Biography
Trice entered the world on 16 November 1917 in Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA. Growing up amid a household steeped in music, he mastered the guitar at a young age and soon teamed with his brother Willie Trice to perform blues at dances while still in his early teens. During the 1930s he formed an association with Blind Boy Fuller, whose approach shaped the direction of his own playing in fundamental ways. By the close of the decade Trice had cut four sides, two of them unaccompanied and the other two in support of his brother, all firmly rooted in the prevailing eastern states style. The 1940s brought a move to Newark, New Jersey, where he shortly afterward released a solo recording under the name Little Boy Fuller. Returning south in the 1950s, he turned toward sacred repertoire after joining a gospel quartet. Although researchers interviewed him in the 1970s, he maintained a firm refusal to resume blues guitar.