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BIO
b. January 12, 1904 in Rossville, Tennesee
d. July 3, 1972 in Memphis, Tennessee
In the spoken introduction to the Capital Blues Collection I Don't Play No Rock 'N' Roll Mississippi Fred Mc Dowell says, " My type of blues, I play it with a bottleneck, you understand, see - rib what come out of a steak." Mississippi Fred later switched to a glass bottleneck because "it get's more clear sound out of it." McDowell is a classic bottleneck slide guitar player that made an impact on this blues lover many years ago. Man this guy can make that "bone" talk.
McDowell is a master of Delta country blues and the slide guitar. In my pilgrimage to discover true slide blues guitar players…it was either Fred McDowell or Furry Lewis who was the first true country blues slide guitar player that I heard…but it was Fred McDowell that captured a sound that has inspired the likes of Bonnie Raitt and the Rolling Stones. His approach is not complex, but it has the feel. Some players can play the notes…Fred not only can play with feeling, but he also plays with that touch. Fred McDowell is the real deal, he was true to his Delta roots and stayed with his path his entire career.
Fred was born in 1904 in Rossville, Tennessee (McDowell didn't mind that they called him Mississippi since he ultimately settled in Mississippi in 1940). In his younger years, during the 1920's, he played for tips in Memphis. Finding that the musician hobo life wasn't for him, he settled down in Mississippi-- farming during the week-- and playing house parties, fish fries, and dances near his home for a few dollars and a little something to drink on the weekends.
It is hard to believe he wasn't recorded until folklorist Alan Lomax discovered him in 1959 and recorded him as a part of the American folk music series on Atlantic. Fred continued farming and playing for tips until Chris Strachwitz went looking for Fred in 1964 and recorded "Fred McDowell. Volume 1 and Volume 2" on Arhoolie (now issued as Mississippi Delta Blues). Things really took off after these recordings.
Fred enjoyed performing dates at coffeehouses, the Newport Folk Festival, and became a member of the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe. The Rolling Stones invited him to Europe and the story goes that they bought him a silver-lame suit that he wore home to Como and was eventually buried in it.
McDowell's covers of "Baby Please Don't Go," "Good Morning Little School Girl," and "Jesus Is On The Mainline" are classic delta style slide guitar classics. I'm sure Ry Cooder was influenced by McDowell's expressive slide playing.
Cub Coda said, "right to the end, the man remained true to his word: he didn't play no rock "n" roll, just straight, natural blues." Man that guy could play some natural slide. Give Bonnie Raitt a listen and you will hear McDowell's influence all over her work.
Recommended Recordings
1. Mississippi Delta Blues - Arhoolie
2. You Gotta Move
3. Portraits-First Recordings
4. I Do Not Play No Rock N Roll
Albums:
1964- Fred McDowell: Mississippi Delta Blues
1964- My Home Is In The Delta: Blues and Spirituals by Fred and Annie McDowell
1964- Fred McDowell And The Hunter's Chapel Singers:
Amazing Grace
1965- Fred McDowell: Mississippi Delta Blues
1966- Fred McDowell, Vol. 2
1967- Long Way From Home: The Blues Of Fred McDowell
1969- Fred McDowell And His Blues Boys
1969- Mississippi Fred McDowell: I Do Not Play No Rock 'N' Roll
1969- Mississippi Fred McDowell In London
1969- Mississippi Fred McDowell In London Volume Two
1970- Fred McDowell / Furry Lewis: When I Lay My Burden Down
1971- Fred McDowell and Johnny Woods: Eight Years Ramblin'
1971- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live In New York
1972- Mississippi Fred McDowell: 1904-1972
1973- Fred McDowell: Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning
1973- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Somebody Keeps Calling Me
1980- Fred McDowell: Levee Camp Blues
1982- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Shake Em On Down - Live In New York
19? - Mississippi Fred McDowell
1984- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Standing At The Burying Ground
1986- Phil Guy / Mississippi Fred McDowell: Dose Of Double Dynamite
1988- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Shake 'Em On Down: 1959
1993- Mississippi Fred McDowell: You Gotta Move
1993- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Train I Ride
1994- Fred McDowell, Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins: When I Lay My Burden Down
1995- Mississippi Fred McDowell: I Do Not Play No Rock 'N' Roll: Complete Sessions
199?- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Good Morning Little School Girl
1995- Mississippi Fred McDowell: This Ain't No Rock & Roll
1996- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Steakbone Slide Guitar
1997- Fred McDowell: Portraits: The First Recordings
1998- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Shake 'Em on Down
2000- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live At The Gaslight
2001- The Best Of Mississippi Fred McDowell
2003- Mississippi Fred McDowell: Heritage Of The Blues
200?- V. A.: Preaching the Blues - Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell
2003- The Very Best Of Mississippi Fred McDowell
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