Artist: Artie 'Blues Boy' White
Title: Home Tonight
Year Of Release: 1997
Label: Waldoxy Records
Genre: Blues, Blues Soul
Quality: Mp3/320 kbps
Total Time: 43:57
Total Size: 111 Mb
Tracklist:
1. Your Man Is Home Tonight
2. Somebody's Fool
3. Man Of The House
4. If You Don't Love Me
5. Black Cat Scratchin'
6. High Steppin' Mama
7. The More You Lie To Me
8. Second Chance
9. Feet Must Be Tired
10. One Step From The Blues
White was born on April 16, 1937, either in or near the city of Vicksburg, Miss. He sang gospel as a youth, and after moving to Chicago in the mid-1950s, he worked with such local gospel groups as the Full Gospel Wonders and the Sensational True Lights (out of Hopewell Baptist Church at 65th and Cottage Grove). But by the time he began to record in about 1968, he'd crossed over into secular music. His first significant record was "(You Are My) Leanin' Tree" by Chicago songwriter Bob Jones, issued on the AlTee label in 1977. It peaked at number 99 on the national R&B charts. Although he never had another chart single, he recorded and toured consistently until health problems finally slowed him down. A few of his albums made the national R&B charts; some of his singles ("I'm Gonna Marry My Mother-In-Law" in 1991; "Your Man Is Home Tonight" from 1997) became popular along the southern soul-blues circuit. In the early 2000s, he launched his own label, Achilltown. This wasn't the first time he showed an entrepreneurial flair: Back in the '70s, he became the proprietor of Bootsy's Show Lounge at 2335 S. Cottage Grove. In the mid-'80s, he opened its successor, the New Club Bootsy's, at 55th and State and it remained in operation until the early 1990s.
At least in Chicago, White will be remembered for his outsized personality as much as for his music. He was almost much a fixture in the audiences at blues shows around Chicago as he was onstage. Whenever a big-name blues revue rolled into town to appear at East of the Ryan on 79th Street, or at Mr. G's Supper Club on 87th, you'd probably find Artie there, sitting at the bar or standing in a corner with a group of friends, surveying the scene through heavy-lidded eyes. When the inevitable recognition came from the stage-"Ladies and gentlemen, we have Artie 'Blues Boy' White in the house tonight!"-he'd break into a smile and acknowledge the applause with a brief wave of offhand, almost regal ease. In his demeanor and his conversation, he seemed to epitomize the prototypical big-city blues hipster: affectionate but gruff, a bit profane, signifying and carrying on with his running buddies, a man among men. ~David Whiteis
