caption associated_acts death_date death_place years_active alias birth_place label name background birth_date instrument genre image article_title birth_name occupation
studio portrait of broonzy papa charlie jackson , woody guthrie , pete seeger 14 august 1958 chicago , illinois , u.s. 1927 -- 1958 big bill broonzy , big bill broomsley lake , mississippi , u.s. dick , arkansas , united states or scott paramount , arc , bluebird , vocalion , folkways big bill broonzy solo_singer 26 june 1893 vocals , guitar , fiddle folk spirituals , protest songs music , country blues , chicago blues , big-bill-broonzy . jpg big bill broonzy
 lee conley bradley musician , songwriter , sharecropper , preacher
big bill broonzy

big bill broonzy -lrb- june 26 , 1893 -- august 14 or 15 , 1958 -rrb- was a prolific american blues singer , songwriter and guitarist .
his career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly african-american audiences .
through the 1930s and 1940s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with working-class african-american audiences .
in the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging american folk music revival and an international star .
his long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century .
broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime , including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs .
as a blues composer , he was unique in that his compositions reflected the many vantage points of his rural-to-urban experiences .
