Mercy Dee Walton
| Mercy Dee Walton | |
|---|---|
Walton in 1953
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Mercy Davis Walton |
| Born |
August 3, 1915 Waco, Texas, United States |
| Died | December 2, 1962 (aged 47) Murphys, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Jump blues |
| Years active | 1949–1962 |
Mercy Dee Walton (born Mercy Davis Walton, August 3, 1915 – December 2, 1962) was an American jump blues pianist, singer and songwriter, whose compositions went from blues to R&B numbers. According to journalist Tony Russell in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, "Walton created a series of memorable blues about the unattractiveness of rural life, sardonically aimed at the black migrant workers in southern California who constituted his typical audience".
Born in Waco, Texas, he moved to California just before World War II. He started playing piano at age 13 and learned his style from many of the ten-cent party house pianists that played out in the country on weekends. To make ends meet, he had to earn his living in the fields chopping cotton, picking grapes or cutting spinach. During this time, the musician who impressed Walton the most was Delois Maxey, who never had an opportunity to record. In 1949, Walton made his first record for the small record label, Spire Records in Fresno. The track was "Lonesome Cabin Blues". Shortly after that, he had a national hit on Specialty Records with "One Room Country Shack", now considered a blues standard. After that success, he was able to start working as a musician full-time, and he toured with the jump blues band of Big Jay McNeely.
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