Floyd Council (September 2, 1911 – May 9, 1976) 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 ...

guitarist, mandolin player, and singer. He was a practitioner of the

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 ...

, which was popular in the

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

in the 1920s and 1930s. He was sometimes credited as Dipper Boy Council and promoted as "The Devil's Daddy-in-Law".

Biography

Born in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

, United States, to Harrie and Lizzie Council, he began his musical career on the streets of Chapel Hill in the 1920s, performing with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd, as the Chapel Hillbillies. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he and

Blind Boy Fuller Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen, July 10, 1904February 13, 1941) was an American blues guitarist and singer. Fuller was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists, rural African Americans, along with Blind Blake, Josh Wh ...

busked in the Chapel Hill area. Council recorded twice for ARC at sessions with Fuller in the mid-1930s, all examples of the Piedmont style. Council married Pearly Mae Farrington, daughter of Libert and Annie Farrington of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Council suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

in the late 1960s, which partially paralyzed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills, but did not significantly damage his cognitive abilities. The folklorist Peter B. Lowry attempted to record him one afternoon in 1970, but Council never regained his singing or playing abilities. Accounts say that he remained sharp in mind. Council died in 1976 of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

, after moving to

Sanford, North Carolina Sanford is a city in Lee County, North Carolina, Lee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 30,261 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lee County. History Sanford was named for C.O. Sanford, a railroad civil engineer i ...

. He was buried at White Oak AME Zion Cemetery in Sanford. In 2014 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Floyd Council.

The Floyd in Pink Floyd

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...

, of the English

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

, created the band's name by juxtaposing the first names of Council and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

bluesman

Pink Anderson Pinkney "Pink" Anderson (February 12, 1900 – October 12, 1974) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Life and career Anderson was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and raised in nearby Greenville and Spartanburg. He joined Dr. William ...

, having noticed the names in the liner notes of a 1962 album by

(Philips BBL-7512), written by the blues historian

Paul Oliver Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that aficion ...

: "

Curley Weaver Curley James Weaver (March 25, 1906 – September 20, 1962) was an American blues musician, also known as Slim Gordon. Biography Early years Weaver was born in Covington, Georgia, and raised on a farm near Porterdale. His mother, Savannah "Dip" ...

and

Fred McMullen Fred McMullen (born c. 1905; date of death unknown) was an American blues singer and guitarist known to be active in the 1930s. He recorded with the guitarists Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss in 1933, after which there is no definitive documentation ...

, ... Pink Anderson or Floyd Council—these were a few amongst the many blues singers that were to be heard in the rolling hills of the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, or meandering with the streams through the wooded valleys."

Discography

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

are available which exclusively feature Council's work. The CD ''Carolina Blues'' features six songs he recorded: "I'm Grievin' and I'm Worryin'", "I Don't Want No Hungry Woman", "Lookin' for My Baby", "Poor and Ain't Got a Dime", "Runaway Man Blues" and "Working Man Blues". In a 1969 interview, Council stated he had recorded 27 songs over his career, seven of them backing

. Fuller's ''Complete Recorded Works'' contains many songs with Council playing guitar.

Notes

References

* Harris, Sheldon (1994). ''Blues Who's Who''. Rev. ed. New York: Da Capo Press. .
Introducing Floyd Council

*

External links

* * *

Floyd Council Memorial Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Council, Floyd 1911 births 1976 deaths African-American guitarists American blues mandolinists American blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists Singers from North Carolina People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina American mandolinists 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from North Carolina 20th-century African-American male singers