lum guffin

Biography

Lum Guffin (born Columbus Guffin Jr. on April 22, 1902 in Bartlett, Shelby County, Tennessee) was an American country blues guitarist and singer whose life spanned almost the entire 20th‑century history of rural Southern blues.[6] Raised on a farm outside Bartlett, he absorbed music from family and local players in the greater Memphis area, developing a highly personal style that blended older country blues, dance pieces and fife-and-drum rhythms associated with Black rural celebrations.[1][4] For most of his life he worked regular jobs and played informally at homes, parties and local gatherings rather than pursuing a professional touring career, which contributed to his reputation among researchers as an “elusive” musician who remained largely unknown outside his community.[1]

Guffin came to wider attention only in the late 1960s, when he was recorded by blues scholars and invited to the Memphis Country Blues Festival at the Overton Park Shell in 1969, one of the key events of the blues revival era.[1] In the 1970s he was occasionally featured as a fife‑and‑drum and country‑blues performer, and after the death of fife player Lonnie Young he was placed on the American Old Time Festival Tour as a representative of the North Mississippi/Tennessee fife‑and‑drum tradition.[4] His sparse but powerful recordings, later issued on specialist labels and documented in discographies, showcase a driving guitar attack, flexible timing and repertoire drawing on pre‑war blues, work songs and dance tunes.[3][6] Although he never achieved commercial fame, Guffin’s long life, distinctive rural sound and late rediscovery have made him an important reference point for historians tracing the continuity of country blues and fife‑and‑drum music in the Bartlett–Memphis region.[1][4][6]

Guffin spent his later years in Memphis, Tennessee, where he died at home on November 27, 1993; he was buried at Prosperity Cemetery in Shelby County.[6] Since his death, his surviving recordings, field interviews, and the attention of regional writers and discographers have preserved his legacy as one of Bartlett’s notable bluesmen.[1][5][6] His work is now cited by researchers as a rare document of how early 20th‑century blues and fife‑and‑drum practices persisted in local memory long after they disappeared from the commercial recording industry.[1][4]

Fun Facts

• Lum Guffin’s birth name was Columbus Guffin Jr., and he was born on a farm near Bartlett, Tennessee, on April 22, 1902.[6]
• He performed at the 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival at the Overton Park Shell, a landmark event in the late‑1960s blues revival.[1]
• After fife player Lonnie Young died, Guffin was selected to join the American Old Time Festival Tour as a bearer of the regional fife‑and‑drum and country‑blues tradition.[4]
• Modern writers describe him as Bartlett’s “elusive bluesman” because, despite his talent and long life, he left only a small recorded legacy and was difficult for researchers to track down.[1][5]

Musical Connections

Discography

Top Tracks

1. Train I Ride 18 Coaches Long (Blues At Home 13)
2. Jack Of Diamonds (Old Country Blues Vol. 1)
3. Louise (I Got the Blues This Morning)
4. Baby Please Don't Go (I Got the Blues This Morning)
5. Baby Please Don't Go, No. 2 (Take 1) (Blues At Home 13)
6. Baby Please Don't Go, No. 2 (Take 2) (Blues At Home 13)
7. Rolling and Tumbling (Blues At Home 13)
8. Casey Jones (Blues At Home 13)
9. Louise Blues (Blues At Home 13)
10. Catfish Blues (Blues At Home 13)

External Links

• Spotify
• MusicBrainz