Yank Rachell
Yank Rachell | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | James A. Rachel |
Born | near Brownsville, Tennessee, U.S. | March 16, 1910
Died | April 9, 1997 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. | (aged 87)
Genres | Country blues |
Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1929–1997 |
Yank Rachell (born James A. Rachel; March 16, 1910 – April 9, 1997)[1][2][3] was an American country blues musician who has been called an "elder statesman of the blues".[2][4] His career as a performer spanned nearly seventy years, from the late 1920s to the 1990s.
Career
Rachell grew up in
In 1958, during the American folk music revival, he moved to Indianapolis. He recorded for Delmark Records and Blue Goose Records. He was a capable guitarist and singer but was better known as a master of the blues mandolin. He bought his first mandolin at age eight, in a trade for a pig his family had given him to raise.[4] He often performed with the guitarist and singer Sleepy John Estes.[5] "She Caught the Katy," which he wrote with Taj Mahal, is considered a blues standard.[4]
He appeared in the 1985 documentary film
By the mid-1990s, Rachell and Henry Townsend were the only blues musicians still active whose careers started in the 1920s.[7] Late in his life Rachell suffered from arthritis, which shortened his playing sessions, but he recorded an album just before his death, Too Hot for the Devil.[4]
Film
- Louie Bluie (1985), directed by Terry Zwigoff
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0313344237.
- ^ ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
- ^ Doc Rock. "The Dead Rock Stars Club 1996–1997". Thedeadrockstarsclub.com. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Ratliff, Ben (April 20, 1997). "Yank Rachell, 87, Mandolinist and Elder Statesman of the Blues". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
- ISBN 978-0738506050.
- ISBN 1-85868-255-X.