We're a day or two early with this, as he shares an anniversary on the 31st with fellow bluesman Lowell Fulson. Born Major Merriweather in Georgia in 1905, Big Maceo was a self-taught pianist, moving to Detroit in the 1920s where he carved a living playing clubs and parties for many years. In 1941, aiming to break into the recording scene, he moved to Chicago where he teamed up with guitarist Tampa Red, who introduced him to Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records. He was signed up and his first recording was "Worried Life Blues" a version of Sleepy John Estes 1935 recording of "Someday baby Blues". It was a significant hit, and became a highly influential recording, covered by just about every major blues artist over ensuing decades. He continued recording for Bluebird sporadically through the '40s, mostly in the classic boogie style of Roosevelt Sykes, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Leroy Carr, and more often than not with Tampa Red. His health suffered badly after a stroke in 1946, but he continued his heavy drinking, and died from a heart attack in 1953 at the age of 47. Acrobat has on catalogue a collection of some of his Bluebird recordings - for details click here.