Featured Blues Artist: Bo Carter

Bo Carter (1893-1964)

Heroes of the Blues Trading Tee Card #36

Art by R. Crumb, Text by Stephen Calt

Armenter Chatmon, better known as Bo Carter, was raised in Bolton, Mississippi. He learned guitar in the early 1900's, played bass viol in a family string band led by his brother, Lonnie Chatmon, in the 1910's, and later joined the Mississippi Sheiks. Carter's career as a street singer was largely imposed by the blindness that afflicted him in the late 1920's. Between 1930 and 1940, he recorded 105 titles, many notable for their musical sophistication and for the clever sexual innuendo of their lyrics.

Enjoy 15% off this week on all Bo Carter t-shirts, no coupon code required, discount will be applied at checkout.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this Keep on Truckin' Apparel exclusive t-shirt will be donated to the Music Maker Relief Foundation.

Image copyright of Shanachie Entertainment Corp.

R. Crumb Illustration of Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe

Lizzie Douglas, born in Algiers, Louisiana, was raised in Memphis, and learned guitar at the age of eleven. As Kid Douglas, she toured the South from 1916 onward, returning to Memphis in the late 1920's under the name Memphis Minnie. An accomplished guitarist and gifted song-writer, she recorded over 150 sides between 1929-1941. Most were solo blues, but she also teamed for duets with her second husband, guitarist Kansas Joe McCoy, and her third husband, guitarist Little Son Joe Lawlar. Memphis Minnie was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980.

R. Crumb of underground comics fame immortalized Memphis Minnie, as well as 35 other early great musicians and singers who were among the first to record the Blues,when creating the original “Heroes of the Blues” Trading Card Set for Yazoo Records in 1980.

In 2010 Keep On Truckin' Apparel of Carlton, Oregon negotiated the rights to reproduce these amazing portraits on t-shirts and hoodies. A portion of the proceeds from each sale is donated to Music Makers Relief Foundation so you can support the blues while wearing the blues.

Featured Blues Artists: Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell

Leroy Carr (1905-1935)
Scrapper Blackwell (1903-1962)

Heroes of the Blues Trading Tee Card #8

Art by R. Crumb, Text by Stephen Calt

Leroy Carr, one of the first blues singers to use understated vocal delivery, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1905. Francis (Scrapper) Blackwell was born in 1903 and learned guitar in childhood, eventually developing a delicate vibrato blended with string-snapping. The Indianapolis-based team of Carr and Blackwell popularized the piano-guitar blues duet. They made more than one hundred sides between 1928 and Carr's death in 1935, including the famous "How Long Blues."

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this Keep on Truckin' Apparel exclusive t-shirt will be donated to Music Maker Relief Foundation.

Image copyright of Shanachie Entertainment Corp.