James Crutchfield

James Crutchfield (May 25, 1912 – December 7, 2001) was a St. Louis barrelhouse blues singer, piano player and songwriter whose career spanned seven decades. His repertoire consisted of original and classic blues and boogie-woogie and Depression-era popular songs.

Known as the "King of Barrelhouse Blues", his better-known songs include "I Believe You Need a Shot" and "My Baby Cooks My Breakfast".

Childhood There is no record of James Crutchfield's birth: "My mama never know'd what day it was, she never know'd what month it was, but she always know'd what year it was. 'Lotta folks back in them days never even know'd that much, but my mama always did. She told me I was born in '12, in Baton Rouge, when the high water was highest." Crutchfield said his mother, Sarah, was a "Geechee", a descendant of slaves of the Georgia/Carolina sea islands, and said he much resembled her. His father, Tom Crutchfield, he described as a large copper-colored man from southwestern Mississippi, whom he had never met until he was eight years old and with whom he maintained a cordial relationship thereafter. An only child, James and his mother, a farm worker, migrated through Louisiana and East Texas with the cotton and sugarcane seasons, moving often and sometimes living in tents. His earliest memories were of the "boys" coming home from World War I and the silent-movie Westerns of William S. Hart, whom he idolized.

Around 1920, his mother married and settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana. In his early teens, while employed as the janitor in a theater, Crutchfield began to teach himself to play on the house piano. Also around this time, curious about the exact day of his birth, he went to the Baton Rouge library and told the story his mother had told him to an intrigued librarian. Together they looked through the 1912 newspapers and found that indeed, there had been a flood then, which crested on May 25. From that time on, he regarded that date as his birthday. performing as the M & O Kid in deference to his mentor, the Mississippi barrelhouse bluesman M & O, whom Crutchfield in later years said was the best he ever heard. The establishments that served the lumber and levee camps typically stayed open all day and night and provided food, drink and lodging for two piano players, who each played a 12-hour shift for tips.

Another early influence was Papa Lord God, a Texan: "Oh Papa Lord God, he was bad, man, he was baaad!" He worked in the Gaslight Square entertainment district at various venues, including a decade-long residency at "Miss Rosalee's" Left Bank. He was found there by Bob Koester, on a tip from police detective Charlie O'Brien, and recorded a few days later, along with Speckled Red, by Ralph and Ethel Hiatt. Several of the songs were eventually released in the Barrelhouse Blues and Stomps anthology series on the Euphonic label. Six selections are included on the compilation album Biddle Street Barrelhousin''', released in 2000 by Delmark Records.

The decline of Gaslight Square in the late 1960s was also the decline of Crutchfield's music career. He was professionally inactive in the 1970s and worked as a cook at the State Hospital for a number of years. In the early 1980s he was collecting and selling junk tires and running an illegal gambling operation. He played the 1988 St. Louis Blues Festival at the Jefferson Memorial in Forest Park, and began playing every Wednesday night for the next 12 years at Venice Cafe, where many of St. Louis' top blues and jazz musicians would often sit in. Harp Attack at Mississippi Nights, and the Casa Loma Ballroom. A well-known and popular character around the neighborhood, his annual birthday celebration at Molly's heralded the beginning of the summer beer garden season in Soulard. and continued working regularly, performing with local rock & roll pioneer Bennie Smith and the Urban Blues Express in his last years. in St. Louis, almost the last bluesman of his era. An impromptu parade through the streets of Soulard was held in his honor.

DiscographyBarrelhouse Blues And Stomps: Vol. 4, Various Artists, Euphonic ESR-1204 (1957) Levee BluesBarrelhouse Blues And Stomps: Vol. 5, Various Artists, Euphonic ESR-1205 (1967) Black Woman / How Long BluesOriginal Barrelhouse Blues, Swingmaster 2109 (1985) Piggly Wiggly Blues / Pearly Mae / I Believe You Need A Shot / Forty-Four Blues / Bogalusa Blues / My Baby Cooks My Breakfast / Black Woman / U.S.- Russian Blues / Barrelhouse Blues / My Little LucilleBiddle Street Barrelhousin', Various Artists, Delmark DE-739 (2000) Levee Blues / Blow North Wind / How Long Blues / Black Gal / Ora Nelle Blues / Pearly Mae BluesSt. Louis Blues Piano, Swingmaster CD 2205 (2001) CD reissue of Original Barrelhouse Blues, Swingmaster 2109The Story Of Piano Blues: From The Country To The City, Various Artists, Wolf CD 120106 (2013) Sittin' On Top Of The WorldAnother Friend Like Me'', Various Artists, Document DOCD 32-20-19 (2013) Sittin' On Top Of The World / Peetie Wheatstraw Blues