Blind Boy Fuller

Unlike artists such as Big Bill and Memphis Minnie, whose careers produced extensive catalogs across three or four decades, Blind Boy Fuller assembled his large body of recordings in just six years. Even so, he ranked among the era’s most frequently documented performers and stood as the foremost and most impactful Piedmont blues musician in history. His National steel guitar enriched performances across slide, ragtime, pop, and blues idioms alike. He collaborated with accomplished accompanists including Rev. Gary Davis, Sonny Terry, and washboard player Bull City Red. Carolina entrepreneur H.B. Long first spotted and supported him, leading to sessions for ARC and Decca; Fuller in turn guided other blues players into the studio.

Although his discography was substantial, he spent most of his career performing on the streets and at house parties, where he demonstrated a ready ability to reinterpret and cover contemporary hits. In that respect he functioned as a stylistic synthesizer comparable to his contemporary Robert Johnson, who had died three years before. Like Johnson, Fuller lived intensely and died young, passing in 1942 at the age of thirty-three. He was an expressive vocalist and commanding guitarist whose signature uptempo ragtime numbers included “Rag Mama Rag,” “Trucking My Blues Away,” and “Step It Up and Go,” yet he also delivered profoundly felt performances of “Lost Lover Blues” and “Mamie” that matched the emotional depth of most Delta blues. His popularity may have resulted in overexposure on disc, but the majority of his material stayed rooted in tradition, and artists in North Carolina and Virginia continue to draw on his repertoire and approach.