Big Black Creek Historical Association

Big Black Creek Historical Association
P.O. Box 50
Denmark, TN 38391
United States

  • New items
  • 00 Old cemetery clearing and stone repair suggestions ETC.
    • Cemetery odds and ends
  • 0. Big Black Creek Vol. One, Two & Three order form Historic timeline and stories of early West Tennessee
  • The BBCHA President's Page
  • The 1854 Denmark Presbyterian Church History
  • 1. The Battle on Britton's Lane, Sept. 1, 1862
  • 2.Thank you !!!
  • 3.Future Events and News
    • West Middle School Choir
  • 4.Old vacant houses in the Denmark, TN area
  • 5.Misc.
  • 6. Nathan Bedford Forrest
  • 7.Did you know ?
    • Old Tombstone Reading
  • 8.Pictures and history from viewers
  • 9.BBCHA past event pictures
  • 10.Our neighbors
  • 11.Tours
  • 12.Tours 2
  • 13.October 2010 Cemetery Walk
  • 13 A. 2011 BBCHA Cemetery Walk
  • 13B 2012 Cemetery Walk
  • 14.Old Denmark, TN.
  • 15.Britton Lane Battlefield
  • 16.Booker Knob School building
  • 17.Denmark Presbyterian Church and Masonic Lodge # 154
    • The outhouse alternative
  • 17A 1854 Denmark Presbyterian Church & Masonic Lodge restoration
    • 17B Denmark Presbyterian Church interion construction
  • 18.Mercer (Ebenezer) Presbyterian Church
  • 19.John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson & Blairs Chapel CME Cemetery
    • Yank Rachell on John Lee Curtis (Sonny Boy) Williamson's death
  • 20.Denmark CME Church & Cemetery
  • 21.Brown's Creek Missionary Baptist Church
  • 22.Woodland Baptist Church
  • 23.Denmark Missionary Baptist Church
  • 24.ST. John MB Church
  • 25.F.M. McGlatherly House restoration
  • 26.The Shaw House
  • 27.Denmark Presbyterian Cemetery
  • 28.Denmark Methodist Cemetery
  • 29.Crittenden - Meriwether Cemetery
  • 30.Denmark Baptist Cemetery aka. Old Soldier's Cemetery, Denmark
  • 31.Taylor / French Cemetery
  • 32.Springfield Family Cemetery
  • 33.Various cemeteries in the area # 2
  • Cemeteries visited for findagrave.com requests
  • 34.Various cemeteries in the area
    • Currie Cemetery
  • 35.Local history and legends
  • 36.The Journey
  • 37.Log cabin restoration project
  • 38.Farms, Crops, Buildings ETC.
  • 38A COTTON
  • 39.Civil War
    • George Keck Civil War discharge and engagement document
  • 39a Major Sullivan Ballou letter
  • 40.Women in the Civil War
  • 41.Tennessee History related
  • 42.The first "Christmas At Ebenezer"
  • 43.Second Christmas at Ebenezer
  • 44.Third Christmas at Ebenezer
  • 45. Area Museums
    • Brownsville Museum
    • Bemis Museum
    • Casey Jones Museum and Home
    • Jackson NC & STL Depot and Rail Museum
    • The Civil War Discovery Museum of West Tennessee
    • The Childrens Discovery Museum of West Tennessee
    • West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center
    • Brownsville's Blues Pioneer, Sleepy John Estes
  • 46. The old Flagg Grove School House move and restoration
  • 47. Christmas at Ebenezer 2012
  • 48. Meriwether Society visit June 22, 2013
  • 49 Denmark Presbyterian Church first Service after restoration
  • 50 Providence Road Solar Project
  • 51 Boy Scout visit to Denmark
    • The Boy Scouts visit Denmark again
  • 52. Union University History Class 11.4.2014
  • 53. Red Back Hymnal Event
  • 54. Denmark CME 136 years
  • 55. Pondering The Past
  • 56. The Hatchie River Area
  • 57. Local Events
  • The Smithsonian Museum's traveling exhibit in Mercer, TN.
  • The Smithsonian Exhibit's Closing Ceremony
  • Book order blank
  • Historic books
  • Contact Us
  • Links

Brownsville's Blues Pioneer, Sleepy John Estes


  • Mailman Blues

In 1915, Estes' father, a sharecropper who also played some guitar, moved the family to Brownsville, Tennessee. Not long after, Estes lost the sight of his right eye when a friend threw a rock at him during a baseball game.

At the age of 19, while working as a field hand, he began to perform professionally. The venues were mostly local parties and picnics, with the accompaniment of Hammie Nixon, a harmonica player, and James "Yank" Rachell, a guitarist and mandolin player. He would continue to work on and off with both musicians for more than fifty years.

Estes made his debut as a recording artist in Memphis, Tennessee in 1929, at a session organized by Ralph Peer for Victor Records. His partnership with Nixon was first documented on songs such as "Drop Down Mama" and "Someday Baby Blues" in 1935; later sides replaced the harmonica player with the guitarists Son Bonds or Charlie Pickett. He later recorded for the Decca and Bluebird labels, with his last pre-war recording session taking place in 1941. He made a brief return to recording at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1952, recording "Runnin' Around" and "Rats in My Kitchen", but otherwise was largely out of the public eye for two decades.

Estes was a fine singer, with a distinctive "crying" vocal style. He frequently teamed with more capable musicians, like "Yank" Rachell, Hammie Nixon, and the piano player Jab Jones. Estes sounded so much like an old man, even on his early records, that blues revivalists reportedly delayed looking for him because they assumed he would have to be long dead, and because fellow musician Big Bill Broonzy had written that Estes had died. By the time he was tracked down, by Bob Koester and Samuel Charters in 1962, he had become completely blind and was living in poverty. He resumed touring and recording, reunited with Nixon and toured Europe several times and Japan, with a clutch of albums released on the Delmark Records label. His later records are generally considered less interesting than his pre-war output. Nevertheless, Estes, Nixon and Rachell also made a successful appearance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.

Bob Dylan mentions Estes in the sleevenotes to Bringing It All Back Home (1965).

Many of Estes' original songs were based on events in his own life or on people he knew from his home town of Brownsville, Tennessee, such as the local lawyer ("Lawyer Clark Blues"), local auto mechanic ("Vassie Williams' Blues"), or an amorously inclined teenage girl ("Little Laura Blues"). "Lawyer Clark Blues" referenced the lawyer, and later judge and senator, Hugh L. Clarke. Clarke and his family lived in Brownsville, and according to the song let Estes 'off the hook' for an offense.

He also dispensed advice on agricultural matters ("Working Man Blues") and chronicled his own attempt to reach a recording studio for a session by hopping a freight train ("Special Agent (Railroad Police Blues)"). His lyrics combined keen observation with an ability to turn an effective phrase.

Some accounts attribute his nickname "Sleepy" to a blood pressure disorder and/or narcolepsy. Others, such as blues historian Bob Koester, claim he simply had a "tendency to withdraw from his surroundings into drowsiness whenever life was too cruel or too boring to warrant full attention".

Death


Grave of Sleepy John Estes (2008)

Estes suffered a stroke while preparing for a European tour, and died on June 5, 1977, at his home of 17 years in Brownsville, Haywood County, Tennessee Sleepy John Estes is buried at Elam Baptist Church Cemetery in Durhamville, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Big Black Creek Historical Association
P.O. Box 50
Denmark, TN 38391
United States