It would be interesting to imagine what would have happened to bluesman JB Lenoir if he had lived beyond his span of 38 years, cut short by an automobile accident. Unlike most blues artists of the fifties, he was politically oriented. One of the three albums I have, Eisenhower Blues (1954), is a satirical stab at that President’s policies. He was active in the Civil Rights movement. Another album I have, a compilation put together to accompany Martin Scorcese’s film history of the blues, draws heavily from Eisenhower Blues and other Chess recordings from the 1950s. So does a 1993 Charly label compilation I just found, Mama Watch Your Daughter. During this period, despite some chart success with songs like “Don’t Dog Your Woman”, Lenoir had to support himself working in kitchens. It’s in the sixties, just before his sudden death, that he achieved real recognition. Down In Mississippi, issued posthumously in 1970, dates from that period.
Lenoir sang in falsetto, his voice floating like a bubble on waves of rhythm guitar, and the arrangements were closer to early Rock ‘n’ Roll than to traditional blues. He affected garish suits, and otherwise fit well into the Rock ‘n’ Roll esthetic. His later work was electric boogie, and he should really be seen as having a prominent place in the history of Rock. Certainly, a number of prominent rock artists were familiar with, and were influenced by his work — John Mayall, for example. Perhaps, if he had lived past 1967, that would now be the case.
Although you will usually see his name printed as “J. B. Lenoir”, his first name was actually “JB”, which was not initials for anything. His surname was pronounced in the French manner.