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