jueves, 30 de abril de 2015

Blind Boy Fuller

BLIND BOY FULLER

Fulton Allen, conocido en el mundo del blues como Blind Boy Fuller, fue un guitarrista y cantante, nacido en Wadesboro, Carolina del Norte, el 10 de julio de 1907. Falleció en Durham, en el mismo Estado, el 13 de diciembre de 1941.

Ciego y desfigurado como consecuencia de las quemaduras accidentales de ácido, producidas por su madrastra cuando era niño, según unas versiones, o por su pareja cuando ya tenía veinte años, según otras, Fulton Allen se ganaba la vida como músico callejero, influido por Josh White. Guitarrista brillante, con gran manejo de la técnica fingerpicking y un cierto toque de ragtime, logró crear una verdadera escuela: Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Blind Gary Davis, Willie Trice y otros muchos, tocaron con él y se vieron influidos por su estilo.

A partir de 1935 comienza a realizar grabaciones, muchas de ellas de gran éxito. Fue muy activo socialmente, como portavoz de las reivindicaciones agrícolas y de los obreros del tabaco. Murió como consecuencia de una operación por problemas hepáticos. Su estilo se considera paradigma del Estilo Piedmont o de los Apalaches, e influyó a músicos que provenían del hillbilly, como Chet Atkins o Doc Watson.



Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen, July 10, 1907 - February 13, 1941) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. He was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists with rural Black Americans, a group that also included Blind Blake, Josh White, and Buddy Moss.

Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina, United States, to Calvin Allen and Mary Jane Walker. He was one of a family of 10 children, but after his mother's death he moved with his father to Rockingham. As a boy he learned to play the guitar and also learned from older singers the field hollers, country rags, and traditional songs and blues popular in poor, rural areas.

He married Cora Allen young and worked as a labourer, but began to lose his eyesight in his mid-teens. According to researcher Bruce Bastin, "While he was living in Rockingham he began to have trouble with his eyes. He went to see a doctor in Charlotte who allegedly told him that he had ulcers behind his eyes, the original damage having been caused by some form of snow-blindness." Only the first part of this diagnosis was correct. A 1937 eye examination attributed his vision loss to the long-term effects of untreated neonatal conjunctivitis.

By 1928 he was completely blind, and turned to whatever employment he could find as a singer and entertainer, often playing in the streets. By studying the records of country blues players like Blind Blake and the "live" playing of Gary Davis, Allen became a formidable guitarist, and played on street corners and at house parties in Winston-Salem, NC, Danville, VA, and then Durham, North Carolina. In Durham, playing around the tobacco warehouses, he developed a local following which included guitarists Floyd Council and Richard Trice, as well as harmonica player Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry, and washboard player/guitarist George Washington.  Read more



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