Blind Blake is almost a stereotypical blues legend. He began recording for Paramount in 1926, for which he recorded about 80 sides, which were very popular, and he single-handedly put Piedmont blues on the musical map. His real name appears to be Arthur Blake (his songs are attributed to this name and he stated his “right name” was Arthur Blake on one recording) and it is generally believed that he hailed from Jacksonville, Florida having been born around 1893. A check of the city’s records during that period, however, do not list an Arthur Blake. Blind Willie McTell said Blake’s real name was Phelps but this hasn’t yielded up anything useful either. In one recording, he breaks into a Geechee accent which is spoken along coastal Georgia but no city records in that region have yielded up an Arthur Blake or Phelps that matches Blind Blake’s description.
We are not sure of his travels other than being in Chicago. One boogie-woogie number he does, “Hastings Street,” is about Detroit and he performs the song with Detroit pianist Charley Spand. He mentions 169 Brady Street which gives every indication that Blake had toured through Detroit but there is no record of him ever setting foot in the city (the song was recorded in Chicago). John Lee Hooker mentioned Blake as jamming with his stepfather in Clarksdale and we should not too surprised if Blake had been in that area a time or two.
Blake played guitar for other artists as Irene Scruggs and his style is immediately recognizable--the use of the thumb to syncopate the beat, his tendency to switch back and forth between regular time and double time continuously, his improvisation skills on par with any jazz musician's (he composed with jazzmen as Johnny Dodds) as his passes are never repeated exactly but always vary from one another.
Blake was fond of gambling and drinking, which he did with his blind cohorts. Often times he would get into fights with them. His manager said Blake frequently turned up at the studio with bruises or a bloody lip claiming he had gotten into it while gambling. As time wore on, Blake drank more and more and it appears that his final recordings were not really him (one song, “Champagne Charley is My Name,” while a nice rag number, is definitely not Blake although it is attributed to him).
After 1932, Blake was heard from no more. He seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. McTell said Blake fell under a train and was killed but no one knows anything about that. The above photo is the only one known of Blind Blake. White guitarist Eddie Lang (real name Salvatore Massaro) sometimes used the moniker of Blind Blake while recording with black bands and Lang died in 1933 so this seems to explain the whole mystery but actually only deepens it. Eddie Lang is definitely not the Blind Blake who did the amazing rags, blues and boogie-woogie numbers. Lang’s style is totally different and so is his voice. The voice of Blind Blake is not a white man “coon shouting” but is obviously a real black man. On all the recordings bearing the distinctive Blake guitar-playing, we hear that same voice indicating the guitarist and vocalist were the same person and that he was real.
But whoever Blind Blake really was, where he came from and whatever happened to him makes him one of the greatest mysteries in blues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7921puvgf4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04bvzgbPVYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40OaCfiaEGI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTP-8VfIvn0