Biography
5 March 1929, Monticello, Mississippi, USA, d. 29 April 1967, Champaign, Illinois, USA. Christened with initials, Lenoir was taught to play the guitar by his father, Dewitt. Other acknowledged influences were Blind Lemon Jefferson, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup and Lightnin’ Hopkins, with the latter’s single-string runs and verse tags becoming an integral part of the mature Lenoir style. He relocated to Chicago in 1949, and was befriended by ‘ Big’ Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie. Having leased his first recordings to Chess Records in 1952, label owner Joe Brown issued Lenoir’s first success, ‘The Mojo Boogie’, on JOB Records in 1953. A propulsive dance piece sung in a high, keening tenor, it typified an important element of Lenoir’s repertoire. The second main element was exhibited the following year with the release on Parrot Records of ‘Eisenhower Blues’, an uncompromising comment upon economic hardship,...
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