James Founty, b. August 31, 1907 in Pike County, AL, d. August 16, 1967 in Boaz, AL. Pickett was a country blues singer and guitarist, whose August 1949 recordings prompted years of speculation. Many noted his stylistic links with the blues of the east coast, and it was through company files that critics discovered his real name. Pickett's repertoire was derived almost exclusively from 30s recordings, and his virtuosity went into the delivery, rather than the composition, of his songs, which sound as if they could have been recorded a decade or so earlier. However, the transformations to which he subjected many songs are the work of a true original. His guitar playing, influenced by Tampa Red, is complex but effortlessly fluent, and perfectly integrated with his intense but extrovert singing, which is often remarkable for the number of words crammed into a single line.
In 1949, Pickett traveled to Philadelphia, where he recorded fourteen songs, ten of which were released by Gotham Records as five 78-rpm singles the same year. The other tracks, along with alternate takes of those issued, were unreleased for decades. Unusually for the time, the recordings were made on a master tape and were of better quality than most other recordings of that era. The songs Pickett recorded were mainly reworkings of songs issued in the 1930s, including versions of Leroy Carr's "How Long", Buddy Moss's "Ride to a Funeral in a V-8", Blind Boy Fuller's "Let me Squeeze Your Lemons" (renamed "Lemon Man" by Pickett), and Pickett's only gospel music recording, "99 1/2 Won't Do". By the 1960s, the recordings had become legendary among record collectors who regarded them as some of the best commercial country blues recordings of the post–World War II era. Eventually there emerged a letter from a James Founty to Charles R. Paul, an attorney, dated July 1950, in which Founty claimed he had not been paid royalties. Investigations concluded that Founty's label had paid him for the recording session and that any royalties were determined by that contractual arrangement. The connection to Pickett was suggested by the fact that he did not record any more under any name.
Some reviewers had speculated that he could have been Charlie Pickett, the Tennessee-based guitarist who recorded for Vocalion Records in 1937. There is no firm evidence of his life after his only recording session, other than details concerning his given name and the dates of his birth and death.
Pickett died in Boaz, Alabama, in August 1967, days short of his 60th birthday.
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By Jim O'Neal
Reissuers have unearthed little information about Dan Pickett: He may have come from Alabama, he played a nice slide guitar in a Southeastern blues style, and he did one recording session for the Philadelphia-based Gotham label in 1949. That session produced five singles, all of which have now been compiled along with four previously unreleased sides on a reissue album that purports to contain Pickett's entire recorded output -- unless, of course, as some reviewers have speculated, Dan Pickett happens also to be Charlie Pickett, the Tennessee guitarist who recorded for Decca in 1937. As Tony Russell observed in Juke Blues, both Picketts recorded blues about lemon-squeezing, and Dan uses the name Charlie twice in the lyrics to "Decoration Day." 'Tis from such mystery and speculation that the minds of blues collectors do dissolve.