Big Bill Broonzy was a legendary blues performer whose work influenced many great artists such as Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Jerry Garcia. He is credited with being a major influence in the development of the Chigago blues style and during his varied career brought folk and blues together and introduced it to a wider audience.

He spent his formative years in the Pine Bluff area of Arkansas working as a share cropper where he experienced the racial intolerance which was commonplace in certain parts of America in that era, this led him to relocate to Chicago in search of opportunity. Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s he worked in a variety of menial jobs whilst trying to launch his career as a musician. His fortunes began to change when he signed with the famous established label Vocalion in 1938 whilst simultaneously replacing the recently deceased Robert Johnson in a revue at Carnegie Hall. After World War II Broonzy continued to grow in popularity and took his music to Europe where he made many appearances in UK blues and jazz clubs where blues was becoming increasingly popular.

During his career he was a prolific songwriter and left behind a legacy of recorded music which clearly demonstrates the transition period when blues progressed from raw acoustic performances to the more sophisticated electric post-war style. He died from throat cancer in August 1958 at the age of 65.

Big Bill Broonzy

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