Bo Carter: 1893 - 1964

Blues enthusiasts who scramble for more intricate and melodic guitar riffers should seek out Bo Carter. Known more for an abundance of thinly masked sexual references in his lyrics, Carter was a fluid and imaginative fingerpicker related to proto-ragtime picking. His singing too was expressive and full of clever phrasings that complimented the suggestive nature of his songs. Carter was also a part-time member of the successful string band, the Mississippi Sheiks, but his solo recordings show off one of the more popular and dexterous musicians of 1930s Mississippi blues.

Armenter “Bo” Chatman was born March 21, 1893 on a plantation outside Bolton Mississippi. He came from a very musical family - all thirteen children were musically inclined. His father was Henderson Chatmon, uncle of Charlie Patton, and played guitar and led his own string band while the children were growing up. His mother played fiddle and brothers Lonnie and Sam were regular members of the Mississippi Sheiks. Bo played with the Sheiks periodically, but was better known for his solo recordings. He used the name Bo Carter as an alias.

Carter began playing bass viol, fiddle, and banjo and took to the guitar rather late in life. His solo recording career began in 1928 and included a repertoire of bawdy blues and ragtime, with a strong attraction to hokum influences. On the one hand, his marked success was due to a facility for risqué lyrics, rife with sexual metaphors and double-entendres. Songs like “Pussy Cat Blues,” “Banana in Your Fruit Basket,” and “Ram Rod Daddy” with their “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” aspect most definitely contributed to the popularity of his more than one hundred recordings. The themes were indicative of country blues in that era, though Carter’s extremes were definitely ahead of their time.

Much more essential was Carter’s superior talents as a guitarist. He played a steel guitar in an original and dexterous picking style, employing a variety of keys and tunings. Though not as technically proficient as Blind Blake or Blind Lemon Jefferson, his licks were consistently inventive and his melodic sense vibrant. Listening closely to these underlying accompaniments is the real reward.

Even though his reputation for novelty lyrics preceded him (most likely to earn a decent living), Carter also recorded more meaningful blues songs like “Sorry Feeling Blues,” “Policy Man Blues,” and “Corrina, Corrina,” which he was the first to record in 1928. In the late 1920s he started going blind and by the mid-30s had turned to singing on the streets of Memphis for a living. As musical tastes changed Carter’s recording career came to a close in the early 40s. He died in poverty in 1964 at the age of seventy one. By Tim Kirker

Want to listen to Bo Carter? Click here.

Click here to purchase Bo Carter or other great artists MP3 packages.