James Kinds born 23 April 1943

James Kinds (April 23, 1943 - Aug. 19, 2014) was a Chicago blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. 

James Kinds was born in the Blue Lake Plantation, Drew, Mississippi and the oldest of 12 children.. He ordered his first guitar from a Sears, Roebuck catalogue and taught himself how to play it. Kinds formed a gospel quartet, the Spirit of Joy when he was only 13. "We were some green boys, but we had that sound together:' he said. 

They never recorded but did perform on Clarksdale's WROX radio, championed by deejay Early Wright. Kinds had to turn down an offer a year later to join the famous Spirit of Memphis when his mother forbade him to go. "It did good until all of us got grown and started moving away to Chicago and Detroit, St. Louis: he said of the quartet.”And I was without a group. About a year later, I moved to Chicago." That was in 1959. 

The 16-year-old arrived in the Windy City with clear-cut goals."To go out on my own music, and to get somewhere where I could make me some money. I wasn't making no money in the South. I got to Chicago and got me a job and that was alright." At first he gravitated back to the church, joining the Soul Seekers. "I sung a little gospel in Chicago, but I wasn't obligated to no group:' he said. 

Kansas City Red

In the end however, the blues won out. Sitting in at drummer Kansas City Red's joint on West Lake Street started the ball rolling. "I heard about blues being there by word of mouth, and just went:' remembers James.”I picked one of the coldest nights in Chicago to go. And didn't nobody show up for the gig, nobody but the musicians. So we were sitting around the heater there, and they started doing songs. Red asked me, he said, 'Anybody in here know "Laundromat Blues"?' I said, 'I know it!' And he said, 'All right, let me hear you sing it!' I did, and he said, 'Well, bring your guitar Friday. You got a gig!" 

In addition to doing some work with Kansas City Red, Roy Hytower, Lee Shot Williams, Little Caesar, Johnny B. Moore, and Eddie King, Kinds had the opportunity to work with Blues legends Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, Ike Turner, Lonnie Brooks, and Bobby Rush. Kinds would become a regular at Walton's Corner and the 1815 Club on West Roosevelt Road and was a charter member when bassist Purvis Scott formed the Oasis in 1967. "I was working at Walton's Corner, and one of the guys, the bass man in there, he was part owner at the time. We just all got together, just started to playing together, doing different shows.” 

                                   

In 1977 Kinds debut single “Ada” was cut with Oasis at Ed Cody's studio on South Michigan Avenue and came out on the tiny Cloud-9 label, which James had a piece of. It endured as James' show stopping finale: He often roamed through his audience while belting its impassioned lyrics. "To tell you the truth, 'Ada' kept me above board for years. Everybody wanted to hear Ada: I was singing it from my heart” The song attracted international attention; he was named “Best Blues Artist” by Blues News magazine. Not long after the release of "Ada:' Kinds split for Los Angeles to work with Ike Turner at his Bolic Sound studios. The connection didn't work out too well. 

In 1977 Kinds was part of a European tour that included a show at the Berlin Jazz Festival as part of The New Generation of Chicago Blues Revue and was hosted by the legendary Willie Dixon. A Living Blues feature confidently declared, "The best new voice in Chicago may well belong to James Kinds: But unlike his co-stars Billy Branch, Lurrie Bell, and Johnny B. Moore, maintaining that high pro-file proved difficult for the singer, except on the West Side blues circuit that had long nurtured "the Kind Man's" dynamic, soul-tinged act. 

Kinds moved to Dubuque, Iowa, and eventually hooked up with a young trio, the All-Night Riders, James made three CDs for his own Full Clip label: 2004's Dirty Old Man (Down To Earth), the next year's The Blues Come Home, and Don't Get It Twisted in 2007. They performed at several fests including the Prairie Dog Blues Festival after which James and the Riders went their separate ways in 2008. That year he was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame. 

In 2007 Kevin Johnson of Delmark Records saw James playing at the Chicago Blues Festival and helped him get a recording contract with Delmark. This resulted in the 2010 album release of Love You From The Top, which included a number of excellent self-penned songs. While his long awaited dream of blues stardom seemed to be coming to fruition, James was all set to go on a triumphant European tour, but it was never to be as he suffered a stroke which resulted in battling health issues for the rest of his life. He died at the age of 70 years old in a care home on 19 August 2014 in Dubuque. 

(Edited from Living Blues, Liner notes and Wikipedia)