Arthur Blake (1896 – December 1, 1934), known as Blind Blake, was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made for

Paramount Records Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Early years Paramount Records was formed in 19 ...

between 1926 and 1932.

Early life

Little is known of Blake's life. Promotional materials from

indicate he was born blind and give his birthplace as

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, and it seems that he lived there during various periods. He may have had relatives in

Patterson, Georgia Patterson is a city in Pierce County, Georgia, United States. The population was 730 at the 2010 census. History Patterson was named after William Paterson, the proprietor of a local sawmill. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Patterson ...

. Some authors have written that in one recording he slipped into a

Geechee The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...

(

Gullah The Gullah () are an African Americans, African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain ...

) dialect, suggesting a connection with the

Sea Islands The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States. Numbering over 100, they are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Carolina, ...

Blind Willie McTell Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont b ...

indicated that Blake's real name was Arthur Phelps, but later research has shown this is unlikely to be correct.Balfour, Alan. CD liner notes. ''Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order'', vol. 4, ''August 1929 to June 1932''. DOCD–5027. Document Records, 1991. In 2011, a group of researchers led by Alex van der Tuuk published various documents regarding Blake's life and death in the journal ''Blues & Rhythm''. One of these documents is his 1934 death certificate, which states he was born in 1896 in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

, to Winter and Alice Blake (his mother's name is followed by a question mark). Nothing else is known of Blake until the 1920s, when he emerged as a recording musician.

Career

Blake recorded about 80 tracks for

from 1926 to 1932. He was one of the most accomplished guitarists of his genre and played a diverse range of material. He is best known for his distinctive guitar playing, which was comparable in sound and style to

piano. He may have lived in Jacksonville, going to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

for his recording sessions. According to van der Tuuk et al., he returned to Florida for the winter. In the 1930s he was reported to be playing in front of a Jacksonville hotel.

Personal life

Blake married Beatrice McGee around 1931. In the following year he made his final recording at the Paramount headquarters, in

Grafton, Wisconsin Grafton is a village in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. Located about north of Milwaukee and in close proximity to Interstate 43, it is a suburban community in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The village incorporated in 1896, and a ...

, just before the label went out of business.

Death

For decades nothing was known of him after this point, and it was rumored that he met with a violent death.

Reverend Gary Davis Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infancy ...

heard he had been hit by a

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

in 1934 and

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...

thought that he had frozen to death after falling over drunk during a Chicago blizzard and was too overweight to get back up. The research of van der Tuuk et al. suggests that Blake stayed in Wisconsin, living in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

's Brewer's Hill neighborhood, where Paramount boarded many of its artists. He seems not to have found work as a musician. In April 1933, he was hospitalized with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

and never fully recovered. On December 1, 1934, after three weeks of decline, Beatrice Blake summoned an ambulance. He had a

pulmonary hemorrhage Pulmonary hemorrhage (or pulmonary haemorrhage) is an acute bleeding from the lung, from the upper respiratory tract and the trachea, and the pulmonary alveoli. When evident clinically, the condition is usually massive.

and died on the way to the hospital. The cause of death was listed as

pulmonary tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

. He was buried in Glen Oaks Cemetery, in Glendale, Wisconsin in a previously unmarked grave.

Music

Blake's first recordings were made in 1926, and his records sold well. His first solo record was "Early Morning Blues", with "West Coast Blues" on the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

. Both are considered excellent examples of his ragtime-based guitar style and were prototypes for the burgeoning

Piedmont blues Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melo ...

. Blake made his last recordings in 1932; his career ended with Paramount's bankruptcy. Stefan Grossman and Gayle Dean Wardlow have suggested it is possible that only one side of Blake's last record is actually by him; "Champagne Charlie Is My Name" does not sound like Blake's playing or singing." His complex and intricate fingerpicking inspired

Jorma Kaukonen Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist J ...

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...

Arlen Roth Arlen Roth (born October 30, 1952) is an American guitarist, teacher, and author. From 1982 to 1992, he was a columnist for ''Guitar Player'' magazine. Those ten years of columns became a book, ''Hot Guitar''. His father Al Ross (Abraham Roth) ...

, John Fahey,

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (19 ...

, David Bromberg,

Leon Redbone Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian; August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019) was a singer-songwriter and musician specializing in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley classics. Recognized by his hat (often a Panama hat), dark sunglasses, and black tie, Red ...

and many others.

, hearing Blake in person the early 1920s, said of his guitar playing "He made it sound like every instrument in the band- saxophone, trombone, clarinets, bass fiddles, pianos- everything. I never had seed then and I haven't to this day yet seed no one that could take his natural fingers and pick as much guitar as Blind Blake."Lomax, Alan., 'The Land Where The Blues Began', Minerva, 1993, pp.443 The track "You Gonna Quit Me" from

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

's 1992 album ''

Good as I Been to You ''Good as I Been to You'' is the 28th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on November 3, 1992, by Columbia Records. It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, ac ...

'' is a cover of Blind Blake's "You Gonna Quit Me Blues."

Compilations

* ''The Legendary Blind Blake'' (Ristic, 1958) * ''Blues in Chicago'' (

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

, 1964) * ''Guitar and Vocal'' (Jazz Collector, 1968) * ''Bootleg Rum Dum Blues 1926–1930'' ( Biograph, 1968) * ''Search Warrant Blues 1926–32'' (Biograph, 1970) * ''No Dough Blues 1926–29'' (Biograph, 1971) * ''That Lovin' I Crave'' (Biograph, 1974) * ''Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker'' (DLP, 1984) * ''Blind Blake 1926–29'' (Matchbox, 1986) * ''The Accompanist (1926-1931)'' (Wolf, 1989) * ''Complete Recorded Works'', vols. 1–4 (

Document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" or ...

, 1991) * ''The Master of Ragtime Guitar, The Essential Recordings'' (Indigo, 1996) * ''Georgie Bound'' (Catfish, 1999) * ''The Best of Blind Blake'' ( Yazoo, 2000) * ''The Essential Blind Blake'' (Document, 2002) * ''All the Published Sides'' ( JSP, 2003) * ''Blind Blake'' (

Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon c ...

, 2004) * ''The Best of Blind Blake'' (

Collectables A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

, 2006) * ''Southern Rag'' (Snapper, 2008) * ''The Complete Recordings'' (

P-Vine P-Vine Records is an independent record label based in Tokyo, Japan. History It was started in 1976 by Blues Interactions, a firm founded in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi and Akira Kochi, as a record label focused on black music. The label name c ...

, 2008) * ''The Best of Blind Blake'' (P-Vine, 2008) * ''No Dough Blues'' (Pristine, 2009) * ''Back Biting Bee Blues'' (Monk, 2009) * ''True Revolution'' (KRG, 2011) * ''The Rough Guide to Blues Legends: Blind Blake'' (

World Music Network World Music Network is a UK-based record label specializing in world music. The World Music Network website features news, reviews, live music listings, and guide sections on world music. It also features an online "Battle of the Bands" compet ...

, 2013)

In literature

Blake figures in the plot of

Lee Child James Dover Grant (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British author who writes thriller novels, and is best known for his ''Jack Reacher'' novel series. The books follow the adventures of a former American ...

's first

Jack Reacher Jack Reacher is the protagonist of a series of crime thriller novels by British author Lee Child. In the stories, Jack Reacher was a major in the US Army's military police. Having left the Army at age 36, Reacher roams the United States, t ...

novel, '' Killing Floor'' (1997), and there are references to him in Child's 2011

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

, '' The Affair''. Reference to Blake is made again in '' The Sentinel'' (2020), written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child, when Jack Reacher is on the lookout for venues in Nashville, 'where Blind Blake could have played'. Blake's original recording of "Diddy Wah Diddy" is referenced on the cover of

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

's ''

Zap Comix ''Zap Comix'' is an underground comix series which was originally part of the youth counterculture of the late 1960s. While a few small-circulation self-published satirical comic books had been printed prior to this, ''Zap'' became the model for ...

'' #1.

In television

"Blind Blake" and his song "Police Dog Blues" appear in '' Reacher'', Season 1, the TV series based on Lee Child's novel, ''Killing Floor''. The main character Jack Reacher (a blues lover) arrives at the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia looking for some trace of Blake.

References

External links

Illustrated Blind Blake discography
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Blind 1896 births 1934 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Piedmont blues musicians Country blues musicians Chicago blues musicians American ragtime musicians Songster musicians Country blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists Tuberculosis deaths in Wisconsin Blind musicians Paramount Records artists Musicians from Jacksonville, Florida Guitarists from Florida Guitarists from Illinois African-American guitarists