Soul Singer J. Blackfoot 1946-2011

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Memphis soul singer J. Blackfoot, a member of Stax vocal group the Soul Children and a longtime solo artist, died today at Methodist Germantown Hospital.

Blackfoot had been diagnosed with cancer. He was 65.

“What I remember more than anything about him was his naturalness,” said Stax songwriting legend David Porter, who discovered Blackfoot more than 40 years ago. “When I first heard him, there was naturalness in his phrasing, in his charm, that was unique. He always stayed true to that.”

Though he came to prominence under the guise of J. Blackfoot, he was born John Colbert in Greenville, Miss.

His family moved to the Bluff City when he was 2 years old and he earned his nickname sobriquet during his childhood days, when he would walk the Memphis sidewalks barefoot.

Blackfoot’s musical career came after several brushes with the law. By age 18 he was serving time at the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville for car theft. It was there that he happened to share a cell with Johnny Bragg, the founder of the Prisonaires, a ’50s era singing group that scored a behind-the-walls hit for Sun Records.

The meeting with Bragg pushed Blackfoot towards a musical career. He recorded an early single under his own name, John Colbert, but found his real launching pad at Stax Records. Blackfoot gained entry into the Stax fold after he auditioned for songwriter/producer Porter in the late-’60s.

“Someone told me he could sing, and he was at this place across the street from the (Stax) studio and I went over to take a listen to him, and I got him to sing along with the jukebox, to an Otis Redding song,” said Porter.

Porter and his songwriting partner Isaac Hayes initially tried recording Blackfoot as a solo artist. “But then we then thought to capture some of the same energy we’d had with Sam and Dave,” says Porter, “but we decided to incorporate a male and female dynamic.”

Porter and Hayes teamed Blackfoot up with Norman West, Anita Lewis and Shelbra Bennett, to form the Soul Children. Blackfoot’s earthy vocals would power memorable tracks like “Give ’Em Love,” and the group scored 15 R&B hits during its decade-long run.

Following the demise of Stax in 1976, the band recorded a pair of albums for the Epic label, before breaking up.

In 1983, Blackfoot launched a solo career, scoring a chart success the following year — both in the U.S. and the UK — with the song “Taxi.”

Over the last two decades, Blackfoot remained busy, recording a nearly a dozen solo albums, performing at various Stax-related functions, reforming the Soul Children for the 2008 album Still Standing, and most recently appearing as part of Porter’s musical revue this summer.

“He was a person who was at home on stage, he was an entertainer and a true one,” said Porter. “He was a tremendous talent; he had a signature all his own. When you would hear him, you would know it was him instantly.”

Memorial arrangements are pending.

[mystery_daisy]

As his gorgeous song says, Just One Lifetime
Rest in Peace.