News & Updates — JB Lenoir

J.B. Lenoir was an explicitly topical blues singer with a higher voice operating out of Chicago in the '50s and '60s. He cut the politicized "Korea Blues" in 1951. His controversial 1954 song "Eisenhower Blues" (lyrics: "My money's gone, my fun is gone, the way things look, how can I be here long?") was pulled from the shelves. His mid-'60s output was as political as ever. "Vietnam Blues" questioned the USA's involvement in Southeast Asia as blacks were being killed with regularity in Mississippi ("Mister President you always cry about peace, but you must clean up your house before you...