52 weeks of blues

Blind Boy Fuller was probably the first commercial superstar of blues guitar. A massive talent, Fuller recorded some 130 tracks in the relatively short span of 5 years before ill health ended his career. The commercialisation and over exposure of Fuller has left him with a somewhat controversial reputation in the history of blues. Some say he was overly derivative of other artists, but his skill on the instrument cannot be denied.
He was born as Fulton Allen, one of 10 children of Calvin Allen and Mary Jane Walker in Wadesboro, North Carolina. The date of his birth is given as July 10, but the year is uncertain – 1908, 1907 or 1904. His parents were poor rural folk, and the young Fulton only attended school until the 4th grade before he started working as a farm labourer. He didn’t show any musical interest as a child, although one of his sisters was said to be proficient on the guitar. In his teenage years his mother died, and his father moved the family to nearby Rockingham.
In Rockingham, Fulton continued to work as a labourer and started having trouble with his vision. A doctor diagnosed the cause as ulcers behind the eyes, but nothing could stop the deterioration of his sight. His interest in music grew, and he started strumming a guitar. In 1926 he married Cora Mae Martin and moved to Winston-Salem to be close to his brother Milton where he got a job in a coal yard. By the following year he was completely blind.
Fulton lost his job in the coal yard due to his blindness and began playing the guitar and singing on the streets to earn a few coins. In 1929 he moved to Durham, North Carolina, which had one of the best blues scenes in the country. He quickly fell into a crowd that included Gary Davis (a few years away from being ordained as a Reverend), Saunders Terrell (better known as Sonny Terry), Floyd Council and a washboard player by the name of George Washington. Guitar became his full time job: during the days Fulton was a regular sight around the tobacco warehouses playing rag time tunes; nights were spent at house parties or jams where he was mentored by Davis. At home he would listen intently to Blind Blake 78s trying to learn as much as he could.
The reputation of Durham as a blues centre had attracted some interest and in 1935 a local record store owner and part time talent scout named J.B. Long invited Fulton, Washington and Davis to New York for a recording session. Between July 23 and 26, 1935, Fulton recorded 12 tracks for the American Recording Company, most solo but accompanied on some by Washington. Long rechristened Washington as Bull City Red, gave Fulton the more marketable name of Blind Boy Fuller and released the tracks on 6 double sided 78s. The tracks were a mixed bag – some originals, some tradition and a couple that sounded suspiciously similar to other artist’s tracks – “I’m Climbin’ On Top Of The Hill” borrows the melody of “Sitting On Top Of The World”.
This became a bit of a pattern for Fuller – a prodigious output of material recorded in a short period of time, with more than a few tracks ‘borrowed’ from other artists. Fuller also recycled his melody lines and lyrics on different songs in the same session, which was fairly common for the time. In 1936 Long took Fuller back to New York where he cut a further 10 tracks; the following year featured sessions in February, July, September and December – both as a solo artist and accompanied by Floyd Council and Bull City Red. The December sessions also featured his friend Sonny Terry on harmonica.
In 1938, Fuller recorded two sessions in April and October, the second again with Sonny Terry, but then ran into a spot of legal trouble – he was incarcerated for a time for shooting his wife in the leg. His jail time prevented him from performing in “From Spirituals to Swing”, a concert held in New York City organised by John Hammond. Terry took his place and his performance made him very popular in folk circles.
Despite his frequent records and the success of his records, Fuller was still struggling to make ends meet. Long took most of the royalties as composer for the tracks, paying Fuller a flat rate for a session, and despite signing contracts with other labels Fuller was always playing on the streets back in Durham to supplement his income.
On release from prison, Fuller recorded again in July 1939, but then ill health started to take its toll. Fuller had suffered from kidney problems for a few years, but they started to be severely debilitating. He moved to Massey Ave to be closer to a hospital, and his recording output diminished. He had two sessions in 1940, in March and June, but the quality of his performances was noticeably declining. In July 1940 he had a medical procedure to ease the strain on his failing kidneys but he health continued to decline despite ongoing medical treatment.
Blind Boy Fuller died on February 13th, 1941. Always a business man, J.B. Long gave Fuller’s best friend and student Brownie McGhee the name of Blind Boy Fuller 2 and put him into the recording studio to capitalise on Fuller’s popularity. All told, Blind Boy Fuller had some 130 tracks released in the 5 years of his recording career, an incredible output for a country blues guitarist.
Although Fuller’s style borrows from other artists, he was a formidable guitarist. He played in the Piedmont style, with a complex finger picking arrangement and was equally at home playing quick rag time numbers or deep, emotional blues from the Delta. His mastery of different style of blues and his work ethic made him the most famous blues man of his time.