"John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900 – June 5, 1977), known as Sleepy John Estes, was an American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist. His music influenced such artists as the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin. Estes was born in Ripley,…  | By 1960s: Days of Rage on August 7, 2024 | 
"John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900 – June 5, 1977), known as Sleepy John Estes, was an American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist. His music influenced such artists as the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin. Estes was born in Ripley, Tennessee, either in 1899 (the date on his gravestone) or 1900 (the date on his World War Idraft card). In 1915, his father, a sharecropper who played guitar, moved the family to Brownsville, Tennessee. Not long after, Estes lost the sight in his right eye when a friend threw a rock at him. At the age of 19, while working as a field hand, he began to perform professionally, mostly at parties and picnics, with the accompaniment of Hammie Nixon, a harmonica player, and James 'Yank' Rachell, a guitarist and mandolin player. Estes continued to work on and off with both musicians for more than fifty years. ... Estes sang with a distinctive "crying" vocal style. He frequently teamed with more capable musicians, such as Yank Rachell, Hammie Nixon, and the piano player Jab Jones. Estes 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 the musician Big Bill Broonzy had written that he was dead). By the time he was tracked down by the blues historians Bob Koester and Samuel Charters in 1962, he was completely blind and living in poverty. Along with his wife, Ann, who took many of the iconic photos of Estes found in blues books and album covers, Sam Charters filmed Estes performing, sitting in front of his shack near Brownsville. Blind and frail, he became the heart and soul of the Charters' movie, 'The Blues,' that was not released widely until 2020, in a Document Records package titled 'Searching for Secret Heroes.' He resumed touring with Nixon and recording for Delmark Records. Estes, Nixon and Rachell appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. Many of Estes's original songs were based on events in his life or people he knew in his hometown, Brownsville, such as the local lawyer ('Lawyer Clark Blues'), the local auto mechanic ('Vassie Williams' Blues'), or an amorously inclined teenage girl ('Little Laura Blues'). ... Some accounts attribute the nickname Sleepy to a blood pressure disorder or narcolepsy. Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records, said that Estes simply had a 'tendency to withdraw from his surroundings into drowsiness whenever life was too cruel or too boring to warrant full attention.' Estes himself explained that the nickname was born of his exhausting life as both musician and farmer. ..."
Wikipedia
Discogs (Video)
YouTube: Sleepy John Estes & Hammy Nixon • "Down South Blues/Clean Up At Home" • 1964, Mailman Blues (1966)(Live), Street Car Blues, Broken Hearted, Ragged And Dirty, Too
YouTube: Hobo Jungle Blues (Full album), On The Chicago Blues Scene (Full album), Jailhouse Blues (Full album), Brownsville Blues (Full album)
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