DROP DOWN MAMA (vinyl)

Description

He was born in Ripley, Tennessee. In 1915, his father, a sharecropper who played a little guitar, moved to Brownsville, Tennessee. Shortly after, he was injured in his right eye by a stone; his eyesight would be permanently affected. He recorded his first songs in Memphis in 1929 in a session led by Ralph Peer for Victor Records. He would later record for Decca and Bluebird. His recordings continued until 1941. He then made only a brief appearance at Sun Studios in 1952 before being rediscovered by Bob Koester and Samuel Charters in 1962. By then, he had become completely blind and lived in extreme poverty. He resumed his musical activity from that date and notably participated in the American Folk Blues Festival tour in 1964. A modest guitarist, Sleepy John Estes was an excellent singer, endowed with a very distinctive "crying" vocal style, and his lyrics were imbued with devastating humor full of subtlety. Several of his songs have been covered by Muddy Waters and Elvis Presley. His "Milk Cow Blues" was reworked and sung by Eddie Cochran in a very personal version. He died on June 5, 1977, in Brownsville.