Josh White

Joshua Daniel White was one of the most versatile and popular African American folk-blues performers of the mid-twentieth century. As a child, he served as a lead boy for blind street musicians including Blind Man Arnold and Blind Blake, absorbing the Piedmont blues tradition firsthand. He recorded prolifically in the early 1930s as both a blues artist (as 'Pinewood Tom') and a gospel singer (as 'Joshua White: The Singing Christian'). By the late 1930s he had moved to New York City, where he became a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk scene, a Broadway performer, and the first African American to give a command performance at the White House (for FDR). His smooth, sophisticated style influenced a generation of folk performers, though his career was damaged by Cold War-era political controversies. He remained a popular nightclub and concert performer until his death in 1969.