Music
Doctor Ross
1925–1993 · blues one-man band: singer, guitarist, harmonica player, drummer
Mississippi one-man blues band who moved to Michigan in 1954 to work for General Motors and recorded his best-known sides for Detroit's Fortune Records.
- Born
Tunica, Mississippi- Died
Flint, Michigan
aged 67- Birth name
- Isaiah Ross
- Also known as
- Dr. Ross · The Harmonica Boss
- Detroit years
- 1954–1993 (Flint); Detroit recordings 1960–1963
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Isaiah Ross sang while playing guitar, harmonica and drums at once, a raw, driving style often compared to John Lee Hooker's. After early records for Sun in Memphis, he moved his family to Flint in October 1954 and took a job at a General Motors plant, work he kept for the rest of his life and which gave him a steady middle-class income alongside music. In 1958 he released "Industrial Boogie," a Flint factory answer to Hooker's "Boogie Chillen'," on his own DIR label. Between 1960 and 1963 Detroit's Fortune Records issued four of his singles, including "Cat Squirrel" (1961), which later reached rock audiences when Cream and Jethro Tull covered it on their debut albums. European tours in the 1960s and 1970s made him a festival favorite abroad. He died in Flint in 1993, and a music scholarship in his name was set up at Mott Community College.
Highlights
- Played guitar, harmonica and drums at the same time
- Worked at General Motors in Flint from 1954 until his death
- "Cat Squirrel" (Fortune, 1961), covered by Cream and Jethro Tull
- "Industrial Boogie" (1958) on his own DIR label
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Recorded here · 1960–1963
Fortune Records (Third Avenue shop and studio)
Demolished · 1956–1995
The Detroit label that released four of his singles, including "Cat Squirrel".