Peetie Wheatstraw

Wheatstraw was riding the crest of his success at the time of his premature death. The songs "Mister Livingood" and "Bring Me Flowers While I'm Living" were his last known recordings, from his final recording session, on November 25, 1941. On December 21, 1941, his 39th birthday, he and some friends decided to take a drive to find some more liquor. They tried to entice Wheatstraw's friend, the blues singer Teddy Darby, to come with them, but Darby's wife refused to let him. Wheatstraw got into the car with Big Joe Williams and two other friends, one of whom was driving. Luckily for him, Williams asked to be dropped off downtown to catch a streetcar to his home in St. Louis. Traveling at a high speed just a block from Wheatstraw's house, the Buick they were riding in struck a standing freight train, throwing all three men from the car. Wheatstraw's two companions were killed instantly, and he died of head injuries in the hospital five hours later. There is a legend that his death drew little attention, but the accident was fully reported in St. Louis and East St. Louis newspapers, and obituaries appeared in the national music press. Down Beat led the front page of its issue of January 15, 1942, with the story of the accident and published an appreciation of Wheatstraw's career under the headline "Blues Shouter Killed After Waxing 'Hearseman Blues'". Wheatstraw was buried in Crowder Cemetery, near Cotton Plant, Arkansas.

Wheatstraw began recording in 1930 and was so popular that he continued to record through the Great Depression, when the number of blues records issued was drastically reduced. The blues musician Charlie Jordan introduced Wheatstraw to recording, setting him up with both Vocalion Records and Decca Records. He recorded "Tennessee Peaches Blues" in a duet with an artist called Neckbones, in August 1930. Following this first recording, Wheatstraw was especially prolific, recording 21 songs in two years, including solos like "Don't Feel Welcome Blues," "Strange Man Blues," "School Days," and "So Soon". He made no records between March 1932 and March 1934, a period in which he perfected his mature style.

Wheatstraw recorded 161 sides on 78-RPM records for 1930 to the end of 1941. A compilation LP album was released by Flyright Records in 1975. Twenty-five years later a second volume was put together by Old Tramp Records. In 1994, Wheatstraw's complete recordings were issued on seven CDs by Document Records.

What distinguished Wheatstraw's recordings most of all is the quality of his lyrics. Like other successful performers, he sang of the concerns of urban African Americans removed from their rural roots. Some of his most memorable songs deal with the repeal of Prohibition, a New Deal WPA project, and slum clearance for urban renewal. He first entered the Vocalion Records studios on August 13, 1930, and recorded a handful of songs, including "Four o'Clock in the Morning" and "Tennessee Peaches Blues". Over the following decade, he recorded over 160 sides for Vocalion, Decca Records and Bluebird Records.

Wheatstraw's influence was enormous in the 1930s. Perhaps the most obvious example of his impact is in the lyrics and vocal stylings of Robert Johnson, often considered the most important blues figure of the era. Many of Johnson's recordings were reworkings of songs by other popular artists of the time, and he drew heavily from Wheatstraw's repertoire. For example, Wheatstraw's "Police Station Blues" forms the basis for Johnson's "Terraplane Blues". His nickname "Devil's Son-in-Law" also resonated with Johnson's similar image.

The earliest biographical facts come from the musicians Henry Townsend and Teddy Darby, who remember Wheatstraw moving to East St. Louis, Illinois, in the late 1920s. He was already a proficient guitarist but a limited pianist. The only known photograph of him shows him holding a National brand tricone resonator guitar, but he played the piano on most of his recordings. He often performed at a club called Lovejoy in the East St. Louis area and at a juke joint over a barbershop on West Biddle Street. By the time Sunnyland Slim moved to St. Louis in the early 1930s, Wheatstraw was one of the most popular singers there, with an admired idiosyncratic piano style.

William Bunch (December 21, 1902 – December 21, 1941), known as Peetie Wheatstraw, was an American musician, an influential figure among 1930s blues singers.