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Artist
James Kinds
11+ albums
bluesguitarClassic Bluesrhythm and blues
about
James Kinds (April 23, 1943 - Aug. 19, 2014) was a Chicago blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. James Kinds was born in the Blue Lake Plantation, Drew, Mississippi and the oldest of 12 children.. He ordered his first guitar from a Sears, Roebuck catalogue and taught himself how to play it. Kinds formed a gospel quartet, the Spirit of Joy when he was only 13. "We were some green boys, but we had that sound together:' he said. They never recorded but did perform on Clarksdale's WROX radio, championed by deejay Early Wright. Kinds had to turn down an offer a year later to join the famous Spirit of Memphis when his mother forbade him to go. "It did good until all of us got grown and started moving away to Chicago and Detroit, St. Louis: he said of the quartet.”And I was without a group. About a year later, I moved to Chicago." That was in 1959. The 16-year-old arrived in the Windy City with clear-cut goals."To go out on my own music, and to get somewhere where I could make me some money. I wasn't making no money in the South. I got to Chicago and got me a job and that was alright." At first he gravitated back to the church, joining the Soul Seekers. "I sung a little gospel in Chicago, but I wasn't obligated to no group:' he said. In the end however, the blues won out. Sitting in at drummer Kansas City Red's joint on West Lake Street started the ball rolling. "I heard about blues being there by word of mouth, and just went:' remembers James.”I picked one of the coldest
