Mississippi Joe Callicott

"Mississippi" Joe Callicott (October 10, 1899 – May 1969)[1][2] was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist.

Grave of Joe Callicott

Callicott was born in Nesbit, Mississippi, United States.[2] In 1929 he played second guitar in Garfield Akers' duet recording, "Cottonfield Blues".[3] His "Love Me Baby Blues" has been covered by various artists, e.g. (under the title of "France Chance") by Ry Cooder. Arhoolie Records recorded Callicott commercially in the mid-1960s. Some of his 1967 recordings (recorded by the music historian, George Mitchell) were re-released in 2003, on the Fat Possum record label. His best known recordings are "Great Long Ways From Home" and "Hoist Your Window and Let Your Curtain Down".[2] Callicott also recorded, as noted by one music journalist, "his lilting "Fare Thee Well Blues.""[4]

He served as a mentor to the guitarist Kenny Brown when Brown was ten years old.[2]

Joe Callicott is buried in the Mount Olive Baptist Church Cemetery in Nesbit, Mississippi. On April 29, 1995, a memorial headstone was placed on his grave arranged by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund with the help of Kenny Brown and financed by Chris Strachwitz, Arhoolie Records and John Fogerty. Callicott's original marker, a simple paving stone which read simply "JOE", was subsequently donated by his family to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. At the ceremony the Mount Zion Fund presented Callicott's wife Doll with a check from Arhoolie Records for royalties earned from a CD reissue of Callicott's work.

Discography

Studio albums
  • Presenting the Country Blues (Blue Horizon, 1969)
  • Deal Gone Down (Revival, 1970)

Compilation albums
  • Ain't A Gonna Lie to You (Fat Possum, 2003)
  • North Mississippi Blues (Southland, 2004)

References
  1. Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues - A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara: Praeger Publishers. p. 216. ISBN 978-0313344237.
  2. "Mississippi Joe Callicott | Biography, Albums, & Streaming Radio". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  3. Robert Palmer. Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 243-4. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.
  4. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. p. 211. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.


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