Blues pioneer Sylvester Weaver is to be honoured with a new headstone to on the 119th anniversary of his birth.
He’s credited with playing on the very first blues record which featured a guitar-only accompaniment – Sara Martin’s Longing For Daddy Blues, released in 1923.
The Louisville musician was known as “the man with the talking guitar” during his recording era. But he’d been largely forgotten and was working as a chauffeur when he died in 1960.
Now the Kentuckiana Blues Society will replace the plain headstone they’d placed over his previously-unmarked grave in 1992.
Leader Keith Clements tells the Courier-Journal: “Sylvester had a very nice finger-picking style and also played slide guitar. He deserves to be remembered.”
The ceremony takes place at Louisville Cemetery on July 25 (Sunday).
