T-Model Ford

T-Model Ford, born James Lewis Carter Ford, delivered a raw-edged, visceral strain of Mississippi Delta blues as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most often supported by his longtime drummer Spam, whose real name was Tommy Lee Miles. A national tour opening for Buddy Guy and his band finally brought him wider attention, with appearances in established theaters and at festivals, yet he remained chronically under-recorded throughout his career. Ford had taken up the guitar only late in life and confined most of his performing to the Delta until the 1990s and the following decade. Audiences responded strongly to his sets at Antone’s in Austin during South by Southwest, at the Chicago Blues Festival, and again while traveling with Guy’s band. Off the road he and Spam regularly hauled their gear to Nelson Street in Greenville, Mississippi, where they might perform for stretches of eight hours. The music stayed unadulterated Delta blues—lean in texture on record yet powerfully rhythmic because Spam supplied the only accompaniment. All of Ford’s earlier releases appeared on Fat Possum, the label now headquartered in Los Angeles: Pee-Wee Get My Gun (1997), You Better Keep Still (1999), She Ain’t None of Your’n (2000), and Bad Man (2002). Following a six-year recording hiatus during which he continued to tour, he resurfaced in 2010 on the Alive imprint with Ladies Man and issued Taledragger the next year. Two years after that final album he died at home from respiratory failure following a brief period of hospice care.