Blind Boy Fuller

Pictures

Listen to, buy or share

Buy

Tags

Everyone’s tags

More tags

Biography

Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. Fuller was born in July 10, 1907 in Wadesboro, North Carolina and died February 13, 1941 in Durham, North Carolina. He played a steel National resonator guitar.

As a boy Fuller learned to play the guitar and also learned from older singers the field hollers, country rags, and traditional songs and blues popular in poor, rural areas. It is reported that around 1926 he suffered from ulcerated eyes and became partially blind. His vision continued to deteriorate until 1928, when he was completely blind.

He started playing at informal gatherings and as he grew older, the opportunities for a blind black man being limited, he turned to getting what employment he could as a singer and entertainer at dives, street corners, house parties, and dances for pay.

He became well known enough that in 1935 he received an offer to record. Over a period of five years, Fuller made over 120 sides and his recordings appeared on several labels.

His style of singing was rough and direct, and his lyrics explicit and uninhibited as he drew from from every aspect of his experience as an underpriviledged person on the streets — pawnshops, jailhouses, sickness, death — with an honesty that lacked sentimentality. Although he was not sophisticated, his artistry as a folk singer lay in the honesty and integrity of his self-expression. His songs contained desire, love, jealousy, disappointment, menace and humor.[1]

Top Albums

Listening Trend

56,609listeners all time
341,920scrobbles all time
Recent listeners trend:

Start scrobbling and track your listening history

Last.fm users scrobble the music they play in iTunes, Spotify, Rdio and over 200 other music players.

Create a Last.fm profile

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up.