Sleepy John Estes

Infobox musical artist | Background = solo_singer | Instrument = Guitar
Name = Sleepy John Estes


Img_capt = Sleepy John's "I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941"
Birth_name = John Adam Estes
Born = birth date|1899|1|25|mf=y (?)
Ripley, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Died = death date|1977|6|5|mf=y
Durhamville, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Genre = Country blues, Blues
Instrument = Guitar
Years_active = 1929 - 1970
Associated_acts = Yank Rachell
Hammie Nixon
URL =

John Adam Estes (25 January 1899 or 1904 [http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002313/Sleepy-John-Estes.html Musician Guide] — 5 June 1977 [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6582 Allaboutjazz.com birth and death details] ] ) commonly known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a U.S. blues guitarist songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Tennessee. [http://www.7digital.com/stores/ArtistBiography.aspx?shop=122&masterartist=2859 Biography at 7digital.com from the Encyclopedia of Popular Music - accessed February 2008] ]

Career

In 1915, Estes's father, a sharecropper who also played some guitar, moved the family to Brownsville, Tennessee. Not long after, Estes lost the sight of his right eye when a friend threw a rock at him during a baseball game. At the age of 19, while working as a field hand, he began to perform professionally. The venues were mostly local parties and picnics, with the accompaniment of Hammie Nixon, a harmonica player, and James "Yank" Rachell, a guitarist and mandolin player. He would continue to work, on and off, with both musicians for more than fifty years.

Estes made his debut as a recording artist in Memphis, Tennessee in 1929, at a session organized by Ralph Peer for Victor Records. His partnership with Nixon was first documented on songs like "Drop Down Mama" and "Someday Baby Blues" in 1935; later sides replaced the harmonica player with the guitarists Son Bonds or Charlie Pickett.cite book
first= Tony
last= Russell
year= 1997
title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
edition=
publisher= Carlton Books Limited
location= Dubai
pages= p. 110
id= ISBN 1-85868-255-X] He later recorded for the Decca and Bluebird labels, with his last pre-war recording session taking place in 1941. He made a brief return to recording at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1952, recording "Runnin' Around" and "Rats in My Kitchen," but otherwise was largely out of the public eye for two decades.

Though only modestly skilled as a guitarist (he was frequently teamed with more capable musicians, like Rachell, Nixon, and the piano player Jab Jones), Estes was a fine singer, with a distinctive "crying" vocal style. He sounded so much like an old man, even on his early records, that blues revivalists reportedly delayed looking for him because they assumed he would have to be long dead, and because fellow musician Big Bill Broonzy had written that Estes had died. By the time he was tracked down, by Bob Koester and Samuel Charters in 1962, he had become completely blind and was living in poverty. He resumed touring and recording, reunited with Nixon and toured Europe several times and Japan, with a clutch of albums released on the Delmark Records label. Though his later records are generally considered less interesting than his pre-war output. Nevertheless, Estes, Nixon and Rachell also made a successful appearance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. [ [http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Sleepy-John-Estes.html Oldies.com biography of Estes] ]

Bob Dylan mentions Estes in the sleevenotes to "Bringing It All Back Home" (1965). [ [http://www.john-meekings.co.uk/jestes.html Blues fansite observation - accessed February 2008] ]

Many of Estes's original songs were based on events in his own life or on people he knew from his home town, such as the local lawyer ("Lawyer Clark Blues"), local auto mechanic ("Vassie Williams' Blues"), or an amorously inclined teenage girl ("Little Laura Blues"). He also dispensed advice on agricultural matters ("Working Man Blues") and chronicled his own attempt to reach a recording studio for a session by hopping a freight train ("Special Agent (Railroad Police Blues)"). His lyrics combined keen observation with an ability to turn an effective phrase.

Some accounts attribute his nickname of Sleepy to a blood pressure disorder and/or narcolepsy. Others, such as blues historian Bob Koester, claim he simply had a "tendency to withdraw from his surroundings into drowsiness whenever life was too cruel or too boring to warrant full attention."

Estes suffered a stroke and died on June 5 1977 and is buried at Durhamville Baptist Church in Durhamville, Tennessee.

In 1991 Estes was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Recordings

Albums

*"Sleepy John Estes, 1929-1940" (RBF)
* "Complete Recorded Works 1929-1941 Vols 1-2" (Document)
* "I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941" (Yazoo)
* "The Legend of Sleepy John Estes" (Delmark)
* "Broke and Hungry, Ragged and Hungry Too" (Delmark)
* "Brownsville Blues" (Delmark)
* "Down South Blues" (Delamark)
* "Sleepy John Estes In Europe" (Delmark)

ongs

*"Leaving Trunk" - a cover version of which appears on Taj Mahal's, 1968 eponymous album, "Taj Mahal
*"Diving Duck Blues" - another cover, recorded by Taj Mahal.
*""Sleeping Agent" - recorded by Martin Simpson
*"Worried Life Blues" - it appeared re-written by Muddy Waters as "Trouble No More", and further amended to "Someday Baby" by Bob Dylan.
*"Drop Down Mama" - recorded by Tom Rush, Big Joe Williams and Led Zeppelin.
*"Floating Bridge" - appeared on the compilation album, "The Blues", and on Eric Clapton's 1981 album, "Another Ticket".
*"Milk Cow Blues" - covered by The Kinks.
*"The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair" - covered by Led Zeppelin on their live album BBC Sessions.
*"President Kennedy" - Estes performed this song for Ry Cooder's 1972 album, "Boomer's Story"

ee also

*List of blues musicians
*Memphis blues
*Country blues
*List of people from Tennessee
*Anthology of American Folk Music
*American Folk Blues Festival

References

*Charters, Samuel "Sweet As the Showers of Rain" (Oak Publications) pp. 68-82
*Charters, Samuel, liner notes to "Sleepy John Estes, 1929-1940"
*Kent, Don, liner notes to "I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941"

External links

* [http://www.wirz.de/music/estes.htm Illustrated Sleepy John Estes discography]
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/blues/people/sleepyjohn_estes.htm Sleepy John Estes page at the National Parks Service "Links to the Past" site]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:aq2tk65x9krh~T1 All Music Guide]