Kokomo Arnold
| Kokomo Arnold | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | James Arnold |
| Also known as | Gitfiddle Jim |
| Born |
February 15, 1896 or 1901 Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | November 8, 1968 (aged 67–72) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Blues |
| Instruments | Vocals, slide guitar |
| Years active | 1920s–1938 |
| Labels | Decca |
James "Kokomo" Arnold (February 15, 1896 or 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense style of playing and rapid-fire vocal delivery set him apart from his contemporaries. He got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for Decca Records, a cover version of Scrapper Blackwell's blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana.
Arnold was born in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia. Most sources give the date his birth as 1901, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc give the date as 1896, in the basis of information in the 1900 census. He learned the basics of playing the guitar from his cousin, John Wiggs, and began playing in the early 1920s as a sideline, when he was working as a farmhand in Buffalo, New York, and as a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1929 he moved to Chicago and ran a bootlegging business, an activity he continued until the end of Prohibition. In 1930 he moved south briefly and made his first recordings, "Rainy Night Blues" and "Paddlin' Madeline Blues", under the name Gitfiddle Jim, for the Victor label in Memphis. He soon moved back to Chicago, where he was forced to make a living as a musician after Prohibition ended in 1933. Kansas Joe McCoy heard him and introduced him to Mayo Williams, a producer for Decca Records.
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