CAT IRON

  

  

Cat Iron, real name William Carradine ['Cat Iron' was not his actual nickname, but a mishearing of his surname by his "rediscoverer"], (c. 1896 in Garden City, Louisiana, United States – c. 1958 in Natchez, Mississippi) was an African-American blues singer and guitarist.

During the folk and blues revival, "Cat Iron" was "discovered" and recorded in 1957 by Frederic Ramsey Jr.; the recordings were released in the United States in 1958 on the Folkways label, in the United Kingdom in 1969 on the XTRA label. His song, "Jimmy Bell" has been covered by many other musicians, first by Koerner, Ray & Glover on their 1963 album, Blues, Rags and Hollers, later by Stoney & Meatloaf, The Numbers Band, Peter Lang, The Sharks, Tom Doughty and Watermelon Slim.

Naixement: 1896, Louisiana, Estats Units

Defunció: 1958, Natchez, Mississipí, Estats Units

Àlbums: Cat-Iron Sings Blues and Hymns, Jimmy Bell the Blues of Cat Iron, Well I'm in Your Hand, The Blues Effect - Cat Iron

Empreses discogràfiques: Reloaded Music, Marmot Music, Black & Partners LLC, FourMatt Mu

           

           

            

William Carradine was born in Garden City, LA. in 1896. In 1958 folklorist Frederic Ramsey, Jr. found him at his home in Natchez, MS. and recorded an album's worth of blues and gospel numbers by him. Ramsey had met a local musician by the name of Thurmond Monroe who was the alto saxist for a local Natchez group by the name of the Otis Smith Orchestra, who told him where to find Carradine, who lived in the slums of Buckner's Alley. Monroe would go to his shack from time to time and give him some change just to hear him play the old songs. At the time that Ramsey and Monroe went to Carradine's shack to visit him, he didn't really want to play any blues since he had found religion. He also didn't have a guitar and Monroe found someone to borrow a guitar from so he could record, and he and Ramsey managed to coax some blues numbers from him. Carradine may have never heard his recordings played back to him, he died shortly after they were made.   (  In DEEP BLUES !  )