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| T-Model Ford, who has died aged 89, was an incorrigibly old-school blues guitarist and singer who came to the notice of white blues enthusiasts in the 1990s, in the wake of fellow Mississippian musicians RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Promoted, like them, by the Fat Possum record label, he spent his later years captivating audiences, both at home and abroad, with his seemingly random storytelling and incessantly rhythmic guitar playing. | T-Model Ford, who has died aged 89, was an incorrigibly old-school blues guitarist and singer who came to the notice of white blues enthusiasts in the 1990s, in the wake of fellow Mississippian musicians RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Promoted, like them, by the Fat Possum record label, he spent his later years captivating audiences, both at home and abroad, with his seemingly random storytelling and incessantly rhythmic guitar playing. |
| "He plays the north Mississippi hill-country hypnotic boogie-groove like nobody else on earth," commented the Memphis musician Jim Dickinson, who produced Ford's album Bad Man (2002). "His music is not a complaint of self-pity, but a celebration of life … Not a relic of the past or a remnant of vanishing culture, T-Model Ford takes off and flies – the existential hero." | "He plays the north Mississippi hill-country hypnotic boogie-groove like nobody else on earth," commented the Memphis musician Jim Dickinson, who produced Ford's album Bad Man (2002). "His music is not a complaint of self-pity, but a celebration of life … Not a relic of the past or a remnant of vanishing culture, T-Model Ford takes off and flies – the existential hero." |
| James Ford grew up near Forest in central Mississippi. "It was a tough life," he told Living Blues magazine in 2006. "We worked every day. I never got to play with no children. Never been to school a day in my life. For clothes we'd wear what people gave us." As a child, he worked on the family farm. In his teens, he followed his father into sawmill work, and it was while he was driving a logging truck that a white boss gave him the nickname T-Model. | James Ford grew up near Forest in central Mississippi. "It was a tough life," he told Living Blues magazine in 2006. "We worked every day. I never got to play with no children. Never been to school a day in my life. For clothes we'd wear what people gave us." As a child, he worked on the family farm. In his teens, he followed his father into sawmill work, and it was while he was driving a logging truck that a white boss gave him the nickname T-Model. |
| In 1973 he moved to Greenville, in the Mississippi Delta. For years, black Greenvilleans had gone for their entertainment to Nelson Street, where, as an ex-policeman told me, "every juke-joint had a Seeburg [jukebox] in it, and every Seeburg had 50 records". Ford listened to discs by homeboys who had gone to Chicago, such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters; in his 50s, he took up the guitar and began to sing their songs himself. He hung out with locally celebrated figures such as Frank Frost and Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, and worked regularly with the harmonica player Willie Foster at house parties and juke-joints all over the Delta and central Mississippi. | In 1973 he moved to Greenville, in the Mississippi Delta. For years, black Greenvilleans had gone for their entertainment to Nelson Street, where, as an ex-policeman told me, "every juke-joint had a Seeburg [jukebox] in it, and every Seeburg had 50 records". Ford listened to discs by homeboys who had gone to Chicago, such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters; in his 50s, he took up the guitar and began to sing their songs himself. He hung out with locally celebrated figures such as Frank Frost and Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, and worked regularly with the harmonica player Willie Foster at house parties and juke-joints all over the Delta and central Mississippi. |
| In 1997, his first album for Fat Possum, Pee-Wee Get My Gun, introduced blues fans to his ramshackle but hypnotic playing. The critic Neil Slaven noted "the brute force of his sonic barrage and the crude discursiveness of his songs" and concluded: "Ford would be inept, if he knew where it was." Except for his longtime friend and drummer Tommy Lee Miles, invariably known as Spam, other musicians found him difficult to work with: Fat Possum's Matthew Johnson revealed in the album notes that Frost, who played on a couple of tracks, had declared, "I want everyone to know that I'm playing against my will." | In 1997, his first album for Fat Possum, Pee-Wee Get My Gun, introduced blues fans to his ramshackle but hypnotic playing. The critic Neil Slaven noted "the brute force of his sonic barrage and the crude discursiveness of his songs" and concluded: "Ford would be inept, if he knew where it was." Except for his longtime friend and drummer Tommy Lee Miles, invariably known as Spam, other musicians found him difficult to work with: Fat Possum's Matthew Johnson revealed in the album notes that Frost, who played on a couple of tracks, had declared, "I want everyone to know that I'm playing against my will." |
| On his subsequent Fat Possum albums You Better Keep Still (1998), She Ain't None of Your'n (2000) and Bad Man, Ford maintained – one could hardly say developed – his approach, shredding other people's songs and refashioning them as minimalist chants, underpinned by open-chord guitar and Spam's joyous drumming. In tracks such as I'm Insane or Junk he created a wholly individual free-form music, a blues equivalent of outsider art. | On his subsequent Fat Possum albums You Better Keep Still (1998), She Ain't None of Your'n (2000) and Bad Man, Ford maintained – one could hardly say developed – his approach, shredding other people's songs and refashioning them as minimalist chants, underpinned by open-chord guitar and Spam's joyous drumming. In tracks such as I'm Insane or Junk he created a wholly individual free-form music, a blues equivalent of outsider art. |
| All this made him an attractive-sounding proposition to promoters, and he was booked for several visits to Britain and Europe. The Living Blues reporter had noted that Ford could usually be found sitting outside his house with a guitar and a bottle of Jack Daniels, and he liked to have both with him at all times. | All this made him an attractive-sounding proposition to promoters, and he was booked for several visits to Britain and Europe. The Living Blues reporter had noted that Ford could usually be found sitting outside his house with a guitar and a bottle of Jack Daniels, and he liked to have both with him at all times. |
| When he appeared in England in 2007, notices were posted at one venue asking the audience not to buy him a drink. By his next visit in 2009, he was on the wagon and looking, some of his audience thought, rather frail, but he performed with scarcely diminished intensity, much of which he brought to his last album, made in 2011 with the Seattle blues band GravelRoad. | When he appeared in England in 2007, notices were posted at one venue asking the audience not to buy him a drink. By his next visit in 2009, he was on the wagon and looking, some of his audience thought, rather frail, but he performed with scarcely diminished intensity, much of which he brought to his last album, made in 2011 with the Seattle blues band GravelRoad. |
| Ford was married several times and had, he claimed, 26 children. His surviving family includes his wife, Estella, and his stepgrandson, Stud; the latter performed with him in recent years. | Ford was married several times and had, he claimed, 26 children. His surviving family includes his wife, Estella, and his stepgrandson, Stud; the latter performed with him in recent years. |
| • T-Model (James Lewis Carter) Ford, blues musician, born 20 June 1924; died 16 July 2013 | • T-Model (James Lewis Carter) Ford, blues musician, born 20 June 1924; died 16 July 2013 |