Luke Jordan

One of the most intriguing of the Piedmont blues players, Luke Jordan was born January 28, 1892, in Bluefield, WV. As a teenager he relocated to Lynchburg, VA, which was to remain his home base the rest of his life. Jordan recorded 12 tracks for Victor Records at two sessions in 1927 and 1929, ten of which have survived on 78s, including his classic versions of "Church Bell Blues," "Pick Poor Robin Clean," and "Cocaine Blues." Exhibiting a clean, precise guitar style, Jordan also possessed an elegant-sounding tenor voice that conveyed a sort of wry, good-natured feel, and his material, drawn from a repertoire of ballads, gambling tunes, ragtime, and minstrel tunes, perfectly defines the Piedmont blues. He was immensely influential on the blues players in his region, and he truly deserves to be better known outside the blues community. He died on June 25, 1952.
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