In 2016, the city of Greenville, South Carolina declared August 20 "Josh White Day" and Horizon Records hosted an album release party for the re-issue of White’s classic 1956 album “Josh at Midnight.”
White was born in Greenville on February 11, 1914 and died on September 5, 1969.
From Josh White: Greenville’s Forgotten Blues Great, in the Greenville Journal August 18, 2016:
During his lifetime, White was one of the most commercially popular, critically acclaimed, boundary-breaking black musicians in the United States. But unless you’re a devoted fan of acoustic blues or a record collector, the odds are pretty good that you’ve never heard of him....
From the 1920s until 1939, White’s recording career operated in a series of fits and starts that saw White moonlighting as a boxer to earn extra money. But in late 1939, after recovering from a boxing injury to his hand, White reappeared as a confident, mature performer with a popular version of “Careless Love” on Blue Note Records. From then on, boxing wouldn’t be necessary.
Over the next two decades, White starred on Broadway with Paul Robeson in “John Henry,” became the first blues artist ever to appear at New York’s famous Café Society club, released two racially charged protest albums (1940’s “Chain Gang” and 1941’s “Southern Exposure”) and toured with torch singer Libby Holman as part of the first racially mixed concert tour in American history.
Those protest albums landed on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s desk in the early 1940s. White was invited to the White House to perform, becoming the first black artist to give a Command Performance. He also formed a close friendship with the Roosevelts, to the extent that the press occasionally referred to White as the “presidential minstrel.”
White recorded the first-ever million-selling single by a black artist — the humorous, down-and-out saga called “One Meatball” — in 1944 and scored further popular hits with “Frankie & Johnny,” “Miss Otis Regrets” and “Waltzing Matilda.” But White’s high profile as a protest artist (and his playing events sponsored by the Communist Party during World War II) began attracting attention. In 1950, White was notified by his manager that his name had appeared in the premier issue of Red Channels magazine as a communist sympathizer. Ironically, this happened while he was on a goodwill tour of Europe with Eleanor Roosevelt.
After months of interrogations and his job prospects vanishing, Josh appeared before Congress to state his case and clear his name, a move that angered his supporters. Meanwhile, the FBI wasn’t pleased with his refusal to name names. His popularity in the U.S. declined.
When fledging producer and label owner Jac Holzman came to White offering a $100 advance to record for Holzman’s then-new label Elektra Records, White was in no position to refuse. They recorded and released the 12-track “Josh at Midnight” album in 1956, and it had an immediate impact on artists from folk to rock ‘n’ roll and beyond.
https://greenvillejournal.com/2016/08/18/josh-white-greenvilles-forgotten-blues-great/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_White
- KBOO