While W.C. Handy didn’t invent the blues, he most certainly helped propel it to wider audiences. Today is the composer and “Father of the Blues’ birthday.
William Christopher Handy was born November 16, 1873 in Florence, Ala. Growing up in a deeply religious household, Handy was forbidden from playing and listening to secular music but the pull of it was too strong. His pastor father eventually agreed to let him take organ lessons.
Abandoning the instrument and learning how to play the cornet, Handy went off on his own before studying to become a teacher at the Teachers Agriculture and Mechanical College in Huntsville, Ala. (READ MORE)
