Bman's Blues Report

Charley Booker (September 3, 1925 – September 20, 1989) was a blues singer and guitarist from the Mississippi Delta, who recorded in the early 1950s for Modern Records. Charley Booker was born in 1925 on a plantation between the Mississippi communities of Moorhead and Sunflower, the son of Lucius Booker. There is some doubt about his date of birth: while the 1925 birth date was given by Booker in interviews, social security records give the earlier date of September 3, 1919. He learned to play guitar from his uncle, who had played with Charley Patton, and Booker stated that as a child he had himself seen Patton perform near Indianola. He worked occasionally as a musician from the late 1930s. By the early 1940s Booker had moved to Leland, and in 1947 he moved to Greenville, where he worked with pianist Willie Love, and also met or worked with musicians such as Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Milton, Ike Turner and Houston Boines. By 1951 he had his own radio show (possibly...