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Casey Bill Weldon
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Casey Bill Weldon (July 10, 1909–196?) was an African-American blues musician who lived and worked in Chicago, best known for his slide guitar skill. He played upbeat, almost hokum, tunes, usually in a band. He is also known as a member of the Memphis Jug Band, with whom he played and recorded.
In 1927 Weldon made a recording with Charles Polk and other members of what would become (with personnel changes) the Memphis Jug Band for Victor Records.
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Encyclopedia
Casey Bill Weldon (July 10, 1909–196?) was an African-American blues musician who lived and worked in Chicago, best known for his slide guitar skill. He played upbeat, almost hokum, tunes, usually in a band. He is also known as a member of the Memphis Jug Band, with whom he played and recorded.
In 1927 Weldon made a recording with Charles Polk and other members of what would become (with personnel changes) the Memphis Jug Band for Victor Records. In October of that year, Victor brought them to Atlanta where they recorded several sides, including "Kansas City Blues". In 1930, the last year of the Memphis Jug Band's contract with Victor, the band recorded 20 sides. The contract ended after a final recording session in November of 1930 in Memphis just before the financial crash of the 1930s bankrupted Victor. On Memphis Minnie's last recording for Bluebird Records in October of 1935, Weldon accompanied her for the first time. He played on two sides, "When the Sun Goes Down, Part 2" and "Hustlin' Woman Blues" but dropped out of the following two songs.
In October 1927, when the Victor field recording unit visited Atlanta, Georgia, he recorded two sides, including a chilling, haunting song called "Turpentine Blues", which would have left him immortalized if he had never recorded again. He did not enter another recording studio until eight years later, when he laid down many recordings for Vocalion Records. After his divorce from Memphis Minnie, he disappeared from the public eye and stopped recording by 1938.
His date of death is unknown, though assumed to be sometime in the 1960s.
Style
He played a National steel guitar flat on his lap Hawaiian style. His slide guitar solos were emotional and unique. His style of playing was influential on the emerging Chicago Blues style.
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