Barkin' Bill Smith

Barkin' Bill Smith
Barkin' Bill Smith
Background information
Born	August 18, 1928; Cleveland, Mississippi, United States
Died	April 24, 2000 (aged 71); Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Chicago blues, electric blues[1]
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1950s–2000
Labels	Delmark

Barkin' Bill Smith (August 18, 1928 – April 24, 2000)[2][3] was an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and songwriter.[1] He was born in Cleveland, Mississippi,[2] and in his latter years lived in Chicago.[1]

Biography

Smith was raised in Mississippi and later relocated to East St. Louis, Detroit and finally Chicago. He obtained his stage name from Homesick James in 1958, after the pair had worked together. Smith sang in front of various blues bands around Chicago for many years. He was initially influenced by Joe Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon and Brook Benton.[1] He made his recording debut in 1991, singing on Dave Specter's first album, Bluebird Blues.[4] Delmark Records issued Smith's solo debut album, Gotcha!, in 1994,[1] with Steve Freund playing guitar.[5]

In his latter years declining health restricted his live appearances.[6]

Smith died of pancreatic cancer in Chicago in April 2000, at the age of 71.[3]

gollark: Am I REALLY going to have to use the random HP program™ with its accursed XML files™ to reset the password on this?

gollark: A warehouse of random modern trash, of course.

gollark: I really need to stop erasing my knowledge of passwords.

gollark: I'm very glad I set this up on the thing I forgot the password to. How flawless and perfect of me.

gollark: Good luck reading that out, though.

Dahl, Bill. "Barkin' Bill: Biography". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
"West Virginia Blues Society: Mountain Blues" (PDF). Wvbluessociety.org. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
Doc Rock. "The Dead Rock Stars Club 2000". Thedeadrockstarsclub.com. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 168. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
Dahl, Bill. "Barkin' Bill, Gotcha!: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
"Barkin' Bill Smith". Centerstagechicago.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
"Barkin' Bill: Discography". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2014-01-25.

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