Henry Townsend (musician)

Henry Townsend
Henry Townsend - St. Louis 1983
Background information
Birth name	Henry Jesse James Townsend
Born	(1909-10-27)October 27, 1909 Shelby, Mississippi, United States
Died	September 24, 2006(2006-09-24) (aged 96) Mequon, Wisconsin, U.S.
Genres	Blues
Occupation(s)	Singer, musician
Instruments	Guitar, piano
Years active	1920s–20000s

Henry "Mule" Townsend (October 27, 1909 – September 24, 2006) was an American blues singer, guitarist and pianist.

Townsend was born Henry Jesse James Townsend, in Shelby, Mississippi, and grew up in Cairo, Illinois. He left home at the age of nine because of an abusive father and hoboed his way to St. Louis, Missouri. He learned guitar while in his early teens from a locally renowned blues guitarist known as "Dudlow Joe".

By the late 1920s he had begun touring and recording with pianist Walter Davis, and had acquired the nickname "Mule" because he was sturdy in both physique and character. In St. Louis, he worked with some of the early blues pioneers, including J.D. Short.

Townsend was one of the only artists known to have recorded in nine consecutive decades. He first recorded in 1929, and remained active up to 2006. By the mid 1990s, Townsend and his one-time collaborator Yank Rachell were the only active blues artists whose careers had started in the 1920s. He recorded on several different labels, including Columbia Records and Folkways Records.

Articulate and self-aware with an excellent memory, Townsend gave many invaluable interviews to Blues enthusiasts and scholars. Paul Oliver recorded him in 1960 and quoted him extensively in his 1967 work Conversations with the Blues. Thirty years later, Bill Greensmith edited thirty hours of taped interviews with Henry to produce a full autobiography, giving a vivid history of the Blues scene in St Louis and East St Louis in its prime.