Triangle Blues Society Newsletter feature: Geography of the Blues

Howdy Folks! This month’s Blues Geography lesson is going to have to be short since the big Nat Reese show at the Rialto on June 24th is getting the better part of my free time these days.


Blind Boy Fuller House:

Fuller lived on Ninth for a little while and then moved to a house at 7th and Chestnut in Winston-Salem. I’m still working out those addresses. I haven’t had a chance to go have a look at those neighborhoods and make sure they’re still there. Anybody wanna go have a look for me?

Blind Boy Fuller:

One of Fuller’s favorite and most profitable places to busk was the train station in Rocky Mount. If you wanna walk in Fuller’s footsteps, get yourself over to 101 Hammond Street in Rocky Mount, find a comfortable bench and play for the weary commuters as they get off the trains there. I’m sure it’s a whole lot different crowd than it used to be when the “commuters” were Tobacco and Soy and Cotton men on their way to Durham to gamble with their commodities. The station was built in 1893 and modernized during the 1960’s. Thankfully, between 1997 and 2000, the station was remodeled again and has been largely restored to its former earlier 20th Century glory.

Sonny Terry and Rev. Gary Davis:

When Sonny Terry first moved to Durham from Rockingham, NC around 1934, Gary Davis invited him to come stay at his house. Terry and Davis lived together for a while at 805 Colfax Street in Durham. Get off the Durham Freeway (147) at 55 and take S. Alston south. You will turn right onto Linwood Avenue and then right onto Colfax Street. The lot where the house stood is on the right up on the next block - now the parking lot for the Oak Grove Freewill Baptist Church.

J.B. Long:

The United Dollar Store Long managed when he discovered Fuller was at 2501 W. Club Blvd. in Durham. This is where Long recorded Fuller’s first demos for the Columbia Recording Corporation. Get off the Durham Freeway (147) at Hillandale Road and drive north. Cross Hillsborough (70) and the next big street is W. Club Blvd. Take a left onto W. Club – the store sat at the corner of W. Club and Georgia Avenue. I’m going to have to do some research on this address – either the neighborhood has changed radically in the last eighty years, always a possibility, or else Durham has changed the way they number their streets…stay tuned campers.

That’s the deal. As always, if you’ve got some pictures, an address or anecdote you want to share with me – and I wish you would – feel free to write me some of your lines. Any additional information you have about these folks is appreciated. Remember, if you go hunting a cemetery or house where one of your heroes hung up or laid down their hat and that place is on private property, get permission first and be nice…you’ll be astonished at how forthcoming most people will be with you…