Fulton Allen (aka Blind Boy Fuller) (1907-1941)

Blind Boy Fuller was one of the most influential and best-selling bluesmen of the '30s. His songs were learned and covered by almost every East Coast bluesman who followed, quite an achievement for someone who didn't begin playing seriously until he was an adult.

He was born Fulton Allen in 1907 in the small town of Wadesboro, NC, southeast of Charlotte and near the state line. Unlike most Piedmont bluesmen, he did not come from a musical family. Only his sister Ethel played an instrument (guitar); his younger brother Jesse played a little in the same style, but he learned this at a later date. By all accounts, Allen did not take his guitar playing too seriously. Little is known of his early life; he did stay in school through the fourth grade. His mother passed away in the mid-20s, and his father, Calvin, moved the family to Rockingham, NC. It was there that he met Cora Mae Martin, his future wife. They married in 1926, though Cora was only fourteen; they crossed the state line into South Carolina so the marriage would be legal.

While in Rockingham, Allen's eyes started giving him trouble. A doctor in Charlotte was no help. Fulton and Cora moved to Winston-Salem (where one of his brothers lived) to find work. Allen worked in a coal yard for a while, but soon his eyes wouldn't even allow that and he became very dependent on Cora, who was not yet sixteen. Soon thereafter they moved to Durham, probably to take advantage of government aid for the blind that was available there. While there, he fell under the influence of Rev. Gary Davis, who taught Allen quite a few songs and guitar licks. (Most people who'd heard Fulton play in the early thirties were rather disparaging of his playing; it seems that Davis' impact did wonders for him.) Fulton and Cora also moved to a few cities in North Carolina as well as southern Virginia, during 1936-1937. As early as 1933, though, Allen was given a permit to busk in Durham. He was apparently making a decent living at this, too, since he didn't move for quite a while. It was then that he came to the attention of J.B. Long, a white man who managed the United Dollar Store in Durham. Long had had some success finding country and gospel talent for the American Record Company and kept his ear open. One day in the winter of '34-'35, he heard Fuller playing on the street and decided that ARC should record him. In July of 1935, Long drove Allen, whom he dubbed ``Blind Boy Fuller'', to New York, along with washboard player George Washington (aka Bull City Red), Rev. Gary Davis, and Long's family. The musicians were fortunate that the session was supervised by Art Satherley, who had recorded many of the greatest blues artists of the '20s for Paramount. The session went well, though according to Richard Trice, recording Davis was a bit of a hassle. Fuller's songs were quite successful, and he was brought back to record in April of '36, this time as a solo artist.

When Fuller recorded a third time in February of 1937, Long decided to revert to the earlier pattern, bringing Bull City Red back to accompany Fuller, along with guitarist Floyd Council. Some time after this, someone wrote to Decca on Fuller's behalf asking if they would like to record him. Mayo Williams visited Durham to interview and audition Fuller. He arrived to find Fuller with Richard and Willie Trice, two brothers from nearby Chapel Hill who'd befriended Fuller after his first records came out. Williams agreed to record all three (probably caring only that he got Fuller) and took them to New York with him. The session, by the Trices' recounting, was rough on the artists; Williams did not seem to have Satherly's ability to put the artists at ease. When the three returned from New York, Long had been looking for Fuller for a few days. When he found out that his prize blues artist had been recorded by a rival label, Long bluffed Decca into thinking that he had Fuller signed to an exclusive contract, and they gave in to his demands. Then Long got Fuller to sign an exclusive contract which he would not show to any of Fuller's friends. Exactly why Fuller had recorded for Decca remains unclear. Perhaps, like Davis, he felt Long was cheating him; maybe he didn't find anything ``wrong'' with double-dipping; and quite possibly the Trice brothers had something to do with it. Regardless, Fuller recorded exclusively for ARC thereafter, and always with J.B. Long in attendance. More improtantly, he started recording with harmonica great Sonny Terry.

Terry was playing around Durham when he met Fuller. Fuller introduced Terry to Long; they agreed that the harmonica player should accompany them to the next recording session. (Sonny Terry, incidentally, was the only artist that Fuller backed, on the song Harmonica Stomp.) In addition to accompanying Fuller, Terry began recording on his own, and was being groomed as a star himself. In fact, when John Hammond was looking for Fuller for his From Spirtuals to Swing concert and found Fuller in jail, Terry was used as a replacement. Fuller's health was also beginning to go. In 1938 he was diagnosed with arrested syphillis and very bad kidneys and bladder, conditions which would require longterm treatment. One indication of his failing health is that in in March of 1940, Fuller's twelve recorded titles were spread out over three days; this was out of character with his earlier sessions. One of the songs, Step It Up and Go, a song that Long had heard in Memphis and rewritten for Fuller and Terry, was a huge country blues hit. In June of 1941, Fuller recorded for the last time, going to Chicago with Red and Terry.

Fuller was in the hospital a month later and was receiving regular visits from the family doctor. There was nothing that could be done, though. Fuller passed away on February 13, 1941, and was buried two days later at the Grove Hill Cemetary in Durham. His legacy still lives to this day, though. For many, he is synonymous with Piedmont blues in the way that Robert Johnson is for the Delta blues. The two are similar in more than a few ways ways. Most improtantly, their genius lay in their ability to combine music from different sources yet stay thoroughly within their own personal and regional styles. For example, Fuller took Yank Rachell's Gravel Road Woman and made it into his Skinny Woman. Richard Trice remembered him listening intently to Carl Martin's Crow Jane and Let's Have a New Deal. Fuller's greatest influence, however, was Rev. Gary Davis. Davis taught Fuller many songs and guitar licks, which Fuller combined with many songs he learned off record to create his own greatness. Some have waved off Fuller's work, saying he relied on sexual imagery and double entendre' in his songs. Gosh, imagine that, bawdy blues songs. What next, complaints about him singing in English?

For someone who was as popular as Blind Boy Fuller, his recordings are a bit difficult to find today. Luckily, Sony has released twenty songs on East Coast Piedmont Style (CK 46777). Though some of his hits are missing (Step it Up and Go for one), this is a nice collection with a good sampling of Fuller's work. Yazoo has released two cds of Fuller's work, the better being Truckin' My Blues Away. I prefer the Sony release, but Truckin' certainly isn't a bad cd. Andof course, Document records have done their usual bang-up job in releasing all known recordings of Blind Boy Fuller on a six cd set (DOCD 5091-5096).