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Artist
Big Bad Smitty
12+ albums
acoustic bluesbluesbluesrockClassic Bluestraditional blues
about
John H. Smith was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi 2-11-40, and raised in the tiny delta town of Schlater, (pronounced "slaughter!") Mississippi. When he was ten his father bought a guitar for Smitty's older brother Nelson, and Smitty would play it when no one was around. The first song he learned was Muddy Waters' "Still a Fool." By his mid teens he was gigging in the Greenville area with his schoolmate, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes. The pair would play picnics, jukes and fishfries. By his twenties he had moved to Jackson, Mississippi and took up truckdriving. In the fertile Jackson blues scene of the fifties Smitty played regularly with artists including John Littlejohn, Sam Myers, King Edward and King Mose at clubs such as The Queen of Hearts and Sammy Lee's on Livingston. He was recorded at this time by Johnny Vincent of Ace Records whose most famous artists included Frankie "Sea Cruise" Ford, and Huey "Piano" Smith of "Rockin' Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Blues" fame. Two of these cuts, "Smokestack Lightnin'" and "How Many More Years" appeared on the Ace 1970 anthology Genuine Mississippi Blues alongside cuts by such greats as Fred McDowell, Littlejohn, Myers, Frankie Lee Sims and Elmore James Jr. on whose cuts Smitty played lead guitar. This album was recently reissued on CD and on the James cuts you can hear James say "take it Smitty" before the solos. By his thirties Smitty had moved north to St. Louis. There he became lead guitar player for Big George (Brock) and the Hou
