Bennie Smith

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Bennie Smith (October 5, 1933 in

St. Louis blues guitarist, considered to be one of the city's patriarchs of electric blues.[1]

His sound was emblematic of a St. Louis blues music that he helped define in over half a century practicing his trade. His contributions to the genre in that city, from the early 1950s and almost until the day of his death, included mentor, performer, and recording artist.

Due to his significant contribution to blues music in St. Louis, in October 2003 he received a proclamation from mayor Francis Slay marking October 5, 2003 as 'Bennie Smith Day' in that city. The board of aldermen similarly honored Smith, recognizing him as the "Dean of St. Louis Electric Guitarists".[2] During the 2006 Big Muddy Blues Festival in St. Louis, Mayor Slay honored Bennie once again on September 2 of that year, declaring that day also be known as 'Bennie Smith Day' in St. Louis.

Bennie Smith; October 2004

Career

Smith worked as a

B.B. King and Grant Green
.

Discography

Albums

  • The Urban Soul of Bennie Smith 1993 (Blues Highway Music)
  • Shook Up 2001 (Fedora Records)
  • Bennie Smith All-Star Sessions 2006

In addition to his featured albums, Smith provided lead and rhythm guitar on a number of released singles and albums. These included:

Sessions – singles

Sessions – albums

  • Mean Disposition, Big Bad Smitty, 1991 (Adelphi/Genes. This album is included in the Library of Congress)
  • Cold Blood, Big Bad Smitty, 1997 (HMG) Smith shared the lead guitar role with Hubert Sumlin.

Style

Smith named

Matt "Guitar" Murphy
as his two greatest influences on the guitar.

Death

As a complication to lung cancer, Smith had a heart attack at his home on September 9, 2006. He died on September 10, 2006.

References

  1. ^ "Big Muddy Blues". Bigmuddyblues.com. Archived from the original on 2009-03-07. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  2. ^ [1] Archived September 1, 2005, at the Wayback Machine

External links