| Jim Bunkley |
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Jim Bunkley
Vol. 17 of the George Mitchell collection
Fat Possum
33 1/3 rpm 7" EP
$5 |
I like Jim Bunkley's style. When he uses the bottleneck on "Oh Red #2", he has a very physical and exciting approach, seemingly winging it even when he's probably not. He sings about "Them Greasy Greens" in a way that suggests he's done this at a thousand parties but everyone still gets a kick out of it, him included. He's also effective at quieter, more measured blues, as on "Jack of Diamonds".
"Jim Bunkley lived in a small tar-papered house he bragged was his own, in Geneva, Georgia, his birthplace. He was 'eight years old when they took the census in 1920.' It was about that time he made friends with the guitar. 'When I was about eight, my brother had one, and me and my nine year-old sister used to play it. Us couldn't hold it. Had it hanging up 'side of the wall and we'd get up on a chair and play it. Everyone in my family could play - we had five boys and four girls.'
"When he 'got up in age,' Bunkley was about the best known musician around Talbot County. He recalled the many times he walked away with prizes offered at a theater in nearby Junction City. 'I was rough then,' he said. 'I had on a great big ole cowboy hat and I got up there on the stage and cracked a whole lot of jokes and then played. I win all that money, too.'" - George Mitchell
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