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Bo Carter
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Armenter (or Armentia) Chatmon (March 21, 1893 or January 1894 – September 21, 1964), known as Bo Carter, was an early American blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts and on a few of their recordings. He also managed that group, which included his brothers Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle and, occasionally, Sam Chatmon on bass, and their friend Walter Vinson on guitar and lead vocals.[1][3]
Career
[edit]He was born in Bolton, Mississippi.[5] Since the 1960s, Carter has become best known for his bawdy songs, such as "Let Me Roll Your Lemon",[6] "Banana in Your Fruit Basket", "Pin in Your Cushion", "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me", "Please Warm My Wiener", "All Around Man" and "My Pencil Won't Write No More".[1][7] However, his output was not limited to dirty blues.[1] In 1928, he recorded the original version of "Corrine, Corrina", which later became a hit for Big Joe Turner and has become a standard in various musical genres.[3]
Carter and his brothers (including the pianist Harry Chatmon, who also made recordings) first learned music from their father, the fiddler Henderson Chatmon, a former slave, at their home on a plantation between Bolton and Edwards, Mississippi. Their mother, Eliza, also sang and played the guitar.
Carter made his recording debut in 1928, backing Alec Johnson, and was soon recording as a solo musician. He became one of the dominant blues recording acts of the 1930s, recording 110 sides.[1] He also played with and managed the family group, the Mississippi Sheiks, and several other acts in the area. He and the Sheiks often performed for whites, playing the pop hits of the day and white-oriented dance music, as well as for blacks, playing a bluesier repertoire.[8]
Carter went partly blind during the 1930s.[1] He settled in Glen Allan, Mississippi,[9] and despite his vision problems did some farming but also continued to play music and perform, sometimes with his brothers.[8] He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and worked outside the music industry in the 1940s.
Carter had several strokes and died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Shelby County Hospital, in Memphis, on September 21, 1964. He is buried in Nitta Yuma Cemetery, Sharkey County, Mississippi.[10]
Compilations
[edit]- Greatest Hits 1930-1940 (Yazoo, 1969)
- Twist It Babe 1931-1940 (Yazoo, 1973)
- Banana In Your Fruit Basket (Yazoo, 1980)
- The Best of Bo Carter Vol. 1 1928-1940 (Earl Archives, 1982)
- Bo Carter 1931-1940 (Old Tramp, 1987)
- Bo Carter 1928-1938 (Document, 1988)
- The Rarest Bo Carter Vol. 2 1930-1938 (Earl Archives, 1989)
- Bo Carter Vol. 1-5 (Document, 1991)
- Bo Carter's Advice (Catfish, 2000)
- The Essential Bo Carter (Document, 2003)
- The Country Farm Blues (P-Vine, 2011)
- Bo Carter & The Mississippi Sheiks (JSP, 2012)
Selected songs
[edit]- "Corrine, Corrina", 1928 (Brunswick)
- "All Around Man", 1931 (Bluebird)
- "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me", 1936
- "Old Devil", 1938 (Bluebird)
Influence
[edit]Carter's style of playing the guitar and his songwriting have won him fans[who?] long after he died. One of the most notable examples is the Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher, who performed several of Carter's songs, including "All Around Man."[11][12]
Carter was not related to former Southwest and Big 12 Conference assistant commissioner Sam T. (Bo) Carter.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. pp. 99–100. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- ^ a b Eagle, Bob L.; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. ABC-CLIO. p. 214. ISBN 9780313344244.
- ^ a b c "Biography by Jim O'Neal". AllMusic. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- ^ Johnson, Greg. "Bo Carter (Armenter Chatmon)". Mississippiencyclopedia.org. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- ^ "Blues Guitarist Bo Carter from Bolton, Mississippi, of the Chatmon Family and Mississippi Sheiks". Mswritersandmusicians.com. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
- ^ "Let Me Roll Your Lemon Lyrics – Bo Carter". Elyrics.net. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
- ^ "Harry's Blues Lyrics Online, Bo Carter Lyrics, page 1". Blueslyrics.tripod.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
- ^ a b Giles Oakley (1997). The Devil's Music. Da Capo Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
- ^ Bo Carter & the Mississippi Sheiks (box set). JSP Records. January 31, 2012.
- ^ "Resting Places". Earlybues.org. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
- ^ "Banana in Your Fruit Basket - Bo Carter | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- ^ "Against the Grain - Rory Gallagher | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
External links
[edit]Bo Carter
View on GrokipediaBiography
Early life
Armenter Chatmon, known professionally as Bo Carter, was born on March 21, 1893, in Bolton, Mississippi, although some historical records indicate a possible date of January 1894.[1][4][3] He grew up in Hinds County on the Dupress Plantation, where his family engaged in sharecropping and rented farmland from local owners such as Gaddis & McLaurin Farms.[1][2] Chatmon was the son of Henderson Chatmon, a fiddler born around 1850, and Eliza Jackson, in a large family of twelve siblings who shared a deep involvement in music.[1][2] The family resided near Texas Street in Bolton by 1900, immersed in the rural African American communities of the region, where economic constraints from sharecropping limited opportunities for formal education.[2] His initial exposure to music came through the rich folk traditions of local African American string bands and the instrumental performances within his own household, which featured guitar, violin, banjo, mandolin, bass, and piano.[2] As a child, Chatmon learned to play multiple instruments, including the guitar, in this familial setting that emphasized string band music.[1] The Chatmon family's musical heritage provided a foundational influence on his early development, fostering skills through hands-on participation rather than formal training.[2]Family and influences
Bo Carter, born Armenter Chatmon, grew up in a profoundly musical family that profoundly shaped his early development as a musician. His father, Henderson Chatmon (c. 1850–1934), was a fiddler and multi-instrumentalist who rented land near Bolton, Mississippi, and taught his children to play instruments such as guitar, violin, banjo, mandolin, bass, and piano.[2] Henderson's instruction provided the foundational skills that Armenter and his siblings honed through family string bands.[1] His mother, Eliza Jackson Chatmon, also contributed to this environment by singing and playing guitar, fostering a household where all twelve siblings engaged in music.[5] Carter's brothers were central to his musical upbringing and local scene. Lonnie Chatmon was a skilled fiddler who performed in family ensembles and later became a key member of the Mississippi Sheiks.[2] Sam Chatmon, a guitarist and singer, recorded extensively as a solo artist and with the Sheiks, while Harry Chatmon played bass and piano, making his own recordings and active in Jackson and Rankin County music circles.[2] The extended Chatmon family formed the core of several string bands in the Bolton, Raymond, and Edwards areas, blending with friends and relatives to create vibrant local groups.[2] Armenter adopted the stage name "Bo Carter."[2] Beyond family, Carter's early influences drew from the rich cultural milieu of Bolton and surrounding Hinds County. Itinerant musicians and performers in local juke joints exposed him to a mix of blues, waltzes, and reels, which the Chatmon family incorporated into their repertoire for diverse audiences including Black and white communities.[2] This environment, centered on plantation work and roadside gatherings, instilled in Carter a versatile approach to stringband music that informed his lifelong career.[1]Later life and death
Carter gradually lost his eyesight during the 1930s due to glaucoma.[6] After his prolific recording career wound down around 1940, he moved to Anguilla in Sharkey County, Mississippi.[2] He later relocated to Glen Allan in Washington County, where he resided with family and occasionally performed locally despite his blindness.[6] On September 21, 1964, Carter died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Shelby County Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 71.[1] He was buried in Nitta Yuma Cemetery in Sharkey County, Mississippi.[7]Musical career
Formative years and early recordings
Bo Carter entered the professional music scene in 1928, making his recording debut as a sideman during a Columbia Records session in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 2. Accompanied by mandolinist Charlie McCoy and guitarist Joe McCoy, along with an unknown pianist on some tracks, Carter provided violin and guitar support for vocalist Alec Johnson on six sides, including "Sundown Blues," "Mysterious Coon," and "Sister Maud Mule." These early efforts captured the raw, string-band style prevalent in the Mississippi blues tradition, showcasing Carter's versatility on multiple instruments during Johnson's country blues performances.[8][9] Later that year, Carter transitioned to recording under his own name, accompanied by Charlie McCoy, for Brunswick Records, beginning with a session in New Orleans in late December 1928. His initial releases included the enduring "Corrine Corrina" and "East Jackson Blues," which highlighted his smooth guitar work and melodic vocal delivery, drawing from the Delta blues influences of his upbringing in a musical family. These tracks marked Carter's emergence as a lead artist, blending personal storytelling with rhythmic fingerpicking that would define his sound. He sometimes recorded under slight variations like "Bo Chatman" and collaborated with groups such as the Chickasaw Syncopators.[10][3] In the late 1920s, Carter traveled extensively through the Mississippi Delta and into Arkansas, performing in juke joints and roadhouses to hone his craft and build a local following. Often joining ad hoc string bands with relatives or local musicians, he adapted to informal settings where audiences favored lively, danceable tunes. During this period, Carter began incorporating bawdy lyrical elements into his repertoire, using double entendres in songs like early cuts on Brunswick to entertain rowdy crowds, a stylistic choice that foreshadowed his later catalog of risqué blues.[11]Work with the Mississippi Sheiks
The Mississippi Sheiks were formed in 1930 in Jackson, Mississippi, evolving from the Chatmon family string band that had been active since around World War I. The core lineup consisted of brothers Lonnie Chatmon on violin, Sam Chatmon on guitar and violin, Bo Carter (born Armenter Chatmon) on guitar, violin, and clarinet, and non-family member Walter Vinson on guitar and lead vocals.[12] The group's name was inspired by the 1921 film The Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino, reflecting the era's popular culture influences on their string band style blending blues, jazz, and country elements.[12] Their debut recordings for OKeh Records in February 1930 captured immediate success, including the enduring blues standard "Sitting on Top of the World," composed by Vinson and released as OKeh 8784, which became a cornerstone of American roots music with its optimistic yet melancholic themes.[13] Another key hit from the same session was "Honey Babe Let the Deal Go Down," a lively track that showcased the Sheiks' rhythmic interplay and appeal to both Black and white audiences, further solidifying their commercial breakthrough.[14] Over the next five years, the group produced around 70 sides for OKeh, Columbia, and Bluebird labels, with Bo Carter contributing to several tracks through his guitar work and occasional vocals.[12] Bo Carter played a pivotal managerial role in the Sheiks' operations, handling bookings, negotiating contracts with OKeh Records, and coordinating the group's logistics, which allowed the core members to focus on performances while leveraging his prior solo recording experience from 1928.[12] Under his guidance, the Sheiks toured extensively across the South, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, and ventured as far as Illinois and New York, performing at dances, juke joints, and theaters.[12] They also made radio appearances on stations in the region, broadening their reach during the early Great Depression era when live shows provided vital income.[12] The group's activities wound down by 1936, coinciding with the end of their recording contract in 1935 and broader economic shifts that diminished demand for string band blues amid changing musical tastes and the rise of swing and urban blues styles.[12] Despite the disbandment, the Sheiks' innovative fusion of genres left a lasting imprint, with their hits covered by later artists and inducted into the National Recording Registry for cultural significance.[15]Solo career and peak popularity
Building on his earlier 1928 efforts, Bo Carter expanded his prolific solo recording career following his work with the Mississippi Sheiks in late 1930, issuing over 100 sides through the end of the decade for labels including OKeh, Vocalion, and Bluebird.[1] These sessions, often held in New York, Jackson, and New Orleans, showcased his versatile guitar playing and vocal style, blending traditional blues with hokum elements that appealed to audiences seeking escapist entertainment during the Great Depression.[9] Carter's output included the original 1928 recording of the standard "Corrine, Corrina," which gained renewed popularity through his 1930s covers and adaptations by other artists.[1] Carter reached his peak popularity between 1930 and 1934, becoming one of the era's most dominant and commercially successful blues recording artists, with his ribald tunes resonating in urban markets amid economic hardship.[16] Representative hits from this period, such as "Let Me Roll Your Lemon" (recorded June 1930 for OKeh) and "Banana in Your Fruit Basket" (recorded October 1931 for Vocalion), exemplified his signature double-entendre lyrics and hokum blues approach, drawing on playful innuendo to mask sexual themes while adapting to shifting listener tastes for lighthearted, danceable fare.[17] These tracks, backed solely by his rhythmic guitar, sold steadily and established Carter as a solo draw, independent of his Sheiks collaborations.[9] To maximize his productivity, Carter occasionally employed pseudonyms during sessions, allowing for varied stylistic explorations within the hokum genre, though he primarily recorded under his stage name derived from the family surname Chatmon.[12] By the mid-1930s, as his eyesight deteriorated, he continued this solo trajectory, incorporating more country-influenced dance tunes into his repertoire while maintaining the witty, metaphor-laden content that defined his commercial height.[1]Decline and final years
Carter's recording career came to an abrupt halt after his final commercial session on February 12, 1940, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he cut fourteen tracks for Bluebird Records, twelve of which were issued.[3][18] This marked the end of his prolific output, as the rural blues market that had sustained artists like him began to wane in the late 1930s and early 1940s amid the rise of swing music and big band jazz, which dominated popular tastes and overshadowed traditional string band blues.[19] The American Federation of Musicians' recording ban from 1942 to 1944 further stifled opportunities for blues musicians, preventing any potential resurgence in commercial sessions as labels prioritized settling royalty disputes over niche genres.[19] In the post-recording years, Carter lived primarily in Anguilla, Mississippi, and later Glen Allan, attempting to sustain himself through sporadic local performances, including street playing, though these efforts yielded limited success.[2] No further commercial recordings materialized during this decade, reflecting the broader decline in demand for his style of country blues as urbanization and migration shifted audiences toward more electrified urban sounds.[20] By the 1950s, Carter's professional activities had largely ceased, curtailed by the emergence of rock 'n' roll, which captured younger audiences and eclipsed older blues traditions, as well as personal health issues including blindness.[21] Unlike contemporaries such as Son House or Mississippi John Hurt, who benefited from the blues revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Carter remained uninvolved, retiring from music and living in relative obscurity until his death in 1964.[21][1]Musical style and themes
Guitar technique and instrumentation
Bo Carter's guitar technique drew heavily from the Delta blues tradition, characterized by intricate fingerpicking on a six-string guitar that alternated thumb-driven bass lines with index and middle finger melodic patterns in the treble register. This approach allowed for a rhythmic foundation while weaving intricate fills and responses to his vocals, as evident in solo recordings like "I'm an Old Bumble Bee," where he employed DGDGBE tuning to create a driving, percussive texture. His playing emphasized clarity and economy, often holding chord shapes quietly during verses before bursting into triplet-based runs for instrumental breaks.[22] In his early recordings from the late 1920s and 1930s, Carter frequently used National Style N resonator guitars, which provided a bright, resonant tone capable of cutting through ensembles without amplification, enhancing the metallic twang suited to his country blues style.[23][24] He occasionally incorporated slide techniques in Vestapol (open D) tuning for expressive bends and drones, as heard in "Ants in My Pants," adding a raw edge reminiscent of Delta slide pioneers. Additionally, his chord voicings showed influences from ragtime and popular music, featuring extended harmonies and syncopated strums that enriched his blues framework, particularly in upbeat tracks like "Corrine, Corrina."[22] As a key member of the Mississippi Sheiks, Carter often served as the rhythm guitarist, delivering tight, supportive chord progressions and bass runs that underpinned lead lines from Walter Vinson without overshadowing the group's vocals or fiddle. This role highlighted his versatility, prioritizing ensemble cohesion over virtuosic solos, a skill honed within his family's musical traditions of string band playing in Bolton, Mississippi. His accompaniments maintained a swinging pulse, blending Delta grit with string band precision to define the Sheiks' sound on hits like "Sitting on Top of the World."[25][11]Lyrical content and double entendres
Bo Carter's lyrics are renowned for their prevalent use of double entendres within the hokum blues genre, a style characterized by humorous and risqué wordplay that veiled sexual themes through everyday metaphors.[1] In songs like "Pin in Your Cushion," recorded in 1931, Carter employs innocuous objects to imply intimate acts, singing lines that suggest inserting a pin into a cushion as a stand-in for sexual penetration, delivered with a playful wink to evade overt explicitness.[26] This approach permeated much of his solo output in the 1930s, where he recorded over 100 sides for labels like Bluebird and OKeh, establishing him as a master of "dirty blues" laced with innuendo.[8][27] Central to Carter's lyrical themes were explorations of romance, infidelity, and rural life, often framed in a lighthearted, vaudeville-inspired manner that blended comedy with sensuality.[28] His songs frequently depicted flirtatious encounters or domestic mishaps with suggestive twists, such as malfunctioning tools symbolizing impotence or failed liaisons, all while maintaining an upbeat, accessible tone that appealed to working-class audiences.[26] This bawdy style emerged prominently in his early solo recordings around 1930, building on the varied blues traditions he explored with the Mississippi Sheiks.[1] Carter's lyrical evolution reflected broader shifts in blues recording trends, transitioning from more straightforward emotional laments in his pre-1930 work to increasingly playful and pun-laden wordplay by the decade's midpoint.[29] Early collaborations emphasized narrative depth on love and hardship, but his solo career amplified the hokum elements, incorporating rapid-fire rhymes and absurd scenarios to heighten entertainment value.[8] In the cultural context of 1930s America, Carter's innuendos served as a clever workaround for the era's censorship constraints, where radio stations and broadcasters shunned overtly explicit content amid conservative moral standards and racial segregation in media.[30] By cloaking taboo subjects in ambiguous language, his recordings bypassed potential bans, finding play on jukeboxes in Black communities and preserving the raw spirit of Southern folklore without direct confrontation.[26] This subtlety not only prolonged the viability of hokum blues but also underscored its role in subverting societal norms through humor.[28]Discography
Original recordings
Bo Carter's recording career began in 1928 with two sides as an accompanist, backing singer Alec Johnson on "Miss Meal Cramp Blues" and "Sundown Blues" during a Columbia session in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 2, 1928, where he played violin with Charlie McCoy on mandolin and Joe McCoy on guitar.[31] These tracks, issued on Columbia 14446-D, marked his earliest documented contributions to blues recordings.[31] Later in 1928, Carter made his first solo recordings during sessions with Brunswick Records, likely in New Orleans around November or December, producing approximately four issued sides under pseudonyms such as Bo Chatmon, including "Good Old Turnip Greens" (Brunswick 7048) and "Bungalow Blues" (Brunswick 7046, with Mary Butler).[32] Accompanied by musicians like Charlie McCoy on guitar and Walter Vinson on kazoo or mandolin in some instances, these early tracks showcased his distinctive guitar style and humorous lyrical approach. Between 1928 and 1930, Carter recorded around 20 additional sides for Brunswick and its Vocalion imprint, often in solo or duet formats with collaborators such as Vinson; notable releases included "Corrine, Corrina" (Brunswick 7080, recorded c. December 1928) and "East Jackson Blues" (Brunswick 7048), with matrix numbers like DAL-657 for the former.[33] These sessions, held in locations including Memphis (September 1929 and February 1930), established his reputation as a prolific Delta blues artist.[34] Carter's most extensive output occurred in the 1930s with Bluebird (a Victor subsidiary) and OKeh Records, yielding over 80 issued sides across numerous sessions, frequently under pseudonyms like the Mississippi Boil Weevils, Sam Collins (for some tracks), or simply as Bo Carter.[1] Key sessions included those in Jackson, Mississippi (December 15, 1930, for Vocalion, producing tracks like "She's Your Cook But She Burns My Bread Sometimes," matrix MS-100 series, Vo 1640), and major Victor/Bluebird dates in San Antonio (October 1934, matrices BVE-82610–82619, including "Banana in Your Fruit Basket" on Bluebird B-5465) and New Orleans (March 1934 and 1936).[35] Other significant dates encompassed February 20, 1936 (OKeh, matrices MS-101–110, featuring "All Around Man" on OKeh 05848), and his longest session on October 22, 1938 (Vocalion, 18 titles including "Cigarette Blues," matrix 24608), with many emphasizing double-entendre themes in instrumentation limited to guitar and occasional violin by Lonnie Chatman.[34] His final original recordings came in February 1940 for Bluebird in Memphis, wrapping up a career total of approximately 110 issued sides.[1]| Session Date | Location | Label | Key Matrix Nos. & Issued Sides (Examples) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 1928 | Atlanta, GA | Columbia | W147379 ("Miss Meal Cramp Blues") / W147381 ("Sundown Blues") – 2 sides backing Alec Johnson on 14446-D |
| c. Nov/Dec 1928 | New Orleans, LA | Brunswick | DAL series (e.g., "Good Old Turnip Greens," Br 7048; "Bungalow Blues," Br 7046) – 4 solo/duet sides |
| Dec 15, 1930 | Jackson, MS | Vocalion | MS-100 to MS-109 (e.g., "She's Your Cook But She Burns My Bread Sometimes," Vo 1640) – 10 sides |
| Oct 9, 1934 | San Antonio, TX | Bluebird | BVE-82610–82619 (e.g., "Bo Carter Special," BB B-5464) – 10 solo sides |
| Feb 20, 1936 | New Orleans, LA | OKeh | MS-101–110 (e.g., "Policy Blues," OK 05847) – 10 sides under pseudonyms |
| Oct 22, 1938 | Memphis, TN | Vocalion | 24600–24617 (e.g., "Dinner Blues," Vo 04186) – 18 sides, longest session |

