Scrapper Blackwell

Scrapper Blackwell (b. Francis Blackwell in Syracuse, North Carolina [South Carolina?], 1903 – d. Indianapolis, October 17, 1962) – Guitarist and singer. Born part-Cherokee in a family of sixteen children in North Carolina, Blackwell was a self-taught guitarist. He was a traveling musician early on and met up with pianist Leroy Carr in Indianapolis in the mid 1920s. With Blackwell playing single-note melodies (influential on post-war bluesmen) and Carr emphasizing bass lines and harmony, the duo traveled the Midwest and parts of the South and recorded over 100 sides together between 1928 and 1935. Their recordings together were among the most influential of their time. Shortly after Carr’s death in 1935, Blackwell dropped out of the music business for about twenty years, but he was rediscovered living in Indianapolis in the late1950s during the blues/folk revival. Soon after a recording session with Prestige/Bluesville during his comeback, he was shot to death on 17th Street North of downtown Indianapolis on October 27, 1962.