From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Sep 7, 2002  2:04 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Little Milton
 
LITTLE MILTON (By Shaun Mather)

Born James Milton Campbell, 7 September 1934, Inverness, Mississippi

James Milton Campbell is one of the great vocalists of the blues whose
lovely mellow tone saw him standing at the crossroads between blues and
soul. He grew up in Greenville, Mississippi and began playing the guitar at
the age of 12. Whilst in his late teens he came to the attention of Ike
Turner who was working A&R for Sam Phillips who signed him to a Sun
contract in 1953. Whilst none of his Sun sides were hits, they were highly
exciting affairs much in the tradition of the day and the label. After Sun
he recorded a single for Meteor in 1957, before moving to St. Louis in 1958.

Here he met a DJ, Bob Lyons and the two set up their own label, Bobbin.
Little Milton's Bobbin singles were minor hits and allowed the label to sign
Albert King and Fontella Bass. He moved to the Chess subsidiary Checker
in 1961, and had his first big hit in 1965 with "We're Gonna Make It," which
hit number one on the R&B charts thanks to its resonance with the civil
rights movement. Hits followed like "Who's Cheating Who?," Feel So Bad",
"Grits Ain't Groceries," "If Walls Could Talk," and "Baby I Love You".

Little Milton left Checker in 1971 and signed with the Memphis-based soul
label Stax where he began to add horn and string sections and began to
emphasise his voice's soulfulness. He drifted through labels until 1984
when he joined Malaco, for whom he seems reborn. He hit with "The Blues Is
Alright," and in 1988 he won the W.C. Handy Award for Blues Entertainer of
the Year and was also inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Recommended listening:
The Complete Checker Hit Singles - Connoisseur.
Official website: http://www.littlemilton.com/welcome.html