Booba Barnes

Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes (September 25, 1936, Longwood, Mississippi - April 2, 1996, Chicago) was an American blues musician.

Barnes got his start in 1960 as a member of the Swinging Gold Coasters, a local Mississippi blues outfit. He relocated to Chicago in 1964, where he played in bars and clubs, but returned to Mississippi in 1971 and continued to perform locally into the early 1980s. He opened a nightclub, the Playboy Club, in 1985, and played there with a backing group called the Playboys; they became regional blues favorites, and eventually signed to Rooster Blues, who released Barnes's debut effort in 1990. The album was hailed by Allmusic as "an instant modern classic" [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hnfqxqu5ldhe Review of "The Heartbroken Man"] , Allmusic] and "Guitar Player" called Barnes "a wonderfully idiosyncratic guitar player and an extraordinary vocalist by any standard". [Jas Obrecht of Guitar Player as quoted in Allmusic biography.] Barnes toured the U.S. and Europe following the album's release.Jim O'Neal and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifyxq95ldje~T1 Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes] at Allmusic] Barnes's career was interrupted in the middle of the decade when he was diagnosed with cancer, and he died of the disease in 1996.

Discography

*"The Heartbroken Man" (Rooster Blues, 1990)

References