PEE-WEE CRAYTON
Connie Crayton was a Texas guitarist who made an impact when he moved to LA and was a mainstay of the Bay Area Blues scene for decades when he settled a little further north. Pee-Wee’s style owed much to T-Bone Walker and Charlie Christian, two friends who were active on the Houston scene when Pee-Wee was getting started. What he shared with them was a single-string style of phrasing that T-Bone and Charlie used to blaze an electric trail in the Blues and Jazz respectively. In 1948, He signed for the Bihari Brothers Modern label where he went to the top of the R&B charts with ‘Blues After Hours’. Further big hits followed with ‘Texas Hop’ and ‘I Love You So’ among others. Pee-Wee signed with various top labels like Imperial in New Orleans and VeeJay in Chicago, but there was to be no return to the charts. Despite the lack of hits, Pee-Wee was a hugely popular touring act. He was in demand as a session player too, adding his distinctive touch to the records of Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown, Roy Milton and Big Joe Turner, and his work with Johnny Otis led to the 1971 album ‘Things I Used to Do’. Pee-Wee played the clubs, and recorded and toured occasionally until he passed on in 1985.
