Josh White

Extremely well-versed in the countryside blues vocabulary, though perhaps better known as a quasi-Cabaret performer, Josh White came up in the Piedmont scene of the 1930s and '40s and apprenticed with the likes of Blind Joe Taggart and Blind Blake. With a refined voice that seemed more suited to Vocal Jazz than the more rugged blues of his native Mississippi, White made his way to the urban centers of the '40s, picking up on the fashionable trends in music as he went. While the latter half of his career is characterized by forays into Cabaret (as well as a sex-god Lounge act), White's early recordings are some of the finest in the Folk-Blues catalog.