Pearl Dickson (born Pearl Dixon, October 5, 1903 – October 24, 1977) was an American

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

and

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 songwriter. She recorded four songs, "High Yellow Blues", "Twelve Pound Daddy", "Little Rock Blues", and "Guitar Rag". Of these, only "Twelve Pound Daddy" and "Little Rock Blues" were issued. Little is known of Dickson's life outside of her short recording career.

Early life

She was born in

Somerville, Tennessee Somerville is a town in Fayette County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Memphis metropolitan area. The population was 3,415 at the 2020 census, up from 3,094 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Fayette County. History The ...

, United States, in 1903.

Recording and legacy

On December 12, 1927, Dickson recorded four tracks, with backing by the guitar playing brothers, Maylon and

Richard "Hacksaw" Harney Richard "Hacksaw" Harney (July 16, 1902 – December 25, 1973) was an American Delta blues guitarist and pianist. He first entered a recording studio with his brother Maylon in 1928, to wax guitar work backing for separate tracks by Pearl Dickso ...

. They were recorded for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. For unknown reasons, only one disc containing "Twelve Pound Daddy" and "Little Rock Blues" was released by Columbia in April 1928, on a 10-inch

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phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

. The label billed the ensemble as Pearl Dickson accompanied by "Pet and "Can", the latter being the nicknames of her accompanists. Some speculation exists that she was related in some way to another obscure blues figure, Tom Dickson. Examples of both person's work have been released on the same compilation album. According to one source, unlike her forebears' generation, who were obsessed with the idea of an afterlife, the descendants of former slaves spent more of their thinking time pondering the realities of the present, and less so on life after death. The opening two lines of Dickson's self penned song, "Little Rock Blues" were "I started to heaven, but I changed my mind / But I'm going to Little Rock, where I can have a better time". Open to interpretation, Dickson nevertheless indicates that a journey to presumably

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

, is a better option than piety, or even suicide. Her lyrics were used as an example in another published text, to illustrate changes in inflection and the tense and modification of verbs within blues lyrics.

Stefan Grossman Stefan Grossman (born April 16, 1945) is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records. He is known for his instructional videos and Vestapol line of videos and DVDs. ...

used "Little Rock Blues" as the basis for a track he arranged in 1966, which he called "Little Rock Blues Number Two". Another publication quoted the full lyrics for both "Little Rock Blues" and "Twelve Pound Daddy".

Death

She died in

, in 1977, aged 74.

Discography

Singles

Selected compilation albums

References

External links

Discogs.com listing"Little Rock Blues" @ YouTube"Twelve Pound Daddy" @ YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Pearl 1903 births 1977 deaths People from Somerville, Tennessee Songwriters from Tennessee American blues singers 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American women singers American women songwriters Country blues musicians Memphis blues musicians Columbia Records artists 20th-century American singers African-American songwriters 20th-century American songwriters