“Elmore James’ Dust My Broom swept through Britain in the 60’s to influence gods like Clapton and the lads playing at the local pub for another four decades”

Dust My Broom is without doubt a classic. Even if you are not a blues fanatic, you know that one; it’s on the set list of just about every blues band in the region. Elmore James is among the elite group alongside Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker and B.B. King as an innovator and motivator of the blues.

Elmore James was one of this select bunch who became the “new wave” of the blues during the late 40’s and early 50’s. They did not reinvent, but became an important stepping stone by building on the strong foundations laid before them by the likes of Son House and Charley Patton. In particular he continued the line that Robert Johnson had fashioned and the ability to take the Mississippi blues of the old guard and steer it safely into the future. Under the guidance of Elmore James and importantly, routed via his amp, Johnson’s fire would become a furnace in the new order.

Elmore James was born on the 27^th January 1918 in a small village called Richland in Holmes County , central Mississippi . His natural father is unknown, but his mother was Leola Brooks a 15 year old who worked on a farm. She soon became involved with Willie James from where Elmore gets his surname. As farm hands in the 20’s and 30’s they moved around looking for work living in and around towns like Lexington along Highway 51.

At the age of 18, Elmore had moved along Highway 49 to Belzoni. Here he worked on farms, got married and bought a guitar. It was then that he would meet two of his greatest influences, Robert Johnson and Aleck ‘Rice’ Miller – better known as Sonny Boy Williamson. Robert Johnson was about eight years his senior and taught Elmore the tricks of slide guitar and importantly Dust My Broom. Just in time as Johnson would be dead within a year. Elmore teamed up with Sonny Boy for some house gigs and dances or played in a band with his half brother Robert Earl Holston

Half way through 1943 he joined the US Navy and saw active service before his demob in 1945. Returning home he gigged in the area and made an appearance on the King Biscuit Time radio show where Sonny Boy was already a favourite. In 1947 Sonny Boy moved to Belzoni to share a daily radio show with Elmore who had also joined pianist Willie Love’s band in Greenville . By 1951 he was doing recording sessions with Love and Sonny Boy. 

Trumpet Records released a rehearsal version of Dust My Broom which slowly emerged into the national R&B charts in 1952. The resulting royalties enables Elmore to leave his job on the farm, buy a car and concentrate fully on the music. Within a year he was doing very well and was spotted in late 1953 by Joe Bihari of Modern Records and guested on a Big Joe Turner hit single, T.V. Mama.

Just as things were going well, Elmore baled out and returned to Canton where he went back to local gigs and would only record when Bihari applied the pressure. Poor health dogged him from his twenties due to heart problems. His physique was frail and his big glasses made him look a bit stiff, not modern day boy-band stuff.

Of course he continued to move around and would record Dust My Broom several times. By 1956 Biahri had dropped him, but in 1958 he did an album for the Chicago based Chief label. The album had Elmore at his best, but there were no big sales so once again he retreated home. He did some DJ work in Jackson and kept on gigging with Johnny Jones and his cousin Homesick James Williamson.

Then in 1959, a Chicago DJ, Big Bill Hill persuaded him to do some clubs gigs with Homesick and Johnny Jones to back him up. New York record producer Bobby Robinson spotted him and signed him to the Fire label and into a period that many regard as his finest. He recorded probably his best Dust My Broom and a clutch of other superb tracks including, Rollin & Tumblin, Stranger Blues, The Shy Is Crying, Bleeding Heart and the thumping double Look On Yonder/Shake Your Moneymaker.

Now it was the 60’s, but as ever, the good times took a kicking as Elmore was blacklisted by the American Federation of Musicians for employing non-union musicians. Off he went back to Jackson and spent a lot of time with 30’s veteran blues singer, Johnny Temple. All this time his heath was a problem and further exasperated when he hit the booze.

In 1963, Big Bill Hill again dragged him up to Chicago and sorted out the union problem. Elmore was in Chicago for just four days, played a couple of gigs and suffered another heart attack on the 23^rd May, but this time it was fatal.

In the early days of his career, it was not his guitar playing, but his voice that drew the attention. His “haunting vocals” were said to make ordinary songs special. Yes, Elmore James was a brilliant slide player, but he was also a good writer with an outstanding voice, an all round bluesman.

This undoubted talent as a great blues musician was picked up by many British guitarists such as Brian Jones and Keith Richards from the Stones and of course the highly influential John Mayall and Eric Clapton were disciples. That influence carries on today with the countless blues bands gigging in pubs across the UK . The next time you hear Dust My Broom live, stomp your feet and remember Robert Johnson and what Elmore James did to the song.