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| Dixie Fried Music |
John Adam "Sleepy John" Estes
Instrument(s): guitar, vocals
Lifespan:25 June 1899 - 5 June 1977
Style synopsis: An exponent of the 'this is
life no wonder I'm blue' school of lyricists
writing from his own experiences eg. going
blind (Stone Blind) or the reality of living in
a sharecropper's shack (Rats in my Kitchen).
Representative Recordings:
Complete Recorded Works 1929-1941 Vols 1-2
(Document)
The Legend of Sleepy John Estes (Delmark)
Broke and Hungry, Ragged and Hungry Too (Delmark)
Brownsville Blues (Delmark)
Down South Blues(Delamrk
Contributor:Phil Wood (Phil_Wood@compuserve.com)
Contributor's Comments: From the brief description of Sleepy John's style above you might think that it is
too depressing to listen to his music - to the contrary he wrote wonderful blues. Not all his experiences
were as traumatic as these, he certainly knew about liquor and women and was happy to sing about the
good as well as the bad.
Sleepy John's songs offer glimpses into the life of the poor black
community in which he lived and worked for most of his life. As an
example Fire Department Blues (Martha Hardin - "she's a hard
working woman you know her salary is very small ... then when she
pay up her house rent that don't leave anything for insurance at all
... you know little Martha's house done burned down she done
moved over on Grafton Street" - a neighbourhood event summed
up in the blues.
Another feature of his career his is long term working relationships
with Yank Rachel (mandolin) and Hammie Nixon (harmonica).
While he didn't work exclusively with them they keep appearing
throughout his career. Another bluesman associated with Sleepy
was John Lee Williamson who gained his nickname 'Sonny Boy'
while hanging around with Sleepy and his friends as a teenager in
Tennessee - a place Sleepy can be heard hankering after in Easin'
Back to Tennessee
Delmark) though completely blind since 1950 he demonstrated that he was still writing as well as ever
Delmark) though completely blind since 1950 he demonstrated that he was still writing as well as ever
though the performances don't match his earlier career.
though the performances don't match his earlier career.
Interestingly we almost missed out on his later career as the common belief was that he was born around
1870 and must therefore be dead - thus no one went looking for him even after Big Joe Williams had told
them where Sleepy was living. Only the chance event of a documentary film being made in the area lead
the filmmaker (Dave Blumenthal) to check out the rumour. Ironically when Sleepy was brought to Delmark's
offices in Chicago in turned out that his brother Sam worked in the shop next door!
Instrument(s): guitar, vocals
Lifespan:25 June 1899 - 5 June 1977
Style synopsis: An exponent of the 'this is
life no wonder I'm blue' school of lyricists
writing from his own experiences eg. going
blind (Stone Blind) or the reality of living in
a sharecropper's shack (Rats in my Kitchen).
Representative Recordings:
Complete Recorded Works 1929-1941 Vols 1-2
(Document)
The Legend of Sleepy John Estes (Delmark)
Broke and Hungry, Ragged and Hungry Too (Delmark)
Brownsville Blues (Delmark)
Down South Blues(Delamrk
Contributor:Phil Wood (Phil_Wood@compuserve.com)
Contributor's Comments: From the brief description of Sleepy John's style above you might think that it is
too depressing to listen to his music - to the contrary he wrote wonderful blues. Not all his experiences
were as traumatic as these, he certainly knew about liquor and women and was happy to sing about the
good as well as the bad.
Sleepy John's songs offer glimpses into the life of the poor black
community in which he lived and worked for most of his life. As an
example Fire Department Blues (Martha Hardin - "she's a hard
working woman you know her salary is very small ... then when she
pay up her house rent that don't leave anything for insurance at all
... you know little Martha's house done burned down she done
moved over on Grafton Street" - a neighbourhood event summed
up in the blues.
Another feature of his career his is long term working relationships
with Yank Rachel (mandolin) and Hammie Nixon (harmonica).
While he didn't work exclusively with them they keep appearing
throughout his career. Another bluesman associated with Sleepy
was John Lee Williamson who gained his nickname 'Sonny Boy'
while hanging around with Sleepy and his friends as a teenager in
Tennessee - a place Sleepy can be heard hankering after in Easin'
Back to Tennessee
Delmark) though completely blind since 1950 he demonstrated that he was still writing as well as ever
Delmark) though completely blind since 1950 he demonstrated that he was still writing as well as ever
though the performances don't match his earlier career.
though the performances don't match his earlier career.
Interestingly we almost missed out on his later career as the common belief was that he was born around
1870 and must therefore be dead - thus no one went looking for him even after Big Joe Williams had told
them where Sleepy was living. Only the chance event of a documentary film being made in the area lead
the filmmaker (Dave Blumenthal) to check out the rumour. Ironically when Sleepy was brought to Delmark's
offices in Chicago in turned out that his brother Sam worked in the shop next door!
Sleepy John Estes
by Ray Harmon
The year was 1961. A lot was about to happen
in the world. We see Jack Kennedy on the horizon,
burning his way toward supernova in his desire to
change America. American pop music stood primed
and ready to mainline the uncut condensation of
British youth. Freedom of expression was soon to
get a 1st amendment hotshot of its own. Everything
that is Western culture was about to implode as the
decade of the sixties gathered steam on its trip into
history.
In Brownsville Tennessee (pop. 4711), a quiet hamlet on the way through a beautiful and poor rural
countryside some 60 miles east of Memphis, filmmaker David Blumenthal, who was in the area shooting a
documentary on black migration to the North, stumbled upon an old man that he believed to be a forgotten
legend of American folk blues.
In 1934 John Adams Estes, know as "Sleepy" for his habit on nodding off at various times throughout the
day, came to Chicago where he and long time musical partner Hammie Nixon recorded sides for the Decca
label. "Drop Down Mama" and "Someday Baby" now classics of pre-war blues discographies. On other trips
north John would record a handful of sides for the Columbia and Bluebird labels. Leaving a scattered
remnant of oral tradition etched in the shellac of prewar American "race" music.
After these initial sojourns into recorded history Sleepy John
dropped from sight for the next 20 years, working at various jobs
throughout his life to earn his living. Street musician, hobo,
medicine show performer with Dr. Grimm's Traveling Menagerie
(selling swamproot and other potions and remedies), all the while
keeping that vast storehouse of blues heritage deep within his
heart. Having lost sight in one eye in his childhood, by 1940 the
sight in his other eye had deteriorated leaving him totally blind for
the rest of his life.
After Blumethal's discovery and some initial negotiations and
tentative questions, John was brought to Chicago in the spring of
1962 by Delmark Records owner Bob Koester for a series of
exploratory performances and recordings. Although he had not
performed professionally for over 2 decades, John quickly felt at
ease in his urban surroundings. Recording The Legend of Sleepy John Estes (602) for
Delmark and performing at the University of Chicago Folk Festival alongside urban blues luminaries like
Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters.
The news of these recordings was matched upon their release with the incredulous skepticism of blues critics
who could or would not believe that Sleepy John was the John Estes of so many years ago. Although Big Joe
Williams for him many critics continued to believe that John was an imposter. Due mostly to an erroneous
tale told by Big Bill Broonzy in Broonzy's biography. But to those who knew his early recordings well, it could
be none other than the man himself whose thin high voice captures with unequivocal certainty the heart of
the rural black heritage of American culture.
On the strength of his first Delmark recording The Legend of... John was asked in 1964 by Horst Lippman
and Frits Rau to take part in the American Folk Blues Festival tour of Europe. During this tour John would
encounter a culture that greeted him and his music with an open appreciation unknown in his homeland.
During his stops in Copenhagen and London John would lay down the tracks of what would later become his
Live in Europe album (611)
Playing in the Great Halls and performance spaces in
Europe, from the Berlin Sportspalast to Stockholm's
Konserthuset (home of the Nobel Prize awards) John
began to awaken from his lifelong slumber. Playing to
crowds of European fans that seemed to really understand
the nature of his blues. In his voice can be heard a man
who was awake and alive more than he had ever been,
but ultimately a man homesick for the culture that had
shaped his music and his soul.
Over the years many have asked what it is that makes
John's music so vital, so absolute in its sense of emptiness
and desperation. His voice, filled to the brim by the
lack-luster existence of life in a poor farming community,
informs all that hear it of the barely suppressed passion in his words. His subjects the stuff of day to day
living, whether in Brownsville, or later on the road of blues history.
John's music is that of an extraordinary man caught in a mundane world, but captivated by the very things
that make this world mundane. John's lyrics fill a void left by the absence of those poor black farmers whose
employment-seeking immigration northward snowballed into an exodus from the hills of the greater
Mississippi/Tennessee farming communities. His lyrical style reflects the world in which he lived. Populated by
those people who happened by in his daily life, John's songs reach out to the very population he chronicles
in verse. Mechanic, lawyer, funeral director, a querulous inventory of complaints of the disinherited of this
world they bridge the gap between rural delta farm culture and the exploits of urban factory workers and
growing masses of unemployed blacks on Chicago's south side.
Through the eyes of John Estes we see into a world that we may otherwise never truly know. A world of
country existence found only in the black culture lying in the shadows of the Mississippi River, the rural road
of dirt poor farmers and their ilk like a history of the day-to-day across the geography of mid-century
American south. This time and place captured in John's music was even then disappearing into the histories
of the world. Generations of farmers leaving behind all they knew to seek better fortunes in the industrial
north.
Found in Johns repertoire is a feeling of desperate hope born in a man who's life has lead him at this late
date out of the cocoon of small town Tennessee and across thousands of miles of ground and air to play for
the people of the world that pervades more and more in his later recordings. Flying to Osaka, Copenhagen,
London, John's music captivated the world that encountered him on his journeys. Soon his lyrics begin to
reflect these travels, adding to the catalog of human encounters that Sleepy John might unravel during a
song, his music like a living autobiography of his life.
At 77 years old John had lived a lifespan equal to a half dozen
of his contemporaries. As preparations were being made for a
two-week tour of the German Rhineland John suffered a stroke
in his Brownsville home. On Sunday June 12th, 1977 in a small
Baptist church in Brownsville, TN John's family and friends
gathered to pay their respects to the Tennessee blues poet.
His passing mourned by the thousands of friends John had
made throughout the world in the last years of his
extraordinary life.
by Ray Harmon
The year was 1961. A lot was about to happen
in the world. We see Jack Kennedy on the horizon,
burning his way toward supernova in his desire to
change America. American pop music stood primed
and ready to mainline the uncut condensation of
British youth. Freedom of expression was soon to
get a 1st amendment hotshot of its own. Everything
that is Western culture was about to implode as the
decade of the sixties gathered steam on its trip into
history.
In Brownsville Tennessee (pop. 4711), a quiet hamlet on the way through a beautiful and poor rural
countryside some 60 miles east of Memphis, filmmaker David Blumenthal, who was in the area shooting a
documentary on black migration to the North, stumbled upon an old man that he believed to be a forgotten
legend of American folk blues.
In 1934 John Adams Estes, know as "Sleepy" for his habit on nodding off at various times throughout the
day, came to Chicago where he and long time musical partner Hammie Nixon recorded sides for the Decca
label. "Drop Down Mama" and "Someday Baby" now classics of pre-war blues discographies. On other trips
north John would record a handful of sides for the Columbia and Bluebird labels. Leaving a scattered
remnant of oral tradition etched in the shellac of prewar American "race" music.
After these initial sojourns into recorded history Sleepy John
dropped from sight for the next 20 years, working at various jobs
throughout his life to earn his living. Street musician, hobo,
medicine show performer with Dr. Grimm's Traveling Menagerie
(selling swamproot and other potions and remedies), all the while
keeping that vast storehouse of blues heritage deep within his
heart. Having lost sight in one eye in his childhood, by 1940 the
sight in his other eye had deteriorated leaving him totally blind for
the rest of his life.
After Blumethal's discovery and some initial negotiations and
tentative questions, John was brought to Chicago in the spring of
1962 by Delmark Records owner Bob Koester for a series of
exploratory performances and recordings. Although he had not
performed professionally for over 2 decades, John quickly felt at
ease in his urban surroundings. Recording The Legend of Sleepy John Estes (602) for
Delmark and performing at the University of Chicago Folk Festival alongside urban blues luminaries like
Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters.
The news of these recordings was matched upon their release with the incredulous skepticism of blues critics
who could or would not believe that Sleepy John was the John Estes of so many years ago. Although Big Joe
Williams for him many critics continued to believe that John was an imposter. Due mostly to an erroneous
tale told by Big Bill Broonzy in Broonzy's biography. But to those who knew his early recordings well, it could
be none other than the man himself whose thin high voice captures with unequivocal certainty the heart of
the rural black heritage of American culture.
On the strength of his first Delmark recording The Legend of... John was asked in 1964 by Horst Lippman
and Frits Rau to take part in the American Folk Blues Festival tour of Europe. During this tour John would
encounter a culture that greeted him and his music with an open appreciation unknown in his homeland.
During his stops in Copenhagen and London John would lay down the tracks of what would later become his
Live in Europe album (611)
Playing in the Great Halls and performance spaces in
Europe, from the Berlin Sportspalast to Stockholm's
Konserthuset (home of the Nobel Prize awards) John
began to awaken from his lifelong slumber. Playing to
crowds of European fans that seemed to really understand
the nature of his blues. In his voice can be heard a man
who was awake and alive more than he had ever been,
but ultimately a man homesick for the culture that had
shaped his music and his soul.
Over the years many have asked what it is that makes
John's music so vital, so absolute in its sense of emptiness
and desperation. His voice, filled to the brim by the
lack-luster existence of life in a poor farming community,
informs all that hear it of the barely suppressed passion in his words. His subjects the stuff of day to day
living, whether in Brownsville, or later on the road of blues history.
John's music is that of an extraordinary man caught in a mundane world, but captivated by the very things
that make this world mundane. John's lyrics fill a void left by the absence of those poor black farmers whose
employment-seeking immigration northward snowballed into an exodus from the hills of the greater
Mississippi/Tennessee farming communities. His lyrical style reflects the world in which he lived. Populated by
those people who happened by in his daily life, John's songs reach out to the very population he chronicles
in verse. Mechanic, lawyer, funeral director, a querulous inventory of complaints of the disinherited of this
world they bridge the gap between rural delta farm culture and the exploits of urban factory workers and
growing masses of unemployed blacks on Chicago's south side.
Through the eyes of John Estes we see into a world that we may otherwise never truly know. A world of
country existence found only in the black culture lying in the shadows of the Mississippi River, the rural road
of dirt poor farmers and their ilk like a history of the day-to-day across the geography of mid-century
American south. This time and place captured in John's music was even then disappearing into the histories
of the world. Generations of farmers leaving behind all they knew to seek better fortunes in the industrial
north.
Found in Johns repertoire is a feeling of desperate hope born in a man who's life has lead him at this late
date out of the cocoon of small town Tennessee and across thousands of miles of ground and air to play for
the people of the world that pervades more and more in his later recordings. Flying to Osaka, Copenhagen,
London, John's music captivated the world that encountered him on his journeys. Soon his lyrics begin to
reflect these travels, adding to the catalog of human encounters that Sleepy John might unravel during a
song, his music like a living autobiography of his life.
At 77 years old John had lived a lifespan equal to a half dozen
of his contemporaries. As preparations were being made for a
two-week tour of the German Rhineland John suffered a stroke
in his Brownsville home. On Sunday June 12th, 1977 in a small
Baptist church in Brownsville, TN John's family and friends
gathered to pay their respects to the Tennessee blues poet.
His passing mourned by the thousands of friends John had
made throughout the world in the last years of his
extraordinary life.
Sleepy John Estes - On The Chicago Blues Scene
By Reverend Keith A. Gordon, About.com
In 1968, Tennessee's "Sleepy" John Estes was, in many ways,
the polar opposite of modern Chicago bluesmen like Muddy Waters
or Junior Wells. Whereas the Chicago players were urbane and sophisticated, leaving their Delta roots far
behind them, Estes remained in the south, pursuing his distinctive vision of the country blues.
Estes spent years on the road during the 1920s and '30s traveling the well-worn medicine show circuit,
often accompanied by guitarist Yank Rachell and harp player Hammie Nixon. Estes would be
"re-discovered" in the early-60s in Brownsville, Tennessee, enjoying a brief revival of touring and recording
until his death in 1977.
Recording Electric Sleep
At first blush, the idea of placing a rural bluesman like Estes in the studio with some of Chicago's most
mature and talented blues musicians seemed like pure madness. However, Delmark's Bob Koester had
seen Estes perform live alongside some of these players, easily keeping pace with his urban peers, and he
thought that it would work in the studio.
The result was originally released in 1968 as Electric Sleep, the album featuring Sleepy John accompanied
by an all-star band of Chicago bluesmen, including pianist Sunnyland Slim, guitarist Jimmy "Fast Fingers"
Dawkins, harp master Carey Bell, and drummer Odie Payne, Jr., among others. Although reviled by blues
purists at the time, in retrospect it was a gutsy move by both Estes and Koester, and the album - reissued
in 2007 as On The Chicago Blues Scene - holds up well after all these years.
Sleepy John Estes' On The Chicago Blues Scene
With the legendary Sunnyland Slim tickling the ivories with his magic fingers, and with Jimmy Dawkins
adding his stellar six-string work, On The Chicago Blues Scene opens with the lively "I Ain't Gonna Sell It."
Estes' normally languid voice is up to the challenge, the 69-year-old country bluesman keeping the beat in
time with drummer Odie Payne's rhythms.
"Laura Had A Dream" jumps off the line with slower-paced vocals and a shuffling rhythm, Estes' voice
wrapping the lyrics in soul as Payne delivers some interesting martial drum fills. Slim spanks the keys and
Dawkins embellishes the song with his great tone and smooth-as-silk fretwork.
Walking Down Beale Street
The rollicking "Walking Down Beale Street" hits the ears like straight Chicago-styled blues, with Dawkins'
resonant guitar and Slim's ever-present piano dominating the soundtrack. Carey Bell, best-knowfor
his effervescent harp playing, adds a distinctive element to the song with a rolling bassline that
zigs-and-zags beneath Estes' trebly vocals, the lyrics name-checking a veritable history of blues and
hillbilly songs in its homage to the blues roots of Memphis.
"Everybody Oughta Make A Change" is a dynamite slow blues-romp with its roots firmly on Maxwell SBell
blastin' away at the harp and providing a solid underpinning to Estes' passionate vocals. "Need More
Blues" is another raucous, deliberate Chicago blues stomp, Slim slamming notes like punches in a
prizefight. Estes' punch-drunk vocals show the full range of the artist's incredible fire and emotion, Dawkins'
jazzy six-string flourishes attempting to bring order to the out-of-control bout.
Estes' "How To Sing These Blues" is a lesson from the master, his understated voice staggered and
swaggering beneath the mix, the legendary Earl Hooker providing a steady rhythm to the song as Bell
brings his harp, full-tilt, to the forefront while Slim's piano riffing knocks out a few sparks of its own in the
background. It's a rockin' number, a thoroughly enjoyable blues romp. By contrast, "Easin' Back To
Tennessee" is a laid-back walk through the country blues, Estes' voice showing its full power, soaring
above a sparse but energetic soundtrack.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Although it was seen at the time as pure blue blasphemy, Sleepy John Estes' On The Chicago Blues Scene
a/k/a Electric Sleep was a worthy pairing of a still-vital elder statesman of the blues with the
cream-of-the-crop of Chicago blues musicians. Not every performance here works, but more often than not
Estes works well in the studio with talents like Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Dawkins, and Carey Bell.
Never a spectacular guitarist, his rhythm more of placekeeper than headcutter, Estes' voice was his
ace-up-the-sleeve, a strong instrument capable of understated dignity and unbridled power alike.
Combined with instrumentalists of the aforementioned caliber, On The Chicago Blues Scene is a worthy,
albeit left-field observation on the Chicago blues. (Delmark Records)
By Reverend Keith A. Gordon, About.com
In 1968, Tennessee's "Sleepy" John Estes was, in many ways,
the polar opposite of modern Chicago bluesmen like Muddy Waters
or Junior Wells. Whereas the Chicago players were urbane and sophisticated, leaving their Delta roots far
behind them, Estes remained in the south, pursuing his distinctive vision of the country blues.
Estes spent years on the road during the 1920s and '30s traveling the well-worn medicine show circuit,
often accompanied by guitarist Yank Rachell and harp player Hammie Nixon. Estes would be
"re-discovered" in the early-60s in Brownsville, Tennessee, enjoying a brief revival of touring and recording
until his death in 1977.
Recording Electric Sleep
At first blush, the idea of placing a rural bluesman like Estes in the studio with some of Chicago's most
mature and talented blues musicians seemed like pure madness. However, Delmark's Bob Koester had
seen Estes perform live alongside some of these players, easily keeping pace with his urban peers, and he
thought that it would work in the studio.
The result was originally released in 1968 as Electric Sleep, the album featuring Sleepy John accompanied
by an all-star band of Chicago bluesmen, including pianist Sunnyland Slim, guitarist Jimmy "Fast Fingers"
Dawkins, harp master Carey Bell, and drummer Odie Payne, Jr., among others. Although reviled by blues
purists at the time, in retrospect it was a gutsy move by both Estes and Koester, and the album - reissued
in 2007 as On The Chicago Blues Scene - holds up well after all these years.
Sleepy John Estes' On The Chicago Blues Scene
With the legendary Sunnyland Slim tickling the ivories with his magic fingers, and with Jimmy Dawkins
adding his stellar six-string work, On The Chicago Blues Scene opens with the lively "I Ain't Gonna Sell It."
Estes' normally languid voice is up to the challenge, the 69-year-old country bluesman keeping the beat in
time with drummer Odie Payne's rhythms.
"Laura Had A Dream" jumps off the line with slower-paced vocals and a shuffling rhythm, Estes' voice
wrapping the lyrics in soul as Payne delivers some interesting martial drum fills. Slim spanks the keys and
Dawkins embellishes the song with his great tone and smooth-as-silk fretwork.
Walking Down Beale Street
The rollicking "Walking Down Beale Street" hits the ears like straight Chicago-styled blues, with Dawkins'
resonant guitar and Slim's ever-present piano dominating the soundtrack. Carey Bell, best-knowfor
his effervescent harp playing, adds a distinctive element to the song with a rolling bassline that
zigs-and-zags beneath Estes' trebly vocals, the lyrics name-checking a veritable history of blues and
hillbilly songs in its homage to the blues roots of Memphis.
"Everybody Oughta Make A Change" is a dynamite slow blues-romp with its roots firmly on Maxwell SBell
blastin' away at the harp and providing a solid underpinning to Estes' passionate vocals. "Need More
Blues" is another raucous, deliberate Chicago blues stomp, Slim slamming notes like punches in a
prizefight. Estes' punch-drunk vocals show the full range of the artist's incredible fire and emotion, Dawkins'
jazzy six-string flourishes attempting to bring order to the out-of-control bout.
Estes' "How To Sing These Blues" is a lesson from the master, his understated voice staggered and
swaggering beneath the mix, the legendary Earl Hooker providing a steady rhythm to the song as Bell
brings his harp, full-tilt, to the forefront while Slim's piano riffing knocks out a few sparks of its own in the
background. It's a rockin' number, a thoroughly enjoyable blues romp. By contrast, "Easin' Back To
Tennessee" is a laid-back walk through the country blues, Estes' voice showing its full power, soaring
above a sparse but energetic soundtrack.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Although it was seen at the time as pure blue blasphemy, Sleepy John Estes' On The Chicago Blues Scene
a/k/a Electric Sleep was a worthy pairing of a still-vital elder statesman of the blues with the
cream-of-the-crop of Chicago blues musicians. Not every performance here works, but more often than not
Estes works well in the studio with talents like Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Dawkins, and Carey Bell.
Never a spectacular guitarist, his rhythm more of placekeeper than headcutter, Estes' voice was his
ace-up-the-sleeve, a strong instrument capable of understated dignity and unbridled power alike.
Combined with instrumentalists of the aforementioned caliber, On The Chicago Blues Scene is a worthy,
albeit left-field observation on the Chicago blues. (Delmark Records)
Biography by Barry Lee Pearson
Big Bill Broonzy called John Estes' style of singing "crying" the blues because of its overt emotional quality.
Actually his vocal style harks back to his tenure as a work-gang leader for a railroad maintenance crew,
where his vocal improvisations and keen, cutting voice set the pace for work activities. Nicknamed "Sleepy"
John Estes, supposedly because of his ability to sleep standing up, he teamed with mandolinist Yank Rachell
and harmonica player Hammie Nixon to play the houseparty circuit in and around Brownsville in the early
'20s. Forty years later, the same team reunited to record for Delmark and play the festival circuit. Never an
outstanding guitarist, Estes relied on his expressive voice to carry his music, and the recordings he made
from 1929 on have enormous appeal and remain remarkably accessible today.
Despite the fact that he worked to mixed Black and White audiences in string band, jug band, or medicine
show format, his music retains a distinct ethnicity and has a particularly plaintive sound. Astonishingly, he
recorded during six decades for Victor, Decca, Bluebird, Ora Nelle, Sun, Delmark, and others. Over the
course of his career, his music remained simple yet powerful, and despite his sojourns to Memphis or
Chicago he retained a traditional down-home sound. Some of his songs are deeply personal statements
about his community and life, such as "Lawyer Clark" or "Floating Bridge." Other compositions have universal
appeal ("Drop Down Mama" or "Someday Baby") and went on to become mainstays in the repertoires of
countless musicians. One of the true masters of his idiom, he lived in poverty, yet was somehow capable of
turning his experiences and the conditions of his life into compelling art.
Big Bill Broonzy called John Estes' style of singing "crying" the blues because of its overt emotional quality.
Actually his vocal style harks back to his tenure as a work-gang leader for a railroad maintenance crew,
where his vocal improvisations and keen, cutting voice set the pace for work activities. Nicknamed "Sleepy"
John Estes, supposedly because of his ability to sleep standing up, he teamed with mandolinist Yank Rachell
and harmonica player Hammie Nixon to play the houseparty circuit in and around Brownsville in the early
'20s. Forty years later, the same team reunited to record for Delmark and play the festival circuit. Never an
outstanding guitarist, Estes relied on his expressive voice to carry his music, and the recordings he made
from 1929 on have enormous appeal and remain remarkably accessible today.
Despite the fact that he worked to mixed Black and White audiences in string band, jug band, or medicine
show format, his music retains a distinct ethnicity and has a particularly plaintive sound. Astonishingly, he
recorded during six decades for Victor, Decca, Bluebird, Ora Nelle, Sun, Delmark, and others. Over the
course of his career, his music remained simple yet powerful, and despite his sojourns to Memphis or
Chicago he retained a traditional down-home sound. Some of his songs are deeply personal statements
about his community and life, such as "Lawyer Clark" or "Floating Bridge." Other compositions have universal
appeal ("Drop Down Mama" or "Someday Baby") and went on to become mainstays in the repertoires of
countless musicians. One of the true masters of his idiom, he lived in poverty, yet was somehow capable of
turning his experiences and the conditions of his life into compelling art.