Josh’s life intersected some of the most exciting periods in American culture. In the 1920s, he was leading legendary blind blues singers around the South, and became the youngest soloist in the “race records” market. In the 1930s, he was a blues star, more popular than Robert Johnson and influencing a generation of Southern players. In the 1940s, he discovered a white, New York audience, appearing alongside jazz figures like Billie Holiday, and becoming so popular in the folk world that Pete Seeger would look up to him as “Mr. Folk Music.” His recording of “One Meat Ball” was a folk-pop smash, and he became one of the few black figures to star on Broadway and appear in Hollywood films, the only black guitarist to have his own national tour, and a daring sex symbol with adoring fans on both sides of the color line.

Although Carr died of an alcohol-related illness shortly after his 30th birthday, what made him a key figure in American music was his records, not his lifestyle. His followers dominated blues for more than 20 years and affected every aspect of the African-American pop scene. In Chicago, studios filled up with piano-guitar duos and Carr clones like Bumble Bee Slim and Bill Gaither (billed as “Leroy’s Buddy”). In Mississippi, Muddy Waters recalled “How Long” as the first song he ever learned. In Kansas City, Count Basie recorded Carr’s hits as piano solos. On the West Coast, T-Bone Walker and Charles Brown made Carr’s smooth urbanity the hallmark of the L.A. style. In New York, vocal groups from the Ink Spots to the Dominoes harmonized on Carr compositions. Nat King Cole’s first hit, “That Ain’t Right,” was a Carr-inflected blues, and the R & B historian Arnold Shaw traced soul ballad singing from Carr through Dinah Washington and Sam Cooke to Otis Redding and Jerry Butler.

In 1953, Howlin’ Wolf moved and settled in Chicago. This brought him in contention with Muddy Waters as they vied for position in Chicago’s clubs and at Chess Records. Wolf differed from Muddy as he was reluctant to cast off his southern blues background and at that time, Willie Dixon saw Waters as more suitable for his new compositions “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “I Just Want To Make Love To You”. Dixon had said “Muddy is the kind of person you can give any kind of lyric, he’s what you call a quick study. Wolf, you can’t give him too many words, because he gets ‘em all jumbled up. And if he gets ‘em right, he still ain’t gonna get the right meaning”. Wolf was therefore left to play southern blues looking ‘backwards to the backwoods’. However, he kept alive in Chicago the sound of the South that many of the city’s black residents had grown up with.

king-dinosaur:

John Lee Hooker