One wonders sometimes how or where all these blues guys got their (nick)names. Francis Hillman Blackwell explained his own nick in an interview with Theodore F. Watts in 1960: "Well, that was given to me through my Grandmother. See, we were all Cherokee Indians. We come from Syracuse, North Carolina. And when my Grandmother brought me here, my brother could walk and I couldn’t. I was so bowlegged I couldn’t walk. And I’d pull his feet out from under him, like that. Well I could crawl and get a hold of his feet. I’d pull ‘em out and bump his head against the floor. So my Grandmother give me the name. Well, you dirty little scrapper, you. So that’s what they call me".

Scrapper Blackwell was one of the most admired blues guitar instrumentalists of the late 20's and the mid 30's. He is best known for his collaborations with pianist Leroy Carr. Carr and Blackwell set the standard for guitar/piano duets of that era with tunes such as "(In The Evening) When The Sun Goes Down", "Blues Before Sunrise" and "Sloppy Drunk", recordings that belong on your shelf. You could start with The Virtuoso Guitar of Scrapper Blackwell 1925-34, 14 tracks which easily lives up to the title of the album. If you don't know, listen to his "Kokomo Blues" and you'll find out. If you think 14 songs is not enough, go for Complete Recorded Works in Chronological order, Vols. 1-2, two disks each crammed with more than an hour's worth of stellar solo performances, with occasional accompaniment from Leroy Carr, Josh White and Bumble Bee Slim. Scrapper influenced Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Shines and B.B. King. He was shot and killed in 1962, just before he was able to make a comeback. My own comeback is planned for next weekend (if I do not get a bullet in my body), see you!

Interview (PDF-file): Theodore F. Watts

The Virtuoso Guitar of Scrapper Blackwell 1925-34 - Yazoo 1991
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological order, Vols. 1-2 - Document 1993