Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1893 or 1898 – August 15, 1958) was a prolific United States composer, recorder and performer of blues songs. June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 188 days remaining. ... Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... The blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that typically follows a twelve-bar structure. ...

"Big Bill" was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in Scott County, Mississippi on June 26, 1893 or 1898 (the exact year is unclear). While Broonzy himself claimed to be born in 1893, another source^{[citation needed]} claims that Broonzy had a twin sister named Lannie Broonzy who had proof they were born on June 26, 1898. During this time, it was common for black men to add years to their actual age in order to get a job or join the military, which may very well have been Broonzy's case as well. Regardless, Broonzy left Mississippi in 1924 and arrived in Chicago, where he met Papa Charlie Jackson, who taught him to play guitar (Broonzy had previously been a fiddler). Broonzy first recorded as a self-accompanied singer in 1929, and continued to record in that style. Around 1936, he became one of the first blues singers to use a small instrumental group, including "traps" (drums) and acoustic bass as well as one or more melody instruments (horns and/or harmonica). These discs were usually issued as Big Bill and his Chicago Five. At that time, Broonzy was recording for the American Record Corporation on their line of less expensive labels (Melotone, Perfect Records, et al). In 1939, ARC was acquired by CBS, and Broonzy then appeared on Vocalion (later Okeh) and, after 1945, on Columbia Records. One of his best-known songs was written at that time, "Key To the Highway." Scott County is a county located in the state of Mississippi. ... Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, City of the Big Shoulders, The 312, The City that Works Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837  - Mayor... Papa Charlie Jackson was an early male bluesman to record. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Parts of the guitar. ... // Jazz The earliest references to jazz performance using the violin as a solo instrument are documented during the first decades of the 20th century. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The American Record Company, often known as ARC Records or simply ARC, was a United States based record company. ... Melotone Records has been the name of two unrelated record companies, one based in Australia and the other in the United States of America. ... Perfect Records was a United States based record label of the 1920s. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... 1921 Vocalion label Vocalion Records was a record label historically active in the United States and in the United Kingdom. ... Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918; from the late 1920s on was a subsidiary of Columbia Records. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. ...

During this time, Broonzy usually played South Side clubs, and also toured with Memphis Minnie during the 1930s. When the second American Federation of Musicians strike ended in 1948, Broonzy was picked up by the Mercury Records label, for whom he made a handful of records through 1951. After that, Broonzy returned to his solo folk-blues roots, and traveled extensively (and recorded) across Europe into early 1956. Although he had been a pioneer of the Chicago blues style and had employed electric instruments as early as 1942, his new, white audiences wanted to hear him playing his earliest songs unaccompanied on acoustic guitar, considering those to be more "authentic". Broonzy returned to Chicago in 1956 and continued to perform, though his health was beginning to fail; he would eventually die of throat cancer in 1958, and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Illinois.^[1] During his folk-blues period, he recorded with Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Leadbelly. A considerable portion of his early ARC/CBS recordings have been reissued in anthology collections by CBS-Sony; as well, other earlier recordings have been collected on blues reissue labels, as have his later European and Chicago recordings of the fifties. Memphis Minnie McCoy (born June 3, 1897 - died August 6, 1973) was an American Blues musician. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois by adding electrically amplified guitar, drums, piano, bass guitar and sometimes saxophone to the basic guitar/harmonica Delta blues. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lincoln Cemetery can refer to: Lincoln Cemetery (Blue Island) Lincoln Cemetery (Benton County) Category: ... Incorporated City in 1835. ... Pete Seeger (1955) Peter Seeger (born May 3, 1919) almost universally known as Pete Seeger, is a folk singer and political activist. ... Sonny Terry performing live at Nambassa festival 1981. ... Walter Brownie McGhee (November 30, 1915 - February 16, 1996) was a folk-blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. ... Leadbelly, also known as Lead Belly (born Huddie William Ledbetter; January 20, 1889 (although this is debatable) - December 6, 1949), was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. ...

Since Broonzy was never a spectacular electric guitarist in the manner of others of his early-fifties contemporaries, he is not as well known as others of that period, and was not extensively covered during the "British Blues Revival" of the sixties; however, he did gain some popularity, with "Key to the Highway" featured on Derek and the Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. He was an acclaimed acoustic guitar player, and a major source of inspiration to men like Muddy Waters and Memphis Slim. Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock supergroup formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon, who had all played with him in Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. ... Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is a blues-rock album by Derek and the Dominos. ... McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered the father of Chicago blues. ... Memphis Slim (1915 in Memphis, Tennessee-1988 Paris, France) was a blues pianist and singer. ...

Big Bill Broonzy recorded over 350 compositions.

External links

• Big Bill Broonzy discography
• General page on Big Bill
• A series of tribute pages

References

1. ^ [http://www.deadbluesguys.com/dbgtour/broonzy_william.htm Clint Stoutenour, 'Big Bill Broonzy Grave', deadbluesguys.com (21 August 2006). Retrieved 26 August 2006.