Houston-area native Booker T. Washington White, known as Booker "Bukka" White, was one of the most expressive blues vocalists and powerful slide guitarists, as well as a remarkable lyricist. Born about 1904 near Houston on the farm of Willie Harrington, he learned from his father John White, a multi-instrumentalist who gave him his first guitar, and from local musicians who taught him bottleneck slide technique. He further developed his guitar and piano skills in Tallahatchie County and St. Louis, married at sixteen, and then resumed traveling across the South and Midwest. Recording agent Ralph Lembo arranged his first blues and gospel recordings in Memphis in 1930, and between 1930 and 1940 he recorded classics including “Shake ‘Em On Down” and “Fixin’ to Die Blues” under the names Washington White or Bukka White. In 1937 he recorded the minor hit “Shake ‘Em On Down” in Chicago, but that same year he was sentenced for a shooting incident to Parchman Penitentiary, where John Lomax of the Library of Congress recorded him in 1939. After his release he recorded twelve of his best-known songs at a Chicago session in 1940. During the war he settled in Memphis, worked at a defense plant, performed with Frank Stokes and others, and helped his cousin B.B. King become established on the local music scene. Beginning in 1963 he enjoyed a second career as a performer and recording artist, became popular on the folk music circuit, traveled as far as Mexico and Europe, returned to Houston as the featured artist at the city’s bicentennial celebration on May 27, 1976, and died in Memphis on February 26, 1977.