Blues Biographies

Sam Chatmon

Born: January 10, 1897, Boltmon, Mississippi
Died: February 2, 1983, Hollandale, Mississippi

Sam Chatmon was born into a highly musical family — reportedly there were 11 sons, all of them musicians. As a boy Sam often played with the Chatmon Family String Band, and when three of his brothers formed the Mississippi Sheiks, who became very popular, he sometimes played with them as well. But Sam Chatmon was a multi-instrumentalist in his own right — playing mandolin, bass, guitar and banjo — and worked as a traveling musician with a wide repertoire that included blues until the early 1940s. He became a plantation worker until the 1960s blues revival, at which point, like many of his contemporaries, he embarked upon a second career as a musician, performing and recording until his death in 1983.

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