Booker T. Washington White (aka Bukka White) was born on a farm near Houston, Mississippi on November 12,1909. When he was 9, his father John White bought him a guitar. His father was a railroad man and many of Bukka's best tunes emulate the driving rhythm of trains and their mournful whistles. After hearing Charley Patton, Young Booker decided that he too would be a "great man like Charley Patton". Bukka's first recordings were14 songs done in Memphis in May 1930. One of those songs, The Panama Limited was a featured part of Bukka's repetoire until his death and is is probably one of the best "train" songs ever recorded. His driving alternating bass evokes the engines and his slide creates the sound of airbrakes and trainwhistle. The Panama Limited, The New Frisco Train, I am the Heavenly Way and Promise True and Grand were released on Victor (one secular 78, one Gospel 78) and can be found on the Fabulous CD Panama Limited along with most of his other prewar recordings(Sic 'Em Dogs On and Po' Boy are not on this CD. If you can find the Travelin' Man CD The Complete Recordings 1930-1940, it includes these two tunes.). To my knowledge, the remainder were never released( if you have additional information on this please contact me ).
Bukka did an electrifying performance of this on the Vastapol Masters of The Country Blues DVD, complete with a trick playing style more often associated with Jimi Hendrix than a Delta Bluesman (This DVD also Features Eddie "Son" House).
During the '30 Bukka, like many other bluesmen, hoboed around, workied as a professional boxer in Chicago and as a Negro League pitcher with the Birmingham Black Cats. It wasn't until 1937 that Big Bill Broonzy got Bukka a shot at recording again, when he cut Shake em' On Down and Pinebluff Arkansas for ARC in Chicago( is Big Bill the uncredited 2nd guitarist on these tunes?). While Shake Em' On Down was a hit when released on the Vocalion label, Bukka was doing time on Parchman Farm in Mississippi . While at Parchman in 1939, Alan Lomax recorded two tunes by Bukka for the Library of Congress; Sic 'Em Dogs On and Po' Boy (played with National across his lap on Masters of The Country Blues) . In 1940 , he cut some more sides in Chicago accompanied by Washboard Sam. Shake em' On Down re-emerges as I Wonder How Long Before I Can Change My Clothes, and songs like Strange Place Blues, Parchman Farm Blues, High Fever Blues and Fixin' To Die Blues set a somber tone.
Until Fahey and Denson found him in 1963, it was assumed that Bukka was dead. If someone had checked, they would have known otherwise. In 1947 Bukka had given a young cousin, Riley King a Red Stella Guitar, Riley went on to be known as The Beale St. Blues Boy, B.B. King.
When Fahey and Denson did find Bukka, they immediately recorded him in his Memphis boardinghouse room . A few months later Bukka White was a recording artist with a new career playing the Coffee House/Folk Festival circuit. The recordings (available on the Aim CD Mississippi Blues)show that the fire was still there. Listen to New Orleans Streamline- a new train song, Poor Boy Long Way From Home or Parchman Farm Blues(actually I Wonder How Long Before I Can Change My Clothes) Bukka had been playing around Memphis with Frank Stokes and in his later stuff that influence comes through along with Bukka's desire to stay current (hence Big Bill Broonzy's Baby Please Don't Go). Unlike many other Blues artist of his generation, Bukka's audiences got to see the real thing, not a shadow. He continued to record and play until his death in Memphis on February 26, 1977.
