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From Sunflower
County, Mississippi, Fruteland Jackson is a widely-travelled
singer/songwriter whose repertoire ranges from field holl ers
and work songs to Mississippi Delta and Piedmont guitar styles. He is
one of a select group of Americans dedicated to gathering, preserving
and performing acoustic blues, in all its forms. Born into a musical
and church-going family, he was given his first guitar at the age of 12
and grew up surrounded by the blues. "My father, grandfather and uncles
all had the blues and brought them home daily... it wasn’t no festival
either." At college in Chicago he majored in performing arts, and has
since been a private detective and run a wholesale seafood company.
When his business became a casualty of Hurricane Elena in 1985 he took
to the road as a blues artist and oral historian. As a performer he is
a consistent crowd pleaser with a style that puts people totally at ease
while they enjoy his music and humour. He was awarded the 1996 Illinois
Arts Council Folk/Ethnic Heritage Award and is the recipient of the 1997
W. C. Handy Award for "Keeping The Blues Alive". In the W. C. Handy
Awards he was nominated for Best Acoustic Album in 2004 received two
nominations for Best Acoustic Artist and Best Acoustic Album in 2008. |
