Floyd Council

Who was Floyd Council?

Floyd Council was an American blues guitarist, mandolin player, and singer. He became a well-known practitioner of the Piedmont blues sound from that area, popular throughout the southeastern region of the US in the 1930s.

Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, to Harrie and Lizzie Council, Floyd began his musical career on the streets of Chapel Hill in the 1920s, performing with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd as "The Chapel Hillbillies". In the late 1920s and early 1930s he and Blind Boy Fuller busked in the Chapel Hill area. He recorded twice for ARC at sessions with Fuller in the mid-thirties, all examples of the Piedmont style.

Council suffered a stroke in the late 1960s which partially paralyzed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills, but did not significantly damage his cognitive abilities. Folklorist Peter B. Lowry attempted to record him one afternoon in 1970, but he never regained his singing or playing abilities. Accounts say that he remained "quite sharp in mind".

Council died in 1976 of a heart attack, after moving to Sanford, North Carolina. He was buried at White Oak AME Zion Cemetery in Sanford.