Joseph Spence

Joseph Spence is a Bahamian irony. Hardly appreciated or known in The Bahamas while he was alive, his music is credited with influencing mega international stars who continue to pay homage and respect to his guitar wizardry and his authentic voice. Iconic groups like Tahj Mahal, The Grateful Dead kneel at the altar of Joseph Spence’s guitar and he is likened to the “folk guitarist Thelonius Monk. Spence’s vocalizations, humming improvised over his Calypso, Blues, Folk Music and Sacred Song have been consistent subjects of major articles in international magazines like Rolling Stone, Esquire and New York Times. He played a steel string acoustic guitar in what is known as Drop D tuning. Reviewers write that “the power of his playing derived from moving Bass lines and interior voices and a driving beat that he employed with foot tapping. To this mix he added the Blues, colouration, calypso rhythms to achieve a unique and easily identifiable sound”. Spence’s mastery of the guitar and his unique way of playing brought international music scholars to his door, who thought his work was that of two players. Even today he is still featured in international magazines and regarded as guitar wizard, an instrument he taught himself how to play. He hailed from Andros and was the son of a pastor, and got his start in music as a teenager playing in his great uncle Tony Spence’s band. After leaving school he worked as a sponge fisher, stonemason and carpenter and as a crop cutter in the United States. The earliest recordings of Joseph Spence were made on Spence’s porch by folk musicologist Samuel Charters in 1958, with Charters initially thinking that Spence’s guitar playing was the work of two players dueling. These were released by Folkways Records on the album Music of the Bahamas Volume One in 1959. In 1964, Fritz Richmond recorded Spence, and recordings made in Spence’s living room were issued on the album Happy All the Time. The following year, Jody Stretcher and Peter Siegel made the trip to record Spence, recording tracks also featuring Edith and Raymond Pinder and their daughter Geneva, which were released on The Real Bahamas Volume One. These tracks included Spence’s arrangement of “I Bid You Good Night” which was covered by The Grateful Dead and Ralph McTell among others. From the age of 16, Spence was a sponge fisherman. During the Second World War he and his wife, Louise, worked as migrant farmers on “the contract”, where he was influenced by a variety American Folk traditions. Back in Nassau he worked in construction by day and performed at hotels and on yachts at night. Following a heart attack in the mid-1970s Spence settled into a sedate life as a school night watchman, although he made a few more recordings for the roots-oriented Arhoolie label. His gruff voice acted as an accompaniment to his spectacular guitar picking, and he was sometimes joined by his wife Louise. He died in relative obscurity in Nassau on March 18, 1984.