Floyd Jones: Biography

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• Big Walter Horton
• Muddy Waters
• Canned Heat
• Sunnyland Slim
• Homesick James Williamson

• Robert Johnson
• Johnny Shines
• Moody Jones
• Snooky Pryor
• Tommy Johnson

• Snooky Pryor

• Lefty Edwards
• Paul Riser
• Don Slaughter
• Bob Cousar
• Uriel Jones
• Robert White
• Don White

Born:

Jul 21, 1917 in Marianna, AR

Died:

Dec 19, 1989 in Chicago, IL

Genres:

Classical Music, Chicago Blues Music, Country Blues Music, Electric Blues Music

Decades Active:

1940's|1950's|1960's

Artistic Quality

Low

Cultural Impact

Low

Ratings Guide

His sound characteristically dark and gloomy, guitarist Floyd Jones contributed a handful of genuine classics to the Chicago blues idiom during the late '40s and early '50s, notably the foreboding "Dark Road" and "Hard Times."

Born in Arkansas, Jones grew up in the bluesfertile Mississippi Delta (where he picked up the guitar in his teens). He came to Chicago in the mid'40s, working for tips on Maxwell Street with his cousin Moody Jones and Baby Face Leroy Foster and playing local clubs on a regular basis. Floyd was right there when the postwar "Chicago blues" movement first took flight, recording with harpist Snooky Pryor for Marvel in 1947; pianist Sunnyland Slim for Tempo Tone the next year (where he cut "Hard Times"), JOB and Chess in 195253, and VeeJay in 1955 (where he weighed in with a typically downcast "Ain't Times Hard").

Jones remained active on the Chicago scene until shortly before his 1989 death, although electric bass had long since replaced the guitar as his main axe. He participated in Earwig Records' Old Friends sessions in 1979, sharing a studio with longtime cohorts Sunnyland Slim, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Walter Horton, and Kansas City Red.

- Bill Dahl, All Music Guide