John Alexander Barfield (March 3, 1909 – January 16, 1974) was an American

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

and

old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering ...

performer, best known for his 1939 recording of "Boogie Woogie", the first country boogie. He was born in

Tifton, Georgia Tifton is a city in and the county seat of Tift County, Georgia, United States. The population was 17,045 at the 2020 census. The area's public schools are administered by the Tift County School District. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has ...

, and in his youth played guitar on street corners with his brother Coot. They recorded for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

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 ...

in 1927, but the recordings were not released. Soon afterwards, Johnny Barfield became acquainted with Clayton McMichen and Bert Layne of the

Skillet Lickers The Skillet Lickers were an old-time band from Georgia, United States. When Gid Tanner teamed up with blind guitarist Riley Puckett and signed to Columbia in 1924, they created the label's earliest so-called "hillbilly" recording. Gid Tanne ...

, touring with the group and recording with some of its offshoots, including McMichen's group, the Georgia Wildcats. By 1932, he was performing both solo, and as a member of Layne's band. In 1939, he won a recording contract with

Bluebird Records Bluebird Records is an American record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of children's music, blues, jazz and swing in the 1930s and 1940s. Bluebird was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebi ...

, and released his version of "Boogie Woogie", a song derived from " Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" recorded in 1928 by Pinetop Smith. Barfield's song is considered the first country boogie, and became popular on

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

es. Barfield recorded again in 1940 and 1941, but failed to repeat his earlier success. He continued to perform for several years. He died in 1974, aged 64.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barfield, Johnny 1909 births 1974 deaths American country singer-songwriters People from Tifton, Georgia 20th-century American singer-songwriters Country musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)