Henry Spaulding

Henry Spaulding, a country blues guitarist, cut just two sides across a recording career that spanned barely a single day: his signature song “Cairo Blues” and the flipside “Biddle Street Blues,” both captured in Chicago on May 9, 1929. Thought to have come from Future City, Illinois, Spaulding reportedly died soon after that solitary session. He regularly busked alongside fellow country blues guitarist Henry Townsend, whose own guitar work absorbed Spaulding’s string-snapping approach; country blues guitarist Hi Henry Brown and others did likewise.