Amos Milburn

Vocation

American R&B boogie-woogie singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s. Milburn's cover version of "Down the Road a Piece" (1946) was a blues song with a Texas boogie beat that was similar in many respects to rock music. In 1949, seven of his singles got the attention of the R&B audience. "Hold Me Baby" and "Chicken Shack Boogie" landed numbers eight and nine on Billboard's survey of 1949's R&B Bestsellers. He became one of the main performers associated with the Central Avenue music scene in Los Angeles. He was also a popular touring artist, and won awards from both Down Beat magazine (Best Blues and Jazz Star) and Billboard magazine (Top R&B Artist). Among his best known songs was "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer." In 1950, Milburn's "Bad, Bad, Whiskey" scored the top of the R&B record chart. His other successful drinking songs included "Thinking and Drinking" and "Trouble in Mind." Milburn's final recording was for an album by Johnny Otis. He died soon after, on 3 January 1980, at the age of 52 years from a stroke. Link to Wikipedia biography