T-Model Ford

James Lewis Carter Ford (June 24, 1923 – July 16, 2013) was an American blues musician who performed under the name T-Model Ford. with Chicago and juke joint blues styles.

Biography Ford was born in Forest, Mississippi sometime between 1921 and 1925. Although some researchers claim that Ford was born on June 24, 1923,

Ford, who was illiterate, began working various blue collar jobs before he was a teenager, which included plowing fields and working in a sawmill. He was later employed as a foreman at a lumber company before becoming a truck driver. Around this time, Ford was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for murder and served on a chain gang. By some accounts, Ford was able to reduce his sentence to only two years. through whose label he would release five albums between 1997 and 2008.

In 1997, Ford was featured in documentary entitled Juke, directed by Mary Flannery, appearing alongside his fellow musicians Farmer John and John Horton. After 2008, Ford largely performed with the Seattle-based band GravelRoad. Their collaboration was originally intended as a one-off event with Ford looking for backing musicians at the Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota. GravelRoad, who were longtime fans of Ford, subsequently supported Ford on a ten-show tour.

Ford had a pacemaker inserted at the end of 2008, but appeared on stage again with GravelRoad in both 2009 and 2010, after which Ford suffered a stroke. Despite experiencing difficulty with the mobility of his right hand, Ford played several more shows with GravelRoad that year, culminating with an appearance at the Pickathon Festival. Ford and GravelRoad later opened the third day of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival held in New York over Labor Day weekend in 2010, curated by American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch.

GravelRoad backed Ford on his 2010 and 2011 albums, The Ladies Man and Taledragger, both of which were released on Alive Naturalsound Records. Ford eventually suffered a second stroke in the summer of 2012 that severely limited his public appearances. Despite his declining health, Ford performed at that year's King Biscuit Blues Festival in October.

On July 16, 2013, Fat Possum announced that Ford had died at home in Greenville due to respiratory failure after a prolonged illness. The Mount Zion Memorial Fund organized the placement of a headstone for Ford at Green Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery, near Greenville. The ceremony was on May 31, 2014. Ford's gravestone was designed by Amos Harvey and engraved by Alan Orlicek.

Discography Pee-Wee Get My Gun - 1997 (Fat Possum) You Better Keep Still - 1999 (Fat Possum) She Ain't None of Your'n - 2000 (Fat Possum) Bad Man - 2002 (Fat Possum) Don't Get Out Talkin' It - 2008 (Fat Possum) Jack Daniel Time - 2008 (Mudpuppy) The Ladies Man - 2010 (Alive Naturalsound) Taledragger - 2011 (Alive Naturalsound) I Was Born In A Swamp - 2021 (Alive Naturalsound)