Johnny Temple (blues musician)

Temple was born in Canton, Mississippi, and grew up around Jackson.^[3] He learned to play guitar and mandolin as a child and began playing house parties as a teenager.^[4] While in Jackson he befriended Skip James.^[5] He moved to Chicago in the early 1930s and started playing with Joe McCoy in clubs.^[3] Temple began recording songs such as "The Evil Devil Blues" and "Lead Pencil Blues" in 1935.^[6] His most popular record, "Louise Louise Blues," released by Decca Records, was a hit in 1936.^[7] The Harlem Hamfats, a Chicago jazz band formed in 1936, provided backup music for Temple and other singers.^[3] By 1940, Decca had released two dozen of his records.^[6]

Temple continued recording with various labels through most of the 1940s. His connection with the record producer Mayo Williams provided him with recording opportunities until 1949.^[3] After World War II, Temple played an important role in welcoming blues musicians who arrived from the South.^[5] Though his recording career ended, he continued to perform gigs, often alongside Big Walter Horton and Billy Boy Arnold. He returned to Mississippi in the mid-1950s, where he continued to perform in clubs and juke joints in and around Jackson.^[4]

Temple eventually gave up the blues to become a minister.^[5] He died of cancer on November 22, 1968,^[1] aged 62, in Jackson.