Jimmy Dawkins

Jimmy Dawkins
Dawkins in March 1981
Background information
Birth name	James Henry Dawkins
Born	(1936-10-24)October 24, 1936 Tchula, Mississippi, United States
Died	April 10, 2013(2013-04-10) (aged 76) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Blues
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	Late 1960s–2013
Labels	Delmark, Storyville, Earwig Music

James Henry "Jimmy" Dawkins (October 24, 1936 – April 10, 2013) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is generally considered to have been a practitioner of the "West Side sound" of Chicago blues.

Dawkins was born in Tchula, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago in 1955, where he worked in a box factory, started to play in local blues clubs, and gained a reputation as a session musician.

In 1969, thanks to the efforts of his friend Magic Sam, his first album, Fast Fingers, was released by Delmark Records. It won the Grand Prix du Disque from the Hot Club de France. In 1971, Delmark released his second album, All for Business, with the singer Andrew Odom and the guitarist Otis Rush.

Dawkins toured in the late 1970s, backed up by James Solberg (of Luther Allison and the Nighthawks) on guitar and Jon Preizler (the Lamont Cranston Band, Luther Allison, and Albert King), a Seattle-based Hammond B-3 organ player known for his soulful jazz-influenced style. Other musicians that toured with Dawkins in the late 1970s were Jimi Schutte (drums), Sylvester Boines (bass), Rich Kirch and Billy Flynn (guitars). Dawkins toured in Europe with this group of musicians. He also toured in Japan and recorded more albums in the United States and Europe. He contributed a column to the blues magazine Living Blues.

In the 1980s he released few recordings but started his own record label, Leric Records, and was more interested in promoting other artists, including Taildragger, Queen Sylvia Embry, Little Johnny Christian and Nora Jean Bruso (née Wallace).