Topic: Blues player's timeline

[Mr.OMuck]

I wonder if anyone knows of a year by year timeline of Blues players birth dates?
For example who was the oldest recorded musician , Henry Thomas perhaps?
I'm assuming that the first generation of players must have been born ca.1885- 1890. Does that sound about right?
I'm also sort of thinking that the last gasp of what might be called the first wave or the first & second wave were born around 1927. What say you?

[Alexei McDonald]

Paul Oliver's book Songsters & Saints does something like this, splitting up bluesmen by generation, but it's so long since I read it that I remember very little. Daddy Stovepipe (Johnny Watson) was probably the very oldest of them, since he was born in 1867.

[Mr.OMuck]

Thanks Alexi. Time-Life had an art book series with a very helpful timeline of artist's dates in column form divided by country. A similar chart with dates divided by state and perhaps subdivided by town or city would be great. Maybe a great weeniepedia addition.
If people supply me with whatever names you'd like to see included and dates if you have them, likewise place, I'll undertake to put this together.

[Pan]

FWIW, John Tefteller's Blues Images calendar lists many blues musicians birth and death dates and places. Didn't we use to have such a calendar on Weenie too, or does my memory fail me?

Cheers

Pan

[wreid75]

I remember a few years ago about a country blues singer that performed until his death in the 1960s .at which time he was either 100 or over 100.  Does this ring a bell to anyone?

[oddenda]

I believe that it is Nathan Beauregard that you are thinking of; he may not have been that old, though.

pbl

[Bill Roggensack]

Pan - Might you be thinking of the births and deaths message that issues every day on the Pre-War Blues List?


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[Bunker Hill]

If it is Nathan Beauregard then here's his discography

http://www.wirz.de/music/beaurfrm.htm

Somebody reviewing the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival Blue Horizon LP jokingly referred to him as  the Tutankhamen of the blues, due to his facial features. 

[Pan]

Pan - Might you be thinking of the births and deaths message that issues every day on the Pre-War Blues List?


Sent from Mr. Page's iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmm. Maybe I was confusing that with the events calendar on the home page of Weenie.

Cheers

Pan

[dj]

O'Muck, you can get to all of Eric LeBlanc's Blues birth and death dates at the Blues World website here: http://www.bluesworld.com/bluesdates.html.  He's got a pretty broad interpretation of who's "blues-related", and the list doesn't seem to have been updated in a while, but it's a good place to start.

[The Jazzbo Tommy Settler]

Paul Oliver's book Songsters & Saints does something like this, splitting up bluesmen by generation, but it's so long since I read it that I remember very little. Daddy Stovepipe (Johnny Watson) was probably the very oldest of them, since he was born in 1867.

Wow, that means he was 93 when he recorded in 1960 for Heritage.

[Bunker Hill]

Wow, that means he was 93 when he recorded in 1960 for Heritage.

In 1963, shortly before his death, Ray Flerlage took photos of Stovepipe in performance at the Fickle Pickle in Chicago. One of these, a head shot, was published in Sing Out magazine that year. This can be viewed at Stefan's Stovepipe discography. It could almost have come from the remarkable lens of Carl Van Vetchen. But I digress...

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I believe Gus Cannon was another musician who was born considerably earlier than 1885, possibly in the early 1870s.
All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

Hi all,
I believe Gus Cannon was another musician who was born considerably earlier than 1885, possibly in the early 1870s.
All best,
Johnm

The current received wisdom is:

September 12, 1883 on a Plantation near Red Bank (Marshall County), Mississippi

Sam Charters gleaned this from Cannon in 1959.