Considered to be the dean of St. Louis bluesmen, Henry Townsend also spent several years of his life in Chicago, recording with many of the Windy City's blues greats. With the passing of Son House, Fred McDowell, Bukka White, and Mississippi John Hurt, Townsend is one of the few living pre-war acoustic delta blues artists still performing. Born in Shelby, Mississippi in 1909, Townsend moved to St. Louis in 1921 where he learned guitar and piano from Clifford Gibson, Lonnie Johnson, Roosevelt Sykes, Charley Jordan, and Henry Spaulding. In 1928, he began accompanying a number of blues pianists, including Sykes, Peetie Wheatstraw, Henry Brown, and Walter Davis. The following year, he recorded his first sides for Columbia Records in Chicago, and in 1931, he recorded with Townsend and Davis for Paramount and Victor.
Returning to Chicago in 1932 with a group that featured Sykes, Davis, Teddy Darby and Tommy Webb, Townsend recorded sides for Victor's subsidiary Bluebird under the name of Henry Thomas. Three years later he brought Big Joe Williams back to Chicago for his debut recording with Victor's race label, Decca, which led to the classic duet "Somebody Been Borrowing That Stuff," as well as the first-ever recording of the blues standard "Baby Please Don't Go." By 1935, Townsend had contributed to over 35 recordings.
Townsend drove Sonny Boy Williamson (who was to become a good friend and housemate in St. Louis), Robert Lee McCoy (Robert Nighthawk), and Big Joe Williams to Aurora, IL, where they recorded the influential debut recordings of Sonny Boy and Nighthawk in a trio format. Townsend spent most of 1939 playing with Sonny Boy and Nighthawk in St. Louis at Earnest Walker's Tavern where all three met Robert Johnson. Townsend ended up dueting extensively with Johnson.
During the mid-1940s, Townsend lived in Chicago, before returning to St. Louis. Since then, the now-90-year-old Townsend has been an musically active, recording for Adelphi, Nighthawk, Swingmaster, and Wolf -- including most recently The 88 Blues --, as well as performing regularly at folks & blues festivals.
He celebrated his 90th Birthday with two movie premieres -- That's the Way I Do It -- The Life and Times of Henry Townsend and Hellhounds on My Trail -- The Afterlife of Robert Johnson, as well as an autobiography Henry Townsend -- A Blues Life, and an all-star b-day concert (featuring Townsend, Johnnie Johnson, Arthur Williams, Oliver Sain, and others).
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