(b. 27 March 1905, Nashville, Tennessee, d. 29 April 1935)

Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell were arguably the most popular and influential male blues artists from 1928 until Carr’s death in 1935. In spite of this, the duo is quite underrated today, for several reasons. One, obviously, is that neither survived to be seen by the folk audiences of the sixties, though Blackwell almost made it. Another is that, unlike Robert Johnson, neither had cultivated an image which would lead to a legend surrounding them. Blackwell did not actively seek the limelight, and Carr’s laidback songs and “get this man a beer” attitude at a houseparty didn’t lend them-selves to such an image. A third and far less obvious reason is that Carr and Blackwell did not live in Chicago.  Carr died due to complications of his alcoholism.~Tbone