Cootie Stark was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Piedmont blues

Piedmont blues

Piedmont blues refers primarily to a guitar style, the Piedmont fingerstyle, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the treble strings generally picked with the fore-finger,...

 guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His best remembered recordings

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 were "Metal Bottoms" and "Sandyland." Stark was known as the 'King of the Piedmont blues.'

Biography

He was born either James Miller or Johnny Miller, in Abbeville, South Carolina

Abbeville, South Carolina

For other communities of the same name, see Abbeville .Abbeville is a city in Abbeville County, South Carolina, United States, 86 miles west of Columbia. Its population was 5,237 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Abbeville County...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the son of sharecroppers, and grew up in Anderson County

Anderson County, South Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 187,126 people and 70,597 households residing in the county. The population density was 260.6 people per square mile . There were 84,092 housing units...

. Stark was given his first guitar by his father at the age of 14, having then relocated to Greenville, South Carolina

Greenville, South Carolina

-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...

. His poor eyesight meant that he was unable to find regular employment. He began busking on street corners, and learned his art from fellow street performers such as Peg Leg Sam

Peg Leg Sam

Peg Leg Sam was an American country blues harmonicist, singer and comedian. He recorded "Fox Chase" and "John Henry", and worked in medicine shows...

, Pink Anderson

Pink Anderson

"Pink" Anderson was a blues singer and guitarist, born in Laurens, South Carolina.-Life and career:After being raised in Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina, he joined Dr...

 and Josh White

Josh White

Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....

 plus, particularly in his earliest days, from Baby Tate

Baby Tate

Baby Tate was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, who in a sporadic career spanning five decades, worked variously with guitarists Blind Boy Fuller, Pink Anderson, and Peg Leg Sam...

. He acquired the nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

, Sugar Man, and continued to work his trade as a songster

Songster

The term "songster" is most often used to denote a wandering musician, usually but not always African American, of the type which first appeared in the late 19th century in the southern United States...

 in the area. His performing name of Cootie Stark was an amalgam of a childhood nickname and his grandfather's surname.

His eyesight deteriorated until he was legally registered as blind, but Stark continued to perform across the State and beyond, often using the name Blind Johnny Miller. However by the 1980s, with playing prospects diminishing, Stark settled in Greenville. "By then, the real Piedmont blues was pretty much gone," he stated. "All them guys were dead and gone and I wasn't making no headway." In 1997, when Stark was over seventy years old, he was heard playing Fats Domino

Fats Domino

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....

 songs by Tim Duffy, the founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Their record label released Stark's debut album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, Sugar Man, in 1999. In 2003, Stark released his second and final album, Raw Sugar, when he was again accompanied on record by Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal (musician)

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...

. He received the South Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 2005.

Stark died at the age of 77, in Greenville, in April 2005.

Discography

Year	Title	Record label
1999	Sugar Man	Music Maker Music Maker (label) Music Maker Relief Foundation is an American non-profit record label, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to "help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day to day needs...
2003	Raw Sugar	Music Maker