Biography
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Born
1950
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Born In
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
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Died
15 June 2006 (aged 56)
Sam Mitchell's imaginative slide playing has appeared on works by an incredible range of artists, including Jim Capaldi, Rod Stewart, Uncle Dog (featuring Carol Grimes) and The Who (the full list is much more extensive), while in his lifetime he was called the UK's finest slide guitarist.
Born April 21 1950 in Liverpool, where he grew up, his dad was a professional Hawaiian/jazz guitarist, and a member of Felix Mendelssohn's Hawaiian Serenaders. Sammy began his career in 1966 playing folk clubs in Liverpool and then Brighton, before gravitating to London. He was inspired by the sound of Robert Johnson to take up slide guitar, and while playing in a London folk club he was discovered by Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry.
His slide style reached an international audience with appearances on Rod Stewart's albums “Gasoline Alley” (1970) and “Every Picture Tells A Story” (1971). A foreshortened live set by The Sam Mitchell Blues Band featured in BBC TV's “Sight and Sound in Concert”:
http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/13411
In the early '80s, I knew Sammy socially, and attended numerous packed gigs in London's Putney/Fulham area by the 3-piece Sam Mitchell Blues Band. His inventive slide solos positively blistered, while his technique effortlessly encompassed the smooth and the melodic too. With a soulful singing voice, he occupied centre stage with great ease. He played Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing' with an authority he had earned. His bass player, Steve Slack, went on to join The UK Subs, while his song 'Rubber Leg Boogie' was named in honour of the dancing style of the actual Rubber Legs, Paul Randle. Sammy's collection of Blues albums represented a unique history lesson in itself.
From the mid-'80s a member of Denmark's popular The Sandmen, other notable collaborations produced several albums with Dana Gillespie (Ambassador of the Risqué Blues), a joint album with Serbia's Homesick Mac, and a long association with Chris Jagger.
Sammy had returned to live in Liverpool, and he died there in 2006, aged 56, having been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease a few years earlier. John Conroy, his friend and fellow musician, was the only non-family member to attend the funeral.
T.P. Keating (2008) at http://www.freewebs.com/sammitchell/
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