Henry Franklin "Dick" Justice (April 2, 1903 – September 12, 1962) 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

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

musician, who hailed from

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, United States.

Biography

Born Henry Franklin Justice, he recorded ten songs for

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing produ ...

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

in 1929. Justice was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly

Luke Jordan Luke Jordan (January 28, 1892 or November 1893 – June 25, 1952) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist of some renown, particularly in the area of his home, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Biography Sources conflict on Jordan's birthplace. S ...

, who recorded in 1927 and 1929 for

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

. Justice's "Cocaine" is a verse-for-verse cover of the Jordan track of the same name recorded two years earlier. The song "Brownskin Blues" is also stylistically akin to much of Jordan's work but stands on its own as a Justice original. Justice is musically related to

Frank Hutchison Frank Hutchison (March 20, 1897 – November 9, 1945) was an American early country blues and Piedmont blues musician and songwriter. Okeh Records promotional materials referred to him as “The Pride of West Virginia,” and he is thought to ...

(with whom he played music and worked as a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

Logan County, West Virginia Logan County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,567. Its county seat is Logan. Logan County comprises the Logan, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Charl ...

Bayless Rose Bayless Rose (May 4, 1890 – April 27, 1986) was an American singer and guitarist who recorded for Gennett Records in 1930. Although the music industry was highly segregated at the time, it is uncertain whether he was White or African American. ...

and

The Williamson Brothers Arnold and Ervin Williamson (better known as The Williamson Brothers) were folk musicians based in Logan County, West Virginia, United States active in the 1920s and 30s. Arnold played the fiddle while Ervin played the guitar and did vocals. The ...

. His recording of the traditional ballad " Henry Lee" was the opening track of Harry Smith's ''

Anthology of American Folk Music ''Anthology of American Folk Music'' is a three-album compilation, released in 1952 by Folkways Records, of eighty-four recordings of American folk, blues and country music made and issued from 1926 to 1933 by a variety of performers. The album wa ...

''. Justice recorded four sides ("Guian Valley Waltz" and "Poor Girl's Waltz", "Muskrat Rag" and "Poca River Blues") with the

fiddler A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Although in many ...

Reese Jarvis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Justice, Dick 1903 births 1962 deaths 20th-century American musicians American street performers Blues musicians from West Virginia Brunswick Records artists Folk musicians from West Virginia