Legendary blues performer Henry Townsend died Sunday, September 24, 2006, in Grafton, Wisc.
He was there to perform at a blues festival at the Wisconsin Chair
Factory, the original location of the Paramount recording studios in the
1920s and 1930s. He was also being honored as the last surviving
Paramount blues recording artist. Other inductees in the inaugural
Paramount Blues Festival were Charley Patton, Ma Rainey, Blind Lemon
Jefferson, Skip James, and Thomas Dorsey. He was a month away from his
97th birthday.
St Louis’ grandfather of the blues was a landmark as big as the Gateway
Arch and about as well known both nationally and internationally. Since
shortly after Scott Joplin’s era, almost certainly there hasn’t been a
musician in town who didn’t meet, listen to, look up to, get advice
from, or become friends with Henry Townsend.
The legend was born October 27, 1909 near Shelby, Miss., and came
to St Louis as a boy. Picking up the guitar and hanging around the
bluesmen of the city, Townsend worked his way into the music scene of
the time. Not the clubs and nightspots, but the neighborhood parties.
Townsend recalled; “We played what we called ‘House Rent parties’.
People were being evicted, we would have fish fries, serve alcohol and
water, raise money so they could pay the rent.” Impressed by the
sensational guitarists of St Louis like Lonnie Johnson, Townsend decided
that making music was the life for him. He first recorded in 1929 and
continued recording in every decade after. For that first recording he
was paid a fair sum of three hundred dollars and his hotel room. Besides
the famous Paramount label, he also recorded for Columbia and RCA Victor
and was on countless recordings as an uncredited guitar or piano
accompanist. He was a name among the St. Louis legends like Big Joe
Williams, Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson and Pinetop Sparks.
After a stint in the army, Townsend returned to St. Louis where he began
playing with his good friends Walter Davis and Roosevelt Sykes in the
nightspots of the city and East St Louis.
In the 1950s, Davis suffered a stroke and Sykes found popularity in
Europe and New Orleans. Townsend stayed in St Louis and played
occasionally and took day jobs. Refrigeration repair, salesman, bill
collector, “I got whatever kind of jobs you could get without going to
jail” Townsend said. The music jobs didn’t end and by the 1960s he was
asked to make recordings again, this time vinyl albums, “Oh, I’ve been
rediscovered three or four times” Townsend said deadpan as was his sense
of humor. His time was filled performing at blues and folk festivals in
the United States and Europe. Unlike the tired old story of artists who
don’t do well in the business side of their career, Townsend had a mind
for negotiating. He once explained his business philosophy as; “How much
you didn’t know was the price you had to pay.”
In 1985 he received the National Heritage Award in recognition of being
a master artist. In 1995 he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of
Fame. His first recording is a rare shellac 78-rpm platter, his last
recording is a compact disc. For his birthday, BB’s Jazz, Blues and
Soups held a party that Townsend never failed to attend and perform.
Last year he was lifted from his wheelchair to the stage and helped onto
the piano bench to sing and play a handful of tunes on guitar and piano
for the packed house of fans.
