Bukka White

BOOKER T WASHINGTON "BUKKA" WHITE d1977. American delta-blues guitarist and singer. His 1937 version of the oft-recorded song"Shake 'Em on Down" is considered definitive ; it became a hit while he was serving time in Mississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman Farm. He wrote about his experience there in "Parchman Farm Blues" which was released in 1940. He served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1944, after which he settled in Memphis Tennessee and worked outside music. Bob Dylan covered his song "Fixin' to Die Blues" which aided a "rediscovery" of him in 1963 (by guitarist John Fahey and Ed Denson) which propelled him into the folk music revival of the 1960s. He had recorded the song simply because his other songs had not particularly impressed the Victor record producer. It was a studio composition of which he had thought little until it re-emerged thirty years later. He died in Memphis aged 70 on February 26th 1977