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Freddie King , often described as a Then, in the early Sixties he moved
leading contender for the title “King of to Dallas and less was heard from him.
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modern guitar blues/ has lud to make He continued playing and recording and
it the hard way. He was a Muddy Waters cut two albums for Cotillion in the
protege at age 16.a regular HI the tough mid- | 960 s with King Curtis producing.
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Chicago blues scene by the time he was Wide popularity continued to evade
20. and possessor of a string of hit him until 1971 when Getting Ready, his
records while still in his twenties. Then first Shelter album, appeared. It was
he languished in relative obscurity for acclaimed as a classic of contemporary
almost a decade. He was a blues legend blues and his second Shelter LP. Texas
and a strong influence on a generation Cannonball % firmly established the
of young blues and rock guitarists, but Texas guitarist as a master bluesman.
public popularity eluded him. All that He ' s played rock festivals now, and
has changed drastically in the last two the Fillmore, but Freddie still remem-
years but success hasn ' t caused him to bers Red’s Playmore Lounge in Chicago
forget how he got to where he is. where, one night in 1951, he earned $8
“Blues is the music I was born with
and I grew up in the blues. * * King in his first paying job. Those were rough
days and it was from such days that he
recalls , lie was born September 3, 1934, earned and retained his feeling for the |
in Gilmer, a small town in Fast Texas. blues. His blues is the same, he says, it 's §
His was "a blues family/ he remembers. iust that now people are starting to g
'
His mother and uncles played blues and listen.
Freddie had a guitar by the time he was Chet Flippo
five. He grew up listening to records by
such bluesmen as Blind Lemon Jeffer -
son and Big Bill Broon/y. He also
listened to Louis Jordan, whom he cites
as an influence.
His family moved to Chicago in the
I940 ‘ s and they happened to live next
door to the Zanzibar Club, where
Muddy Waters was playing. King vividly
recalls that when he was 16 he would
sneak into the Zanzibar (with Waters '
help) and sit by the bandstand,
watching and learning from the giants of
Chicago blues.
He started working as a sideman and
joined Little Sonny Cooper’s band at
age 19. The next year he worked with
the Blues Cats, led by Farl Payton, and
he also backed Lavern Baker, Little
remarkable fluid playing style coalesced.
Sonny Scott and Memphis Slim. As his
King organized his own band and was
recording for the FIBee label by 1956.
The Chicago years were the formative
ones for him musically and his style
developed into what he calls a cross
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between a “Muddy and a T Bone and a
B.B. style,right in there. "
Hal* Neely signed him for King
Records in I960 and his first single on
that label, "Love Here With a Feelin * ’
/
was a hit the next year. His first King
album appeared in 1961 jnd Freddie
King began a series of memorable
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recordings: “Hideaway/ “San Ho Zay/ *
'
“ I m roro D. ivui “ “lhe Stumble. "
’
“Side Tracked/ and many others.
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iovember, 1972