Carr put the 'Prisonbound' in 'Blues'

Leroy Carr was only 30 when complications from chronic alcoholism put the blues vocalist and piano player six feet under. But while Carr might not have been around for very long, he was around long enough to become one of the most influential and significant artists in the history of the blues.\nWhen Carr, who lived in Indianapolis for the last 18 years of his life (well, not counting the stint he did in a state prison for bootlegging during Prohibition), formed a duo with guitarist Scrapper Blackwell and released the seminal "How Long, How Long Blues" in 1928, he irrevocably changed the course of American pop music.\nOver the next 12 years, Carr, with Blackwell by his side, became a key figure in the transition of the blues from a rural, Southern idiom to an urban, Northern style. Carr's smooth, even urbane style, both vocally and instrumentally, anchored recordings which were self-reflective, almost melancholy. Carr influenced untold numbers of blues musicians, but the most notable is probably Robert Johnson himself.\nPrison Bound Blues is part of a series of top-notch blues compilations produced by UK-based Snapper Music, and the Brits have done an excellent job of capturing the essence of an artistic talent which burned blindingly bright, but was snuffed out all too soon.