I want a job that that I go to work at twelve, get off at one;
Have an hour for dinner boys, my day's work be done. – ‘When I Been Drinking’
Country-blues and Chicago-blues artist ‘Big’ Bill Broonzy was one of the most important and enduring musicians of the early to mid-1900s, with over 300 songs to his name during his lifetime including 224 between 1927 and 1942, making him the second most prolific blues recording artist during that period. He was the man who helped shape blues from a rural Mississippi sound to its new urban home in Chicago.
Broonzy was born Lee Conley Bradley on June 26 1893, one of 17 (!) children of Frank Broonzy and Mittle Belcher. Broonzy claimed he was born in 1893 but other records suggest it could have actually been 1903, and some have settled on 1898. And, he is said to have died on either August 14th or 15th. Where he was born is also in question. Broonzy says Mississippi but research indicates it was Arkansas. It is known he spent his youth in Pine Bluff Arkansas, and began playing music at 10, mostly folk songs and spirituals using a fiddle he made from a cigar box. He worked and played locally until 1917 when he was drafted into the Army and served 2 years in Europe during World War I. When he was discharged he moved to Chicago around 1920 to further pursue his interest in music, and switched from fiddle to guitar. Throughout the ‘20s he worked odd jobs and played guitar at social gatherings and rent parties while he honed his craft. Although Broonzy began recording with Paramount Records in 1927, success still evaded him and he continued to work jobs outside of music.
It wasn’t until after continued growth as an artist and a few label changes that his career began to take off in the mid to late 30s. As his reputation had now grown, in 1938 he filled in at Carnegie Hall for Robert Johnson, who had recently died. In the 1940s he expanded his work as he honed his songwriting skills, and his work in this period shows he performed across a wider musical spectrum than almost any other bluesman before or since, including ragtime, hokum blues, country blues, urban blues, jazz-tinged songs, folk songs and spirituals. A contemporary of Broonzy’s, Mance Lipscomb, called Broonzy a “songster”; A person capable of playing anything for anybody.
In the early 50s he was able to tour Africa, South America, the Pacific region and Europe, where he began influencing British artists as well, including John Lennon and Bert Jansch. He also befriended folk artist Pete Seeger, playing with him on numerous occasions. Unfortunately it was also at this time, the peak of his popularity and financial success that he was suffering from cancer and died in August of 1958.
Broonzy was a flat picker par excellence, finger picker and singer without compare, and favored an unwound third string. Furthermore, photos and film footage indicate that he achieved his remarkable volume and clarity of tone without using fingerpicks. Some, or most have tried to emulate his dexterity and virtuosity, to no avail. Ron Wood has stated the Broonzy’s “Guitar Shuffle” is his favorite guitar music, and that, "It was one of the first tracks I learnt to play, but even to this day I can't play it exactly right." While he moved into electric music, audiences still clamored to hear his acoustic work moreso.
Inducted in to the first class of the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, his guitar playing has inspired Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, Ray Davies, John Renbourn, Rory Gallagher, Ben Taylor, Steve Howe, Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton and others. Clapton has said he “became like a role model for me, in terms of how to play the acoustic guitar." Broonzy's own influences included the folk music, spirituals, work songs, ragtime music, hokum, and country blues he heard growing up and the styles of his contemporaries, including Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Blake, Son House, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Of the blues, Broonzy says: “I write it from experience, from things that I have experienced and things that I did in life and the way I think of things in life and what has happened in my lifetime. ‘Cause you can take anything and write a blues about it. You can take a chair, a box, an axe, anything, a knife, anything and start writing a blues from it. It don’t take but five verses to make a blues. Think of five things you can do with something and that’s it. Think of five things that woman done to you and then you got the blues. Was it she stayed out all night or she stole away your money or was it she didn’t fix your food right or something? ......all that.”
