Gayle Dean Wardlow

Gayle Dean Wardlow (born August 31, 1940 in Freer , Duval County , Texas ) is an American blues researcher and writer.

Wardlow's father worked in the Texas oil industry, but the family soon moved to Meridian , Mississippi . At the age of six he lost his father.

His love for music began collecting old Roy Acuff records in the mid-1950s . After a collector offered him the opportunity to exchange blues records for Roy Acuff records, he began his searches for them, too, after he had heard them and became interested in them, his collection focus shifted in 1960 during his time at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi is increasingly turning to old blues records. To find them, he knocked on the front doors of older African Americans and asked specifically about them, bought them if necessary, and asked for information about the performers at the same time.

After reading the book "The Country Blues" published by Samuel Charters in 1959 in 1961 , he began to look increasingly for information about the music and its interpreters and gradually made a name for himself as a competent contact among the few white listeners and researchers on the subject of blues especially on the topic of Delta Blues . In 1963 he accompanied the blues researcher Bernard Klatzko during his research in Mississippi.

In 1964 he managed to find the former talent scout HC Speir , who during his active time was responsible for the placement of almost all important blues musicians in Mississippi in record companies. The interviews that Wardlow conducted with Speir until his death in 1972 allowed a deep insight into the Delta Blues and the origins of the so-called Race Records for the heyday of the Country Blues .

After a three-year search, Wardlow was able to locate Robert Johnson's death certificate in 1968 , and so in 1971 was the first to publish basic life data about the musician who was only known by name to date.

Together with Stephen Calt, Wardlow published the biography "King Of The Delta Blues: The Life And Music Of Charley Patton " based on their own research results in 1988 , which also presented extensive data on numerous blues musicians from Patton's environment such as Kid Bailey or Willie Brown .

With over 3,000 records, Wardlow has one of the largest collections on the pre-war blues theme, including some records, of which he has the only known specimen that has survived. Its holdings also include the largest collection of Charley Patton records in the world. The value of his collection can hardly be estimated.

In 1991 Wardlow announced that he would withdraw from research, since most of the contemporary witnesses had now died and were now devoting themselves to the evaluation of his research. His first result in 1998 was the critically acclaimed book "Chasin 'That Devil Music" .

Wardlow holds degrees from Belhaven College, the University of Alabama and the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in journalism with a major in sports. He served intermittently as Sports Information Director at Livingston University and in the Sports Information Department of the University of Alabama. Later he taught as a professor at various universities.

Web links

• Website with Wardlow interviews, some articles and a bibliography