Why Did Mississippi Fred Mcdowell Change To Electric Guitar?

Fred McDowell
McDowell in 1972
Groundwork information
Born	(1904-01-12)January 12, 1904[i] Rossville, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	July 3, 1972(1972-07-03) (aged 68) Memphis, Tennessee
Genres	Hill country blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1926–1972
Labels	Arhoolie, Testament, Sire, Transatlantic, Infinite Zero, Oblivion, Rounder, Fat Possum
Associated acts	Tom Pomposello,[ii] [3] Johnny Woods[4]

Musical artist

Fred McDowell (Jan 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972),^[1] known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill state blues singer and guitar player.

Career [edit]

McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States.^[5] His parents were farmers, who both died while Fred was in his youth. He took up the guitar at the age of xiv and was shortly playing for tips at dances around Rossville.^[5] Seeking a change from plowing fields, he moved to Memphis in 1926, where he worked in the Cadet-Heart feed factory, which candy cotton wool into oil and other products.^[vi] In 1928, he moved to Mississippi to pick cotton.^[6] He finally settled in Como, Mississippi, in 1940 or 1941 (or maybe the late 1930s), where he worked as a total-time farmer for many years while continuing to play music on weekends at dances and picnics.^[5]

Later decades of playing for small local gatherings, McDowell was recorded in 1959 past roving folklore musicologist Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins,^[five] on their Southern Journey field-recording trip.^[seven] With involvement in dejection and folk music rising in the United States at the time, McDowell's field recordings for Lomax caught the attention of blues aficionados and record producers, and within a couple of years, he had finally become a professional person musician and recording creative person in his own right.^[5] His LPs proved quite pop, and he performed at festivals and clubs all over the world.^[eight]

McDowell connected to perform the blues in the due north Mississippi style much every bit he had for decades, sometimes on electrical guitar rather than acoustic guitar. He was peculiarly renowned for his mastery of slide guitar, a mode he said he first learned using a pocketknife for a slide and subsequently a polished beef rib os. He ultimately settled on the clearer sound he got from a glass slide, which he wore on his ring finger.^[nine] While he famously declared, "I practice not play no rock and roll," he was non balky to associating with younger rock musicians. He coached Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar technique^[8] and was reportedly flattered^{[ citation needed ]} past The Rolling Stones' rather straightforward version of his "You Gotta Motion" on their 1971 album Viscid Fingers.^[5] In 1965, he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival,^[5] together with Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Roosevelt Sykes and others.^[ten]

McDowell's 1969 album I Do Non Play No Stone 'n' Whorl, recorded in Jackson, Mississippi, and released past Malaco Records,^[5] was his offset featuring electric guitar. Information technology contains parts of an interview in which he discusses the origins of the blues and the nature of love. His live album Alive at the Mayfair Hotel (1995) was from a concert he gave in 1969. Tracks included versions of Bukka White'due south "Shake 'Em On Down," Willie Dixon's "My Infant," Mance Lipscomb'southward "Evil Hearted Adult female," plus McDowell's self-penned "Kokomo Blues." AllMusic noted that the album "may be the best unmarried CD in McDowell'south output, and certainly his best concert release".^[11] McDowell'due south final album,^[12] Live in New York (Oblivion Records), was a concert operation from Nov 1971 at the Village Gaslight (too known as The Gaslight Cafe), in Greenwich Hamlet, New York.

McDowell's version of the folk song "John Henry" from 1969 is included on the Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969: Vols 1&2, 2019 release.^[13]

McDowell died of cancer in 1972,^[5] aged 68, and was buried at Hammond Colina Baptist Church, between Como and Senatobia, Mississippi. On August half-dozen, 1993, a memorial was placed on his grave by the Mount Zion Memorial Fund. The ceremony was presided over by the dejection promoter Dick Waterman, and the memorial with McDowell's portrait on it was paid for by Bonnie Raitt. The memorial stone was a replacement for an inaccurate (McDowell'due south name was misspelled) and damaged marker. The original rock was later on donated by McDowell'southward family to the Delta Dejection Museum, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. McDowell was a Freemason and was associated with Prince Hall Freemasonry; he was cached in Masonic regalia.^{[14] [15]}

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Feel. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. p. 241. ISBN978-0313344237.
2. ^ Vidani, Peter. "A Very Brief History of Mississippi Fred McDowell...". Oblivion Records Blog. Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com. Retrieved Oct five, 2015.
3. ^ Vidani, Peter. "A Blues Purist in the Hither and Now". Oblivion Records Web log. Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
4. ^ Vidani, Peter. "A Very Brief History of Johnny Woods". Oblivion Records Web log. Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f m h i} Colin Larkin, ed. (1995). The Guinness Who's Who of Blues (Second ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 262. ISBN0-85112-673-1.
6. ^ ^{a b} Delta Blues back sleeve Arhoolie F1021
7. ^ Collins, Shirley (2004). America over the Water. Southward.A.F. pp. 134–136. ISBN 0-946719-91-eight.
8. ^ ^{a b} Russell, Tony (1997). The Dejection: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton. pp. 142–143. ISBNane-85868-255-10.
9. ^ "Mississippi Fred McDowell". Scribd.com. Nov 7, 2013. Retrieved Oct five, 2015.
10. ^ Wirz, Stefan. "American Folk Blues Festival Discography". Wirz.de. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
11. ^ "Live at the Mayfair Hotel - Mississippi Fred McDowell | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
12. ^ Vidani, Peter. "The Oblivion Records Blog". Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com. Retrieved October v, 2015.
13. ^ Ann Arbor Dejection Festival 1969: Vols one&ii, Tertiary Human Records, Americana Music Productions, Inc. 2019
14. ^ "The underground history of the jazz greats who were freemasons". The Guardian. July two, 2014.
15. ^ "Fred McDowell".

Bibliography [edit]

• Ferris, William (1988). Blues from the Delta. Rev. ed. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80327-5. ISBN 978-0306803277.
• Ferris, William (2009). Requite My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues. Academy of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-3325-8. ISBN 978-0807833254 (with CD and DVD).
• Ferris, William, and Hinson, Glenn (2009). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Civilization. Vol. xiv, Folklife. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-3346-0. ISBN 978-0-8078-3346-9.
• Gioia, Ted (2009). Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. Due west. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-33750-2. ISBN 978-0393337501.
• Harris, Sheldon (1979). Blues Who's Who. Da Capo Printing.
• Herzhaft, Gérard, Encyclopedia of the Blues (Arkansas Press)
• Lomax, Alan (1993). The Land Where the Dejection Began. New York: Pantheon.
• Nicholson, Robert (1999). Mississippi Blues Today! Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80883-8, ISBN 978-0-306-80883-8.
• Palmer, Robert (1982). Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. Penguin reprint ed. ISBN 0-14-006223-viii. ISBN 978-0-fourteen-006223-six.
• Wilson, Charles Reagan; Ferris, William; Adadie, Ann J. (1989). Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. 2nd ed. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1823-2. ISBN 978-0-8078-1823-seven.

External links [edit]

• Short documentary about Fred McDowell with functioning
• Illustrated Fred McDowell discography
• Fred McDowell on Oblivion Records

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Fred_McDowell

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