Jesse Fuller
b. 12 March 1896, Jonesboro, Georgia, USA, d. 29 January 1976, Oakland, California, USA. A veteran of the tent shows, Fuller fashioned himself a unique one-man-band of six-string bass (played with his right foot), a combination of kazoo, harmonica, microphone fixed to a harness around his neck, a hi-hat cymbal (played with the left foot) and a 12-string guitar. His success came in the late '50s as a result of appearances on USA television follow ing Ramblin’ Jack Elliot's lionization via his recording of San Francisco Bay Blues. In the '50s he made three albums of original and traditional material and by the mid-60s became the darling of the ‘coffee house circuit’ after Bob Dylan cited him as one of his influences. Similar success was to follow in Britain resulting from Donovan's performance of San Francisco Bay Blues on UK Independent Television's READY STEADY GO music programme in 1965.