Music
Mr. Bo
1932–1995 · blues guitarist, singer
Mississippi-born guitarist and singer who played Detroit clubs for four decades and wrote the local blues classic "If Trouble Was Money".
- Born
Indianola, Mississippi- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 63- Birth name
- Louis Collins
- Also known as
- Mr. Bo Collins
- Detroit years
- 1950s–1995
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Louis Collins's family left Mississippi for Chicago in 1946 and then moved to Michigan, first to Baldwin in 1951 and a couple of years later to Detroit. As Mr. Bo he became a working club musician in the city for the next forty years, playing a stinging, B.B. King-influenced guitar. His first single, "I'm Leaving This Town," came out on Northern Records in 1960, and in 1966 he recorded "If Trouble Was Money," written with his brother McKinley, for the local Big D label; the song became a Detroit blues standard. Further singles followed on small labels such as Reel, Diamond Jim and Gold Top, including "Plenty Fire Below" in 1972. He was part of the Detroit blues showcase at the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. His profile faded in the 1970s and 1980s, but in 1995 he received the Detroit Blues Society's Lifetime Achievement Award and released a full album, If Trouble Was Money, shortly before he died of pneumonia at Harper University Hospital.
Highlights
- First single "I'm Leaving This Town" (Northern Records, 1960)
- "If Trouble Was Money" (Big D Records, 1966), co-written with his brother
- Played the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival
- Detroit Blues Society Lifetime Achievement Award (1995)