Sam Carr

Sam Carr (born Samuel Lee McCollum, April 17, 1926 – September 21, 2009) was an American blues drummer best known as a member of the Jelly Roll Kings.

Largely self-taught, Carr was noted for his "minimalist" three-piece drum kit, consisting of a snare drum, a bass drum, and a high-hat cymbal.

Early life Born near Marvell, Arkansas, McCollum was adopted as a toddler by the Carr family and raised on their farm near Dundee, Mississippi. He took their surname.

At 16, Carr returned to Arkansas, where he played bass for his biological father, Robert Nighthawk, an established blues musician, and also worked as a chauffeur. He married Doris in 1946, and they began sharecropping in Helena, Arkansas. He was involved in a dispute over a borrowed mule team with the plantation owner, who attempted to beat him. Carr later stated, "I wasn't going to let him whoop me, that was plumb out of the question. From that day on, white people called me crazy."

The Carrs moved to Chicago and then St. Louis to live with Carr's biological mother. In St. Louis, Carr began playing bass guitar with the harmonica player Tree Top Slim. Carr formed his own band, Little Sam Carr and the Blue Kings, which initially featured Nighthawk's second wife, Early Bea, on drums, until Carr decided to take on that role.

In his later years, Carr led his own group, the Delta Jukes, often working with Dave Riley on guitar and vocals. The group recorded several albums, including Working for the Blues (2002), Down in the Delta (2004), and Let the Good Times Roll (2007). Carr is mentioned on several Mississippi Blues Trail historical markers.

Death In 2009, Carr died in a nursing home Clarksdale of congestive heart failure at age 83.