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Jim Brewer
One
of the last acoustic blues guitarists in Chicago, Jim Brewer was born
in Brookhaven, Mississippi on October 3, 1920. The oldest of seven
children (five boys and two girls), Brewer lost his sight at an early
age.
Brewer chose the guitar early as a means of survival. His father wanted
him to play blues as the most likely means of earning a living, while
his mother demanded he play only religious music. During the past 40
years, as a street singer in Chicago, he shifted constantly between the
demon and the saint, playing gospel when weary of the blues’
wild street craziness; playing blues in club and festival performances.
While playing on the streets and in the stores of Brookhaven in the
1930s, he learned most of the religious songs that he continues to
perform today. Brewer’s father, however, told him that people
would pay more to hear the blues than to hear church music. As he grew
older, Brewer started performing at play parties, playing blues he had
learned from store records.
Following the death of Jim’s mother, the family moved to
Chicago; Jim followed a year later and began playing on 43rd and 47th
streets near his family’s home. By the late 1940s he was
playing on Maxwell Street. Originally an open-air market for Russian
and Polish immigrants who came to Chicago at the turn of the century,
by the 1930s, Maxwell Street had become a showcase for blues and gospel
singers on Chicago’s South Side. Except for a short period
when he left the city, Brewer has been a regular on Maxwell Street for
nearly forty years.
In the early 1950s Jim Brewer decided to travel, and he lived in St.
Louis for three years, where he played on streetcars, in taverns, and
on the streets. During that time he also joined a washboard band for a
while. By the mid-1950s he had returned to Chicago and was introduced
by a mutual friend to Fannie, who became his wife. Brewer’s
new mother-in-law bought him a good electric guitar and amplifier, the
first decent equipment he ever owned.
Returning to Maxwell Street, Brewer decided to devote himself
exclusively to singing religious songs. He wanted to separate himself
from the lifestyle of trouble that surrounded blues musicians there,
and he realized that many people had a low opinion of the blues. But in
1962, two white college students found him on Maxwell Street and asked
him if he could sing the blues. He answered that he could and two weeks
later he found himself scheduled to give a concert at Northwestern
University. Before the concert, Brewer was taken to Chicago’s
No Exit Café, and the manager, Joe Moore, asked him to
audition. That successful debut resulted in a regular job at the No
Exit coffeehouse that has continued for two decades. In recent years
Brewer has played at major festivals and clubs throughout the Midwest,
the East, Canada and Europe.
Jim Brewer’s major influences include Big Bill Broonzy and
Tommy Johnson. Other influences include Big Joe Williams, Big Maceo,
Teddy Darby, Lonnie Johnson, and Tampa Red; musicians Brewer heard on
records and radio in Chicago.
Jim Brewer is a powerful
singer and guitarist; his style clearly conveying his roots in the
Mississippi Delta blues. Today he plays an acoustic Martin six-string
guitar. His music and performance style have, no doubt, gained an
amount of polish over the years, and he seems comfortable playing to
audiences who frequent the club and festival circuit.
In addition to performing songs he learned from others over the years,
Jim is also an accomplished songwriter and has been known to make up
songs on the spot concerning his mood, the events of the day, or his
immediate surroundings.
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