DESCRIPTION:
I do not own the copyright to this recording. This video is for historical and educational purposes

Bill Jackson was born in Granite, MD. on February 22, 1906. One of five children he took interest at the age of fifteen to the guitar playing of a neighbor by the name of Jim Fuller, who was one of the region's top-notch musicians. He took lessons from Fuller for six months and began playing at local parties and dances. Jackson became employed on the work gang of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad where he remained for several years playing music on the side. In the late 1920's he moved to Philadelphia. A man heard him performing at a local party and arranged an audition for him with Victor Records in Camden, N.J. in 1928. Victor liked what they heard but the man that had heard him at the party had became his "self-appointed" manager and demanded hefty advances that the label refused to meet. Victor told Jackson to come back without him and they would record him, but he lost interest and never went back. Jackson supported himself by working as a building superintendent, janitor and as a house boy for a history professor for several decades. Pete Welding looked for him in Philadelphia in 1961, but could never find him. An office worker at a girl's school knew Jackson and told Welding that she would let him know that he was looking for him. Two weeks later Jackson showed up at Welding's door. By this time Jackson was 55 years old and was employed as a taxi driver working as much as 18 hours a day. Jackson hadn't had time to play a lot of music in several years so Welding gave him a few weeks to get his chops built back up. He recorded him in January 1962, a whole album's worth of songs and stories. Jackson would never record again and disappeared back into the working world.

Bill Jackson:Vocals & Guitar

Recorded in Philadelphia, PN. January 1, 1962

Originally issued on and this recording taken from the 1963 album "Bill Jackson:Long Steel Rail" (Testament T-201) (LP)