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Forest City Joe

 


Forest City Joe | Blues Harp | tc106

Blues singer and harmonica player Joe Bennie Pugh (Forest City Joe) was born on 10 July 1926 in Arkansas.  He left Arkansas for Chicago in 1948 where Sonny Boy Williamson discovered him, and placed him with Muddy Waters’ band. Not long after, Sonny Boy Williamson died. Joe sounded similar to Sonny Boy Williamson, and Chess recorded his tribute to his mentor in 1949. He became a notable figure in both Delta Blues and Chicago Blues music. In 1959 musicologist Alan Lomax discovered Joe Pugh singing to a crowd in Hughes, Arkansas, and using a portable tape recorder set up on a bar counter, captured his final recordings.  

Joe Pugh died in Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, on 3 April 1960 from severe head injuries sustained when the truck he was driving flipped over in a car crash.

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