Josh White
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2024) |
Josh White | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Joshua Daniel White |
Also known as | Pinewood Tom, Tippy Barton |
Born | Greenville, South Carolina, US | February 11, 1914
Died | September 5, 1969 Manhasset, New York, US | (aged 55)
Genres | Piedmont blues, country blues, topical songwriting Folk |
Occupation(s) |
|
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
Years active | 1928–69 |
Labels |
Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.
White grew up in the
However, White's anti-
Career
Early years
White was born on February 11, 1914, in the black section of
Two months after his father had been taken away from the family, White left home with Blind Man Arnold, a black street singer, whom he agreed to lead across the South and for whom he would collect coins after performances. Arnold would then send White's mother two dollars a week. Arnold soon realized that he could profit from this gifted boy, who quickly learned to dance, sing, and play the tambourine. Over the next eight years, he rented the boy's services to other blind street singers, including Blind Blake and Blind Joe Taggart, and in time White mastered the varied guitar stylings of all of them. In order to appear sympathetic to the onlookers tossing coins, the old men kept White shoeless and in ragged short pants until he was sixteen years old. At night he slept in cotton fields or in horse stables, often on an empty stomach, while his employer slept in a black hotel.
While guiding Taggart in 1927, White arrived in
1930s: The Singing Christian and Pinewood Tom
Late in 1930,
In a few months, having recorded his repertoire of religious songs, White was persuaded by ARC to record blues songs and to work as a session musician for other artists. White, 18 years old and still underage, signed a new contract under the name Pinewood Tom in 1932. This name was used only on his blues recordings. ARC used his birth name for new gospel recordings and soon added "The Singing Christian". ARC also released his recordings under the name Tippy Barton during this period. As a session guitarist, White recorded with Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, Buddy Moss, Charlie Spand, the Carver Boys, Walter Roland, and Lucille Bogan.
In February 1936, he punched his left hand through a glass door during a bar fight, and the hand became infected with gangrene. Doctors recommended amputation of the hand, which White repeatedly refused. Amputation was averted, but his chording hand was left immobile. He retreated from his recording career to become a dock worker, an elevator operator, and a building superintendent. During the time when his hand was lame, he squeezed a small rubber ball to try to revive it.
One night during a card game, White's left hand was revived completely. He immediately began practicing playing the guitar and soon put together a group, Josh White and His Carolinians, with his brother Billy and close friends Carrington Lewis, Sam Gary, and Bayard Rustin. They soon began playing private parties in Harlem. At one of these parties, on New Year's Eve 1938, Leonard De Paur, a Broadway choral director, was intrigued by White's singing. For the past six months, DePaur and the producers of a Broadway musical in development, John Henry, had been searching America for an actor, singer, and guitarist to play the lead role of Blind Lemon, a street minstrel who wandered back and forth across the stage narrating the story in song. Their initial auditions with native New York singers were unsuccessful, so they looked through previous race record releases to find a suitable artist. They eventually narrowed their search down to two people, Pinewood Tom and The Singing Christian, both pseudonyms used by White.
1940s: "Josh White and His Guitar"
After months of rehearsals and out-of-town productions in
The second duo produced by Ray teamed White with
One month later, White and the
During the 1940s, as a matinee idol with magnetic sexual charisma and a commanding stage presence, White not only was an international star of recordings, concerts, nightclubs, radio, film, and Broadway but also achieved a unique position for an African American of the segregated era by becoming accepted and befriended by white society, aristocracy, European royalty, and America's ruling family, the Roosevelts. One of his most popular recordings during the 1940s was "
White's hits from the 1940s include "Jelly, Jelly", a song with sexually charged lyrics, composed by
White recorded in various contexts, sometimes accompanied only by his guitar and sometimes playing with others backing him on guitar and string bass or piano or with jazz ensembles, gospel vocal groups, or a swing jazz band, as in his popular 1945 recording "I Left a Good Deal in Mobile". He performed and recorded with the jazz pianist
In 1945, with the success of his hit single "
As an actor between 1939 and 1950, White appeared in dozens of radio dramas, including the classic
As a leading artist and activist of the era, who had begun writing and recording political protest songs as early as 1933 and who would speak and sing at human rights rallies, White was prominently associated with the
At the Café Society
The
One day, John Hammond asked White to meet Barney Josephson, the owner of the club. As soon as Josephson heard White and saw the charisma he exuded, he told Hammond that White was going to become the first black male sex symbol in America. It was Josephson who decided at that first encounter, on the stage apparel he would have designed for White—which would become a trademark for years to come—a black velvet shirt open to the stomach and silk slacks. While starring at the Café Society over the next decade and becoming exposed to audiences, performers and beautiful music from around the world, White expanded his musical interests and repertoire to include various styles which he would subsequently record. He had remarkable success in popularizing recordings in diverse musical genres, which ranged from his original repertoire of Negro blues, gospel and protest songs to Broadway show tunes, cabaret, pop, and white American, English and Australian folk songs.
The Greenwich Village club was so successful that Josephson soon opened a larger Café Society Uptown, at which White also performed, gaining him recognition by the
He was thought to have had numerous romantic liaisons with wealthy society women, singers, and Hollywood actresses, but the rumors were never substantiated. The women in question always referred to White as their close friend, and Lena Horne and Eartha Kitt also referred to him as a mentor.
The Café Society made White a star and put him in a unique position as an African American. However, because of the club's unique social status of mixing the races, it also became a haven for New York's social progressives, whose politics leaned to the left. As it played a vital role in White's ascendancy to stardom, it would also one day play a crucial role in his fall from grace.
White and the Roosevelts
Beginning in 1940, White established a long and close relationship with the family of
After that first White House command performance ended, the Roosevelts invited White into their private chambers, where they spent more than three hours talking about White's life story of growing up in
In 1949, Fisk University honored White with an honorary doctorate; and the local Chicago NBC radio series Destination Freedom, written by Richard Durham, aired a half-hour dramatized biography of White's life entitled "Help the Blind". In 1950, Eleanor Roosevelt (then the United Nations ambassador in charge of war relief) and White made a historical speaking and concert tour of the capitals of Europe to lift the spirits of those war-torn countries. The tour built to such proportions that when they arrived in Stockholm, the presentation had to be moved from the Opera House to the city's soccer stadium where 50,000 came out in the pouring rain to hear Mrs. Roosevelt speak and White perform.[citation needed] All during this tour, audiences across Europe enthusiastically requested White to sing his famed anti-lynching recording of "Strange Fruit", but on each occasion he would respond, "My mother always told me that when you have problems in your background you don't give those problems to your neighbor....So, that's a song I will sing back home until I never have to sing it again, but for you, I would now like to sing its sister song, written by the same man ('The House I Live In')."
Movies and theater
As an actor, White acted several more times on Broadway in the late 1940s. In 1947 he appeared in German artist and avant-garde filmmaker Hans Richter's Dreams that Money Can Buy, co-starring Libby Holman along with the participation of Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, Darius Milhaud and Fernand Léger. It won an award at that year's Venice Film Festival. He also appeared in John Sturges' 1949 western The Walking Hills with Randolph Scott, Ella Raines, Edgar Buchanan, and Arthur Kennedy, in which his character, an itinerant musician, was not a stereotype but on equal footing with the white characters. He was still young and handsome at this time, and would have likely enjoyed continued success in film had the Hollywood blacklist not prematurely ended his budding movie career.[12]
Early 1950s: White and the blacklist
White had reached the zenith of his career when touring with Eleanor Roosevelt on a celebrated and triumphant Goodwill tour of Europe. He had been hosted by the continent's prime ministers and royal families, and had just performed before 50,000 cheering fans at Stockholm's soccer stadium. Amidst this tour, while in Paris in June 1950, White received a call from Mary Chase, his manager in New York, telling him that
For a decade, White had been a leading voice of black America and a voice that reminded Americans of social injustices, while also becoming a major pop star and sex symbol from his platform at the Cafe Society. However, when Barney Josephson's brother and attorney Leon, who was also a lawyer for the communist-created
White was not a communist and was not active in any political party. However, when he was told that people's human rights were being threatened and asked to participate in a benefit or a rally, he was always willing to lend his voice to the cause. Whether it was the plight of African Americans in the South or oppressed people in Yugoslavia, it was all the same to him. Since his return from Europe in June 1950, White had been interrogated every week, and was threatened that his career would be finished and that he would lose his family. Controversially, in a fervent desire to defend his reputation, and challenge his accusers and the blacklist (while under intense pressure from his manager and his family), White told the FBI that he would go to Washington, appear before HUAC and set the record straight.[citation needed]
With the assistance of his daughter Bunny, White began writing a lengthy letter about his life and his beliefs that he would plan to read as a statement at his HUAC appearance. Before going to Washington, he made trips to visit two trusted friends and ask them read his statement—Eleanor Roosevelt and Paul Robeson. Bunny accompanied him on his trip up to Hyde Park to visit Mrs. Roosevelt. She recalled the visit in an interview with Josh White Estate Archival biographer Douglas Yeager: "Mrs. Roosevelt told Daddy that he had written a good letter. However, she cautioned him not to go to Washington, explaining that the HUAC Committee would turn his testimony against him if he appeared and they weren't satisfied with his statement." A few days later, White drove up to Paul Robeson's Connecticut home by himself.
Paul Robeson, a former All-American football player, was a Columbia University-trained African-American attorney fluent in 12 languages, who lived most of the 1920s and 1930s in London and was active in world human rights and the movement to decolonize Africa. However, he was best known as an international star of recordings and film, the most celebrated stage Othello in history, and the highest-paid concert performer in the world. He also was the most respected and admired artist-activist throughout the world, with friendships that included the leaders of many countries including the Soviet Union, where Robeson was considered a cultural and social giant and iconic figure. To the social progressives in America, he was the most respected and important voice of truth and social justice in the world. In 1939, at the onset of World War II in Europe, Paul Robeson and his family returned to America and maintained a residence in Connecticut. Robeson had been White's friend and artistic collaborator for many years and was the godfather to White's daughter Beverly. They did not always agree on everything politically, however White held great respect for Robeson. Years later in a radio interview, White stated that Robeson never once mentioned the Communist Party to him, and in fact advised White not to get too involved with any political party. Robeson supported America's war effort and was considered a patriotic champion of freedom and liberty after his national radio broadcast concert performance and subsequent record album Ballad for Americans. However, when American Negro soldiers returning from the war were still confronted with government sanctioned segregation, racism and even lynchings, it became evident that Robeson was greatly disappointed with the American government. In the postwar years, his socialist belief structure seemed better aligned to the Soviet Union, which had been America's ally in the war, but by 1947 had become their bitter enemy. In 1949, America's media and press reported a speech Robeson had made in [Paris], alleging that he said if a war would ever take place between the USSR and America that American Negroes would not fight in America's army (the U.S. media and press version of the speech has since been found to be inaccurate and slanted).[citation needed]
Before going to Washington, White felt he had to meet with Robeson, ask him read his statement, and tell him of decision to go to Washington. One paragraph out of the long biographical letter referred to Robeson: "I have great admiration for Mr. Robeson as an actor and a great singer, and if what I read in the papers is true, I feel sad over the help he's been giving to people who despise America. He has a right to his own opinions, but when he, or anybody, pretends to talk for a whole race, he's kidding himself. His statement that the Negroes would not fight for their country, against Soviet Russia or any other enemy, is both wrong and an insult: because I stand ready to fight Russian or any enemy of America." In the biography Robeson: Lives of the Left, Martin Duberman wrote about the encounter. Apparently White and Robeson went up to the bathroom of Robeson's master bedroom, turned on all the faucets so that the FBI listening devices couldn't hear their conversation, and began discussing White's statement and his upcoming appearance before HUAC. Robeson read the prepared statement and told White that he personally felt it would be wrong to go to Washington and appear before HUAC. He continued that he would never appear before the Committee, but that this was a decision White would have to make on his own. Reportedly, White painfully told him, "I feel like a heel Paul, but they've got me in a vise... I have to go." White was called into the FBI offices dozens of times between 1947 and 1954, but no one is absolutely certain what special vise they had him in, besides threatening to destroy his career and family, as many of the pages found in his FBI files (via the Freedom of Information Act) are still blacked out by the government. It is the belief of White, Jr., and many others however, that the FBI, displeased with White's prowess with white women, used it against him (as they had done with Jack Johnson years earlier), by threatening him with imprisonment and saying that they would concoct a trumped-up charge of violating the Mann Act, "for transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes".[citation needed]
On September 1, 1950, White, appearing with only his wife Carol at his side, sat down before HUAC in Washington, D.C., regarding communist influence in the entertainment industry and African-American community. He did not give the HUAC Committee names of Communist Party members. At length, he told them of his life story as a child, seeing his father beaten and dragged through the streets of Greenville by white authorities, and having to leave home at the age of seven to lead street singers across America in order to feed his family. He defended his right and responsibility as a folksinger to bring social injustices to the attention of the public through his songs, and then passionately read the chilling lyrics of one of his most famous recordings, the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit" (written by Abel Meeropol) which was then placed into the Congressional Record. He also included his words about Paul Robeson regarding the alleged statement Robeson had made in Paris.
White would later defend his testimony as a "friendly witness" (a term applied to those who appeared voluntarily before HUAC) by claiming that he had a right to defend his name against unjust accusations, that the scope of his testimony was limited, that he did not state anything that was not already known, that he never gave the FBI or HUAC names of members of the Communist Party, and that he was sincerely opposed to communism. However, testifying before the committee and speaking out against Paul Robeson angered his large socially progressive fan base, who believed that testifying before the HUAC Committee acknowledged their right to exist. Not being privileged to know the details of his FBI interrogations, many of this group also suspected that he had given the FBI names of Communist Party members, which he had not. The fact that the future career and reputation of baseball legend
With work rapidly drying up in America, White relocated to
Later life
1955–1969
From the mid-1950s until his death in 1969 from
However, in 1955, the brave young owner of a new American record company, Jac Holzman, who wasn't afraid of the political pressure from the right or the left, offered White the opportunity to record again in his home country. He could only offer him $100, but he promised him artistic control and the best recording equipment available. They recorded the Josh White: 25th Anniversary album, which established Elektra Records and slowly began reviving White's career by finding a young, new audience who made it possible for him to work again in America. Accordingly, his name and reputation in America has only begun to recover in recent years.
At the same time the UK guitarist and entrepreneur
White's blacklisting in the American television industry was finally broken in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy invited him to appear on the national CBS television's civil rights special "Dinner with the President".[13] Kennedy told him how his records had inspired him when he was a college student in the Roosevelt era.[14] Later that year he was seen again on national television performing for the masses on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the historic March on Washington.
In 1964, White gave a command performance for
Signature guitars
The success of the 1956 book The Josh White Guitar Method prompted Mairants to commission a Zenith "Josh White" signature guitar based on White's Martin 0021 from the German guitar maker Oscar Teller. The Scottish guitarist Bert Jansch owned one of these models in his early playing years. On the last page of Josh White Guitar Method (printed in 1956) is a photo of this Zenith Josh White signature guitar and some text about it.[15]
The Guild Guitar Company in the US worked with White on a signature model in 1965. This fact was confirmed in a TV program, The History Detectives, by Mark Dronge, whose father, Al, was one of the founders of Guild Guitars. Dronge took White to the Guild factory in 1965. A guitar made to White's specifications was meant to become a signature guitar for White, but it was never mass-produced. Dronge explained that "The scene was starting to change. The Beatles were so influential and all these bands came out and the electric music was getting bigger and the plans for Josh White model just kind of fell by the wayside, unfortunately."[16][17]
Carol White vividly recounted to White's archival biographer, Douglas Yeager, that in 1963 and 1964 the engineers of a new guitar company in development spent several months with their paperwork and drawings on her dining room table, as White and the engineers designed the first round-bodied guitar. Upon completion, the first
According to the "Ovation Original Program" White played the Josh White Model Ovation guitar at the Hotel America, in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 14, 1966.[19][20]
In 1965–1967, the Ovation Guitar Company made a signature guitar for White, which was the first made for an African American.[21][22] White was the first official Ovation endorser.[23]
An article in Music Trades magazine in December 1966 stated that
"Earlier this year, the present double parabolic form was perfected after extensive consultations with professional guitarists including the pioneering guitar folk singer, Josh White.
"Ovation Instruments unveiled their new line of acoustical guitars at a reception and dinner held last month at the Hotel America, Hartford, Conn. In a program which featured demonstrations by White, one of Americas best-known folk singers, and the Balladeers, a new, young, singing group; and remarks by Charles Kaman, president of Kaman Aircraft Corporation, parent company of Ovation Instruments, and Jim D. Gurley, program manager of Ovation Instruments, the features of the Ovation guitar models were presented to 300 representatives of the press and the music industry.
"Josh White, playing Ovation's "Josh White" model—declared to be the first guitar which the famous folk singer has ever endorsed—held the crowd spellbound. His thirty-minute performance brought forth every nuance of the instrument's unique capability to render clear treble and deep resonant bass notes. Closing the show with a family ensemble with his two daughters, Mr. White brought down the house. It was one of the rare occasions when he and his children, though all professionals, have played together as a group."[24]
Fingernail problems
White had a hands-on influence on Ovation. White used to come to the factory. His fingernails were brittle and prone to cracking due to psoriasis, a condition that got worse as he grew older. Ovation's subassembly foreman, Al Glemboski, made a cast of White's fingers, from which he made a set of fiberglass nails. White glued on these false nails with an industrial glue,
Death
In 1961, White's health began a sharp decline after he had the first of the three
Harry Belafonte, after learning of White's death, said in an interview with the Associated Press, "I can't tell you how sad I am. I spent many, many hours with him in the years of my early development. He had a profound influence on my style. At the time I came along, he was the only popular black folk singer, and through his artistry exposed America to a wealth of material about the life and conditions of black people that had not been sung by any other artist."
Legacy
White was in many senses a trailblazer: popular country bluesman in the early 1930s, responsible for introducing a mass white audience to folk-blues in the 1940s, and the first black singer-guitarist to star in Hollywood films and on Broadway. On one hand he was famous for his civil rights songs, which made him a favorite of the Roosevelts, and on the other he was known for his sexy stage persona (a first for a black male artist).[27]
He was the first black singer to give a White House command performance (1941), to perform in previously segregated hotels (1942), to get a million-selling record ("One Meatball", 1944), and the first to make a solo concert tour of America (1945).[28] He was also the first folk and blues artist to perform in a nightclub, the first to tour internationally, and (along with Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie) the first to be honored with a US postage stamp.[3][29]
White and Libby Holman became the first mixed-race male and female artists to perform together, record together and tour together in previously segregated venues across the United States. They continued performing off and on for the next six years, while making an album and a film together.[6][7]
White was seen as an influence on hundreds of artists of diverse musical styles, including:
Song and poetry tributes
- The folk singer Bob Gibson and his writing partner, Shel Silverstein, wrote and recorded the song "Heavenly Choir" in 1979, a tribute to three of their most beloved artists, White, Hank Williams and Janis Joplin. The first verse is about White.[30]
- Peter, Paul & Mary and a protégé of White's, eulogized him in the song "Goodbye Josh", which was included on his first solo album, Peter.[30]
- Jack Williams wrote and recorded "A Natural Man", a tribute to White, on his album Walkin' Dreams in 2002.[31]
- The poet and historian Leatrice Emeruwa published the poem "Josh White Is Dead" in 1970.[32]
Personal life
In 1933, White married Carol Carr, a New York gospel singer. They raised Blondell (Bunny), Julianne (Beverly),
On occasion in the early 1940s, when the grandmother watched the children, Carol would join White in singing, performing and recording with the folk collaborative group, the
Posthumous honors
- In 1983, Josh White, Jr., starred in the long-running and rave-reviewed biographical dramatic musical stage play on his father's life, Josh: The Man & His Music, written and directed by Broadway veteran Peter Link, which premiered at the Michigan Public Theatre in Lansing. Subsequently, the state of Michigan formally proclaimed April 20, 1983, to be Josh White & Josh White, Jr. Day.
- In 1984, when asked why his father's recordings were so hard to find, Josh White, Jr. said, "Normally, when a person of my old man's stature passes away, a flood of re-releases and best-of packages are dumped on the market. But when he died [...] there was only one memorial album that Elektra put out and, after that, there was nothing. That's why in my performances I never omit a section devoted to my father's songs, his interpretations of other people's songs, and his style of guitar playing."
- In 1987, the Josh White, Jr. tribute album to his father's music, Jazz, Ballads and Blues (Rykodisc, produced by Douglas Yeager), received a Grammynomination.
- In 1996, Josh White, Jr. released a well-received second tribute album to his father's music, entitled House of the Rising Son (Silverwolf, produced by Josh White, Jr., Douglas Yeager and Peter Link).
- On June 26, 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a 32-cent postage stamp honoring White, unveiling it on the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., followed by a concert tribute of his songs by Josh White, Jr. In the same year, Smithsonian Folkways released an album of White's work, entitled Free and Equal Blues, his only solo album released on the label (though he was featured on several compilation works both before and after).[34]
- From 2002 to 2006, the historic Americana show Glory Bound, which starred Odetta, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Oscar Brand, and Josh White, Jr., toured America, in a salute to the first three folk and blues artists to be honored with U.S. postage stamps, Josh White, Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie.
- On February 27, 2010, a 36-inch high bust of White was unveiled at the LeQuire Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee. It is part of an exhibit by the sculptor Alan LeQuire entitled "Cultural Heroes", which will tour museums across America in the fall of 2010. The exhibit's other cultural heroes, whose busts are honored alongside White, were Bessie Smith, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie and Billie Holiday.
- August 20, 2016, was declared Josh White Day by White's hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville is also planning to place a bronze sculpture honoring White downtown sometime in 2018.[35][36]
Filmography
- 1945: The Crimson Canary. Directed by John Hoffman.
- 1947: Dreams That Money Can Buy. Directed by Hans Richter.
- 1949: The Walking Hills. Directed by John Sturges.
- 1998: The Guitar of Josh White. Homespun Videos. (An instructional video featuring Josh White, Jr. showing his father's pioneering guitar techniques.)
- 2000: Josh White: Free and Equal Blues, Rare Performances. DVD. Vestapol.[37]
- 2010: ``Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel``. Written and directed by Brigitte Berman[38]
Other films containing recordings by White
- 1994: Earl Robinson: Ballad of an American. Directed by Bette Jean Bullett.
- 2001: Jazz, Episode Seven: "Dedicated to Chaos". Directed by Ken Burns.
- 2003: Strange Fruit. Directed by Joel Katz.
- 2006: Red Tailed Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Directed by Pare Lorentz.
- 2006: Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power. Directed by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts.
- 2009: History Detectives. Episode: "In Search of Josh White's Guitar".
- 2009: American Folk. Part 3, of BBC4's five-part series.
- 2010: Our World War II Fathers. Directed by Les Easter.
See also
- List of people on stamps of the United States
- Union Boys
Footnotes
- ^ Grein, Paul (2023-03-15). "Esther Phillips, Josh White & More to Be Inducted into Blues Hall of Fame: Full List of 2023 Inductees". Billboard. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- ^ Ehrenclou, Martine (2023-03-15). "Blues Hall of Fame 2023 Inductees Announced". ROCK AND BLUES MUSE. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- ^ a b "Josh White, Jr". Josh White, Jr. 1998-06-26. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ISBN 0877225834.
- ^ Wald, Elijah (2000). Josh White: Society Blues. p. 24.
- ^ a b c "The Jewish Quarterly". The Jewish Quarterly. 2009-03-16. Archived from the original on 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ a b "Libby Holman and the Civil Rights Movement" (PDF). Louisschanker.info. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Origins: One Meatball – blues song". mudcat.org. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
- ^ "Song for Hard Times" Archived 2009-04-29 at the Wayback Machine, Harvard Magazine, May–June 2009.
- ^ "One Meat Ball" The New York Times review of a 1945 "all-Negro variety show", identifying White as "the best thing" in the show.
- ^ Wald, Elijah. "Society Blues". Elijahwald.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-21. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "ACE – Josh White". Culturalequity.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Josh White – John Henry | For Old Times Sake". Reddevillye.wordpress.com. 2008-01-07. Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Legends of Country Blues Guitar : Volume 3" (PDF). Guitarvideos.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Josh White Guitar Method". Mediafire.com. 2010-12-27. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Josh White Guitar | History Detectives". PBS. 2011-05-22. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Season 6, episode 11: Josh White Guitar" (PDF). Tc.pbs.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "1965 Ovation Josh White – OM Acoustic Guitar at Dream Guitars". Dreamguitars.com. Archived from the original on 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Ovation Instruments" (PDF). Ovationtribute.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-04-24. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "OFC Members Serial Number List : Shiny Bowl Series 1966–1969". Ovationgallery.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-29. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Ovation Josh White Model Brochure". Ovationtribute.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
- ^ "Ovation Gallery". Ovation Gallery. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Ovation Guitars". World Music Supply. Archived from the original on 2013-12-18. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Helicopter Pioneer to Make Guitars" (PDF). Ovationtribute.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-04-24. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ISBN 978-0793558766. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ Horsley, Carter B. (September 6, 1969). "Josh White, Folk Singer, Dead". New York Times. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
Josh White, the folk singer, died at the North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, L. I., yesterday while undergoing heart surgery ...
- ^ "For Old Times Sake | A musical trip back in time to recall the forgotten artists of yesteryear". Reddevillye.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "The Folk Music Revival – Folk and protest music, bringing it back home". Loti.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour". Archived from the original on December 30, 2010.
- ^ a b "Josh White – Hard Time Blues (Country Folk Blues – Political Folk Singer)". Blues.Gr. 2010-01-04. Archived from the original on 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Jack Williams WD Songbook". Jackwilliamsmusic.com. Archived from the original on 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ Black World/Negro Digest. Johnson Publishing Company. 1968-08-05. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ The information in this paragraph was compiled by Douglas Yeager, White's archival biographer and manager of White's estate.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Josh White Honored by Greenville, SC". Greenvilleonline.com. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
- ^ "What ever happened to statue honoring Greenville bluesman Josh White?". Greenvilleonline.com. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ Matthew Tobey (2012). "Josh White: Free and Equal Blues (2001)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "Review: Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel". Thephoenix.com. 2010-08-10. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
References
- Wald, Elijah (2000). Josh White: Society Blues. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
- Josh White Archived 2015-10-17 at the Wayback Machine from the Website of Josh White Jr. retrieved on May 17, 2007
- Siegel, Dorothy Schainman (1982). The Glory Road: The Story of Josh White. San Diego, California: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Shelton, Robert (1963). The Josh White Songbook (with Biography). Quadrangle Books, Inc.
- Yeager, Douglas. Since 1976, Yeager is the Archival Biographer and Estate Manager of the Estate of Josh White (Sr.)
- Harper, Colin, (2002). Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival
External links
- Josh White at IMDb
- Josh White at the Internet Broadway Database
- "Josh White" by Amanda Guyer
- Elijah Wald biography review
- Cover of The Josh White Guitar Method
- Article about Josh White
- Jewish Quarterly, about Libby Holman and Josh White
Video
- White performing "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" with daughter Judy White on YouTube1965 Swedish TV.
- White performing "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" 1967 BBC-TV.
- White is featured in the radio drama "Help the Blind", a presentation from Destination Freedom