Henry Townsend

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Henry Townsend St. Louis 1983

Henry 'Mule' Townsend (born October 27, 1909 in Shelby , Mississippi , † September 24, 2006 in Mequon , Wisconsin ) was an American blues singer, guitarist and pianist. Henry's Worried Blues is one of his best known pieces .

Born in Mississippi , Townsend grew up in Cairo , Illinois . At a young age he went to St. Louis , where he Blues -Sizes like Lonnie Johnson heard. In 1929 he made his first recordings.

In the 1930s, Townsend played with many of the greats of the blues, including Walter Davis , Roosevelt Sykes and Robert Johnson . On July 28, 1935, he accompanied the blues pianist Aaron "Pinetop" Sparks in Chicago on 8 titles, including the blues classic Everyday I Have the Blues . In 1937 he played a legendary recording session with Big Joe Williams , Robert Nighthawk and Sonny Boy Williamson I in Aurora , Illinois .

Henry Townsend wrote hundreds of songs and participated in countless recordings of well-known colleagues. He became the patriarch of the St. Louis Blues . The BBC made a documentary about him and in 1985 he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship , the United States' highest honor for a master of the traditional arts. Since 1995 he has had a star on the " St. Louis Walk of Fame ".

Henry Townsend died on September 24, 2006 at St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital in Mequon, Wisconsin, just hours after he became one of the first artists to record on the Paramount label to hit a 'piano key' on Grafton's Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame .

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