Dick Justice

Who was Dick Justice?

Dick Justice was an American blues and folk musician, who hailed from West Virginia, United States.

Born Richard Justice, he recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. Unlike many contemporary white musicians, he was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan who recorded in 1927 and 1929 for Victor Records. Justice's "Cocaine" is a verse-for-verse cover of the Jordan track of the same name recorded two years earlier. The song "Brownskin Blues" is also stylistically akin to much of Jordan's work but stands on its own as a Justice original. As Jordan hailed from around Lynchburg, Virginia it is perhaps worth speculating that the two may have been associates. Justice is also musically related to Frank Hutchison, Bayless Rose and The Williamson Brothers.

His recording of the traditional ballad "Henry Lee" was the opening track of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Justice also recorded two sides with the fiddler Reese Jarvis.