Dancing to Wade Waltons son's Karaoke performance.MOV

Wade Walton's son performing Karaoke at the Juke Joint Festival, April 16, 2011, in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Wade Walton was born on October 10, 1923 in Lombardy, Mississippi. Walton started off his career learning how to play the harmonica and the guitar (Santelli 429). At the age of 12, his harmonica and guitar playing were influenced by his brother Honey (Hollis Walton), a local musician. Their father was a sharecropper. When Walton was young, he worked at a local juke joint in the Delta (Santelli 429). He had moved to Memphis in 1931 and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School there in 1940. Later he earned his professional barber's license at Lupkin Barber College. He began in 1943 working at Big Six Barber Shop in Clarksdale, Mississippi. In 1972, Wade Walton opened up his own barbershop in Clarksdale, Mississippi. It was named Wade's Barber Shop.

Wade Walton worked for fifty-five years as a barber-- "cutting hair and slapping out the blues and rhythm," playing his harp or guitar (Heyl). People said that no trip to Clarksdale would be complete without a trip to Wade's Barber Shop (Delta Boogie). Known as Clarksdale's elder statesman, his shop at 317 Issaquena was just across from where W.C. Handy lived in the early 1900's.

Walton started performing with Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm in the 40's. However, he did not get much attention on the blues scene until he got with Archoolie and Bluesville-Prestige label (Santelli 429). I Have to Paint My Face is one of his songs. In 1990 Walton opened a second barber shop with his son that had small blues club in the rear

Unfortunately, in 1999 Walton became ill during his visit with his daughter over Christmas and had to have surgery. The doctors said that he had an intestinal blockage. On Monday, January 10, 2000, at a St. Louis hospital, he died at the age of 77. His wife Rose, his son, and a stepdaughter survived him. His biggest album was Shake 'em on Down, and it spread across the world and earned him international attention

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Music

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• Wade
• Walton
• Blues
• Music
• Juke
• Joint
• Festival
• Clarksdale
• Mississippi