Robert Brown (July 31, 1927 – May 1973),
who performed as Smoky Babe, was an American
acoustic blues guitarist and singer, whose recording career was restricted to a couple of recording sessions in the early 1960s. He has been variously described as a
Louisiana blues,
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 ...
and blues revival musician.
His most noteworthy
recordings
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, r ...
are "Going Downtown Boogie" and "Ain't Got No Rabbit Dog".
Career
Brown was born in
Itta Bena, Mississippi
Itta Bena is a city in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,049 at the 2010 census. The town's name is derived from the Choctaw phrase ''iti bina'', meaning "forest camp". Itta Bena is part of the Greenwood, Mississipp ...
.
He was recorded by
Harry Oster of
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
in 1960 and 1961, and the results were released by the Folk Lyric,
Bluesville and
Storyville labels.
Other than his recordings, little is known of his life. The circumstances of his death are unclear. Some sources report that he died in June 1975,
but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc have stated that he probably died in May 1973 in Scotlandville,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...
.
His song, "Boogy", is included on the
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
''Blues Roots: Give Me the Blues'' (1979), and "Hottest Brand Goin'" and "Locomotive Blues" are included in the collection ''The Bluesville Years, Vol. 9: Down the Country Way'' (1998).
Discography
*''Smoky Babe and His Friends: Hot Blues'' (1961), Folk-Lyric,
77 Records
77 Records was a British record company and label established in 1957 by Doug Dobell, the proprietor of 'Dobell's Jazz Record Shop' at 77 Charing Cross Road, London. The label specialised in folk, blues, and jazz.
Several British jazz musici ...
,
Arhoolie
*''Hottest Brand Goin (1961), Bluesville (Reissued on CD as ''The Blues of Smokey Babe'')
*Smoky Babe,
Herman E. Johnson, ''Louisiana Country Blues'' (1997), Arhoolie
*''Smoky Babe: Way Back in the Country Blues'' (2014), Arhoolie
References
External links
Smoky Babe recordings at archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smoky Babe
1927 births
1973 deaths
People from Itta Bena, Mississippi
Blues musicians from Mississippi
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American blues singers
Blues revival musicians
Louisiana blues musicians
Piedmont blues musicians
20th-century American singers
20th-century American guitarists
Singers from Louisiana
Guitarists from Louisiana
Guitarists from Mississippi
20th-century American male singers