William Howard Taft Armstrong, b. March 4, 1909 in Dayton, TN, d. July 30, 2003 in Boston, MA. Raised in La Follette, Tennessee, Armstrong was eventually skilled on some 20 instruments but played principally fiddle, mandolin and guitar. His richly varied repertoire ranged through country folk, urban blues and jazz, as well as songs from bygone vaudeville and ragtime, gospel and contemporary pop.
In his early years Armstrong formed the Armstrong Brothers band with a number of his siblings, and played with musicians such as Roland Martin, Carl Martin (mandolin) and Ted Bogan (guitar) in bands that included the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, with whom he broadcast and recorded in 1930, the Four Keys and the Wandering Troubadours. Armstrong also played extensively with Carl Martin and Bogan during the early 30s, including a spell in Chicago in 1933, the year the city hosted the World’s Fair.
After World War II, Armstrong settled in Detroit, Michigan, working in the automobile industry and continuing to play part time, often with Martin and Bogan. After retiring from his day job, Armstrong spent most of the 70s playing with Bogan and Martin as well as his son, Tom Armstrong. They consistently delighted audiences, including an appearance at the 1976 Hudson River Blues Revival and a State Department-sponsored tour of South America. Following Martin’s death, Armstrong and Bogan continued as a duo until the latter’s death in 1990. Armstrong was the subject of a 1985 documentary film, Louis Bluie, directed by Terry Zwigoff. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Arts declared Armstrong to be a national treasure, bestowing upon him their National Heritage Award.
Armstrong made his first solo album in 1995 for Arhoolie Records, the W.C. Handy ward winning Louie Blue. Later, with his third wife, artist Barbara Ward Armstrong, he was featured in the PBS documentary film, Sweet Old Song (2002). Two of his sons, Thomas and Ralphe Armstrong, play bass, both working at times with their father. In the early 00s Armstrong was still active and in 2002 was nominated for the Blues Foundation’s W.C. Handy Award and also received the Tennessee Folk Heritage Award. After suffering a stroke he continued playing the mandolin and, with his wife on drums, played his last concert in Providence, Rhode Island, on 31 December 2002.
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By Jason Ankeny
Country bluesman Howard Armstrong was born March 4, 1909 in Dayton, TN; one of 11 children. As a youngster he fashioned his first fiddle out of a goods box strung with horsehair. Honing his musical skills in his family band, he began performing as a teen alongside Knoxville performers Ted Bogan and Carl Martin in groups like the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and the Four Aces. Armstrong's groups were exceptions to the rule of the era which dictated that black performers perform only material from the segregated "race music catalogs"; their repertoire included not only old-time jigs, reels, waltzes, rags, and minstrel show favorites, but also current jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley hits.
In 1930, the Chocolate Drops made their radio debut and cut their first sides for the Vocalion label. During the Depression, the trio of Howard, Bogan, and Martin lived on the road, playing throughout the Appalachian circuit and appearing with a medicine show headed by one Dr. Leon D. Bondara. By the early '30s they found themselves in Chicago, regularly playing the city's Southside and Maxwell Street flea market area; living on tips left them in dire financial straits, however, and they soon began "pullin' doors" -- playing stores and taverns in the white immigrant areas, where the Italian, Polish, and German which Armstrong learned to speak as a child growing up in multi-ethnic La Follette, opened doors that most other black performers found barred.
By the end of the decade, the popularity of radio and the emergence of the jukebox brought Armstrong's professional playing days to a halt; however, during the '70s his few recordings were rediscovered by folk music scholars, and he reunited with Bogan and Martin to tour college campuses, coffeehouses, and festivals. After Martin's 1978 death, the surviving duo forged on, and in 1985 they became the subject of the feature documentary Louie Bluie, a film directed by Terry Zwigoff. The accompanying soundtrack also introduced Armstrong's music to new fans through its mix of new recordings and vintage sides dating back to the '30s.
Armstrong continued to perform well into the new millennium. He and his wife/manager Barbara Ward married 1996 and took up residency in her hometown of Boston. She was also the drummer of Armstrong's band. His solo album, Louie Bluie, won a W.C. Handy award from the Blues Foundation a year prior. On July 30, 2003, Armstrong died from complications after a heart attack he suffered in March. He was 94.