Baby Boy Warren (August 13, 1919 – July 1, 1977) was an American blues singer and guitarist who was a leading figure on the
Detroit blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narra ...
scene in the 1950s.
Early life
He was born Robert Henry Warren in Lake Providence, Louisiana, in 1919, and at the age of three months moved with his parents to
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
.Harris, S. (1981). ''Blues Who's Who''. New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 534–535. He was interested in music from an early age and was working occasionally as a musician from around 1931, when he dropped out of school, having learned to play guitar from two of his older brothers.Russell, T.; Smith, C. (2006). ''The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings''. London:
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Howling Wolf, Robert Jr. Lockwood and
Little Buddy Doyle
Little Buddy Doyle (born March 20, 1911; died c. 1960) was an American Memphis blues and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of the harmonica players Big Walter Horton and Hammie Nixon, the guitarist David ...
and he appeared on the radio show ''
King Biscuit Time
:''"King Biscuit Time" is also the name under which ex- Beta Band frontman Steve Mason releases his solo work.''
''King Biscuit Time'' is the longest-running daily American radio broadcast in history. The program is broadcast each weekday from ...
'', broadcast from
Helena, Arkansas
Helena is the eastern portion of Helena–West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phillips, an early settler of Phillips County and the n ...
, with Sonny Boy Williamson around 1941. In 1942, he moved to Detroit, where he worked for General Motors while also performing as a musician.
Recordings
Warren's first recording sessions were in 1949 and 1950 in Detroit, with the five resulting singles being released on a number of labels.Leadbitter, M.; Fancourt, L.; Pelletier, P. (1994). ''Blues Records 1943–1970'', vol. 2, L–Z. London: Record Information Services. pp. 674–675. Tracks recorded at a 1954 session accompanied by Sonny Boy Williamson were released on Joe Von Battle's JVB label and by
Excello Records Excello Records was an American blues independent record label, started by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, in 1953 as a subsidiary of Nashboro, a gospel label.
History
It recorded such artists as Lonnie Brooks, Lightnin' Slim ...
. Further sessions the same year resulted in a single on the Blue Lake label, with
Boogie Woogie Red
Boogie Woogie Red (October 18, 1925 – July 2, 1992) was an American Detroit blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, singer and songwriter. At different times he worked with Sonny Boy Williamson I, Washboard Willie, Baby Boy Warren, Lonnie John ...
on piano and Calvin Frazier on guitar, and a reworking of the
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
Warren was mostly inactive in music in the 1960s but revived his career with performances at the Detroit Blues Festival in 1971 and the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1973 and with a tour of Europe with Boogie Woogie Red in 1972. From 1974 to 1976 he was also a featured performer, along with Willie D. Warren, with the Progressive Blues Band, a popular band that played in many of Detroit's blues venues.
He suffered a fatal heart attack at his home on July 1, 1977, and was buried at Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery in
Macomb County, Michigan
Macomb County ( ) is a county located in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Michigan, bordering Lake St. Clair, and is part of northern Metro Detroit. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 881,217, making it the third-most populous c ...
.
Personal information
Warren was given the nickname "Baby Boy" by his older brothers when he was a child. He was one of twelve children. He married twice, in 1935 and in the early 1960s, and had seven children. On releases by Staff Records,
Federal Records
Federal Records was an American record label founded in 1950 as a subsidiary of Syd Nathan's King Records and based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was run by famed record producer Ralph Bass and was mainly devoted to Rhythm & Blues releases. The compa ...
Little Buddy Doyle
Little Buddy Doyle (born March 20, 1911; died c. 1960) was an American Memphis blues and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of the harmonica players Big Walter Horton and Hammie Nixon, the guitarist David ...
and Willie "61" Blackwell, especially in his approach to lyrics. He stated that another musician he particularly admired was
Memphis Minnie
Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being "Wh ...
, whom he knew in Memphis in the 1930s.Garon, P.; Garon, B. (1992). ''Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues''. New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 4, 197. ''The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings'' described him as having brought "a hip, literate humour to the blues lyric".