Blind Boy Fuller

Blind Boy Fuller

Source: Jas Obrecht Music Archive

Born on 10 July of 1904 in Wadesboro, North Carolina, Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen) was a teenager working as a laborer when he began to go blind from a case of neonatal conjunctivitis. He was completely blind by 1928. He married one Cora Mae Martin the next year. Being blind was the reason that not a few blues musicians took up guitar to busk on the streets for a living. Such was Fuller's situation as well. Hailing from the southeastern region of United States made Fuller a Piedmont blues [Wikipedia] musician, though he learned guitar from records as well. He was as famous for hokum blues [Music Gateway / Wikipedia] as anything.

It was 1935 when a record shop owner, James Baxter Long, arranged for Fuller to travel to New York City with Bull City Red (washboard) and Reverend Blind Gary Davis to record for ARC (American Record Company). Fuller put up 12 titles in July that year, beginning on the 23rd with 'Baby, I Don't Have to Worry', 'I'm a Rattlesnakin' Daddy', 'I'm Climbin' on Top of the Hill' and 'Lookin' for My Woman'. Davis had recorded his initial titles on the 23rd as well, beginning the session with his solo titles 'I'm Throwin' Up My Hands' and 'Cross and Evil Woman Blues'. The 24th saw the pair put away  'Ain't It a Cryin' Shame'. They recorded tracks on the 25th before Fuller scratched solo titles on the 26th like 'My Brownskin Sugar Plum' and 'Log Cabin Blues'.

Composition: Fuller

Composition: Fuller / J.B. Long

Composition: J.B. Long

Fuller recorded about 125 titles in the next five years including 'Truckin My Blues Away' in 1936 and 'Truckin' My Blues Away No.2' in 1937. He partnered with Dipper Boy Council on numerous tracks beginning in New York City on 8 February 1937 to lay out 'Boots and Shoes' and 'If You Don't Give Me What I Want'. He also put up numerous titles with harmonica player, Sonny Terry, starting in New York City on 15 December 1937 per 'Looking for My Woman' and 'Ten O'Clock Peeper'. Then in 1938 Fuller got angry enough with his wife to shoot her in the leg, landing him in prison for time.

Composition: Fuller

Composition: Fuller / J.B. Long

Composition: Fuller ?

Composition: Charlie Pickett

Composition: W.C. Handy / M.E. Koenig / S. Williams

Composition: Fuller ?

Composition: Fuller / J.B. Long

Composition: J.B. Long

Composition: Fuller / J.B. Long

Composition: Fuller

Fuller's last tracks went down on June 19, 1940, in Chicago. American Music has his final matrix of that day as 'Night Rambling Woman' per WC-3155-A toward Okeh 05785 (Brownie McGhee on side A).

Composition: Fuller

Composition: Fuller / J.B. Long

Composition: Fuller / J.B. Long

Composition: Fuller

Fuller died of urethral stricture in Durham, North Carolina, in 1941 on February 13 at age 36. This failure was likely caused by a sexual condition such as syphilis, and wasn't much assisted by a taste for alcohol. Fuller was popular enough that Columbia (Okeh) promoted McGhee, Fuller's protégé, as "Blind Boy Fuller #2" to sell more copies for a time, such as McGhee's tribute, 'Death of Blind Boy Fuller', issued in 1941. McGhee then teamed up with Terry that year, Fuller having been the catalyst toward that famous partnership.