Bo Carter

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Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon (March 21, 1893, in Bolton, Mississippi — September 21, 1964, in Memphis, Tennessee) was a popular early blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in live performance and on a few of their recordings. Carter also managed that group, which included his brother Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle and occasionally Sam Chatmon on bass, along with a non-relative, Walter Vincson, on guitar and lead vocal.

Since the 1960s, Carter has become best known for recording bawdy songs such as "Banana in Your Fruit Basket", "Pin in Your Cushion", "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me" and "My Pencil Won't Write No More". However, his output was not restricted to risqué music. He recorded, in 1928, the original version of "Corrine Corrina," which later became a hit for Big Joe Turner and has become a standard in various musical genres.

Carter and his brothers (pianist Harry Chatmon was another who would record) first learned music from their father, ex-slave fiddler Henderson Chatmon, at their home on a plantation between Bolton and Edwards, Miss. Their mother, Eliza, also sang and played guitar. Bo Carter made his recording debut in 1928, backing an old-fashioned singer named Alec Johnson. Carter soon was recording as a solo artist, and became one of the dominant blues recording acts of the 1930s, recording more than 100 sides. He also played with and managed the family group, the Mississippi Sheiks, and several other acts in the area, since he drank less than most of his associates and thus was better suited to handle business matters. Bo Carter and the Sheiks often played for whites, playing the pop hits of the day and white-oriented dance material, as well as for blacks, using a bluesier repertoire. Carter went blind, or partly blind, sometime in the 1930s. He settled in Glen Allan, Miss., and, despite his vision problems, did some farming, but also continued to play music. He performed, sometimes with his brothers, in medicine shows and at dances, parties, picnics and hotels, and on the street. Carter apparently moved to Memphis and worked outside music in the 1940s. But by about 1950 to 1955, he apparently was living in Jackson, Miss., and still trying to play music. He auditioned for Trumpet Records, but the company's owner declined to release any recordings by Carter, and destroyed the audition tapes. Carter was living in Memphis in 1960, when British blues researcher Paul Oliver happened to meet and interview him. Oliver's photos and some transcripts from that interview are in his book Conversation With the Blues. Carter suffered strokes and died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Shelby County Hospital, Memphis, on September 21, 1964. Carter's music became somewhat known again after Yazoo Records began releasing compilations on LPs and then CDs, including one called Banana In Your Fruit Basket, featuring an illustration by underground cartoonist R. Crumb that was almost as suggestive as Carter's lyrics. The selection of songs on that compilation led many to label Carter as strictly a "party" or smutty singer. In recent decades, he has not been accorded the respect and appreciation that goes to some of his less-successful peers such as Robert Johnson. But Carter's music and lyrics are rich and varied. He was a master guitarist, facile in many different positions and tunings. His compositions reflect influence of his slave-fiddler father, pop and vaudeville, minstrel music as well as blues, all filtered through a unique creative talent.