 songs on Billboard's Most Played Jukebox Folk Records poll, a first in the industry. Between 1945 and 1946, he registered seven consecutive top five hits, including "You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often" (No. 1) written by Jenny Lou Carson, which spent eleven weeks on the charts. In 1948, "Rye Whiskey" and his cover of "The Deck of Cards" both made the top ten and "Pecos Bill" reached No. 15. In 1950, "Daddy's Last Letter (Private First Class John H. McCormick)" also became a hit.

Ritter first toured Europe in 1952, where his appearances included a starring role in the Texas Western Spectacle at London's Harringay Arena. That same year, Ritter recorded the movie title-track song "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin')", which became a hit. At the first televised Academy Awards ceremony in 1953, he sang "High Noon", which received an Oscar for Best Song that year.^[1]

In 1953, he began performing on Town Hall Party on radio and television in Los Angeles. In 1957 he co-hosted Ranch Party, a syndicated version of the show. He made his national TV debut in 1955 on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee and was one of five rotating hosts for its 1961 NBC-TV spin-off, Five Star Jubilee.

He formed Vidor Publications, Inc., a music publishing firm, with Johnny Bond, in 1955. "Remember the Alamo" was the first song in the catalog. In 1957, he released his first album, Songs From the Western Screen. He was often featured in archival footage on the children's television program, The Gabby Hayes Show.

In 1961, he also released the hit "I Dreamed Of A Hill-Billy Heaven," released six years earlier by Eddie Dean.

Later work[link]

Even after the peak of his performing career, Ritter was recognized for his contributions to country music and artistic versatility. He became one of the founding members of the Country Music Association in Nashville, Tennessee and spearheaded the effort to build the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 1964, he became the fifth inductee and first singing cowboy to be honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He moved to Nashville in 1965 and began working for WSM Radio and the Grand Ole Opry, earning a lifetime membership in the latter. His family remained in California temporarily so that son John could finish high school there. For a time, Dorothy was an official greeter at the Opry. During this period, Ritter co-hosted a late night radio program with country disc jockey Ralph Emery. His 1967 single "Just Beyond The Moon" with lyrics by Jeremy Slate hit No. 3 on the country chart.

Senate campaign[link]

In 1970, Ritter surprised many people by entering Tennessee's Republican primary election for United States Senate. Despite high name recognition, he lost overwhelmingly to US Rep. Bill Brock, who then defeated US Sen. Albert Gore, Sr. in the general election.

Personal life[link]

Ritter was married to actress Dorothy Fay on June 14, 1941, until his death. The couple had two sons, Thomas Ritter and television actor John Ritter, whose son Jason was born in 1980. He helped start United Cerebral Palsy after Thomas was found to have the affliction. Ritter and his sons spent a great deal of time raising money and public awareness to help others with the illness.

Death[link]

Ritter's grave marker

Ritter had his last recording session for Capitol Records in 1973. In 1974, he had a heart attack and died in Nashville, 10 days before his 69th birthday.

His last song, "The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)", reached No. 35 on the country chart shortly after his death. He is interred at Oak Bluff Memorial Park in Port Neches, Texas.

Legacy[link]

For his contribution to the recording industry, Ritter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard; he and John Ritter were the first father-and-son pair to be so honored in different categories. In 1980, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Ritter can be heard as the voice of Big Al, an audio-animatronic bear at the Country Bear Jamboree attraction in the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort. His character sings "Blood On The Saddle" and continues through the finale as the rest of the cast attempts to drown him out.

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tex Ritter at the Internet Movie Database
• Tex Ritter at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tex Ritter Museum - Carthage, Texas
• The Old Corral, the ultimate reference guide for B-Westerns
• Zwisohn, Laurence (1998). "Tex Ritter". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 447–448.
• O'Neal, Bill (1998). Tex Ritter: America's Most Beloved Cowboy. Austin, Texas: Eakin Press.
• Bond, Johnny (1976). The Tex Ritter Story. New York: Chappell Music Company.

Biography portal

• Tex Ritter at the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Tex Ritter / Edward Finney Collection at the Autry National Center

Mantan Moreland
1941 film King of the Zombies
Born	(1902-09-03)September 3, 1902 Monroe, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	September 28, 1973(1973-09-28) (aged 71) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Man Tan Moreland Manton Moreland Moreland
Occupation	Actor, comedian
Years active	1933-1973
Spouse	Hazel Moreland (1 child)

Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 - September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s.^[1]

Career[link]

Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent, reportedly running away to join the circus.^{[citation needed]} By the late 1920s, he had made his way through vaudeville, working with various shows and revues, performing on Broadway and touring Europe. Initially, Moreland appeared in low-budget "race movies" aimed at African-American audiences, but as his comedic talents came to be recognized, he received roles in larger productions.

Monogram Pictures signed Moreland to appear opposite Frankie Darro in the studio's popular action pictures. Moreland, with his bulging eyes and cackling laugh, quickly became a favorite supporting player in Hollywood movies. He is perhaps best known for his role as chauffeur Birmingham Brown in Monogram's Charlie Chan series. At the height of his career, Moreland received steady work from major film studios, as well as from independent producers who starred Moreland in low-budget, all-black-cast comedies.

Moreland also toured America in vaudeville, making personal appearances in the nation's movie theaters. His straight man was Ben Carter, and they developed an excellent rapport and impeccable timing.^{[says who?]} Their "incomplete sentence" routines can be seen in two Charlie Chan pictures, The Scarlet Clue and Dark Alibi.

Moreland was offered fewer roles in the 1950s, when filmmakers began to reassess roles given to black actors.^{[citation needed]} He was briefly considered as a possible addition to the Three Stooges when Shemp Howard died in 1955.^[2] Moreland returned to the stage and appeared in two all-black variety films in 1955, with Nipsey Russell standing in for Ben Carter as his straight man.

Later career and death[link]

Moreland's last featured role was in the 1968 darkly humorous horror film Spider Baby, which was patterned after Universal's thrillers of the 1940s. After suffering a stroke in the early 1960s, Moreland took on a few minor comedic roles, working with the likes of Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley and Carl Reiner.

Moreland died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973 in Hollywood.^[3]

Selected filmography[link]

Stage performances[link]

• Blackbirds (1928)
• Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1930 (1930)
• Singin' the Blues (1931)
• Blackberries of 1932 (1932)
• Yeah-Man (1932)
• Shuffle Along of 1933 (1933)
• Waiting for Godot (1957)

Recordings[link]

• That Ain't My Finger (Laff)
• Elsie's Sportin' House (Laff)
• Tribute to the Man (Laff)

Cultural references[link]

The lyrics of The Coasters' 1963 song "Bad Detective" are sung from the first-person perspective of Birmingham Brown, Mantan Moreland's character in the Charlie Chan movie series.

On the Beastie Boys album Ill Communication, a Moreland sample from That Ain't My Finger was used in the song "B-Boys makin' with the Freak Freak". The sample was "Shit, if this is gonna be that kind of party, I'm gonna stick my dick in the mashed potatoes", which is the punchline to a joke about a French girl's misunderstanding of a certain obscene word. ^[4]

Robert B. Parker makes an allusion to Moreland in Hush Money, one of his long running series of Spenser novels.^[5]

In the Spike Lee film Bamboozled two characters recreate Moreland's "Incomplete Sentence" routine. Additionally, the fictional TV show which the plot spins around is called "Mantan: The New Millenium Minstrel Show".

References[link]

Literature[link]

• Michael H. Price - Mantan the Funnyman (2007), a biography of Moreland

External links[link]

• Mantan Moreland at the Internet Movie Database
• Mantan Moreland at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mantan Moreland at AllRovi
• Mantan Moreland - Biography on (re)Search my Trash
• B-Horror's Humorous Hero - Retrospect of Moreland's career
• The African American Registry - Short biography
• Mantan Moreland at Find a Grave
• Literature on Mantan Moreland

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]