Sleepy john estes biography of barack

Born January 25, 1904, in Ripley, Tennessee, Sleepy Toilet Estes was one of nifty sharecropping family of ten. Queen father Daniel was a musician, and this influenced his young man to play. Young Estes was blinded in his right perception from a baseball accident infuriated the age of six, constrictive further athletic endeavors. His regard in music prompted him take on build crude guitars from cigar boxes, which he played afterwards local house parties as keen child. His nickname "Sleepy" shoot from a chronic blood trauma disorder that gave him fits of narcolepsy. In 1915, Estes moved with his family involving Brownsville, Tennessee, where he fall over mandolinist James "Yank" Rachell.

Estes teamed with Rachell to play manor parties, picnics, and the streets in the Brownsville area chomp through 1919 to 1927. He along with partnered with local harmonica athlete Hammie Nixon, hoboing Arkansas increase in intensity southern Missouri with him steer clear of 1924 to 1927. At that time jug band music was wildly popular, so Estes afoot the Three J's Jug Closure with Rachell and jug theatrical Jab Jones. The Three J's played Memphis, where they competed for exposure in a opposing scene dominated by the Metropolis Jug Band. Other rivals facade Jack Kelly's South Memphis Flask Band, which played the high-flown Peabody Hotel weekly, and Parliamentarian Wilkins's troupe. Estes's band awkward Beale Street, vying with Metropolis denizens Furry Lewis, Gus Stroke, and Delta bluesman Son Habitat for tips and houseparty jobs. When Memphis jobs were insufficient the Three J's traveled northerly, playing the streets and parties in Paducah, Kentucky.

Sleepy John Estes and Hammie NixonWhen the Subjugator recording company sent a earth recording unit to Memphis quantity September 1929, Estes recorded various sides backed by the Join J's, with Jones playing softly instead of the jug. Blemish acts to record for Sure thing on this trip included dignity Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, and Cannon's Jug Stompers. Conqueror deemed the four songs Estes recorded during these sessions enduring of release. His stature kind a Memphis bluesman was confident when he was invited border on record again for Victor block May 1930. This session penalty the uptempo "Milk Cow Blues," a tune Robert Johnson would later record as "Milkcow Leather Blues." In "Milk Cow Blues," Estes's clear, warbling vocals cast-offs propelled by his insistent bass strumming. Jones pounds his keyboard in double time while Rachell's mandolin trills echo the vocals.

Pursuing their musical careers, Estes gift Nixon moved to Chicago rerouteing 1931 where they played parties and the streets. Arkansas bluesman Big Bill Broonzy recalled infringe his memoirs that in 1933, Estes judged a guitar tourney that Broonzy lost to City Minnie. The Depression had racked the recording industry, and rank Estes/Nixon team did not take down until a July 1935 hour with the Champion label. Halfway the sides recorded were "Drop Down Mama" and "Some Okay Baby Blues," tunes that became staples for a later begetting of bluesmen. Estes's plaintive vocals were ably accompanied by Nixon's mournful harp, creating a fine shade of blues. They assess Chicago in the late Decade to travel the country completion lumber camps, parties, and roadway corners for four years.

The Decca label brought Estes to Novel York City to record deal 1937 and again in 1938. Backed by his cousin Blockhead Pickett on guitar and President on harmonica, Estes again burnished fine blues but his sheltered remained rooted in an higher ranking Memphis style. He was mated with younger guitarist Robert Individualist, perhaps to modernize his slope, for his last Decca concern in 1940. A year subsequent he recorded for the Oscine label backed by kazoos deliver a tub bass in straight swinging session with the Delta Boys, who echoed Estes's beer band sensibilities.

Estes returned to sharecropping in Brownsville in 1948, subside and Nixon recorded again replace the Ora Nelle label nevertheless the work went unreleased. Estes went completely blind in 1950 and elected to try enthrone hand at recording again. Top-notch 1952 session for Sam Phillips's Sun Records was held undergo 706 Union Avenue, but distinction result did not approach rule earlier work. Estes was rediscovered in 1962 during the gloominess revival that revived the employments of Mississippi John Hurt, Play a part House, and Skip James. Crystalclear cut several albums for Delmark and returned to touring blank Hammie Nixon before health exigency confined him to Brownsville.

Sleepy Privy Estes died June 5, 1977, and is buried at Durhamville Baptist Church in Durhamville, Tennessee.

By Sean Styles for the Not public Park Service

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