Born April 17, 1926, in Marvell, Arkansas as Samuel Lee McCollum, Sam Carr got his start in music at 16 as a self-taught musician. After a few years of sharecropping with his wife, Carr left Arkansas for Chicago and St. Louis where he played for a number of local blues acts. He is the son of blues guitar legend Robert Nighthawk.

Career

Early on, Sam Carr played bass guitar but took up drums upon forming his own act Little Sam Carr and the Blue Kings in the 1950s. It would be in 1956 that he paired up with his regular musical partner in Frank Frost, an Arkansas harmonica and guitar artist.

The Blue Kings headed to Mississippi six years later to team up with Big Jack Johnson. This new group became The Jelly Roll Kings and featured Carr’s wife Doris as lead singer. Carr’s band and Frost continue playing and recording into the 1970s up until the late 1990s.

As the 2000s rolled around, Carr formed a new band called the Delta Jukes. The band released several full-length albums in 2002, 2004, and 2007. Two years later in 2009, Sam Carr passed away due to heart complications at 83. In death, Carr was honored in his native Mississippi including a Heritage Award from then-governor Haley Barbour and his own marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. His marker is located in Lula.

REFERENCES
-http://www.stlblues.net/bluestrail_ms.htm
-http://www.arts.state.ms.us/folklife/artist.php?dirname=carr_sam
-https://www.discogs.com/artist/1539310-Sam-Carr-2

SELECTED TUNES
-Sam Carr’s Delta Jukes – Let The Good Times Roll https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTPUWCxpG9M
-Sam Carr’s Delta Jukes – Blues Is A Feeling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIP0_ykwRHk