Arbee Perkins Stidham (February 9, 1917– April 26, 1988) was
an American blues singer and multi-instrumentalist, active mostly in the late
1940s and 1950s
He was born in De Valls Bluff, Arkansas, to a musical family.
His father, Luddie Stidham, played with Jimmie Lunceford, and his uncle briefly
led the Memphis Jug Band. Arbie learned to play the harmonica, clarinet and
saxophone while enrolled at the Prairie County Training School. As a child he
attended Dunbar High in Little Rock and his first group the Southern
Syncopators, played radio sessions around Kansas and Tennessee. They even
backed Bessie Smith on tour in 1930 and
1931.
Stidham frequently performed in Little Rock and Memphis
until he moved to Chicago in the '40s where he met the legendary scout and
producer Lester Melrose, who signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor
in 1947.His first session yielded his only hit "My Heart Belongs to You”,
which featured extraordinary sidemen such as King Curtis and Leonard Gaskin. It
spent 6 months on Billboard’s R&B chart, reaching No. 1 in June 1948. Stidham
often recorded with Sax Mallard during this period. His Victor years ended in
March 1950.
He spent the rest of his career trying to achieve the same
success, recording for Checker, States, and other independent record labels as
a jazz-influenced blues vocalist, but injuries sustained in a car accident
during the 50’s made it impossible for him to play the saxophone, so he took up
the guitar, under the tutelage of Big Bill Broonzy..
Stidham performed in the long running musical revue “I Come
For To Sing” and gigged regularly at the Club Zanzibar. He recorded for the Abco
label and appeared with the lefty Gates Band. In 1960 and 1961 he rcorded for
Folkways with Memphis Slim, showcasing his T-Bone Walker influenced guitar and
wailing tenor voice.
He occasionally lectured on the blues at Cleveland State
University in the 1970s and later in life he returned to Cook County where he died
on April 26, 1988, in Cook County, Illinois, aged 71.
(Edited from chicagoreader)
