Simeon "Blind Simmie" Dooley (July 3, 1881 or June 1887 – January 17, 1961) was an American
country blues
Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...
singer and guitarist.
Biography
Dooley was born in
Hartwell, Georgia
Hartwell is a city in Hart County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,469 at the 2010 census.
Dooley met
Pink Anderson
Pinkney "Pink" Anderson (February 12, 1900 – October 12, 1974) was an American blues singer and guitarist.
Life and career
Anderson was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and raised in nearby Greenville and Spartanburg. He joined Dr. William R ...
in 1916 and taught him to play guitar. The two played on the street and at parties when Anderson was not traveling with Dr. Kerr's Medicine Show. In 1928, Dooley and Anderson went to
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
. Two were published in the same year ("Papa's 'Bout To Get Mad", and "Gonna Tip Out Tonight"), with the other two ("Every Day In The Week Blues", and "C.C. & O. Blues") were issued the following year. The records sold well. Anderson was invited to make further recordings without Dooley, however Anderson refused to be without him.
Dooley died from
heart disease
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...
in
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city had a population of 38,732 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in South Carolina, 11th ...
Blind Blake
Arthur Blake (1896 – December 1, 1934), known as Blind Blake, was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932.
Early life
Little is known of Blake's life. ...
and Blind Willie Davis, as one of the biggest pre-war country blues guitarists.