Personalities | Kokomo Arnold | Thirties | Jazz & Blues
(Guitar, vocals, 1901–68)
Born and raised in Georgia, James Arnold was taught to play guitar by his cousin. He moved to Buffalo, New York in his late teens and to Chicago in 1929. He worked outside music, making bootleg whiskey, but also played occasional jobs. He first recorded for Victor in 1930 as Gitfiddle Jim and was signed to Decca in September 1934, scoring an instant hit with ‘Milk Cow Blues’/‘Old Original Kokomo Blues’. The former was a song covered by artists as diverse as Bob Wills, Elvis Presley and George Strait, while the flip side – written about a brand of coffee – provided Arnold with a lifelong nickname.
A left-handed, bottleneck stylist who had 76 sides issued on Decca, Arnold recorded for the last time in 1938. He mainly worked outside music after 1940, although he did play some Chicago dates during the folk music revival of the early 1960s.
Styles & Forms | Thirties | Jazz & Blues
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