Sidney Maiden

Sidney Maiden, singer and harmonica blower, came into the world in Mansfield, LA in 1923. The classic “Eclipse of the Sun” established his place in the blues. He relocated to California during the 1940s and there encountered guitarist K.C. Douglas for the first time. An immediate rapport developed because both men adhered strictly to rural blues and never altered that approach after leaving the South. They worked the West Coast club circuit and cut “Eclipse of the Sun” in 1948 for Bob Geddins’s Down Town label, Maiden’s first and only hit. Four years afterward he recorded a session for Imperial alongside the Blues Blowers, Douglas among them, and in 1953 issued “Hurry Hurry Baby” on the Flash label. Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz organized a 1961 date that again united Maiden with Douglas, yielding Trouble an' Blues on Bluesville. Since that time Maiden has appeared only sporadically around Fresno, whether performing alone or with groups.