Age, Biography and Wiki

James Crutchfield was born on 25 May, 1912 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, is a James Crutchfield was St. Louis barrelhouse blues singer, piano player. Discover James Crutchfield's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 89 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation Musician
Age 89 years old
Zodiac Sign Gemini
Born 25 May, 1912
Birthday 25 May
Birthplace Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Date of death 7 December, 2001
Died Place St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 25 May. He is a member of famous artist with the age 89 years old group.

James Crutchfield Height, Weight & Measurements

At 89 years old, James Crutchfield height not available right now. We will update James Crutchfield's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
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Dating & Relationship status

He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.

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James Crutchfield Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is James Crutchfield worth at the age of 89 years old? James Crutchfield’s income source is mostly from being a successful artist. He is from United States. We have estimated James Crutchfield's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
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Timeline

1912

James Crutchfield (May 25, 1912 – December 7, 2001) was a St. Louis barrelhouse blues singer, piano player and songwriter whose career spanned seven decades.

His repertoire consisted of original and classic blues and boogie-woogie and Depression-era popular songs.

Known as the "King of Barrelhouse Blues", his better-known songs include "I Believe You Need a Shot" and "My Baby Cooks My Breakfast".

There is no record of James Crutchfield's birth: "My mama never know'd what day it was, she never know'd what month it was, but she always know'd what year it was. 'Lotta folks back in them days never even know'd that much, but my mama always did. She told me I was born in '12, in Baton Rouge, when the high water was highest."

Crutchfield said his mother, Sarah, was a "Geechee", a descendant of slaves of the Georgia/Carolina sea islands, and said he much resembled her.

His father, Tom Crutchfield, he described as a large copper-colored man from southwestern Mississippi, whom he had never met until he was eight years old and with whom he maintained a cordial relationship thereafter.

An only child, James and his mother, a farm worker, migrated through Louisiana and East Texas with the cotton and sugarcane seasons, moving often and sometimes living in tents.

His earliest memories were of the "boys" coming home from World War I and the silent-movie Westerns of William S. Hart, whom he idolized.

Together they looked through the 1912 newspapers and found that indeed, there had been a flood then, which crested on May 25.

From that time on, he regarded that date as his birthday.

1920

Around 1920, his mother married and settled in Bogalusa, Louisiana.

In his early teens, while employed as the janitor in a theater, Crutchfield began to teach himself to play on the house piano.

Also around this time, curious about the exact day of his birth, he went to the Baton Rouge library and told the story his mother had told him to an intrigued librarian.

By the end of the 1920s, Crutchfield had begun traveling a rough-and-tumble circuit of Louisiana lumber camps, Mississippi levee camps and East Texas juke joints, performing as the M & O Kid in deference to his mentor, the Mississippi barrelhouse bluesman M & O, whom Crutchfield in later years said was the best he ever heard.

The establishments that served the lumber and levee camps typically stayed open all day and night and provided food, drink and lodging for two piano players, who each played a 12-hour shift for tips.

Competition for these jobs was cut-throat, and Crutchfield developed his lifelong habit of playing for hours without a break, out of fear that somebody better would sit down and play in his absence and steal his job – which evidently had happened.

Another early influence was Papa Lord God, a Texan: "Oh Papa Lord God, he was bad, man, he was baaad!"

Little Brother Montgomery showed him "44 Blues" when the Montgomery brothers performed in Bogalusa, and he traded techniques in after-hours sessions with Champion Jack Dupree when they played at rival nightclubs on the same street in Baton Rouge, early in their careers.

1927

In 1927, working as an underage employee for a local railroad, Crutchfield lost his left leg below the knee in a coupling accident.

The railroad settled out of court for twenty thousand dollars.

Part of the money was used to buy his mother a house in Baton Rouge; the rest, with his now diminished opportunities for employment, was used to subsidize his fledgling musical career.

1930

Crutchfield worked as accompanist to Joe Pullum in the early 1930s and performed with him in Texas and Louisiana, occasionally hopping freight trains for transportation.

He was to play Pullum's hit "Black Gal" for the rest of his life.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Crutchfield performed in Mississippi with Elmore James and Boyd Gilmore "in places like Goodman or out in the country."

1948

In 1948, Crutchfield moved to St. Louis, Missouri, a city with a venerable blues piano tradition dating back to the ragtime era.

He worked in the Gaslight Square entertainment district at various venues, including a decade-long residency at "Miss Rosalee's" Left Bank.

1955

In 1955, Crutchfield was appearing with Bat the Hummingbird (drums) at a bar located at 2220 Market Street that was formerly Tom Turpin's Rosebud Saloon, where Scott Joplin had performed half a century earlier.

He was found there by Bob Koester, on a tip from police detective Charlie O'Brien, and recorded a few days later, along with Speckled Red, by Ralph and Ethel Hiatt.

Several of the songs were eventually released in the Barrelhouse Blues and Stomps anthology series on the Euphonic label.

1960

The decline of Gaslight Square in the late 1960s was also the decline of Crutchfield's music career.

1970

He was professionally inactive in the 1970s and worked as a cook at the State Hospital for a number of years.

1980

In the early 1980s he was collecting and selling junk tires and running an illegal gambling operation.

1981

In 1981, Swingmaster, a new Dutch record label, was interested in recording any of the old-time St. Louis barrelhouse piano players that might still be alive.

They contacted the same Charlie O'Brien who had been instrumental in locating Crutchfield a quarter-century earlier, and he reported that Crutchfield was still around and in fine form.

Swingmaster visited St. Louis that year, but had no luck finding him.

1983

They returned in 1983, and this time, with the assistance of bluesman Henry Townsend, they were successful.

2000

Six selections are included on the compilation album Biddle Street Barrelhousin', released in 2000 by Delmark Records.

2001

Crutchfield traveled to Groningen, Netherlands, later that year and recorded the album Original Barrelhouse Blues, which was re-released on CD in 2001 as St. Louis Blues Piano.

A tour included performances in Belgium, France, Germany and several venues in the Netherlands, notably the concerthall Vredenburg in Utrecht, which he later said was the largest crowd he had ever played for.

Back in St. Louis, local impresario Mark O'Shaughnessy guided Crutchfield's comeback and introduced him to the contemporary blues scene.