Fred McDowell

Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist of hill country blues music.

Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee. His parents were farmers, who both died while Fred was in his youth. He took up the guitar at the age of 14 and was soon playing for tips at dances around Rossville. In 1928, he moved to Mississippi to pick cotton. With interest in blues and folk music rising in the United States at the time, McDowell's field recordings for Lomax caught the attention of blues aficionados and record producers, and within a couple of years, he had finally become a professional musician and recording artist in his own right.

McDowell continued to perform the blues in the north Mississippi style much as he had for decades, sometimes on electric guitar rather than acoustic guitar. He was particularly renowned for his mastery of slide guitar, a style he said he first learned using a pocketknife for a slide and later a polished beef rib bone. He ultimately settled on the clearer sound he got from a glass bottleneck slide, which he wore on his ring finger. While he famously declared, "I do not play no rock and roll," he was not averse to associating with younger rock musicians. He coached Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar technique

McDowell's 1969 album I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll, recorded at Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi, and released by Capitol Records, McDowell's final album, Live in New York (Oblivion Records), was a concert performance from November 1971 at the Village Gaslight (also known as The Gaslight Cafe), in Greenwich Village, New York.

McDowell's version of the folk song "John Henry" from 1969 is included on the Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969: Vols 1&2, 2019 release.

Death and influence

McDowell died of cancer on July 3, 1972,

Musician Bonnie Raitt cited McDowell as an influence in 1996.