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 Jimmy Pryor
"Midnight Cowboy"
1999 Inductee
Jimmy Pryor is the King of Des Moines Blues. Born in West Virginia in
1916, he started his Blues career at the early age of 12, playing cat
houses and rent parties.
Jimmy entered World War II at the age of 27, and drove a truck for the
legendary Red Ball Express. He helped supply General George Patton in
his famous run through Europe.
Jimmy
returned to West Virginia and eventually moved to Detroit in the 1950s.
It was there, during the Blues boom of the ‘50s, Jimmy met and played
with some of the greatest Bluesmen of the time. He opened for, jammed
with, or played with B.B. King, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, John Lee
Hooker, etc… He also traveled a lot, playing in the band the 4
Aces. As Jimmy has said, "I was pretty well known. I used to
sneak up on stage and start jamming with the fellas." In Chicago,
Jimmy met and sang with the immortal Sam Cooke in Cooke's
Gospel Group.
In 1960, Jimmy was working for a booking agent in Detroit. As Jimmy puts
it, "They needed some Blues in Des Moines, and my boss said, ‘Jimmy
you gonna like Des Moines. You’ll probably never come back!’"
Sure enough, Jimmy came to Des Moines and never returned to Detroit.
Jimmy remembers, "Back then, Des Moines was a town that didn't
sleep. When you played in Detroit, or some of the other big cities, they
would close the bars at 2 o’clock, but in Des Moines you could play
all night long."
By the 1970s, the Blues was dying all over the country and Jimmy needed
to find work. That’s when he got involved in Country music and played
the supper clubs north of Des Moines. It was there that Jimmy got his
famous nickname "The Midnight Cowboy". Jimmy was so loved by
the Country music people, that he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of
Fame.
These days, you can catch Jimmy playing the Blues all over the place. He
is currently the showman of Fat
Tuesday & The Greasefire Horns. The band took first place in
the 2000 Iowa Blues Challenge. They will be traveling to Memphis this
coming February to compete in the International Blues Challenge.
You can also find Jimmy featured Sunday nights jamming with The
Bad Boys of the Blues. At 84 years old, he is without a doubt,
one of the most beloved and enchanting Blues performers in Des Moines…the
real deal…
FEATURE PHOTO BY JEN
TAYLOR
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Jimmy in the 60's
Jimmy Pryor at the
induction ceremony.
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