In Memory of

BLIND BOY FULLER
And his influence on the Piedmont Blues

by Gaile Welker and Andy Cohen

Paul Oliver, one of the great icons of blues scholarship, when told about a recently located older bluesman who played in the so-called "Piedmont" style, replied, "You mean Blind Boy Fuller style!" He wasn't just whistling Dixie: Fuller's influence was direct on thousands of pickers throughout the near and deep South, Chicago, and even among the "Territory" bands of the Southwest. If you couldn't play "Step It Up And Go", well, you just couldn't play.

Fulton Allen was born in Anson County, North Carolina during the first decade of this century. His parents, Calvin and Mary Jane, were tenant farmers. Altogether, the couple had sixteen children although only twelve survived to adulthood. The family was poor but religious, and hard working.

Like all parents, Calvin and Mary Jane had dreams for their children, but they were also realistic. As there were few professional occupations open to African-Americans during this time period, most of their children became farmers or farmer's wives. It seemed, for awhile, as if Fulton would follow the family trade, but life had other plans for him.

Exposure to music came to the family mainly through church and social gatherings. Most of his family was not very musical but an older sister, Ethel, is said to have been accomplished on the guitar. Little has been found to indicate Fulton had a great interest in becoming a musician before the age of twenty, when he began to have problems with his sight. This created a problem with his ability to earn a living.

By this time, he was living in Rockingham, in Richmond County, where many older residents still remember him performing on the streets. Sometimes, he would sit in front of the cafes downtown; at other times, he played on the corner across from the courthouse.

When Fulton married 14 year old Cora Mae Martin in 1927, the couple disappeared from the Rockingham area. They surfaced in Winston Salem where Fuller worked in a coal yard until he lost his sight completely. Hearing there was money to be made by musicians in Durham, the couple moved once again.

He became acquainted there with other local players, notably the Trice Brothers and a man named George Washington, who was known to all as "Oh Red." He played often with Sonny Terry, and later recorded many classic sides with him. He also came to know the blind virtuoso guitarist Gary Davis, who was somewhat older. The details of their relationship are vague, but they were known to play together and undoubtedly the younger man picked up some technique.

It was in Durham that he crossed paths with James Baxter Long, a dry goods dealer whose business included the selling of blues records. Long, a recording company scout, had dreams beyond anything Fulton's parents had ever imagined for their son, and Fulton was soon on his way to the first of many recording sessions in New York.

Long's daughter, Betty, remembers that 1935 trip as a summer vacation. She sat with her mother and father in the front seat while Fulton, newly dubbed Blind Boy Fuller, sat in the back, rehearsing with Gary Davis and Red . Long made the trio rehearse all the way to New York, and the results can be heard on such songs as "Rag, Mama, Rag", "Evil Hearted Woman" and "Log Cabin Blues".

The rest, as people say, is history. He went on to record over 100 songs and to become one of the most popular recording artists on the East Coast and around the South. The clean lines of his music have influenced every blues artist since that time, directly or indirectly. Though his songs were often "covers" of other blues material, his versions were definitive, and are still performed and recorded.

Sadly, Fulton's parents never had the chance to know about his fame. By 1928 they had both died, years before his short recording career began. With Cora Mae by his side, Blind Boy Fuller himself passed away in 1941 at his home in Durham. He was buried behind [the] McLaurin Funeral Home. Today, the cemetery and funeral home are gone, replaced by a paging company and a nursery school. There is no way to tell it was once the burial place of the greatest Piedmont style artist to emerge from North Carolina.

Fuller melded together the grace of Piedmont country dance musicianship with the gravity of the blues, and in doing so, changed its course.

Publicity Photo - Photographer Unknown

Blind Boy Fuller Historical Marker Project

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Copyright 2000 by Gaile Welker
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