Joseph Spence - © Guy Droussart
Joseph Spence: Bahamian Master Guitarist and Folk Legend
Joseph T. Spence (August 3, 1910 – March 18, 1984) was a highly influential Bahamian guitarist and singer, whose unique, virtuosic fingerstyle guitar playing and distinctive vocalizations left an indelible mark on folk and acoustic music globally.
Early Life and Career in the Bahamas
Birth and Origin: Spence was born on August 3, 1910, in Small Hope, on Andros Island, Bahamas.
Family: He was the son of a preacher. He had one sister, Edith Pinder, who would later sing with him, and four half-brothers. His wife's name was Louise Spence.
Musical Beginnings: When Spence was nine, an uncle living in the United States brought him his first guitar. He taught himself to play the instrument. By the age of 14, he was performing for local dances with his great-uncle Tony Spence's band, which featured the uncle on a long, keyed flute, playing rhythms like quadrilles, waltzes, polkas, and calypso pieces.
Day Jobs: After leaving school, Spence worked primarily as a sponge fisherman from the age of 16 to 28 (1926 to 1938). He would bring his guitar aboard the fishing boats, and it was during this time that he spent considerable effort developing his vocal harmonies and guitar style, harmonizing with fellow sponge fishermen. He was already a well-respected musician in his community, particularly the Fresh Creek Settlement on Andros Island.
The Sponge Blight: In 1938, a blight destroyed the Bahamian sponge beds, forcing Spence out of work. He viewed this as a sign of divine intervention, leading him to move to the capital city, Nassau, in 1939 to seek a better living.
Migration to the U.S.: Around 1944, Spence and his wife, Louise Spence, traveled to the southeastern United States as migrant farmworkers, working in places like Florida, Georgia, Carolina, Tennessee, and Delaware, filling a labor shortage during World War II. They returned to the Bahamas in 1945 or 1946. This two-year period in the U.S. was crucial for his musical development, exposing him to various American string traditions, including blues, country music, and gospel, which he incorporated into his style.
Post-War Work: Upon returning to Nassau, he worked as a stonemason and carpenter, and later, in the mid-1970s, as a night watchman at an elementary school after suffering a heart attack. He also performed for hire at hotels and on yacht boats.
Musical Style and Technique
Unique Guitar Style: Spence is renowned for his virtuosic, highly idiosyncratic, and polyrhythmic acoustic guitar style. He typically played a steel-string acoustic guitar in Drop D tuning (DADGBE). His playing was characterized by:
Moving bass lines and interior voices.
A driving beat, often emphasized with energetic foot-tapping.
The reproduction of sounds a church organ or choir might make, adding internal harmonies to create a complex, multi-layered sound.
Improvising rhythmic and melodic variations simultaneously on the bass, middle strings, and treble, an adaptation of the Bahamian rhyming tradition (a vocal practice where a "rhymer" improvises syncopated verses over a bass and tenor accompaniment).
He used a thumbpick but never fingerpicks, and often rested the little finger of his right hand on the guitar face.
Vocalizations: His singing was equally unique, featuring guttural counterpoint sounds, growls, mumbles, groans, and "wordless vocalastics" that alternated with lyrical rhymes. He was well-known for his vocalizations and humming while playing, sometimes spitting out "gibberish" or non-coherent phrases in perfect time, a feature which some have described as a "soothing guttural counterpoint."
Repertoire: His music encompassed a wide range of genres, including Bahamian rhyming spirituals and anthems, folk music, calypso, blues, gospel, and pop tunes, all re-imagined through his highly personal lens. Notable songs he covered included "Down By the Riverside," "Give Me That Old Time Religion," "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," and even "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town."
Discovery and Recording Career
First Recordings: Spence's purely local fame ended in 1958 when American musicologist Samuel Charters and folklorist Ann Danberg met him while conducting fieldwork on Andros Island. They initially mistook his guitar playing for the work of two separate players.
Debut Album: Charters recorded Spence on a back porch, and the recordings were released in 1959 as the album Music of the Bahamas, Volume 1: Bahamian Folk Guitar on Folkways Records (now Smithsonian Folkways).
Rise to Prominence: The debut album was a sensation in American folk music circles. In 1964, a second album, Happy All the Time, was released on Elektra Records, which was recorded in Spence's living room by Fritz Richmond. This album included his arrangement of "I Bid You Goodnight," a song later covered by The Grateful Dead and Ralph McTell.
U.S. Performances: During the peak of his career, he toured the United States. Pete Seeger, a huge fan, even traveled to Nassau to recruit him for a concert. Spence performed at the Newport Folk Festival and was a guest at The Ash Grove in Los Angeles (staying as Taj Mahal's houseguest) and performed in New York and Boston in the 1970s. His single performance in New York City was at a concert sponsored by the Friends of Old Time Music and the Newport Folk Foundation at the New School.
Later Albums: He released more than ten albums on various labels, including Folkways, Elektra, Nonesuch, Rounder, and Arhoolie Records, such as Encore (1965), Good Morning Mr. Walker (1972), and Living on the Hallelujah Side (1980). Despite his recording career, he sadly owned no copies of his own work.
Legacy and Influence
Spence's influence was vast, inspiring a generation of American and British acoustic guitarists and musicians. He has been called "the folk guitarist's Thelonious Monk."
Influenced Artists: The list of musicians who credit Spence as an influence is long, including Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, The Grateful Dead, Catfish Keith, Woody Mann, Olu Dara, John Renbourn, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band.
Tributes: After his death, a tribute album, Out on the Rolling Sea, was produced by the Richard Thompson fan club, featuring artists like Henry Kaiser, Taj Mahal, and Martin Carthy.
Death
Joseph T. Spence died in New Providence, Nassau, on March 18, 1984, at the age of 73. He lived out his days in a home he built and named Louise Cottage for his wife.
