Henry Townsend (musician)

Henry ' Mule ' Townsend ( born October 27, 1909 in Shelby, Mississippi, † September 24, 2006 in Mequon, Wisconsin) was an American blues singer, guitarist and pianist. Among his most famous pieces of Henry's Worried Blues belongs.

Born in Mississippi, Townsend grew up in Illinois in Cairo. At a young age he went to St. Louis, where he heard blues greats like Lonnie Johnson. In 1929 he made ​​his first recordings.

In the 1930s, Townsend played with many of the greats of the blues, including Walter Davis, Roosevelt Sykes and Robert Johnson. On July 28, 1935 he accompanied the Blue pianist Aaron " Pinetop " Sparks in Chicago in 8 titles, including at the Blue Classic Everyday I Have the Blues. In 1937 he played in Aurora, Illinois, a legendary recording session with Big Joe Williams, Robert Nighthawk and Sonny Boy Williamson I..

Henry Townsend wrote hundreds of songs and worked on countless recordings with known colleagues. He was the patriarch of the St. Louis Blues. BBC made ​​a documentary about him, and in 1985 he received the " National Heritage Fellowship ", the highest award of the United States for a master of the traditional arts. Since 1995, he called a star on the " St. Louis Walk of Fame" his own.

Henry Townsend died on 24 September 2006 at St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital in Mequon, Wisconsin - just a few hours after him as one of the first artists to the recordings on the Paramount have made label, a ' piano key' in Grafton's Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame had become part.