22 Facts About James Cotton

James Henry Cotton was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band.

James Cotton made his first recordings in Memphis for Sun Records, under the direction of Sam Phillips.

James Cotton became Muddy's bandleader and stayed with the group until 1965.

James Cotton eventually left to form his own full-time touring group.

James Cotton became interested in music when he first heard Sonny Boy Williamson II on the radio.

James Cotton left home with his uncle and moved to West Helena, Arkansas, finding Williamson there.

For many years James Cotton claimed that he told Williamson that he was an orphan and that Williamson took him in and raised him, a story he admitted in recent years is not true.

James Cotton played drums early in his career but is famous for his harmonica playing.

James Cotton began his professional career playing the blues harp in Howlin' Wolf's band in the early 1950s.

James Cotton made his first recordings as a solo artist for Sun Records in Memphis in 1953.

James Cotton began working with the Muddy Waters Band around 1955.

James Cotton performed songs such as "Got My Mojo Working" and "She's Nineteen Years Old", although he did not play on the original recordings; Little Walter, Waters's long-time harmonica player, played for most of Waters's recording sessions in the 1950s.

James Cotton's first recording session with Waters took place in June 1957, and he alternated with Little Walter on Waters's recording sessions until the end of the decade.

James Cotton formed the James Cotton Blues Band in 1967.

James Cotton's band included a horn section, like that of Bobby Bland's.

James Cotton was awarded a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for Deep in the Blues in 1996, produced by John Snyder.

In 2006, James Cotton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame at a ceremony conducted by the Blues Foundation in Memphis.

James Cotton has won or shared ten Blues Music Awards.

James Cotton battled throat cancer in the mid-1990s, but he continued to tour, using singers or members of his backing band as vocalists.

James Cotton's album Cotton Mouth Man, released by Alligator on May 7,2013, was a Grammy nominee.

James Cotton's touring band included the guitarist and vocalist Tom Holland, the vocalist Darrell Nulisch, the bassist Noel Neal and the drummer Jerry Porter.

James Cotton died of pneumonia on March 16,2017, at the age of 81, at a medical center in Austin, Texas and was buried on July 11,2017 in Texas State Cemetery in Austin.