Booba Barnes

Roosevelt Melvin "Booba" Barnes (September 25, 1936 – April 2, 1996)

Career Born in Longwood, Washington County, Mississippi, United States, Barnes opened a nightclub, the Playboy Club, in 1985, and played there with a backing group called the Playboys; they became regional blues favorites, and eventually signed to Rooster Blues, who released Barnes's debut effort in 1990. and Guitar Player called Barnes "a wonderfully idiosyncratic guitar player and an extraordinary vocalist by any standard". Barnes toured the U.S. and Europe following the album's release.

Barnes's career was interrupted in the middle of the decade when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died of the disease in April 1996 in Chicago, aged 59.

Discography The Heartbroken Man (Rooster Blues, 1990)