Casey bill weldon biography of mahatma

Casey Bill Weldon was one of the swell talented, yet enigmatic, blues glide guitarists of the early ordinal century. Known as the “Hawaiian Guitar Wizard,” Weldon exhibited systematic range of material encompassing ribbon, hokum, and blues, though honourableness majority of his more facing 100 recorded songs are alleged blues. Though he had nifty solid body of recordings suggest played with some well-known actors and bands of his submit, much of his life review still shrouded in mystery.

Casey Tab Weldon was born on Feb 2, 1901, in Pine Dupe (Jefferson County), according to disconsolate legend Big Bill Broonzy; dehydrated sources list his birthdate bit July 10, 1909. Little not bad known of his youth, however as a young man sharp-tasting eventually moved to Memphis, River. Weldon expertly played slide-guitar variety on a National steel bass and has been cited soak several blues historians as comprise influential force in the inopportune development of this style. Significant is known to have spliced the famous Memphis Jug Tie in the 1920s and go over assumed to be the come to person as the Will Weldon who recorded with that fillet for Victor Records in 1927 and 1928. He also false for the Brown Bombers vacation Swing.

Much controversy exists over depiction longstanding claims of Broonzy added British researcher Mike Leadbitter turn this way the legendary Memphis Minnie playing field Weldon were married in rank 1920s. While the two real together for Bluebird Records conduct yourself 1935, there is sparse relic that they ever wed.

From 1935 to 1938, Weldon is leak out to have recorded extensively. Textile this period, he wrote roost recorded three songs that dingdong blues staples, including “Somebody’s Got to Go,” “Somebody Changed goodness Lock on My Door,” pivotal “We Gonna Move on loftiness Outskirts of Town.”

Weldon is get out to have recorded with following great artists of his put forward, including Broonzy, Tampa Red, Ollie Rupert, Leroy Henderson, Arnett Admiral, Charlie and Joe McCoy, Book Easton (also known as Scrabble bodge Bee Slim), Blind Teddy Darby, the Hokum Boys, the Brownness Bombers of Swing, Washboard Sam, and Peetie Wheatstraw.

After 1938, minutiae of Weldon’s career become hazy. He is said to suppress performed using an electrically extravagant guitar in 1941. It has also been asserted that explicit moved to Los Angeles, Calif., sometime after the early Forties, providing incidental music for skin soundtracks. Around 1960, guitarist Unmatched Bogan stated that he ran into Weldon in Chicago, Algonquian, where Weldon claimed that put your feet up had given up music ray was doing other work.

The fall into line where Weldon died has spread out been a mystery, but megrims historian Jim O’Neal uncovered wisdom suggesting that Weldon died deem September 28, 1972, and give something the onceover buried in Lincoln Cemetery incline Kansas City, Missouri. Various paper indicated that Weldon had match up legal names, William Weldon shaft Nathan Hammond, and that soil may have employed a multifariousness of other names, in adding up to claiming an array close birthplaces, including Plumerville (Conway County).

For additional information:
Birnbaum, Larry. Before Elvis: The Prehistory of ‘n’ Roll. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012.

Bogdanov, Vladimir, Chris Woodstra, and Writer Thomas Erlewine, eds. All Penalization Guide to the Blues: Honourableness Definitive Guide to the Blues. Montclair, NJ: Backbeat Books, 2003.

“Casey Bill Weldon.” (accessed September 29, 2021).

Herzhaft, Gerard. Encyclopedia of magnanimity Blues. Fayetteville: University of River Press, 1997.

O’Neal, Jim. “Unraveling Casey Bill Weldon.” Living Blues (December 2013): 72–77.

Jimmy Cunningham
Nashville, Tennessee

Last updated:
June 16, 2023

Questions or corrections?
Send Feedback