James Lewis Carter Ford (June 24, 1923 – July 16, 2013) was an American

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 ...

musician who performed under the name T-Model Ford. He began his musical career in his early seventies and continuously recorded for the

Fat Possum In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple ester ...

record

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

before eventually moving to

Alive Naturalsound Records Alive Naturalsound Records (also known as Alive Records) is an independent record label formed in 1993 in Los Angeles, California by Patrick Boissel, specializing in garage rock, punk, psychedelic, and blues rock. It grew out of Boissel's assoc ...

. His musical style combined the rawness of

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

with

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and juke joint blues styles.

Biography

Ford was born in

Forest, Mississippi Forest is a city and the county seat of Scott County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 5,684 at the 2010 census and the population is a minority-majority. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a tot ...

sometime between 1921 and 1925. Although some researchers claim that Ford was born on June 24, 1923, at the time of his death his record company gave his age as 94, suggesting that he was born in either 1918 or 1919. Conversely, Ford's passport stated that his date of birth as June 24, 1921, while his Mississippi driver's license read that he was born on June 27, 1924. Ford's father was an abusive figure and severely injured his son at age eleven. Ford claims that he survived a succession violent home environments, towards which he later expressed his indifference. Ford, who was illiterate, began working various

blue collar A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, retail, warehousing, mining, carpentry, electrical work, custodia ...

jobs before he was a teenager, which included plowing fields and working in a sawmill. He was later employed as a foreman at a lumber company before becoming a truck driver. Around this time, Ford was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for murder and served on a

chain gang A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was nota ...

. By some accounts, Ford was able to reduce his sentence to only two years. Following his release, Ford reportedly had several other run-ins with law enforcement. Later, Ford lived in

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 ...

and for a period and wrote an advice column for ''

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

'' magazine. He is thought to have fathered at least twenty-six children. According to the music critic

Will Hodgkinson Will Hodgkinson is a journalist and author from London (born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne), England. He is the chief rock and pop critic for ''The Times'' newspaper and contributes to ''Mojo (magazine), Mojo'' magazine. He has written for ''The Guardian ...

, who met and interviewed Ford for his book ''Guitar Man'', Ford took up the guitar when his fifth wife left him and gave him the instrument as a farewell present. Ford taught himself how to play without being able to read sheet music or guitar tabs. Hodgkinson observed that Ford could not explain his technique: he had simply worked out a way of playing that sounded like the guitarists he admired, including

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

and

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chica ...

. Ford toured

juke joint Juke joint (also jukejoint, jook house, jook, or juke) is the African-American vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United St ...

s and other venues and for a while opened for

Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaug ...

. In 1995, he was discovered by Matthew Johnson of

Fat Possum Records Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Sprin ...

,McInerney, Jay. "White man at the door; one man's mission to record the 'dirty blues' — before everyone dies." ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', February 4, 2002: 54+. Academic OneFile. October 17, 2011. through whose label he would release five

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s between 1997 and 2008. In 1997, Ford was featured in documentary entitled ''Juke'', directed by Mary Flannery, appearing alongside his fellow musicians Farmer John and John Horton. After 2008, Ford largely performed with the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

-based

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

GravelRoad. Their collaboration was originally intended as a one-off event with Ford looking for backing musicians at the Deep Blues Festival in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. GravelRoad, who were longtime fans of Ford, subsequently supported Ford on a ten-show tour. Ford had a

pacemaker A pacemaker, also known as an artificial cardiac pacemaker, is an implanted medical device that generates electrical pulses delivered by electrodes to one or more of the chambers of the heart. Each pulse causes the targeted chamber(s) to co ...

inserted at the end of 2008, but appeared on stage again with GravelRoad in both 2009 and 2010, after which Ford suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

. Despite experiencing difficulty with the mobility of his right hand, Ford played several more shows with GravelRoad that year, culminating with an appearance at the Pickathon Festival. Ford and GravelRoad later opened the third day of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival held in New York over

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

weekend in 2010, curated by American independent filmmaker

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

. GravelRoad backed Ford on his 2010 and 2011 albums, ''The Ladies Man'' and ''Taledragger'', both of which were released on

. Ford eventually suffered a second stroke in the summer of 2012 that severely limited his public appearances. Despite his declining health, Ford performed at that year's

King Biscuit Blues Festival The King Biscuit Blues Festival is an annual, multi-day blues festival, held in Helena, Arkansas, United States. History The name of the festival comes from ''King Biscuit Time'', which was the longest running radio show. Sonny Boy Williamson I ...

in October. On July 16, 2013, Fat Possum announced that Ford had died at home in Greenville due to respiratory failure after a prolonged illness. The Mount Zion Memorial Fund organized the placement of a headstone for Ford at Green Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery, near Greenville. The ceremony was on May 31, 2014. Ford's gravestone was designed by Amos Harvey and engraved by Alan Orlicek.

Discography

* '' Pee-Wee Get My Gun'' - 1997 (

) * ''You Better Keep Still'' - 1999 (Fat Possum) * ''She Ain't None of Your'n'' - 2000 (Fat Possum) * ''Bad Man'' - 2002 (Fat Possum) * ''Don't Get Out Talkin' It'' - 2008 (Fat Possum) * ''Jack Daniel Time'' - 2008 (Mudpuppy) * ''The Ladies Man'' - 2010 ( Alive Naturalsound) * ''Taledragger'' - 2011 (Alive Naturalsound) * ''I Was Born In A Swamp'' - 2021 (Alive Naturalsound)

References

External links

T-Model Ford page
from Fat Possum Records site
T-Model Ford page
from Alive Naturalsound Records site *

T Model Ford video on BBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, T-Model 1920s births 2013 deaths American blues guitarists American male guitarists Fat Possum Records artists Blues musicians from Mississippi People from Forest, Mississippi Alive Naturalsound Records artists Guitarists from Mississippi 20th-century American guitarists Delta blues musicians African-American guitarists 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century African-American male singers 21st-century American male singers