Lillian McMurry
Record Producer
1921 – 1999
Who was Lillian McMurry?
Lillian Shedd McMurry was an American record producer, influential in the development of blues music.
Lillian Shedd was born in Purvis, Mississippi, and married furniture-store owner Willard McMurry in 1945, settling in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1949, she was helping her husband clear out a shop he had bought when she came upon a pile of old shellac 78rpm phonograph discs, including Wynonie Harris' recording of "All She Wants to Do Is Rock". Curious, McMurry played it on the store's record player and became so inspired that, as well as selling the stock she had discovered, she also decided to record more music like it. By her own account, until that point she, as a white woman, had been completely unaware of the music being made on her doorstep by her African-American neighbours.
She formed Trumpet Records in Jackson in 1950. The first releases were of gospel music, but she soon auditioned and recorded both slide guitarist Elmore James, on his original recording of "Dust My Broom", and "Sonny Boy Williamson". Initially, McMurry apparently thought that "Williamson" was the original musician of that name. Many of the sides he first recorded for Trumpet, such as "Eyesight to the Blind" and "Nine Below Zero", later became blues standards.
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- Born
- Dec 30, 1921
Purvis - Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Died
- Mar 18, 1999
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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