Big Bill Broonzy

William Lee Conley Broonzy was one of the most versatile and prolific blues artists of the twentieth century, recording over 300 songs across a career that bridged country blues, urban Chicago blues, and the folk revival. His early biography is contested (birth year, birthplace, and early chronology are among the most debated in blues scholarship) but by the early 1920s he was establishing himself in Chicago, where he became a dominant figure in the prewar recording scene, cutting sides for Bluebird, Vocalion, and other labels. He famously performed at John Hammond's 1938 'From Spirituals to Swing' concert at Carnegie Hall, filling in after Robert Johnson's death. When the postwar electric blues emerged, Broonzy reinvented himself as an acoustic folk-blues performer, touring Europe extensively in the 1950s and becoming one of the first American blues musicians to build a significant overseas audience. His self-presentation to revival audiences (emphasizing his rural roots over his long commercial urban career) shaped how the postwar folk world understood the blues on both sides of the Atlantic. His 1955 autobiography 'Big Bill Blues' was among the first blues memoirs. He was a half-brother of Washboard Sam and a mentor to younger musicians including Muddy Waters. He died of lung cancer in 1958.