Mercy Dee Walton (born Mercy Davis Walton, August 30, 1915 – December 2, 1962) was an American

jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s a ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

, whose compositions went from blues to R&B

numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ca ...

. According to

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Tony Russell in his book ''The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray'', "Walton created a series of memorable blues about the unattractiveness of rural life, sardonically aimed at the

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers who work outsi ...

s in southern California who constituted his typical audience".

Biography

Born in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and Interstate 35, I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin, Texas, Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the List ...

, he moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

just before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He started playing

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

at age 13 and learned his style from many of the ten-cent party house pianists that played out in the country on weekends. To make ends meet, he had to earn his living in the fields chopping cotton, picking grapes or cutting spinach. During this time, the musician who impressed Walton the most was Delois Maxey, who never had an opportunity to record. In 1949, Walton made his first

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

for the small

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

, Spire Records in

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

. The track was "Lonesome Cabin Blues". Shortly after that, he had a national hit on

Specialty Records Specialty Records was an American record label founded in Los Angeles in 1945 by Art Rupe. It was known for rhythm and blues, gospel, and early rock and roll, and recorded artists such as Little Richard, Guitar Slim, Percy Mayfield, and Lloy ...

with "One Room Country Shack", now considered a blues standard. After that success, he was able to start working as a musician full-time, and he toured with the

band of Big Jay McNeely. A half dozen tracks recorded for the Flair Records label in 1955, included "Come Back Maybellene," a sequel to

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined a ...

's then-current hit, " Maybellene". In 1961, Arhoolie Records released an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

recorded in

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

, California entitled ''Mercy Dee''. Featured with him was

Sidney Maiden Sidney Maiden (April 1917 – c. 1987) was an American country blues musician. Maiden principally played harmonica accompaniment, but also sang on some of his own recordings, in addition to writing several compositions. His best known work is "Ecl ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

, K. C. Douglas on

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

and Otis Cherry playing the drums.

Chris Strachwitz Chris Strachwitz (born July 1, 1931) is a German-born American record label executive and record producer. He is the founder and president of Arhoolie Records, which he established in 1960 and which became one of the leading labels recording ...

, producer, Arhoolie Records Walton died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

Murphys Murphys or Murphy's may refer to: * Murphys, California, United States, an unincorporated village ** Murphys Grammar School, on the National Register of Historic Places ** Murphys Hotel, one of the oldest hotels still operating in California, on ...

, California the following year.

Single discography

*"Lonesome Cabin Blues (a.k.a. "Log Cabin Blues") / Baba-Du-Lay Fever (a.k.a. "G.I. Fever") (Spire) 1949 *"Evil And Hanky" / Travelin' Alone Blues" (Spire) 1949 *"Homely Baby" / "Empty Life" (Imperial) 1950 *"Big Foot Country" / "Bird Brain Baby" (Imperial) 1950 *"Roamin' Blues" / "Bought Love" (Imperial) 1950 *"Danger Zone" / "Pay Off" (a.k.a. "Anything In The World") (Imperial) 1950 *"Happy Bachelor" / "Straight And Narrow" (Colony) (1950) *"Old Fashioned Ways" / "Pay Off" (a.k.a. "Anything In The World") (Colony) 1950 *"Please Understand" / "Pay Off" (a.k.a. "Anything In The World") (Bayou) 1950 *"One Room Country Shack" / "My Woman Knows The Score" (Specialty) 1953 *"Rent Man Blues / Fall Guy (Specialty) 1953 *"Dark Muddy Bottom" / "Get To Gettin'" (Specialty) 1953 *"Trailing My Baby" / "The Main Event" (Rhythm) 1954 *"Romp And Stomp Blues" / "Oh Oh Please" (Flair) 1955 *"Come Back Maybellene" / "True Love" (Flair) 1955 *"Have You Ever" / "Stubborn Woman" (Flair) 1955 *"Lady Luck" / "Betty Jean" (Arhoolie)

References

External links

* Allmusic.com biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Mercy Dee 1915 births 1962 deaths American blues pianists American male pianists Songwriters from Texas People from Waco, Texas Flair Records artists Jump blues musicians 20th-century American singers 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American male singers Arhoolie Records artists American male songwriters