Henry Sims (musician)

Henry "Son" Sims (born August 22, 1890 in Anguilla , Mississippi , † December 23, 1958 in Memphis , Tennessee ) was an American blues musician . Sims mastered several instruments (piano, guitar, violin, viola da gamba and mandolin ), but played mainly fiddle and guitar as an accompanist for numerous important blues musicians.

Sims was the only son of five children and spent most of his childhood in Renova, near Cleveland , Mississippi. He got his nickname Son from his mother. Despite religious reservations about the boy's musical inclination, his parents supported him in this, and his violin teacher was his own grandfather, Warren Scott. Sims has been a religious person since early childhood, reports describe him as a serious and calm character, unlike many other blues musicians, his lifestyle was characterized by equanimity and balance. He spent his entire adult life in a childless marriage with Lizzie Smith, twelve years his senior.

During the First World War he was drafted into the army and served in France. He then moved to Farrell near Clarksdale and around this time began to work with the guitarist Percy Thomas, the duo then gradually expanded Sims to a band with the addition of a bassist and a mandolinist, which he named Mississippi Corn Shuckers , but which were called Son Sims Four became known regionally and remained together for over a quarter of a century with the same cast. The Shuckers / Sims Four played mainly square dancing and similar music to a white audience and made for Sims a sideline to sharecropping .

Sims had known Charley Patton since his youth , who gave him his first opportunity to record with Paramount Records in 1929 . During the recording session, Sims was accompanied by Patton, in return Sims played fiddle on eight recordings of Patton . In the early 1930s, Sims was Patton's sideman on a few gigs. In 1942 he accompanied Muddy Waters on recordings for Alan Lomax and played more often in his juke joint . From the beginning of the 1940s he occasionally appeared with Robert Nighthawk at performances in the Mississippi Delta, around this time he also mounted a pickup on his violin and thus became one of the first ever electric violinists.

In 1946 the Son Sims Four broke up when their bassist died. Sims remained active for twelve years until he died of a kidney stone operation. His grave in Clarksdale is anonymous.

In retrospect, critics disagree about the quality of his playing, Wardlow / Calt describe it as "imprecise" and "shrill", while Robert Palmer benevolently mentions his "unsentimental [...] timbre ".

Remarks

1. ↑ This does not mean the mouth region of the Mississippi south of Baton Rouge , Louisiana , but a region on the Mississippi in the state of the same name, see →  Lower Mississippi Delta Region and →  Yazoo River

swell

• Stephen Calt & Gayle Wardlow, King of the Delta Blues - The Life and Music of Charlie Patton , 1988, ISBN 0961861002
• Robert Palmer, Deep Blues , 1995, ISBN 0140062238