SHY GUY DOUGLAS

Biography

BORN

8 November 1917

DIED

19 October 1984 (aged 66)

The late Nashville TN based blues singer and harmonica player Thomas "Shy Guy" Douglas had a rather long and continuous career in the local bluesmusic scene, making records for Excello, Bullet, Delta and MCA back in the day with a career spanning 1949-69. He was one of Nashville’s greatest Bluesmen (some figure he was the Greatest harp player in the Down Home blues genre). In the 1940s, he frequented the city’s Bijou Theater, a black-oriented venue located on Fourth Avenue that had earlier hosted performers such as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. Red Wortham discovered him in 1947 and recorded him first circa 1949-1950, his first 78 RPM disc Raid On Cedar Street b/w I Should Have Known was sold by local DJ Jim Bulliet (pronounced Boulay) to MGM in 1950 before Shy Guy went on to release several tracks via the Excello label in the early to mid 50's.

By 1956, to cash in on the burgeoning Rock n Roll scene, the Calvert label released Let's Rock And Roll / My Little Baby under the name Little Shy Guy And The Hot Rods which featured backing from Al Gunter and Arthur Gunter. 1962's Monkey Doin' Woman co-written with Red Wortham was released on the Nashville based Todd label. He released a few other 45's on the Excello & Bullet label in the later 60's…but his recorded output dwindles by the early 1970's until compilations & reissues of his older recordings began appearing. A retrospective compilation CD of many of his finest tracks entitled Shy Guy Douglas – Stone Doin' Alright came out 20 years after his death on the Black Magic Records label out of the Netherlands in 2004. In 2006 the US based Snailworx label digitally issued Midnight Soul, a compilation featuring 15 more long forgotten cuts by this obscure southern blues fave.

If you love early Frank Frost or Jimmy Reed, Shy Guy's lazy-beat tunes and fine acoustic harp will appeal to you. His vocals are laid back and cool on "Stone Doin' Alright and his 1967 tune “Haulin’” released on the SUR-SPEED label is a rural blues harp masterpiece, while “Miss Lola” is simple perfection, and proof that Shy Guy Douglas should be far, far better known.

TOM "SHY-GUY" DOUGLAS was Born: November 8, 1917 in Franklin, TN , Died: October 19, 1984 in Nashville, TN

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