Adolphus Bell

Adolphus Bell (June 5, 1944 – October 28, 2013) was an American electric blues musician, best known as a one-man band. He performed in a professional capacity for five decades and released two albums on the Music Maker label. He also played at various music festivals.

The music reviewer, Jim DeKoster, writing in Living Blues magazine, noted that "Adolphus Bell's music stands so well on its own merits that the CD listener soon forgets that he's listening to a one-man band. He's got the same sort of idiosyncratic appeal as Juke Boy Bonner or Guitar Gabriel".

Biography Bell was the son of a coal miner who died two months before Adolphus was born in Birmingham, Alabama. The young Bell later worked on local farms. He moved with his mother to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1962, and learned to play the guitar from their neighbor George Benson, eventually joining his "All Stars" band as a bassist. During the 1960s he played around the city with his own quintet called Adolphus Bell and the Upstarts, who opened one show for Bobby Bland. Discouraged with the unreliability of his bandmates, he experimented with singing while playing guitar, bass drum and high-hat himself. He played in Pittsburgh, then began touring the country in a station wagon he bought with lottery winnings. The Music Maker connection saw Bell appear the same year at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas. His second album, One Man Band, was released in 2006. Bell's recorded work was included on a couple of compilation albums; Music Maker: Slavery, Prison, Women... (2007) and Biscuits for Your Outside Man (2016). In addition to his playing, Bell was renowned for his Mashed Potato and Mississippi Longleg dance moves.

Discography Year Title Record label July 2005 Mississippi Rubberleg Music Maker January 2006 One Man BandMusic Maker