Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
b. 24 August 1905, Forest, Mississippi, USA, d. 28 March 1974, Nassawadox, Virginia, USA. During the '40s and early '50s Arthur Crudup was an important name in the blues field, his records selling particularly well in the south. For much of his early life Crudup worked in various rural occupations, not learning to play the guitar until he was 32. His teacher being one Papa Harvey a local bluesman. Crudup's guitar style never became adventurous but it formed an effective backdrop for his high, expressive voice. The story is that Crudup was playing on the sidewalk in Chicago when he was spotted by music publisher, and general Mr Fixit for the blues in the Windy City, Lester Melrose. Like many others from his background, Big Boy's first recordings were his most countryfied; If I Get Lucky and Black Pony Blues were recorded in September 1941 and must have sold largely to the same group of resident and ex-patriot southerners who were buying records by Tommy McClennan and Sleepy John Estes. During the next 12 years he recorded approximately 80 tracks for Victor including songs that became blues standards. Mean Old Frisco was later picked up by artists as diverse as Brownie McGhee (1946) and B.B. King (1959) and was one of the first blues recordings to feature an electric guitar. He recorded Dust My Broom in 1949 and the following year moonlighted for the Jackson, Mississippi label Trumpet under the name Elmer James. Despite attempts to update his sound by the introduction of piano, harmonicas and saxophones, by 1954 Big Boy's heyday was over. When Bobby Robinson contracted him from Chicago to record an album of his hits for Fire in 1962 the project had to be delayed until the picking season was over, Crudup having given up music and gone back to working on the land. Robinson's interest may have been sparked by two of Crudup's compositions, That's All Right and My Baby Left Me having been recorded by Elvis Presley. Presley also cut Crudup's I'm So Glad You're Mine but there is no reason to suspect that Crudup benefited much from this. A second career bloomed for Big Boy with the interest taken in blues by a white audience in the mid-'60s beginning with an album for Bob Koester's Delmark label. From then on he appeared at campuses and clubs in the USA and even journeyed to Europe—always encouraged to perform in a country style. It appears likely that, with his superior lyrics and wide cross-racial popularity, Big Boy gave more to the blues than he ever received in return.