Sid Selvidge

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Sid Selvidge (born July 21, 1943 in Greenville , Mississippi , † May 2, 2013 in Memphis , Tennessee ) was an American blues singer .

Live and act

As a teenager, Sid Selvidge owned a guitar and occasionally played with friends. Initially, however, he worked as a DJ on the small town radio station called WDDT in his hometown of Greenville , Mississippi . After being hired as a DJ through a test on the radio station WDDT, he worked every weekend and played rock 'n' roll and jazz instead of the standard music at the time to appeal to the younger crowd. This made him very well known in his high school. There Selvidge found that he also has a good singing voice.

In the 1960s, Selvidge's family moved to Memphis, where he began to understand how blues , jazz , rock , rock 'n' roll and soul were shaped by African American society. In Memphis he worked at the radio station KWAM. Working at KWAM could have been a major turning point in his life, but he turned down the offer to work in Clearwater, Florida because he wanted to stay in Memphis.

Selvidge graduated from Southwestern College (now Rhodes College ). There he made friends with the blues singer Furry Lewis , who brought him to the blues. As a result, Selvidge led a double life. Through college he aspired to a career as a professor, but his interest in music increased and he sang as a ballad singer. While graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in anthropology , he married his wife, Shirley.

In 1969 Selvidge's debut album Portrait was released by Enterprise, a subsidiary of the legendary music label in Memphis Stax Records . He then worked for five years in Memphis as a professor of anthropology. After signing a contract with Elektra Records , Selvidge devoted himself entirely to music.

Selvidge's breakthrough came in the 1970s with his second album, The Cold of the Morning, and made him one of the most respected folk artists in town. He moved to Greenwich Village , New York . Selvidge was afraid of commercial success there, as happened with many other musicians. After his album Waiting for a Train , he took care of a side project with the band Mudboy & The Neutrons.

After his album Twice Told Tales was released in 1993 , Selvidge performed with his 19-year-old son Steve, the guitarist of the well-known New York band The Hold Steady . In 1996 he worked again for a radio station, where live recordings by blues artists from Memphis and the surrounding area were broadcast. Selvidge toured for 16 years, occasionally working on the radio show. Selvidge also recorded three other albums on Archer Records.

In 2010, Selvidge was diagnosed with cancer while touring with singer-songwriter Amy Speace to promote the joint album I Should Be Blue . After the cancer was treated, he returned to the tour. On May 2, 2013, Selvidge died of cancer after fighting for two years.

Discography

  • 1969: portrait
  • 1976: The Cold of The Morning
  • 1982: Waiting for a Train
  • 1993: Twice Told Tales
  • 2003: A Little Bit of Rain
  • 2005: Live At Otherlands
  • 2010: I Should Be Blue

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data of Sid Selvidge in: Commercialappeal  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.commercialappeal.com  
  2. ↑ Biography ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sidselvidge.com
personal data
SURNAME Selvidge, Sid
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues musician
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenville , Mississippi
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 2013
Place of death Memphis , Tennessee , USA