Prince Albert McCoy (March 19, 1882 – February 4, 1968) was an American

string band A string band is an old-time music or jazz ensemble made up mainly or solely of string instruments. String bands were popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and are among the forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass. While being active count ...

musician who played violin and had a pivotal but, until recently, unacknowledged role in the development of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and popular music. No recordings by him exist.

Life and career

Born in St Joseph, Louisiana, McCoy moved to

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, ninth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, and the largest city by population in the Mississippi Delta region. It is the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, Was ...

as a child. By the early 1900s, he led a band who performed regularly at dances and civic events in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...

. Around 1903, when

W. C. Handy William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. He was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musician ...

and his band were playing at a dance in

Cleveland, Mississippi Cleveland is a city and one of two county seats of Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, the other seat being Rosedale, Mississippi, Rosedale. The Cleveland population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States census. Cleveland has a large c ...

, he encountered McCoy, although in his autobiography, ''Father of the Blues'', as published in 1941, Handy did not refer to McCoy by name. "Prince McCoy", ''Mississippi Blues Trail''
Retrieved 21 May 2019 Handy wrote that, at the request of the dancers, he gave up the stage to a group "led by a long-legged chocolate boy... consist ngof just three pieces, a battered guitar, a mandolin and a worn-out bass." He described their music as "one of those over-and-over strains that seem to have no very clear beginning and certainly no ending at all. The strumming attained a disturbing monotony, but on and on it went, a kind of stuff associated with cane rows and levee camps. Thump-thump-thump went their feet on the floor. Their eyes rolled. Their shoulders swayed. And through it all that little agonizing strain persisted." Though Handy considered the music to be "haunting", he initially doubted whether it would be widely popular, but changed his opinion when he noted:

"A rain of silver dollars began to fall around the outlandish, stomping feet. The dancers went wild... There before the boys lay more money than my nine musicians were being paid for the entire engagement. Then I saw the beauty of primitive music. They had the stuff the people wanted. It touched the spot. Their music wanted polishing, but it contained the essence. Folks would pay money for it..".

The occasion led Handy to change his "idea of what constitutes music", and to start developing his highly influential career in popularizing blues music. The identity of the musicians he saw was unknown until 2009, when research by Elliott Hurwitt for Handy’s

Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) t ...

marker uncovered earlier manuscript drafts of his autobiography, in which he specifically named Prince McCoy as the "long-legged chocolate boy" who led the three-piece band – though Hurwitt himself has questioned the identification, noting that McCoy was leader of a respectable band rather than the "ragged" figure described by Handy. Stephen A. King, ''I'm Feeling the Blues Right Now: Blues Tourism in the Mississippi Delta'', University Press of Mississippi, 2011, p.85
/ref> Other manuscripts by Handy name McCoy as playing "I’m A Winding Ball And I Don’t Deny My Name", recorded and copyrighted some 35 years later by

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz ...

as "Winin' Boy Blues"; and a song which, according to Handy band member S. L. "Stack" Mangham, Handy later copyrighted as "

The Memphis Blues "The Memphis Blues" is a song described by its composer, W. C. Handy, as a "southern rag". It was self-published by Handy in September 1912 and has been recorded by many artists over the years. "Mr. Crump" Subtitled "Mr. Crump", "The Memphis ...

". In 1909, the ''Vicksburg Herald'' reported that McCoy's band was "of Delta-wide fame", and local newspaper reports indicate that he led a band of up to eight musicians who played dances in and around Cleveland, Rosedale and Vicksburg through the 1910s and into the early 1920s. He also performed solo and duets on

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

. Matt Marshall, "Mississippi Blues Trail Recognized "Enlightenment of W.C. Handy"", ''American Blues Scene'', December 2, 2013
Retrieved 21 May 2019"Mississippi Blues Trail Recognizes Prince McCoy", ''Mississippi.org'', October 19, 2017
Retrieved 21 May 2019 McCoy moved from Mississippi to

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

before 1927, and played in the Maxey

Medicine Show Medicine shows were touring acts (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon teams) that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European Charlatan, mountebank shows and were common ...

s until at least 1937. He later worked in Winston-Salem as a laborer and janitor at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. His earlier career as a musician was unknown at the time of his death in 1968, aged 85.

Recognition

In 2017, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker to commemorate Prince McCoy was unveiled in Greenville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Prince 1882 births 1968 deaths 20th-century American violinists Country blues musicians Mississippi Blues Trail Musicians from Greenville, Mississippi Musicians from Louisiana People from St. Joseph, Louisiana Delta blues musicians