Henry Townsend has recorded in every decade since the twenties. Born in 1909 in Shelby, Mississippi, he ran away from his family to St. Louis, where as a teenager he heard Lonnie Johnson and other St. Louis legends developing the blues sound. Henry was influenced by local barber Henry Spaulding's recording of "Cairo Blues" and by his boyhood friend, David Perchfield. An obscure St. Louis blues legend named Dudlow Joe took Henry around with him to the poolhalls and bars and helped him learn the blues circuit.

In 1929, an audition was arranged by a music store competitor of Jesse Johnson's, Sam Woolf. Sam's shop was at 15th and Biddle, and perhaps his only offering to the history of the blues was Henry Townsend, for he recorded for Paramount and Columbia in that year. Henry's music benefited from associations with Roosevelt Sykes and Walter Davis. In 1937 in, Big Joe Williams, Robert Nighthawk, and Sonny Boy Williamson traveled to Aurora, Illinois, with Henry and other St. Louisans to record one of the most influential sessions of the prewar period. The songs from this meeting shaped the blues and influenced the direction of the genre.

Henry lived in a modest home in St. Louis and fulfilled his role as the last remaining descendant of the early blues. His last release was "The 88 Blues", which makes eight consecutive decades of musical recordings!

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