Crudup, Arthur William Big Boy

Arthur Crudup was born to a poor rural family in southern Mississippi in 1905. He showed musical promise early on, and like many of his contemporaries, he seemed to have had his first significant musical experiences in church, where he performed as a singer beginning around age ten. He acquired the nickname “Big Boy” as a child, working primarily as a manual laborer during his youth and early adulthood. Crudup developed a serious interest in the blues during his...