Biography
Born on 17 November 1911 in Gumwood, Arkansas, and passing away on 17 January 1985 in Sikeston, Missouri, De Berry maintained a longstanding though marginal presence within Memphis’s blues circles from the 1920s peak through the early 1950s. Raised across Arkansas and Mississippi, he relocated in 1927 to his aunt’s home in Memphis, where he became self-taught on ukulele before progressing to banjo and guitar. There he formed connections with Will Shade, Charlie Burse, Jack Kelly, Frank Stokes, and a teenage Walter Horton. A 1934 train accident in East St. Louis cost him the lower portion of his right leg. Five years afterward he cut sides for Vocalion as leader of the Memphis Playboys, modernizing the hokum approach popular earlier in the decade. During the following fifteen years he divided time between St. Louis and Jackson, Tennessee, while returning periodically to Memphis for radio work alongside Willie Nix and Walter Horton. In 1953 he held two dates at Sun Records; the initial one yielded the instrumental “Easy,” an adaptation of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “I Almost Lost My Mind,” performed with Horton, while the later session produced the ballad “Time Has Made A Change,” supported by pianist Mose Vinson. Producer Steve LaVere brought De Berry and Horton back together in 1972 for sessions aimed at reviving their prior collaboration, yet the project achieved minimal impact.
Albums
