The African-American blues musician, guitarist, and songwriter Lowell Fulson was born on March 31, 1921, in Atoka, Oklahoma, USA.
For contractual reasons, he also recorded under the names Lowell Fulsom and Lowell Fullsom.
After the great T-Bone Walker, Fulson was the next most important figure in the West Coast blues movement of the 1940s and 1950s.
In an active career spanning from the 1950s to 1999, he wrote successful songs and recorded for numerous American labels, including Swing Time, Checker, Kent, and Rounder.
The digitally remastered and enhanced recordings on this CD compilation were originally recorded and released on the Chess Records subsidiary, Checker Records.
When Lowell was 18, he moved to Ada, Oklahoma, and joined Alger “Texas” Alexander for about three months before moving on to California, where he put together a band that included a young Ray Charles and the equally great tenor saxophone player Stanley Turrentine.
In 1943, during World War II, Fulson was drafted into the United States Navy, where he served until the war ended in 1945.
In the mid to late 1940s, he gained enough recognition to record for Swing Time Records. He later recorded for Chess (Checker) Records in the 1950s, Kent Records in the 1960s, and Rounder Records in the 1980s and 1990s.
As a songwriter, he wrote B.B. King's first hit record, 3 O’Clock Blues. As an artist in his own right, he had many R&B chart entries, the most successful being Blue Shadows (No. 1 in 1950), Reconsider Baby (No. 3 in 1954), and Everyday I Have the Blues (No. 3 in 1950).
Over the years, he was inducted into many blues foundations and Halls of Fame, and in 1995, he was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Lowell Fulson passed away in Long Beach, California, USA, on March 7, 1999, at the age of 77.
