Biography

Charlie Musselwhite seemed destined to be a bluesman. Born in Mississippi, the cradle of the blues, in 1944, Charlie moved to Memphis at an early age and became immersed in the city's diverse musical culture. He went to school with Johnny Cash's brother, Tommy, lived down the road from rockabilly legends Johnny Burnette and Slim Rhodes and went to parties hosted by the "King of Rock 'N' Roll," Elvis Presley.

While Charlie soaked up the music of Memphis with the enthusiasm of a true devotee, it was the blues that caught his soul. In his teens, he befriended several of Memphis' legendary traditional bluesmen, including guitarist Furry Lewis, Will Shade and the surviving members of the Memphis Jug Band. It wasn't long before Charlie began sitting in with his more experienced friends, and establishing a name for himself.

When Charlie was 18, he had an awakening. Music wasn't paying the rent, so for $50 a trip, Charlie would run moonshine whiskey from remote country stills into downtown Memphis, and his bosses would distribute it to dozens of drive-in burger joints around town. When the state police followed him home one day, Charlie decided it was time for a change of profession. The next day, he packed up and headed north on Highway 51 to try his luck in Chicago.

With the intent on finding a factory job in the Windy City, he instead found urban blues in all of its soulful glory. He hung out in the smoky blues clubs on the city's South and West sides and frequently sat in with legends like Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He also worked as a bandmember with Big Joe Williams, J.B. Hutto, Big Walter Horton, Johnny Young, Robert Nighthawk and Floyd Jones. "Coming to Chicago was like walking into Fat City," says Charlie. "These guys inspired me. They gave me an incentive to find my own sound."

Charlie remembers all of those rough and tumble years that, he says, "toughened me up", performing at South Side clubs for a dollar or two. "My feet would be wet from walking in the snow," he recalls. "I had great big holes in my shoes and I remember that really well...once you've been there you don't forget."

Charlie's sound was firmly rooted in Memphis and Chicago-style blues, but it was also inspired by the high energy of rock 'n' roll. In the mid-sixties, Charlie and Paul Butterfield tapped a whole new audience of young rock fans who were drawn to their high-energy style of blues harp. In 1966, Charlie's crossover popularity was rewarded. Charlie, who still had a day job at the time, signed with Vanguard and recorded the classic album Stand Back. It was one of the first blues albums marketed to the rock audience and, along with his subsequent albums in the late '60s and early '70s, established Charlie as a worldwide touring talent. As one critic wrote at the time, "Charlie Musselwhite is the natural born heir to carry the torch for the big city blues tradition."

After recording three albums for Vanguard, Charlie moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he still lives. Over the next two decades, he recorded for numerous labels. Blind Pig has reissued one classic album that captured Charlie in one of his most creative periods, The Harmonica According To Charlie Musselwhite. This material has never before appeared on compact disc. On this recording, Charlie offers a superb master class in blues harmonica style and performance, recording 13 tunes in 13 different keys.

Charlie has continued his brilliant career well into the '90s, and continues to record and tour.