Because Evil Is Fun! • One of my very favorite bluesman, Bukka White,...

One of my very favorite bluesman, Bukka White, died 35 years ago today.

Bukka White (November 12, 1909 — February 26, 1977) was a delta blues guitarist and singer. “Bukka” was not a nickname, but a misspelling of White’s Christian name by his second (1937) record label, (Vocalion).

Born Booker T. Washington White near Houston, Mississippi, he gave his cousin B. B. King, a Stella guitar, King’s first guitar. White himself is remembered as a player of National Steel guitars. He also played, but was less adept at, the piano.

White started his career playing the fiddle at square dances. He claims to have met Charlie Patton early on, although some doubt has been cast upon this; regardless, Patton was a large influence on White. White typically played slide guitar, in an open tuning. He was one of the few, along with Skip James, to use a crossnote tuning in E minor, which he may have learned, as James did, from Henry Stuckey.

He first recorded for the Victor Records label in 1930. His recordings for Victor, like those of many other bluesmen, fluctuated between country blues and gospel numbers. His gospel songs were done in the style of Blind Willie Johnson, with a female singer accentuating the last phrase of each line.

Nine years later, while serving time, he recorded for folklorist John Lomax. The few songs he recorded around this time became his most well-known: “Shake ‘Em On Down,” and “Po’ Boy.”

Bob Dylan covered his song “Fixin’ to Die Blues”, which aided a “rediscovery” of White in 1963 by guitarist John Fahey and ED Denson, which propelled him onto the folk revival scene of the 1960s. White had recorded the song simply because his other songs had not particularly impressed the Victor record producer. It was a studio composition of which White had thought little until it re-emerged thirty years later. White was at one time managed by experienced Blues manager, Arne Brogger. Fahey and Denson found White easily enough: Fahey wrote a letter to “Bukka White (Old Blues Singer), c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Mississippi.” Fahey had assumed, given White’s song, “Aberdeen, Mississippi”, that White still lived there, or nearby. The postcard was forwarded to Memphis, Tennessee, where White worked in tank factory. Fahey and Denson soon travelled to meet White, and White and Fahey remained friends throughout White’s life.. He recorded a new album for Denson & Fahey’s Takoma Records, whilst Denson became his manager.

White was, later in life, also friends with fellow musician, Furry Lewis. The two recorded, mostly in Lewis’ Memphis apartment, an album together, Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends: Party! At Home.

One of his most famous songs, “Parchman Farm Blues”, about the Mississippi’s infamous Parchman Farm state prison, was to be released on Harry Smith’s fourth, never realized, volume of the Anthology of American Folk Music. His 1937 version of the oft-recorded song, “Shake ‘em on Down,” is considered definitive, and became a hit while White was serving time in Parchman.

Not even Keith Richards could play an open G tuning like Bukka White. Not only did he slide up and down the neck with the grace, finesse, and dexterity of a clock maker, but he also infused a rhythmic style to his playing that has yet to be duplicated. White’s career had two lives. From the 1930s to ’40s, he played Delta Blues with open wounds bleeding from his songs. His eerie narratives of hard living crept into his warble-mouthed musings, as his hands pulled otherworldly tones and slap-knock rhythms from an old National steel guitar. When the blues revival hit hard in the ’60s, White’s music resurfaced after a ten-year hiatus — this time more song-driven and accessible to younger crowds. He became well-known as a driving live performer, creating myths of dance floors being broken by his hypnotized audiences worked up into berserk dancing frenzies.