string band musician, LaFollette
National Heritage Fellowship (1990)
Tennessee Folklife Heritage Award (2003)
Fiddle and mandolin player Howard Armstrong (1909-2003) lived in Chicago, Detroit, and Boston during his adult life, but he spent his childhood in Tennessee where his father labored in the steel and coal industries. He was born in Dayton, lived for a time in Sparta, and became a musician during a longer residence in LaFollette. As a teenager, he frequently performed on the streets in Knoxville, and from the beginning his music showed diverse influences ranging from hillbilly to tin-pan alley and jazz. He was sometimes known as “Louie Bluie” from an early recording pseudonym. As a professional player in northern cities, he was exposed to even more cultural diversity than he’d experienced in Tennessee coal camps, and he became conversant with a variety of languages and ethnic music traditions. Late in his career, Armstrong and some of his early musical cohorts were rediscovered as veterans of forgotten African American country string band music. He took part in the Tennessee program at the 1986 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, and two films were made about his life.
Media
- Sweet Old Song , by Leah Mahan (DVD, 2002)
- Masters of Traditional Arts, Documentary Arts (CD-Rom, 2002)
- Howard Armstrong, Louie Bluie, Arhoolie 470 (CD 1998)
- Howard Armstrong, Louie Bluie, Blue Suit BS106D (CD 1995)
- Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong, That Old Gang of Mine, Flying Fish CDFLY 3 (CD reissue 1993)
- Louie Bluie, Criterion Collection 532 (DVD reissue of Terry Zwigoff’s 1985 film)
- Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong, Let’s Have Party, Flying Fish 27003 (LP)
- Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong, Barnyard Dance, Rounder 2003 (LP 1974)
More Information
- Parales, Jon, “Howard Armstrong, 94, String-Band Fiddler and Mandolinist,” New York Times, August 2003.
- Govenar, Alan, Masters of Traditional Arts: A Biographical Dictionary (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2001), pp. 33-35, 703.
- Zwigoff, Terry, “Louie Bluie: The Life and Music of Howard Armstrong, “ 78 Quarterly 1,5 (1990): 41-55.