Bukka White was a skilled and lively exemplar of traditional Mississippi Delta blues. His songs about the tribulations of life reflected his upbringing in the rural Deep South of America, his father's work on the railroad, and the three years he spent in a State penitentiary following a shooting incident. The American folk revival in the 1960s brought him acclaim, especially when Bob Dylan recorded his song 'Fixin' to Die Blues'. His own version won entry to the Grammy Awards Hall of Fame in 2012.
White's father, John White, who played several instruments, bought him a guitar when he was a teenager and taught him the bottleneck slide technique. He drew on the styles of celebrated blues artists such as Charley Patton and Henry Stuckey and made his first recordings of country blues and spirituals in the early 1930s. He worked in a military factory in Memphis and was jailed for three years after an incident in which a man was shot in the leg. A song titled 'Shake 'Em On Down' that he had recorded before he was sent to prison came out while he was incarcerated and upon his release he went straight back into the recording studio. Songs such as 'Parchman Farm Blues', 'Good Gin Blues' and 'Bukka's Jitterbug Swing' went on to become classics of the genre, and he was said to have had a big influence on his cousin, singer and guitarist B.B. King.
Thanks to the folk revival, White performed on the festival circuit for the remainder of his life and many of his early works have been collected on compilation albums such as 'Parchman Farm 1937-1940', 'Shake 'Em On Down', 'Mississippi Blues Giant' and 'Parchman Farm Blues'. He died of cancer in Memphis, Tennessee in 1977 aged 67.
