Sam Myers (February 19, 1936 – July 17, 2006) was an
American blues musician and songwriter.
He was
born in Laurel, Mississippi. Myers appeared as an accompanist on dozens
of recordings for blues artists over the past five decades, and fronted
one of the top blues bands in the world. He began his career as a
drummer for Elmore James but was most famous as a blues vocalist and
blues harp player. Myers was in high demand for his authentic delta
blues sound. For nearly two decades he was the featured vocalist for
Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets.
Biography 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, Lockwood.htm">Robert Lockwood, Jr., 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,
as well as being featured on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour show on
'Sleep'.
From the early 1960s until 1986, Myers worked the clubs in and around
Jackson as well as across the South in the Chitlin' Circuit. He even
found himself touring the world with Sylvia Embry and the Mississippi
All-Stars Blues Band.
In 1986, Sam met Anson Funderburgh, from Piano, Texas, and joined
Anson’s band, The Rockets. Myers toured all over the U.S. and the world
with The Rockets, enjoying a partnership that endured until the time of
his death from complications from throat cancer surgery on July 17,
2006.
That same year, the University Press of Mississippi published Myers'
autobiography titled Sam Myers: The Blues is My Story. Writer Jeff
Horton, whose work has appeared in Blues Revue and Southwest Blues,
chronicles Myers' history and delves into his memories of life on the
road with other legendary blues artists.
Awards Sam Myers Coming from the Old SchoolThe Rockets have been
repeatedly acclaimed as one of the best live blues bands in existence.
Myers and The Rockets collectively won nine W. C. Handy Awards,
including three "Band of the Year" Awards and the 2004 Award for Best
Traditional Album of the Year. In 2005, Myers was nominated for
Traditional Blues Album of the Year for his record, Coming From The Old
School.
In January 2000, Myers was inducted into the Farish Street Walk of
Fame in Jackson, Mississippi, an honor he shares with
Dorothy Moore and
Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II). In 2006, just months before Myers
died, the governor of Mississippi presented Myers with the prestigious
Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and was named state Blues
Ambassador by the Mississippi Arts Commission.