Three Blues Men From Carolina

My favorite classic blues men are mostly unknown Funnily enough, these three artists were South Carolina based. Floyd Council, Pink Anderson (who inspired the name Pink Floyd) and Scrapper Blackwell.

Floyd Council wasn't really well recorded as an artist under his own name, but sometimes appeared in recording sessions backing 'celebrities' like Blind Boy Fuller, another South Carolina man. His picking style was quite complex and was a combination of ragtime and a Texas acoustic style.

Pink Anderson (I don't think they ever collaborated or even crossed each others path!) was a ragtime player and performed in wandering medicine shows.

Scrapper Blackwell was an incredibly creative guitarist and produced several memorable pieces, like Blues Before Sunrise and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out.

His song 'Kokomo Blues' was made famous by Robert Johnson by the title 'Sweet Home Chicago'. Scrapper created classics which were to inspire later giants of blues music.

Floyd Council (Born September 2nd, 1911 and died May 9, 1976) became a well-known performer of the Piedmont ragtime blues sound, which was popular all through the southeastern region of the Unites States during the nineteen thirties.

Floyd began playing during the nineteen twenties, performing with the brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd as "The Chapel Hillbillies". He also recorded at sessions with Blind Fuller during the thirties. His throat became partially immobilized after suffering a stroke in the 60s, but it seemed that his mind was unaffected. Unfortunately, he never recovered his playing skills.

Council died in 1976 after his heart failed, a little while after going to live in Sanford, N Carolina.

Pink Anderson

Pink was born and raised Greenville South Carolina. After training himself himself in some popular instruments, he joined Dr. Frank Kerr, who ran a little 'business' which operated under the name of the Indian Remedy Company in nineteen fourteen to sing for the audiences while Kerr sold his home made 'medicine'.

In the vicinity of Spartanburg, Anderson Simeon "Blind Simmie" Dooley in 1916, who taught him how to finger pick blues guitar - Pink previously had some experience of performing in string bands. When Anderson was not performing in Dr Kerr's medicine show, he and Dooley would play to small gatherings?. ?

Problems with his heart eventually forced Anderson to stop traveling in nineteen fifty seven.

Suffering a stroke in 1954, which forced him to virtually stop performing, and he would never again play with with the same skill. He passed away in October 1974, after a heart attack at the age of 74. He is interred in Spartanburg, where he was born. Anderson's son, known as Little Pink Anderson, plays the blues in Vermillion, South Dakota.


Scrapper Blackwell

Born in Syracuse, Carolina, Scrapper Blackwell was one of sixteen children. Partly Cherokee Indian, he grew up and spent the majority of his years in Indianapolis. He was given the familiar name, "Scrapper", by his grandma, due to his fiery nature. His father played the fiddle, but Scrapper taught himself how to play the guitar.

During his teens, Blackwell was a part-time musician, traveling as far away as Chicago. He was a sullen man, generally keeping to himself and difficult to get along with. In spite of this, Blackwell put together a partnership with pianist Leroy Carr, whom he met in Indiana in the 1920s, which became a musically creative working relationship.

Blackwell also recorded by himself, including "Kokomo Blues" which was transformed into "Old Kokomo Blues" (Kokomo Arnold) before it was transformed again into "Sweet Home Chicago" by Robert Johnson. Blackwell and Carr toured throughout the mid-west and in the South between 1928 to 1935 - they were the 'rock stars' of the blues scene, recording over one hundred tracks.

After Carr's death, Blackwell went back to music during the late 1950s and was first recorded in June 1958 by Colin C. Pomroy.

He was going to resume his blues career when he was shot and killed during a robbery in an Indianapolis alley. He was 59. Although the crime was never solved, police took into custody his neighbor for the murder. Scrapper was buried in New Crown Cemetery, Indianapolis.

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