Nathan Beauregard - 'Spoonful' live 1977

Here's Nathan Beauregard (roughly 90 years old at the time of this filming) playing 'Spoonful'.

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Nathan was born in Colbert MS, some time in the 19th century, (according to researchers Bob Eagle and Eric S. LeBlanc, Nathan Bogard was born in Benton County, Mississippi, in February 1892). He sometimes claimed falsely to have been born in the 1860s, and his official death record gives a birth date of July 2, 1887.

Nathan probably went blind before he was one year old. He learned to play banjo as a way of making a few cents, before taking up guitar. Beauregard soon became a musician, his repertoire consisting of songs of the pre-blues era and dance tunes like "Spoonful" and "Pretty Bunch of Daisies". When he was in his thirties, in the times of the "race recordings" of the 1920s, he saw many blues musicians with minor talent make a fortune as a recording artist while he himself was not offered such a chance. He was known to be an associate of Frank Stokes, who went on to make a name for himself with 'The Beale Street Sheiks', recording for the Paramount field-unit when they came to town. Early originators of the Blues like Nathan and Frank had a wide repertoire of spirituals and folk tunes, and their 12-bar tunes were just a particular local style of folk song.

Very little is known about Nathan's life, but when Bill tracked him down in 1968, he quickly arranged for him to share the stage with Bukka White at the Memphis Country Blues Festival. Mike Vernon recorded a live album of the show for his Blue Horizon label, which included Nathan's 'Kid Gal Blues' and 'Highway 61'. The following June, Bill Barth, Chris Strachwitz and John Fahey got Nathan into a Memphis studio, where he cut 'Nathan's Bumble Bee Blues' and 'bout a Spoonful' for the Arhoolie label's 'Memphis Swamp Jam'. In October 1969, Nathan was again in the studio to record 'Ain't Nobody's Business but My Own' and 'Lonesome to Myself' for 'Memphis Blues Again' and that was the end of Nathan's recording career. He was a very old man when he passed away the following spring.

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