The real St. Louis blues

This recording was made in Chicago on November 15, 1929 featuring Henry Townsend (guitar & vocals).
-It was his first recorded work.

Beginning life on the road as a hobo at the tender age of nine Henry Townsend left his home in Cairo, Illinois to escape his cruel father’s abuse. He got off the train in St. Louis where a local guitarist called “Dudlow Joe” taught him to play. Henry got the nickname “Mule” due to his strong stubborn nature and had begun traveling with pianist Walter Davis by the late 1920s. Townsend is among few musicians known to have made records in nine consecutive decades. Unlike other blues men at the time, when interviewed by Paul Oliver in the 1960s he had little desire to recreate his old recordings of the ’20s. Henry Townsend viewed the blues as a living art form, continuing to grow as a musician until his death in 2006.

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