John Brim

John Brim (* 10. April 1922 in Hopkinsville , Christian County , Kentucky ; † 1. October 2003 in Gary , Indiana ) was an American Blues - musician . His most famous songs include Ice Cream Man , Rattlesnake and Tough Times .

Influenced by early blues recordings by Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy , Brim taught himself to play the harmonica. With the guitarist Homer Wilson he played on the streets of his home region. In 1941, Brim and Wilson went to Indianapolis to look for work. Here Brim learned to play the guitar. One of his teachers was Blackwell , along with other scrappers .

In 1945 Brim moved to Chicago , where he worked with Sonny Boy Williamson and Dr. Clayton appeared. For the next five years, Brim played with the greats of the Chicago blues including Muddy Waters , Little Walter , Memphis Minnie , Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red , Big Maceo Merriweather and many others. In 1947 Brim married the blues singer Grace. At Brim's insistence, she learned to play the drums so that she could accompany him. Jimmy Reed had one of his first appearances with the two.

With Big Maceo Merriweather, the Brims made their first recordings in Detroit in 1950 , which were followed by several more, u. a. for the label JOB , with Sunnyland Slim , Roosevelt Sykes , Little Walter, Jimmy Reed and others. Brim also played guitar on Albert King's first recording .

Disagreements with his record label Chess Records left Brim's recordings from 1955 to 1956 for over 15 years in the archives before they were finally released. Brim continued to perform, but didn't record again until 1971, with his wife and son, John Junior. Then again 18 years passed before the next recordings were made in 1989, this time u. a. with Pinetop Perkins . In 1994 the CD Ice Cream Man was released , on which Jerry Portnoy and Bob Margolin had also contributed.

In 1999, Brim's wife Grace died. In 2000 he was back in the studio to record the album Jake's Blues with his backing band "The Tough Time Boys" .