Biography
Among blues history’s most enigmatic figures stands Hawkins, whose background remains shrouded in uncertainty. Whispers place his upbringing near Blythville, Mississippi, yet scant inquiry has yielded nothing definitive. Distinctive in every respect, he deployed an idiosyncratic guitar technique and vocal approach that resisted all conventional labels. For Paramount he laid down twelve sides between a 1927 Chicago session and a 1929 date in Richmond, Indiana; these recordings, long coveted by collectors, presented his eccentrically structured blues, ragtime pieces, and the singular “Voice Throwing Blues,” prompting conjecture that he may have worked as a medicine-show ventriloquist. Clues scattered through his lyrics further suggest a rootless existence as a rambler or hobo.