The Life and Music of Booker "Bukka" White: Recalling the Blues

Booker "Bukka" White (1905-1977) stands as one of the most significant blues musicians of the twentieth century. The twelve tracks he recorded in Chicago in 1940 are widely regarded as some of the finest examples of country blues. In The Life and Music of Booker "Bukka" White: Recalling the Blues, David W. Johnson meticulously traces the arc of White's life, from his early years in Chickasaw and Grenada Counties, Mississippi, through his incarceration in the notorious Mississippi State Penal Farm in the late 1930s, to his eventual establishment of a new life in Memphis, Tennessee.

For years, White was little more than a name etched on old 78 records – and even believed by some to be deceased – until his "rediscovery" by John Fahey and ED Denson in the summer of 1963. This rediscovery sparked a productive second career for White, leading to performances at venues and festivals across the United States and Canada, as well as tours of Europe and Great Britain with the American Folk Blues Festival. In 1975, he was invited to Bremen, Germany, for a solo concert that was subsequently released as his final album.

In July 1976, the author conducted an interview with White shortly before his discharge from a Massachusetts hospital, where he was recuperating from a stroke. Following eight days in intensive care and three weeks of rehabilitation, White was ready to share his life story. Recalling tales of "slavery time," White told the author, "... some of the [formerly enslaved] guys were wise enough to hold that in their head where they could tell a young pants, where it would go down in history, you know. Just like you doing that now – something happen to you, somebody else will carry that on."

The culmination of years of dedicated research, The Life and Music of Booker "Bukka" White represents the first full-length biography of this remarkable country blues performer. Through interviews with those who knew White, including his second cousin B.B. King, Johnson has crafted a detailed and often surprising account of how a young Black man born in the first decade of the twentieth century – the grandson of a slave – found a way to transcend his circumstances and sustain a decades-long career as a respected musician.