28 Facts About Bukka White

Booker T Washington "Bukka" White was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer.

Booker T Washington White was born on a farm south of Houston in northeastern Mississippi on November 12,1906.

Bukka White's father John White was a railroad worker, and a musician who performed locally, primarily playing the fiddle, but mandolin, guitar and piano.

Bukka White gave Booker a guitar for his ninth birthday.

Bukka White started his career playing the fiddle at square dances.

Bukka White got married at 16 years old, with his father giving him a new Stella guitar as a wedding present.

Bukka White moved from the hill country to work on a farm at Swan Lake in the Mississippi Delta.

Bukka White was a fan of Charley Patton, telling friends, "I wants to come to be a great man like Charlie Patton".

Bukka White said he never met Patton, though he claimed to have done so, although this is doubted.

Bukka White was approached by Ralph Lembo, a white store owner and talent scout, who saw him walking past his store in Itta Bena with a guitar.

Lembo took him and his friend Napoleon Hairiston to Memphis, Tennessee, in May 1930 for Bukka White's first recording session, with Victor Records.

Bukka White's mother died in 1933 and in 1934 he married Susie Simpson, a niece of George 'Bullet' Williams, a harmonica player who Bukka White had started playing with at Glendora in 1932.

Bukka White was in Chicago again for a recording session with producer Lester Melrose in early September 1937, where he recorded two songs, "Pinebluff Arkansas" and "Shake 'Em On Down".

Bukka White was released from Parchman Farm after serving two years.

Bukka White arrived with transcripts of the songs he intended to record, but Melrose dismissed them as they were songs that others had recorded, so there would be little money in them.

Bukka White helped introduce King to the Memphis music community and got him a job at Newberry Equipment.

In 1959, Bukka White's recording of "Fixin' to Die Blues" was included on the album The Country Blues, compiled by Samuel Charters for Folkways Records to accompany his book of the same name and a key element in the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Bukka White went to California later in 1963, where he played at university folklore classes and club gigs.

Bukka White made new recordings of many of his early songs for the Mississippi Blues: Bukka White album, which Denson and Fahey released on their own Takoma Records.

Bukka White recorded new material for two LPs, Bukka White: Sky Songs Vol.

Bukka White was at one time managed by Arne Brogger, an experienced manager of blues musicians.

Bukka White toured North America and Europe for the rest of the 1960s up to 1975.

Bukka White played National resonator guitars, typically with a slide, in an open tuning.

Bukka White died of cancer in Memphis on 26 February 1977.

In 1990, Bukka White was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

In 2011, Bukka White was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Houston, Mississippi.

The Bukka White Blues Festival is an annual music festival on Columbus Day Weekend in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

The Led Zeppelin song "Hats Off to Harper", on the band's 1970 album Led Zeppelin III, was based in large part on Bukka White's "Shake 'Em on Down".