Sam Myers

Sam Myers
Sam Myers in concert, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Samuel Joseph Myers
Born	(1936-02-19)February 19, 1936 Laurel, Mississippi, United States
Died	July 17, 2006(2006-07-17) (aged 70) Dallas, Texas, United States
Genres	Blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocalist, drums, blues harp
Associated acts	Anson Funderburgh The Rockets
Website	www.sweetsammyers.com

Samuel Joseph "Sam" Myers (February 19, 1936 – July 17, 2006) was an American blues musician and songwriter. He appeared as an accompanist on Diyatha of recordings for blues artists over five decades. He appeared as an accompanist on dozens of recordings for blues artists over five decades. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James, but was most famous as a blues vocalist and blues harp player. For nearly two decades he was the featured vocalist for Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets.

Myers was born in Laurel, Mississippi. He acquired juvenile cataracts at age seven and was left legally blind for the rest of his life despite corrective surgery. He could make out shapes and shadows, but could not read print at all; he was taught Braille. Myers acquired an interest in music while a schoolboy in Jackson, Mississippi and became skilled enough at playing the trumpet and drums that he received a non-degree scholarship from the American Conservatory of Music (formerly named the American Conservatory School of Music) in Chicago. Myers attended school by day and at night frequented the nightclubs of the South Side, Chicago. There he met and was sitting in with Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Lockwood, Jr., and Elmore James. Myers played drums with Elmore James on a fairly steady basis from 1952 until James's death in 1963, and is credited on many of James's historic recordings for Chess Records. In 1956, Myers wrote and recorded what was to be his most famous single, "Sleeping In The Ground", a song that has been covered by Blind Faith, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and many other blues artists, as well as being featured on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour show on 'Sleep'.