Blues Search Engine: Bukka White

Booker T. Washington White (November 12, 1909 – February 26, 1977) was a delta blues guitarist and singer. "Bukka" is not a nickname, but a misspelling of White's Christian name by his second (1937) record company (Vocalion). Born near Houston, Mississippi, he gave his cousin B.B. King, a Stella guitar, B.B. King's first guitar. Bukka 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 Charley Patton early on, although some doubt has been cast upon this; regardless, Charley Patton was a large influence on White. He 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 Skip James did, from Henry Stuckey. He first recorded for the Victor 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: they 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 Bukka White. He and Fahey remained friends throughout White's life and he recorded a new album for Fahey's Takoma Records. Denson became his manager. White was, later in life, also friends with fellow musician Furry Lewis. The two recorded, mostly in Lewis' Memphis, Tennessee 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. Bukka White was heavily sampled by electronic artist Recoil for the track, Electro Blues For Bukka White, on the 1992 album, Bloodline; the song was reworked and re-released on the 2000 EP Jezebel. (quoted from wikipedia.org)