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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello, Hello, everyone, Welcome to This Day in

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Speaker 1: History Class, where we bring you a new tidbit from history.

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Speaker 1: Every day today is June. The day was June. Lee

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Speaker 1: Conley Bradley, later known as Big Bill Bruns, was born

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Speaker 1: in Scott, Mississippi. Well, at least that's what Bruns himself claimed.

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Speaker 1: Historian Robert Reisman suggests he was born on the same day,

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Speaker 1: but in Arkansas in nineteen oh three, and bruns sister

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Speaker 1: Laney says he may have been born in Some sources

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Speaker 1: suggests that he claimed he was older than he actually

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Speaker 1: was to be eligible for military service or to get

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Speaker 1: union benefits. Regardless, Brunsey became a world renowned blue singer, songwriter,

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Speaker 1: and musician whose work inspired many musicians who came after him.

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Speaker 1: Brunsi's parents were born into slavery when he was born.

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Speaker 1: His father was a sharecropper, and he was one of

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Speaker 1: seventeen children born to his parents. He grew up in Arkansas,

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Speaker 1: and early on he expressed an interest in music. His uncle,

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Speaker 1: Jerry Belcher, taught him how to play a fiddle that

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Speaker 1: was made from a cigar box. Brunsey called his uncle

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Speaker 1: the greatest man in the world in music at that time.

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Speaker 1: Though Brunsi remembered Uncle Jerry fondly and his writings, there

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Speaker 1: is no evidence of Jerry Belcher in official records, so

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Speaker 1: it's not clear whether he actually existed anyway. Brunesi sang

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Speaker 1: and played the violin in local churches while he worked

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Speaker 1: as a farm hand. He also began playing music for

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Speaker 1: tips at country parties and picnics, but by nineteen twelve

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Speaker 1: he had stopped fiddling and became a traveling preacher around

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Speaker 1: Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He did that for several years. The

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Speaker 1: first five he married was a woman named Gertrude. He

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Speaker 1: later left Gertrude and eventually married other women and had

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Speaker 1: a child with a Dutch woman he met in the Netherlands.

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Speaker 1: Around nineteen seventeen, Brunsey was drafted into the army and

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Speaker 1: sent to Europe to fight in World War One. After

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Speaker 1: doing that for a couple of years, he returned to

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Speaker 1: the United States. In the nineteen twenties, he moved to

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Speaker 1: Chicago and began working with the Pullman Company to make money,

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Speaker 1: but he was still playing music. It was in Chicago

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Speaker 1: where he began playing the guitar. Papa Charlie Jackson, a

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Speaker 1: popular blues musician, helped teach him to play the guitar.

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Speaker 1: In a nineteen fifty eight interview, he claimed he started

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Speaker 1: playing guitar in ninete, but quote didn't get good at

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Speaker 1: it until nineteen. Brunsi's first songs with Paramount Records, House

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Speaker 1: Rent Stump and Big Bill Blues were released in nineteen seven.

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Speaker 1: The record did not perform well, but he did make

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Speaker 1: some money from recording rent parties and odd jobs. He

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Speaker 1: did more records with Paramount over the next few years,

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Speaker 1: though they continued to sell poorly, but by nineteen thirty

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Speaker 1: two he had made several records with the American Recording Corporation,

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Speaker 1: which sold a lot better and made him some cash.

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Speaker 1: In the mid nineteen thirties, Brunzi linked up with pianists

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Speaker 1: Black Bob Hudson and began recording on the label Blue Bird,

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Speaker 1: which r c A formed to compete with the American

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Speaker 1: Recording Corporation. The two of them, along with other musicians,

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Speaker 1: formed Big Bill Brunz's Memphis five. He also worked with

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Speaker 1: pianist Joshua Alzheimer, who later replaced Black Bob. Bruns grew

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Speaker 1: in popularity as a blue sinker, and he had captured

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Speaker 1: the attention of black audiences, and what's recorded as his

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Speaker 1: first appearance before a white audience, he performed at record

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Speaker 1: producer John Hammond's Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall

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Speaker 1: in New York, and his recognition and acclaim grew. One

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Speaker 1: of his best known songs is Black, Brown, and White,

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Speaker 1: a protest song against racism and the condition of black

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Speaker 1: veterans who returned to the United States after World War Two.

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Speaker 1: By the late nineteen forties, the modern blues he was

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Speaker 1: playing was falling out of favor with black folks, who

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Speaker 1: were turning to upbeat dance music in slow ballads, as

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Speaker 1: well as the electric guitar heavy blues of musicians like

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Speaker 1: Muddy Waters, whom Brunsey had actually mentored and introduced to

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Speaker 1: the Chicago blue scene. He took advantage of white people's

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Speaker 1: growing interests in blues and folk music, adding new traditional

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Speaker 1: songs to his repertoire. In nineteen fifty, when visiting Iowa,

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Speaker 1: Brunsey decided he wanted to stay there and took a

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Speaker 1: job as a custodian, But it wasn't long before he

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Speaker 1: returned to music and the Road Brunesi towards Europe in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, and his performances there stimulated interest in

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Speaker 1: the blues and folk music in the u s. Brunsey

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Speaker 1: performed with p Seeger, Brownie McGhee and Sunny Terry. By

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three, he was able to make a living

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Speaker 1: on music alone, and in nineteen fifty five he published

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Speaker 1: his autobiography, called Big Bill Blues. He also toured Africa,

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Speaker 1: South America, Australia and Southeast Asia. In nineteen fifty seven,

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Speaker 1: he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He was unable to sing,

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Speaker 1: but he continued playing the guitar. In nineteen fifty eight,

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Speaker 1: Brunsey died of cancer on the way to the hospital.

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Speaker 1: He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. Many musicians have cited him as an influence,

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Speaker 1: including Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend. I'm Eves jeffco and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. And if you still haven't checked out

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Speaker 1: a new show that I host called Unpopular, you can

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Speaker 1: get it anywhere that you get this day in history class.

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