Blind Boy Fuller

Blues guitarist Fulton Allen – better known as Blind Boy Fuller – was born on July 10, 1904 (or 1907) in Wadesboro, North Carolina. Fuller, a prolific guitarist and vocalist, was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont (AKA East Coast or Southeastern) blues artists. He is best-known for his distinctive guitar playing and for his ‘hokum’ (humorous songs usually laced with sexual innuendoes) recordings such as "I Want Some of Your Pie", “Get Your Ya Yas Out” (later used for a Rolling Stones live album title), "Truckin' My Blues Away" (the origin of the phrase ‘keep on truckin’’) and "Big House Bound", When Fuller was young, his mother died and his family relocated to Rockingham, NC, where he learned to play the guitar. In his teens, he began to lose his eyesight due to retinal ulcers. By 1928, Fuller was completely blind and turned to performing for his income. By playing on street corners and around tobacco warehouses, Fuller began building a local following and was discovered by talent scout/record store manager James Baxter Long. Fuller recorded some sessions – including “Rag, Mama, Rag” - in New York City with washboard player George Washington. The records released during these sessions were the first time that the duo were billed as Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red. Fuller continued to record for different labels and with a variety of fellow bluesmen including Sonny Terry. In 1938, Fuller began a two-year prison term for shooting his wife in the leg. He recorded his last two recording sessions in 1940 after his release, although his health was already failing. He died in Durham, NC, on February 13, 1941 from kidney failure and other complications. Fuller was so popular at the time that his protégé Brownie McGhee – a blues legend-to-be in his own right – briefly performed under the name Blind Boy Fuller 2.

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