Biography
Born and raised amid the hills of Mississippi, gospel blues guitarist and singer Leo Welch waited until age 82 before issuing his first commercial recordings, by which point he stood virtually alone among the surviving practitioners of that state’s raw vernacular guitar tradition alongside figures such as R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. A versatile player of guitar, fiddle, and harmonica since childhood, Welch spent more than three decades in lumber camps yet still found time to deliver his intense, hypnotic, and unpolished blues at picnics, rent parties, and juke joints. Following his embrace of evangelical Christianity, Welch forged an unmistakable, unvarnished fusion of gospel and blues that echoed the earlier work of McDowell, Rev. Gary Davis, and Blind Willie Johnson. In 2013 he approached Fat Possum’s Big Legal Mess imprint with a straightforward proposition: allow him to document his Sunday-morning gospel material first, and he would supply a set of Saturday-night juke-joint blues on the follow-up. The label accepted; the 2014 release Sabougla Voices, which included guitar contributions from Jimbo Mathus, earned worldwide praise for its fierce exuberance, opening doors for extensive touring and becoming the focus of the European documentary Late Blossom Blues. Welch fulfilled his pledge with the second album, I Don’t Prefer No Blues, which registered on charts in multiple countries. He passed away at 85 just days before Christmas 2017, though he lived long enough to witness the festival-circuit success of Late Blossom Blues. In his final year he also recorded a third album alongside producer Dan Auerbach and members of The Arcs—Richard Swift and Leon Michaels—later issued as The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name.
Welch entered the world in Sabougla, Mississippi, in 1932 and displayed an early musical aptitude, mastering guitar, harmonica, and fiddle before performing at picnics and parties and eventually graduating to juke joints and clubs, where he rendered blues standards infused with gospel urgency and drive. He maintained steady employment for more than thirty years on a logging crew in the hill country. Around 1975, as blues performance opportunities diminished, Welch redirected his music toward gospel, carrying blues riffs and the kinetic spirit of Chuck Berry into church settings and thereby shaping a gritty hybrid that merged the raw texture and expressive moan of the blues with the fervent, interactive force of call-and-response gospel. A casual telephone inquiry to Big Legal Mess secured an audition and, ultimately, a recording contract. Welch captured his distinctive gospel-blues approach in the studio with minimal ornamentation, resulting in the debut album Sabougla Voices, released early in 2014. In keeping with his agreement, he next delivered the blues album I Don’t Prefer No Blues, produced by Bruce Watson, featuring guitar from Jimbo Mathus, and issued in early 2015. After worldwide touring, an appearance in the European documentary Late Blossom Blues, and the release of Live at the Iridium—the sole recording to present his gospel and juke-joint blues repertoires within a single program—Welch returned to the studio with producer Dan Auerbach and sidemen Swift and Michaels. The sessions yielded roughly thirty tracks recorded live on the studio floor. Illness struck in July, prompting cancellation of numerous engagements; his health declined and he died six days before Christmas 2017. Auerbach edited the tapes down to ten selections and titled the collection The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name. Following the February 2019 release of the gritty single “Praise His Name,” the full album appeared on Easy Eye Sound.
Welch entered the world in Sabougla, Mississippi, in 1932 and displayed an early musical aptitude, mastering guitar, harmonica, and fiddle before performing at picnics and parties and eventually graduating to juke joints and clubs, where he rendered blues standards infused with gospel urgency and drive. He maintained steady employment for more than thirty years on a logging crew in the hill country. Around 1975, as blues performance opportunities diminished, Welch redirected his music toward gospel, carrying blues riffs and the kinetic spirit of Chuck Berry into church settings and thereby shaping a gritty hybrid that merged the raw texture and expressive moan of the blues with the fervent, interactive force of call-and-response gospel. A casual telephone inquiry to Big Legal Mess secured an audition and, ultimately, a recording contract. Welch captured his distinctive gospel-blues approach in the studio with minimal ornamentation, resulting in the debut album Sabougla Voices, released early in 2014. In keeping with his agreement, he next delivered the blues album I Don’t Prefer No Blues, produced by Bruce Watson, featuring guitar from Jimbo Mathus, and issued in early 2015. After worldwide touring, an appearance in the European documentary Late Blossom Blues, and the release of Live at the Iridium—the sole recording to present his gospel and juke-joint blues repertoires within a single program—Welch returned to the studio with producer Dan Auerbach and sidemen Swift and Michaels. The sessions yielded roughly thirty tracks recorded live on the studio floor. Illness struck in July, prompting cancellation of numerous engagements; his health declined and he died six days before Christmas 2017. Auerbach edited the tapes down to ten selections and titled the collection The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name. Following the February 2019 release of the gritty single “Praise His Name,” the full album appeared on Easy Eye Sound.
Albums
Singles
