Joseph Spence (musician)
| Joseph Spence | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 3, 1910 Andros, Bahamas |
| Died | March 18, 1984 (aged 73) Nassau, Bahamas |
| Genres | Folk |
| Instruments | Guitar |
Joseph Spence (August 3, 1910 - March 18, 1984) was a Bahamian guitarist and singer. He is well known for his vocalizations and humming while performing on guitar. Several American musicians, including Taj Mahal,The Grateful Dead,Ry Cooder,Catfish Keith,Woody Mann and Olu Dara, in addition to the British guitarist John Renbourn, were influenced by and have recorded variations of his arrangements of gospel and Bahamian songs.
Born in Andros, Bahamas in 1910, Spence was the son of a pastor, and got his start in music as a teenager playing in his great uncle Tony Spence's band. After leaving school he worked as a sponge fisher, stonemason, and carpenter, and as a crop cutter in the United States.
The earliest recordings of Joseph Spence were made on Spence's porch by folk musicologist Samuel Charters in 1958, with Charters initially thinking that Spence's guitar playing was the work of two players duelling. These were released by Folkways Records on the album Music of the Bahamas Volume One in 1959.
In 1964, Fritz Richmond travelled to The Bahamas to record Spence, and recordings made in Spence's living room were issued on the album Happy All the Time. The following year, Jody Stecher and Peter Siegel made the trip to record Spence, recording tracks also featuring Edith and Raymond Pinder and their daughter Geneva, which were released on The Real Bahamas Volume One. These tracks included Spence's arrangement of "I Bid You Goodnight" which was covered by The Grateful Dead and Ralph McTell among others. The album was a success, and led to Spence touring the US, with a second volume released in 1978.
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