Oliver Jackson born 28 April 1933

Oliver Jackson (April 28, 1933 – May 29, 1994), also known as Bops Junior, was an American jazz drummer.

Jackson was born in Detroit, Michigan, and started taking drum lessons when he was 11. Why drums,   as opposed to any other instrument? “The school system provided music classes. I didn’t have any money to buy an instrument, so I started taking drum lessons because you only needed a practice pad to take the lessons,” Jackson explains. “I used to go to the Paradise Theater all the time, from the time I was nine years old on up. I saw all the big  bands there and all the drummers that were playing. I saw Big  Sid  Catlett with Louis Armstrong; I saw Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, and Cozy Cole. I saw Jo Jones when he came through with the Basie Band,  and I  saw Andy Kirk’s Band. “I knew right away, after about a year of  studying, that I wanted to  become a professional musician. At that  time, Detroit, where I grew up,  was like a southern town up north.

                  Here's "Jackson is Wigging" from above album

                                   

By the 1940's Jackson was playing with Thad Jones and Tommy Flanagan. He visited New York as drummer with the pianists Dorothy Donegan and Ivory Joe Hunter but each time returned to Detroit until 1948 when he formed a variety act with Eddie Locke called Bop & Locke, and they continued performing together until 1953, spending two of those years sharing the apartment of the legendary Count Basie drummer Jo Jones. After spending two years with Yusef Lateef (1954-1956) he moved to New York, where he worked as a freelance.

Jackson with Earl Hines

 He substituted for Zutty Singleton at the Metropole (1957-8) and played at the Embers with Teddy Wilson. He toured with Charlie Shaver's quartet (1959-61), Buck Clayton (Europe, 1961), Benny Goodman's big band and small groups (1962), and Lionel Hampton's big band (1962-4). He then worked with Kenny Burrell. He was a member of a quartet led by Earl Hines (1964-70) and he also played with larger groups that Hines occasionally assembled together during that period. 

Jackson was a listening drummer, always careful to fit his playing to the work of other musicians rather than try, as some drummers do, to dominate a band. When he toured Britain in 1967 with a mainstream all-star group called Jazz From a Swinging Era, he had to accompany the grandiose Earl Hines and another pianist, the comparatively self-effacing Sir Charles Thompson, as well as the trumpeters Buck Clayton and Roy Eldridge and tenor sax men Bud Freeman and Budd Johnson. All Jackson's great talent was called upon as he had to switch his accompanying style so often. In 1969 he formed the JPJ Quartet with Budd Johnson, Bill Pemberton, and Dill Jones.

From 1975 to 1980 he played in Sy Oliver's nine-piece band, and in the late 1970's he performed as a freelance with Hampton (1977, 1978) and Oscar Peterson, among others. He also belonged to George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars, with which he recorded in 1984. As a bandleader, Jackson led a 1961 date in Switzerland, and recorded at least five albums for Black & Blue Records between 1977 and 1984.

Jackson played at 18 of the Nice Jazz Festivals, and he was the first choice for musicians as widely spread as Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines and Zoot Sims. Jackson toured Europe in 1994 with George Wein's Festival All Starts as by this time the two men were close friends and Wein was responsible for most of Jackson's later work. Jackson died from heart failure in New York City at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital. He was 61. His brother, bassist Ali Jackson, performed with him both at the beginning and towards the end of their careers. His nephew, Ali Jackson Jr., is a jazz drummer.

(Edited from The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Michigan History & The Independent)

Here's a clip of Buck Clayton -  Emmett Berry - Earle Warren - Buddy Tate - Sir Charles Thompson - Gene Ramey and Oliver Jackson from the archives of Andreas Lüscher in Mexico - Recorded in Belgium, 1961.

 

Tommy Hill born 27 April 1929

Tommy Hill (April 27, 1929 - March 21, 2002) was an American country musician, performer, songwriter, and producer.

Tommy Hill never quite made it as a country star, despite a couple of decades of trying and crossing paths with (and even working for) stars and legends like Smiley Burnette, Webb Pierce, Hank Williams, and Johnny Horton. He wrote some very successful songs and produced important hits by others, and also left some hot rockabilly sides behind.

Tommy & Kenny Hill

Born John Thomas Hill Jr., on a farm near Coy City, Texas on the eve of the Great Depression, he was one of four children. He spent a good part of that childhood picking cotton in order to help his family survive. He also listened to the radio and especially enjoyed the music of Jimmie Rodgers, the Delmore Brothers, Cowboy Slim Rinehart, and Wayne Raney. It was while dragging sacks of cotton through the fields that Hill vowed to try for a career as a musician. He learned guitar listening to Ernest Tubb's lead player, Jimmie Short, and was proficient enough as a teenager to get a gig playing on radio with Big Bill Lister during 1945 in San Antonio, and was good enough, in fact, to blow the competition out of the studio.

                                         

With his brother Ken, Hill got gigs working with Red River Dave McEnery, and one day in 1948, musician/actor Smiley Burnette (of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers fame) passed through San Antonio and found himself in need of a guitar player or two. Tommy and Ken were hired for the gig and stayed with Burnette, who brought them to California, which got them into the background scenes in his movies as extras and musicians. The Hollywood work only lasted for 18 months before Hill and his brother returned to Texas to try and really make it in the music business.  Tommy and Ken made their first recordings for San Antonio-based Enterprise Records in 1949 as the Texas "Hill" Billies. Tommy's musician credits include backing Hank Williams on the Louisiana Hayride and on tour in 1952.

Goldie Hill

A couple of years later, Hill got picked up by Webb Pierce as a fiddle player. They only worked together for about four months, during which time Pierce cut one of Hill's original songs, "Slowly," before Hill decided to form a band of his own. Pierce's manager, Tillman Franks (who also later managed Horton), got Hill a contract with Decca Records in 1952. He formed his own band in Shreveport, LA, with his sister Goldie, who had a hit with Hill's "Let the Stars Get in My Eyes" (retitled "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes"), which he had originally written for Kitty Wells. Then, in the mid-'50s, the walls began to shake with the first rumblings of rock 'n' roll. On a tour of west Texas in late 1955, Tommy met Buddy Holly, and, in Tommy's account, he had a bit-part to play in bringing Holly to Nashville by phoning Jack DeWitt to set up an audition for the Crickets at Decca, which marked the start of Buddy Holly's commercial recording career.

In the early part of 1957, Tommy worked on the Philip Morris Caravan with the ever-unpredictable Ronnie Self, and saw for himself what it took to perform rock 'n' roll with conviction. Then, early in 1958, after a spell with Jim Reeves, he realized that the Crickets were actually Buddy Holly, and that he'd done Decca Records a favour which it was time to call in. Technically, of course, Buddy had been canned by Decca's Nashville division, only to end up on a New York subsidiary, but a favour's a favour, but Hill had little success with Decca where he tried his hand at rockabilly.  He took part in RCA's multi-artist 1957 European tour and toured as a solo act on the Phillip Morris Country Music Show. It was there that he met Ronnie Self and in December 1957 he was invited to play lead guitar on "Bop-a Lena" (and on Billy Brown's "Flip It", recorded on the same day). 

The following year he laid down what were to be his final vocal sides when he rounded up a core group of sidemen, including Hank Garland, Floyd Cramer, Ace Cannon and D.J. Fontana, to cut a batch of country rock demos that was supposed to go to Decca, but somehow didn't. Thirty years later, Tommy discovered it, and played it to Bear Family Records who jumped at the chance to issue it. Songs include Life Begins At 4 O' Clock, Get Ready Baby, and Ain't Nothin' Like Lovin' finally saw the light on the CD "Get Ready Baby" in 1993.

Tommy at the Starday Studio

Somehow, however, success eluded Hill. He had no hits during his three years at Hickory Records, and he subsequently hooked up with Starday Records, where he eventually became a producer, handling many of the label's releases until 1968. After a stint with MGM Records, Hill went into partnership with his fellow guitarist, Pete Drake, in the Stop label, which recorded the Jordanaires and Johnny Bush, among others, during its brief existence. Tommy started Gusto Records in 1972. In 1974, he brought in Moe Lytle as a partner, and together they bought out King and Starday Records. Tommy eventually sold out to Lytle in 1979, although he stayed on in one capacity or another until the end of 1982. In between, he wrote and produced the biggest hit that Starday ever saw, Red Sovine's Teddy Bear– the song that had truckers weeping in their semis.

Hill was not heard from since the early '60s as a recording artist, and none of his country sides are currently in print. In 1993, however, Bear Family Records released his long-lost rockabilly session from that June night in 1958. Despite his talent and his years of playing and writing, Hill never scored a hit; however, as he observed in Colin Escott's notes for Get Ready Baby, he had a habit of always giving his best songs away to others.

Tommy Hill died at Nashville's Vanderbilt Medical Center on March 21, 2002 due to heart and liver problems. Shortly before his death, he heard that a tribute to Webb Pierce, 'Caught In The Web,' had just gone to Number One on the country album charts. It featured Mandy Barnett singing Tommy's song, Slowly.

(Edited from Rocky52, This Is My Story & Bear Family liner notes)

Mike Finnigan born 26 April 1945

Michael Kelly Finnigan (April 26, 1945 – August 11, 2021) was an American keyboard player and vocalist, his specialty being the B3 Hammond organ. Working primarily as a freelance studio musician and touring player, he played with a wide variety of musicians in pop, rock, blues and jazz.

Finnigan was born in Troy, Ohio, and attended the University of Kansas on a basketball scholarship. He started to perform professionally when he was 19, relocating to Wichita to perform with The Serfs, which started as a house band at a local nightclub. In 1969, he joined the Serfs in recording their only album, 1969’s “Early Bird Cafe” with Tom Wilson producing, and toured with the group. During a trip to New York City, Finnigan landed a gig as a session music with Jimi Hendrix as he was in the studio recording the legendary album “Electric Ladyland.”

Crazed Hipsters

He toured and cut an album with Jerry Hahn, The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood released in 1970. In 1972, Finnigan partnered with Jerry Wood to form Finnigan and Wood, releasing just one album “Crazed Hipsters.” Finnigan’s other collaborations in the 1970s included performances with Dave Mason, Big Brother & The Holding Company, and Peter Frampton, as well as Jim Kreuger and Les Dudek, with whom he formed the band Dudek, Finnigan, and Krueger. in 1978. Subsequently, his work featured on a CD by the Finnigan Brothers (NashFilms Records), a collaboration with his younger brother Sean and founding member of Bread, Robb Royer.

Black Rose

Finnigan later partnered with Dudek and singer Cher to form the band Black Rose, which performed around Los Angeles as an independent act before signing with Casablanca Records. They released only one album, the eponymously named Black Rose, which also featured Gary Ferguson, Warren Ham, Rocket Ritchotte and Trey Thompson. However, the album gained little traction with fans and the group parted ways the following year.

                                   

Through the 1980s, Finnigan was a much sought-after musician, recording on multiple albums with Crosby, Stills & Nash, including “American Dream,” and “After The Storm,” as well as with artists such as Joe Cocker (Hymn for my Soul). He also provided keyboards for the legendary blues and soul singer Etta James for more than two decades.

He toured with and sessioned for Joe Cocker, Sam Moore, Crosby Stills and Nash, Dave Mason, Buddy Guy, The Manhattan Transfer, Taj Mahal, Michael McDonald, Maria Muldaur, Ringo Starr, Leonard Cohen, Tower of Power, Rod Stewart, David Coverdale, Tracy Chapman, Los Lonely Boys, Bonnie Raitt, Keb ‘Mo, Eric Burdon, Kara Grainger, and the Zen Blues Quartet, among others. Finnigan also made a guest appearance in the short-lived police procedural musical television series, Cop Rock (1990). In his only acting credit, Finnigan portrayed a singing shift lieutenant in the cold open of episode 7, "Cop-a-Feeliac". After a shift briefing, Finnigan breaks in to song, telling his officers, "Let's Be Careful Out There". The song itself is an homage to a catchphrase popularized by the show Hill Street Blues, created by Steven Bochco, who also produced Cop Rock.

Finnigan was twice a winner of a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) for his work with Taj Mahal as a member of the Phantom Blues Band. He was always active politically and was, for several years, a regular contributor to the weblog Crooks and Liars. In 2013 and 2014, he was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Pinetop Perkins Piano Player' category. In addition to his music, Finnigan was an outspoken political commentator and a regular contributor to the blog Crooks and Liars.

He was married for 50 years to Candy Finnigan, an intervention counsellor who appeared on the television show Intervention. They had two children: a daughter, Bridget, and a son, Kelly. Finnigan was an active blogger, with a fondness for liberal/progressive causes and commentary.

Finnigan died from liver cancer at the Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on August 11, 2021, in Los Angeles at the age of 76.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Celebrity Access) 

O.B. McClinton born 25 April l1940

Obie Burnett "O. B." McClinton (April 25, 1940 – September 23, 1987) was an American black country music singer and songwriter, who placed several hit records on the country singles chart in the 1970s.

Obie Burnett McClinton was born in Senatobia. He was the second-youngest child born to Rev. G. A. McClinton, a clergyman and farmer who owned a 700-acre (2.8 km2) ranch near Memphis, Tennessee.Growing up on the farm of his Baptist minister father, McClinton picked cotton by day and by night listened to radio programs from such regional stations as WHBQ (Memphis) and WLAC (Nashville). While his musical tastes included blues, R&B, soul music, and rockabilly, McClinton was particularly fond of country music, and he regularly listened to Grand Ole Opry broadcasts on Nashville’s WSM.

                                       

To escape the agricultural work, the teenaged McClinton ran away to nearby Memphis, where he spent all his savings to buy a guitar, forcing him to return home. After completing high school, McClinton attended Holly Springs’s Rust College, which had given him a scholarship to sing in the college choir. McClinton graduated in 1966 and found a job as a disc jockey on a Memphis radio station, WDIA. In December 1966 he enlisted in the US Air Force and began performing at military talent shows. He began forging a career as a songwriter, penning country-soul ballads for Otis Redding (‘Keep Your Arms Around Me’), before finding the ideal foil in James Carr. Two of McClinton’s compositions, ‘You’ve Got My Mind Messed Up’ (1966) and ‘A Man Needs A Woman’ (1968), stand among this singer’s finest work. He also wrote songs for other soul music artists, including Clarence Carter and Arthur Conley.

In 1971, while working as a staff songwriter for Memphis-based Stax Records, McClinton signed a recording contract with a Stax subsidiary, Enterprise, which wanted to market him as a country singer. A fan of Hank Williams Sr. and Merle Haggard, McClinton also emulated the breakthrough success of another black Mississippian, Charley Pride, to whom McClinton self-deprecatingly compares himself in “The Other One.” McClinton and Oklahoman Stoney Edwards became virtually the only other African American musicians to achieve sustained commercial success in country music in the 1970s.

Known to refer to himself as the "Chocolate Cowboy", McClinton successfully marketed his first album on the Enterprise label long before the practice was commonplace. Featuring his first country chart single "Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You", a top 40 song in 1972, which he considered to be his finest work. Another top 40 hit was "My Whole World Is Falling Down”—as well as such minor hits as “Six Pack of Trouble” and “Something Better.” 

Not entirely pleased with the studio production on his first two Enterprise albums, O. B. McClinton Country (1972) and Obie from Senatobia (1972), McClinton requested and received permission to serve as producer on his next album, Live at Randy’s Rodeo (1973). When Enterprise went out of business in the mid-1970s, McClinton briefly moved to Mercury Records in 1976, where he had a hit with ‘Black Speck’, before moving to Epic, where he scored half a dozen minor C&W hits. He also recorded for the Sunbird, and Moonshine labels. 

In 1986, O. B. McClinton was diagnosed with liver cancer, beginning a year-long battle with the illness that included multiple hospitalizations. The country music community supported him through benefit concerts, including one on November 11, 1986, featuring artists such as Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, and Kathy Mattea, which raised $40,000 for his medical bills, and another in March 1987. He passed away on September 23, 1987, at the age of 47, at HCA Park View Medical Center in Nashville, after being admitted for the final time four days earlier.

(Edited from Mississippi Encyclopedia & Grokipedia)

Pete Goble born 24 April 1932

Pete Goble (April 24, 1932 - July 25, 2018) was an American bluegrass musician and prolific songwriter.

Pete Goble was immediately hooked on bluegrass music when he heard the Flatt and Scruggs recording of ‘Down the Road’ from Mercury Records in 1949. His love of Country and Bluegrass music spanned his lifetime while Pete honored the catchy folk songs, the lonesome ballads, and spirited dance tunes by writing and performing some of the most memorable tunes ever recorded in bluegrass music history.

Billy Gill & Pete Goble 1961

John ‘Pete’ Goble was born in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. He grew up in the mountains of the Bluegrass state, then moved to Detroit, Michigan, with his family in 1948 where he worked at Great Lakes Steel until he retired. Pete taught himself to play the guitar in his early 20s and soon began penning song verses and laying them down to music. Some of Pete’s early work in the mid-1950s included You’ll be a Lost Ball, I’ll Drink No More Wine, and I’ll Never Take No For An Answer.

Pete often collaborated with his long-time friend, Leroy Drumm. Over the years, the duo produced classic bluegrass material for renowned artists Alison Krauss, The Bluegrass Cardinals, The Country Gentlemen, Dailey and Vincent, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Martin, Larry Sparks, The Osbourne Brothers, Rhonda Vincent and many more. Pete also collaborated with Doyle Lawson and Bobby Osborne on “For God Sent an Angel.”

                      Here's "Coleen Malone" from above album

                                    

Pete’s repertoire of written material produced classic Bluegrass hits such as, Please Search Your Heart, Son of a Sawmill Man, Morristown, Midnight Angel, and all-time favourites, ‘Circuit Rider,’ ‘I’d Like To Be A Train,’ and ‘Julianne.’ Pete released two singles in 1961/62 on the Happy Hearts label with Billy Gill & the Kentucky Rebels. He later released five albums during his extraordinary music career, including; ‘Tennessee 1949,’ with Bill Emerson in 1987, ‘Dixie In My Eye’ in 1989, ‘Webco Classics Volume 1: Emerson and Goble in 1994, ‘When I’m Knee Deep in Blue Grass’ in 2005, and ‘Back to Jubilee Road,’ with Andy Ball in 2013. Pete wrote, co-wrote, sang, and played the guitar on nearly every song on his album releases. He also was featured in the Complete Vanguard Recordings from The Country Gentlemen with several songs he co-wrote and sang.

Over seven decades of music excellence, Pete created and composed some of bluegrass music’s most influential and admired favourites. His beloved compositions of Tennessee 1949, Blue Virginia Blues, Coleen Malone, Windy City, Big Spike Hammer, Call of the Whippoorwill, Thank God for the Highways, Born to be a Drifter, (Pretty) Roses Remind Me of You, It’s Amazing What Sunshine Can Do, remain Bluegrass standards today. Goble also regularly attended the Milan Bluegrass Festival and also once played at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., the original home for the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1996, when 65 years of age, he survived crashing his ultralight plane on US Rt. 23 near his farm on Summerfield Road in Petersburg, Michigan, although not surprisingly he suffered serious injuries. These led to severe arthritis that got so bad that he could not play guitar in his later years. He had been flying for 28 years.

Pete Goble has been honoured with many awards throughout his celebrated career. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2002. He was awarded the IBMA Song of the Year in 1991 for Colleen Malone, which Hot Rize recorded. In 1997 Pete was honoured as Songwriter of the Year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America. He later accepted his induction into the Southeast Michigan Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Honour along with Leroy Drumm in 2017. For a brief period in his later years he had his own band, Jubilee Road in which his daughter Martin would sing back up vocals.

Leroy Drumm & Pete Goble

Pete Goble passed away on July 25, 2018. He was suffering from pneumonia and confined to Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, Wyandotte, Michigan, when he died at aged 86.Though he was among the most recorded songwriters in bluegrass, with more than 90 cuts, Goble said before he died that he had written over 700 in total. He was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2022. Pete lived most of his life in Michigan, yet his legacy will always be pure Bluegrass. His massive output of recorded favourites will undoubtedly impact the next wave of Bluegrass singer-songwriters and forever cement Pete Goble’s enormous influence on the direction of Bluegrass Music for generations to come.

(Edited from Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.com, Bluegrass Today & Rocky52)

Johnny McCauley born 23 April 1925

Johnny McCauley (23 April 1925 – 22 March 2012) was an Irish singer-songwriter who the founder of the “Country & Irish” sound. He was one of Derry/Londonderry’s most celebrated music stars who penned  more than 80 songs.

McCauley was born in Fahan, County Donegal, Ireland, according to several sources, though other reports falsely state his birthplace was in Myroe near Limavady, County Londonderry. He grew up in the Rosemount area of the city and moved to London as a young man. In 1953 he took up singing professionally with his band, The Westernaires at The Galtymore Club, Cricklewood, London.

Always a country music fan, he started to write and release songs on his own Denver Records label and formed a band of his own, 'The Johnny McCauley Trio', which toured extensively in and around London. It was not long before his songs were being covered by a host of Irish singing stars. His blend of American country sounds with Irish-based lyrics proved a winning combination. The members of the Johnny McCauley Trio were Johnny McCauley (guitar and vocals), Johnny O'Shea (vocals and drums) and Paddy Kelly (vocals and accordion).

                                

Johnny gained a big reputation around the Irish community in London and was a very good songwriter. His song writing blossomed and he wrote some memorable hits for showbands. His first hit was Donegal Shore which helped launch the career of Daniel O’Donnell. He also wrote Four Country Roads for Big Tom, Among the Wicklow Hills for Larry Cunningham,(No.2 in the Irish Top Ten in 1966) and Pretty Little Girl from Omagh for Brian Coll (No.10 in 1969). Later Big Tom & The Mainliners scored their biggest ever success with the McCauley composition ‘Four Country Roads’, which reached no.5 in 1981. He has been credited with creating the Country and Irish sound which is still being used by bands and performers with great effect to this day. The song that was closest to his heart was his own composition Hometown on the Foyle.

As a small-scale operation, Denver Records was run single-handedly by McCauley until at least 1971, later involving his wife Phyllis, and it catered specifically to the cultural needs of Irish immigrants by producing affordable, accessible recordings that captured themes of homesickness and rural life. By the mid-1970s, distribution shifted to Selecta, but the label's output remained modest, with label designs evolving from black-on-yellow to silver-on-blue to distinguish UK and Irish pressings, reflecting its grassroots approach amid the competitive London music market. The venture underscored McCauley's entrepreneurial spirit, sustaining a dedicated audience until the label ceased trading around 1986.

His songs continue to be recorded and performed by many singers around the world. McCauley's nephew Paul McCauley recorded several of his songs and performed them during his solo shows in the late 1990s. Paul commented at the time how surprised he was that so many people throughout the country were so familiar with McCauley's music, and how it impacted upon people's lives. Paul said "it really is wonderful to think that Johnny created Irish country through his love of the American country scene".

McCauley's later output includes the 1998 compilation-style album Memory Store, issued on Four Roads Music as a CD with 18 tracks. It compiles key recordings from his career, including standout songs like "5000 Miles from Sligo" and "Pretty Little Girl from Omagh," which exemplify his song writing on themes of Irish heritage and emigration. This release serves as an accessible retrospective, though it draws primarily from earlier Denver-era material. A posthumous digital reissue was released in 2020.

In his later decades, McCauley resided in a London nursing home where he passed away on 22 March 2012. He was 86.

(Edited from Irish Independent, Tower Museum Collections & Grokipedia)

George "Harmonica" Smith born 22 April1924

George "Harmonica" Smith (born Allen George Smith, April 22, 1924* – October 2, 1983) was an American electric blues harmonica player. Apart from his solo recordings, Smith is best known for his work backing both Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton.

George Smith was born Allen George Washington* in Helena, Arkansas, but was raised in Cairo, Illinois. At age four, he was already taking harp lessons from his mother, a guitar player and a somewhat stern taskmaster. In his early teens, he started hoboing around towns in the South and eventually wound up playing fish fries and picnics in the Mississippi Delta with Earley Woods’ country band, with Woods on fiddle and Curtis Gould on spoons.

He also worked with a gospel group in Mississippi called the Jackson Jubilee Singers. From the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Smith travelled throughout the south. He moved to Rock Island, Illinois, in 1941 and played with a group that included Francis Clay on drums. There is evidence that he was one of the first to amplify his harp. While working at the Dixie Theatre, he took an old 16mm cinema projector, extracted the amplifier/speaker, and began using this on the streets.

He moved to Chicago and began playing professionally in 1951.His influences include Larry Adler and later, Little Walter. He played in a number of bands including one with a young guitarist named Otis Rush, and later went on the road with the Muddy Waters Band after replacing Henry Strong. In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip) heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith, and included "Telephone Blues" and "Blues in the Dark." The records were a success.

                                    

Smith travelled with Little Willie John and Champion Jack Dupree on one of the Universal Attractions tours. While on the tour, he recorded with Champion Jack Dupree in November of 1955 in Cincinnati, producing "Sharp Harp" and "Overhead Blues." The tour ended in Los Angeles and Smith settled down, spending the rest of his life in that city. By then rock and roll was starting to erode sales of blues records, and Smith, now a man with a growing family, was dropped by Modern. He hustled as best he could, playing the local clubs and recording for labels such as J&M, Lapel, Melker, and Caddy. Smith also adopted Rice Miller’s old trick of identity theft by billing himself under a variety stage names to get bigger crowds at gigs, including Harmonica King, Little Walter Junior and Big Walter. It proved a short-sighted choice; establishing a reputation under his real name would now be difficult.

Smith also worked with Big Mama Thornton on many shows. In 1960, Smith met producer Nat McCoy who owned the Sotoplay and Carolyn labels, and with whom he recorded ten singles under the name of George Allen. In 1966, while Muddy Waters was on the West Coast, he asked Smith to join him and they worked together for a while, recording for Spivey Records. His first album on World Pacific, A Tribute to Little Walter, was released in 1968. In 1969, Bob Thiele produced an excellent solo album of Smith on Bluesway, and later made use of Smith as a sideman for his Blues Times label, including sets with T-Bone Walker and Harmonica Slim. Smith met Rod Piazza, a young white harp player, and they formed the Southside Blues Band. 

In 1970 British producer Mike Vernon met the band, signed them to a European tour, and changed their name to Bacon Fat. They recorded a couple of albums for Vernon, but Smith still could not import his overseas success to Los Angeles and the group continued to struggle at home. The decade also saw a decline in his health as a heart condition worsened.

George Smith & William Clarke

He was less active in the '70s, appearing with Eddie Taylor and Big Mama Thornton. Around 1977, Smith became friends with William Clarke and they began gigging together. Boogie’n With George, Smith’s final recordings, were made with Rod Piazza in 1982. Their working relationship and friendship continued until Smith died of heart failure at the LAC-USC Medical Centre in Los Angeles, California, on October 2, 1983. Partly by luck, and partly by his own doing, he was underappreciated for many years, but recent reissues of his work will hopefully gain him his rightful place in the blues harp Pantheon.

(Edited from AllMusic, Masters of the Blues Harp & Wikipedia) (* according to Wirz Blues Discographies, he was born Allen George Washington on 5th April 1921)