Yank Rachell

One doesn't usually associate a mandolin with a blues musician, but that's what Yank Rachell played, and he played it with such legendary blues artists as John Estes (aka Sleepy John Estes) and Hambone Willie Newbern. James "Yank" Rachell was born in 1910 in Brownsville, TX, and learned to play the mandolin as a child. As a youngster he played at events such as fish fries and house parties in the Brownsville area, where he began to accompany Newbern, and in the 1920s he met Estes and began a friendship that lasted until Estes' death in 1977. He left the music business full-time to tend to his farm in Brownsville shortly after the Depression hit in 1929, but didn't completely give up music, playing occasionally in the Brownsville area, and in 1930 he made some records with several blues legends, such as Sonny Boy Williamson and Elijah Jones. In 1958 he and his wife moved to Indianapolis, IN, and he put his music career on hold. After his wife died in 1961 be re-entered the business, hooking up with Estes again to play not only in blues clubs but also in coffee houses, at colleges and in both blues and folk festivals. He played on several of Estes' records and even made a few of his own. When Estes died in 1977 he all but retired from the music industry, although he did play at the 1993 Chicago Blues Festival.