Yank Rachell

Yank Rachell (born James A. Rachel ; March 16, 1910 – April 9, 1997) was an American country blues musician who has been called an "elder statesman of the blues". His career as a performer spanned nearly seventy years, from the late 1920s to the 1990s.

Career Rachell grew up in Brownsville, Tennessee. His gravestone marks his birth year as 1920. However, researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc conclude, on the basis of a 1920 census entry, that Rachell was probably born in 1903. "She Caught the Katy," which he wrote with Taj Mahal, is considered a blues standard.

By the mid-1990s, Rachell and Henry Townsend were the only blues musicians still active whose careers started in the 1920s. Late in his life Rachell suffered from arthritis, which shortened his playing sessions, but he recorded an album just before his death, Too Hot for the Devil.

Film Louie Bluie (1985), directed by Terry Zwigoff