Howard Armstrong

Country bluesman Howard Armstrong was born March 4, 1909 in Dayton, TN; one of 11 children. As a youngster he fashioned his first fiddle out of a goods box strung with horsehair. Honing his musical skills in his family band, he began performing as a teen alongside Knoxville performers Ted Bogan and Carl Martin in groups like the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and the Four Aces. Armstrong's groups were exceptions to the rule of the era which dictated that black performers perform only material from the segregated "race music catalogs"; their repertoire included not only old-time jig...