Stephen Wade
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036880
- eISBN:
- 9780252094002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036880.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter describes Charlie Butler's recording of “Diamond Joe.” Butler, convict number 10636, recorded “Diamond Joe” at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi, in the spring ...
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This chapter describes Charlie Butler's recording of “Diamond Joe.” Butler, convict number 10636, recorded “Diamond Joe” at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi, in the spring of 1937. Two years later, he sang it again into John Lomax's disc machine. At the time, he left only the barest account of how he learned “Diamond Joe,” and none at all concerning how he came to sing. Vanished, too, are most details about his life. Though he appears in the 1920 state census that positively identifies him and his wife, later searches have proven less conclusive. For one thing, he took aliases. For another, he could not write, leaving only an “X” on the signature line of his commitment papers.Less
This chapter describes Charlie Butler's recording of “Diamond Joe.” Butler, convict number 10636, recorded “Diamond Joe” at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi, in the spring of 1937. Two years later, he sang it again into John Lomax's disc machine. At the time, he left only the barest account of how he learned “Diamond Joe,” and none at all concerning how he came to sing. Vanished, too, are most details about his life. Though he appears in the 1920 state census that positively identifies him and his wife, later searches have proven less conclusive. For one thing, he took aliases. For another, he could not write, leaving only an “X” on the signature line of his commitment papers.
