Name John Jackson | Role Blues musician | |
Movies Legends of Country Blues Guitar: Vol. 3, The Empire: White Knuckle Extreme Albums Front Porch Blues, The Live Experience People also search for William Ezell, Tom T. Hall, Torey Piro, Jeff Kramer, Jeff Rosen Nominations Independent Music Award for Best Album - Live Performance, Independent Music Award for Best Album - Blues | ||
John Jackson (February 24, 1924 – January 20, 2002) was an American Piedmont blues musician; his music did not become primary until his accidental "discovery" by folklorist Chuck Perdue in the 1960s. He had effectively given up playing for his community in 1949.
Contents
Life and career
John H Jackson was born in Woodville, Virginia, United States into a musical family, and learned to play guitar at a young age. He moved to Fairfax in his twenties, where he worked as a gravedigger, among other jobs.
His first recordings were released the early 1960s on the Arhoolie Records label. He visited Europe several times, played at folk festivals, and also recorded for Rounder and Alligator Records. He also appeared around Washington, D.C. with 'the Travelling Blues Workshop', which included Jackson, Archie Edwards, Flora Molton, Mother Scott, Phil Wiggins and John Cephas.
Jackson died in 2002 of liver cancer in Fairfax Station, Virginia, at the age of 77.
Jackson had six boys and one girl with his wife Cora Lee Carter Jackson. He was preceded in death by his wife Cora Lee (1990), and his sons John Jackson Jr (1978), Ned Jackson (1978), and MacArthur Jackson (1996). Two of his remaining sons died after him; Lee Floyd Jackson (2006) and Timothy Jackson (2008). His daughter Cora Elizabeth (Beth) Johnson and James Edward Jackson still live in the Fairfax, Virginia area.
In January, 2011, Jackson was nominated in the Blues Album and Live Performance Album categories for the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards.
Albums
Songs
Red River Blues
Steamboat Whistle
The Year Clayton Delaney Died
Rappahannock Blues
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
You Ain't No Woman
Don't You Want to Go Up There
Step It Up and Go
I Can't Give Up Now
Nobody's Business If I Do
Truckin' Little Baby
Railroad Bill
Guitar Rag
Rocks and Gravel
Going Up North
Cindy
I'm a Bad - Bad Man
Lay Down My Old Guitar
Too Tight
John's Guitar Boogie
Red Sea Blues
Deep in the Bottom Blues
Why I Quit Playing Guitar
Bear Cat Blues
I'm a Bad Man
That'll Never Happen No More
Bad Things Happen all the Time
Going Down In Georgia On A Horn
Medley of Country Dance Tunes
The Devil He Wore A Hickory Shoe
Boats Up The River
Louis Collins