JOHN "MISSISSIPPI" JACKSON
1972-00-00
CAMBRIDGE, MA
GOT THIS IN A CD TRADE, IT'S A PRETTY GOOD SBD RECORDING
SETLIST:
01) JOHN JACKSON STOMP 4:56
02) BACKWATER BLUES 4:26
03) SHE DONE MOVED TO KANSAS CITY 3:04
04) SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES 4:28
05) SHE'S GOT SOMETHING 4:28
06) NOBODIES BUSINESS 4:01
07) BLIND BLAKE RAG 3:21
08) BOATS UP THE RIVER 2:54
09) MATCHBOX BLUES 3:21
10) RED RIVER BLUES 3:53
11) GUITAR RAG 4:11
12) MR. JOHN JACKSON'S SONG 3:30
SUPPORT THE ARTISTS FAMILY BUY HIS MUSIC
FROM ARHOLLIE RECORDS www.arhoolie.com
AND LETS HOPE THEY GET A FEW PENNIES FROM IT
John Jackson, 77, Guitarist And Singer in Piedmont Style By JON PARELES
Published: January 29, 2002
John Jackson, a master of the Piedmont tradition of blues, country and ragtime, died on Jan. 20 at his home in Fairfax, Va. He was 77. The cause was kidney failure, but he had also suffered from lung and liver cancer, said his manager, Trish Byerly.
In a honey-cured Virginia drawl, backed by the gentle, spunky fingerpicking of his acoustic or steel guitar, Mr. Jackson sang a repertory that summed up rural life in the early 20th century. There were sly blues, hoedown tunes, storytelling ballads and God-fearing warnings of mortality. Mr. Jackson had only a first-grade education, and he continued to work as a gravedigger for decades after he was discovered during the 1960's blues and folk revival. In 1986 he was given the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mr. Jackson was born Feb. 25, 1924, the seventh of 14 children in a farm family in Rappahannock County, Va. His parents, Suttie and Hattie Jackson, played at parties on weekends, and Mr. Jackson started playing guitar when he was 4. He learned songs from his parents and from the family Victrola, listening to records by rural bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake, as well as by country singers like Uncle Dave Macon and Jimmie Rodgers. Mr. Jackson learned slide guitar from a chain gang convict named Happy. He dropped out of school to do farm work and learned to read and write later in life. Mr. Jackson continued performing with his parents into the 1940's, but because he felt music encouraged violent behavior, he quit by 1950. He married and moved with his wife, Cora, to a dairy farm in Fairfax, Va., where he worked as a cook, driver and caretaker for the farmer.
In the early 60's two friends pawned him a Gibson J50 guitar for $50. Mr. Jackson started playing again, entertaining children. He kept the guitar for the rest of his career, calling it Stand By because, he said, it always stood by him. A mailman heard Mr. Jackson playing for neighbors and asked for lessons. Mr. Jackson was instructing him at the local gas station, where the mailman had a second job, when the president of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, Chuck Perdue, pulled in for gas and stayed to listen. He encouraged Mr. Jackson to start performing at coffeehouses around Washington.
Arhoolie Records released Mr. Jackson's first album, ''Blues and Country Dance Songs From Virginia,'' in 1965, and he made his way onto the blues-festival circuit. He performed at a Labor Day picnic at the White House during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. In 1980 he was part of the United States Information Agency's ''Southern Music U.S.A.'' tour, which went to Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans. Mr. Jackson made albums for Arhoolie (which released more material from his 1964 sessions in 1999), Rounder and Alligator Records, most recently ''Front Porch Blues,'' released by Alligator in 1999. His final show was on Dec. 31 in Falls Church, Va.
Mr. Jackson is survived by two brothers, Freddie and Thomas, and a sister, Roberta Wigington; four children, Lee Jackson, James Jackson, Timothy Jackson and Cora Beth Johnson; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Although he regularly played 100 to 125 shows a year, Mr. Jackson also continued to work as a gravedigger. ''He took pride in being a good gravedigger,'' said Joe Wilson, the executive director of the National Council for Traditional Arts, who produced ''Front Porch Blues.'' ''His holes were always exactly squared off. He was a workman.''