Drink Small
African American soul blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter

Drink Small

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African American soul blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter
Gender:
Male
Work field:
Birth:
28 January 1933(Bishopville)
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Biography

Introduction

Drink Small (born January 28, 1933) is an African-American soul blues and electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is known as the Blues Doctor and has been influenced by gospel and country music and by Blind Boy Fuller.

Biography

Small was born in Bishopville, South Carolina. He taught himself to play the guitar and organized a local gospel group, the Six Stars. He had eclectic musical influences, including Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, John Lee Hooker and Fats Domino.

He was rated as one of the best gospel guitarists in the 1950s, before he turned his attention to secular music later in that decade. In 1959, he released the single "I Love You Alberta" on Sharp Records. Small had a long career, recording occasionally for small record labels and issuing six albums between 1990 and 2008. He recorded dirty blues tracks, such as "Tittie Man" and "Baby, Leave Your Panties Home", and more righteous songs, such as "The Lord Been Good to Me".

Small appeared at the 2005 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He also performed at the first Julius Daniels Memorial Blues Festival in Denmark, South Carolina, in October 2010.

He was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 2015 from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Discography

Albums

Year Title Record label
1976 I Know My Blues Are Different Southland (Select-O-Hits)
1990 The Blues Doctor Ichiban
1991 Round Two Wild Dog Blues
1994 Electric Blues Doctor Live Mapleshade
2003 Does It All Bishopville
2006 Blues Doctor: Live & Outrageous! Erwin
2008 Tryin' to Survive at 75 Bishopville