Farewell to Sam Myers

Blues harp player Sam Myers died today of cancer. He was 70. Sam worked for years with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, but he hadn't been able to perform since late 2004 due to his illness.

Like many bluesmen of his generation, Myers spent much of his early career in Chicago. This is from his bio in Wikipedia:

Myers acquired an interest in music while a schoolboy in Jackson, Mississippi and became skilled enough at playing the trumpet and drums that he received a non-degree scholarship from the American Conservatory School of Music in Chicago. Myers attended school by day and at night frequented the nightclubs of the South Side of Chicago, meeting and sitting in with Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert "Junior" Lockwood, and Elmore James. Myers played drums with Elmore James on a fairly steady basis from 1952 until James's death in 1963, and is credited on many of James's historic recordings for Chess Records. In 1956, Myers wrote and recorded what was to be his most famous single, “Sleeping In The Ground”, a song that has been covered by Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and many other blues artists.

I saw Sam Myers just once, with the Rockets, at an outdoor festival. He was an excellent harp player and a great entertainer, and he will be missed.