Mr Scrapper's Blues

"Blackwell's music features his tight, single-note fingerpicked acoustic guitar style, which reminds me that I have to try to figure out some of these riffs on my own guitar soon! Ratings-wise, this Music gets a 10, and its Sound gets an 8. Sadly, Mr. Scrapper's Blues was to be Blackwell's last release during his lifetime, as it was issued in May 1962, just a few months before he was sadly killed in an unsolved mugging incident that October. I have to hope that Blackwell would be pleased to know that, 60-plus years on, people are still discovering and grooving on his music. Me, I discovered Scrapper Blackwell's Mr. Scrapper's Blues in a willy-nilly random manner, but after you read this review, I hope you can take a more informed plunge into this nice Bluesville series reissue of the original album that both looks and sounds fabulous." —  Mark Smotroff, AnalogPlanet.com, May 16, 2025. Read the entire review, here.

Mr. Scrapper's Blues, released in 1962 by Prestige's Bluesville label, is Scrapper Blackwell's second album, and his comeback LP, recorded in Indianapolis in 1961. Although Blackwell had retired from the music industry in 1935 following the death of close collaborator Leroy Carr, the session recordings from Mr. Scrapper's Blues were set to be his return to music. Unfortunately, Blackwell was killed in 1962, shortly before this album was released. Blackwell is the only performer on the album, playing guitar, piano, and vocals.

Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell was born in 1903 in South Carolina. He and his family moved to Indiana when Blackwell was 3 years old. Blackwell was given the nickname "Scrapper" at a young age because of his fiery personality. He taught himself how to play guitar and established himself as a part-time musician as a teenager. He began working with pianist Leroy Carr in the mid to late 1920s, and they eventually became a duo that frequently collaborated through the 1930s. Together, Blackwell and Carr created a reputation for being two of the best blues musicians of that era. Although Blackwell was tragically shot and killed in 1962, his legacy lives on in the Blues Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted in 2024.

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