James Crutchfield

about

James Crutchfield (May 25, 1912 – December 7, 2001) was an American St. Louis barrelhouse blues singer, piano player and songwriter, whose career spanned seven decades. His repertoire consisted of original and classic blues and boogie-woogie and depression-era popular songs. Known as the 'King of Barrelhouse Blues'; Crutchfield's better known songs include "I Believe You Need A Shot" and "My Baby Cooks My Breakfast". There is no record of James Crutchfield's birth: "My mama never know'd what day it was, she never know'd what month it was, but she always know'd what year it was. 'Lotta folks back in them days never even know'd that much, but my mama always did. She told me I was born in '12, in Baton Rouge, when the high water was highest." James Crutchfield said his mother Sarah was a "Geechee" - a descendent of slaves of the Georgia/Carolina sea islands and said he much resembled her. His father, Tom Crutchfield, he described as a large copper-colored man from southwestern Mississippi, whom he'd never met until he was eight years old and with whom he maintained a cordial relationship with thereafter. An only child, James and his mother, a farm worker, migrated through Louisiana and east Texas with the cotton and sugarcane seasons, moving often and sometimes living in tents. His earliest memories were of the boys coming home from World War I and the silent westerns of William S. Hart, whom he idolized. Around 1920, his mother married and settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana. In hi

top songs

albums

similar artists