Just dicovered Sam Mayers the blues harmonica player/singer/drummer, born on February 19, 1936.died 17th July.
www.sweetsammyers.com/

SAM MYERS played harmonica and sang the blues in the traditional style associated with the Mississippi Delta for more than half a century. In later years he moved to Texas, where his career was rejuvenated; he fronted Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets.
Born in 1936 in Laurel, Mississippi, he lost most of his sight as a result of childhood cataracts and went to a blind school in Jackson, where he learnt to play the drums and trumpet. In 1950 he earned a scholarship to the American Conservatory School of Music in Chicago. He had grown up with the music of the acoustic country bluesmen of the Delta but by this time a new, electrified urban blues was emerging in the clubs of the Chicago South Side, where he spent his nights.

Before long he was sitting in as a drummer with many of the greatest names in Chicago blues, including Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Elmore James. Myers spent a decade touring with James as part of the Broomdusters and playing on many of his recordings.

He also developed his harmonica and vocal skills, releasing a number of solo singles, including Sleeping In The Ground in 1956. It was later covered by Eric Clapton and Robert Cray, among others.

After James died in 1963, Myers returned to Jackson and spent the next two decades playing local clubs and touring with Sylvia Embrey and the Mississippi All-Stars Blues Band. His career was unexpectedly revived after a meeting in 1982 with Anson Funderburgh, a young Texan blues guitarist who had just formed the Rockets, with a repertoire including Sleeping In The Ground. They kept in touch and when the Rockets’ lead singer left in 1986, Funderburgh invited him to take over vocal duties.

Myers moved to Dallas and fronted Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets for the next two decades, recording eight albums and winning nine W. C. Handy awards, the blues equivalent of the Grammy awards. He was voted Best Harmonica Player in 1988 and Best Vocalist the following year.

He released his first solo album, Coming From The Old School, in 2005 but later that year he had throat cancer diagnosed, and the removal of his larynx left him unable to sing.