Fred McDowell

Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee. His parents, who were farmers, died when he was a youth. He started playing guitar at the age of 14 and played at dances around Rossville. Wanting a change from plowing fields, he moved to Memphis in 1926, where he worked in the Buck-Eye feed mill, which processed cotton into oil and other products. He also had a number of other jobs and played music for tips. In 1928 he moved to Mississippi to pick cotton. He finally settled in Como, Mississippi, about 40 miles south of Memphis, in 1940 or 1941 (or maybe the late 1950s)......

The 1950s brought a rising interest in blues and folk music in the United States, and McDowell was brought to wider public attention, beginning when he was discovered and recorded in 1959 by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins. His records were popular, and he performed often at festivals and clubs.....McDowell continued to perform blues in the north Mississippi style much as he had for decades, but he sometimes performed on electric guitar rather than acoustic guitar. While he famously declared, "I do not play no rock and roll," he was not averse to associating with younger rock musicians. He coached Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar technique and was reportedly flattered by the Rolling Stones' rather straightforward version of his "You Gotta Move" on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. In 1965 he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival, together with Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Roosevelt Sykes and others. (Read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel
Fred McDowell recorded a session for Night Ride during a tour of Britain in early 1969. It was broadcast on the first anniversary edition of the programme, on 05 March 1969, and although it hasn't achieved the hstoric status of Son House's Top Gear session of the following year, it was seen as an important event in the country blues boom which was reflected on Peel's late-night programmes of 1968-69. It is highlighted in Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions as a "One Session Wonder" (p.51), and although Peel is quoted as saying that "he was disappointed not to have been able to have been able to attend the session, because he's first heard McDowell on albums recorded at his home on albums recorded by Alan Lomax many years before", the recordings made for Lomax appeared on compilation LPs - the "Southern Folk Heritage Series" of Lomax's field recordings, issued by Atlantic Records in 1960. However, the Fred McDowell tracks on these made a big impression, so the bluesman was soon able to record solo albums for specialist labels Peel followed (Arhoolie, Testament, Bounty). Therefore, the DJ was well aware of his work. But unlike many country blues originals, McDowell had begun to accompany himself on electric guitar, and this can be heard on his Peel session as well as on the LPs he recorded in London soon afterwards.

tbc

Sessions

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Other Shows Played
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