Real Music: Scott Dunbar
sings "Little Liza Jane"

From the album Scott Dunbar: From
Lake Mary. Used by permission of
Parker Dinkins.
http://www.masterdigital.com

Musician Scott Dunbar sits on his front porch in Woodville, MS, abstracted by the screen of his front door. Dunbar was unique in his development as a blues singer in that most of his musical career was spent entertaining at white gatherings near his Lake Mary home on the Louisiana border rather than at African-American jukes and fish fries. The son of a former slave, Dunbar taught himself music at age 8 on a home-made cigar box fiddle and spent his working life as a fisherman and river guide. 

Though Dunbar's recorded output was limited, he fills an important niche in the development of the blues with his child-like, falsetto singing and lilting guitar work. Robert Cage, a protégé of Dubar, just released his first CD on the Fat Possum label featuring many of Dunbar's songs in the Lake Mary blues style.