Of brother Shine
Even in death, Tennessee's James Louis "Shine" Wilbourn maintains as rightful a grasp on American music as anyone found on this site. He was reportedly a staple at the West Tennessee Farmer's Market. He ran a shoeshine stand there, into his seventies, and entertained by unspooling familiar musics of the region in one-man guitar / harmonica renditions -- a feat not in common evidence today.
No record establishing his final year could be located when this piece was being prepared. But an account relates he was active as recently as October 2014; in fact, he was that year made the first recipient of the Jack and Jerry Smith Community Spirit Award, in Nashville.
A Jackson Sun newspaper account at the time related that "When it was announced that Wilbourn had won the award, the craft room at the West Tennessee Farmer's Market was filled with shouts of joy and clapping from friends."
He had devoted decades of his hard life to folk musics -- Blues, Rock'n'Roll, Country, Bluegrass, and Gospel. In 2012, Shine (he'd gotten the nickname while shining shoes as a youngster) explained to an interviewer how he came to music; more precisely, how it had come to him.
"Well, down in Toone in the 1950s, my uncle had a cafe," he recalled. "On Friday, after people had worked in the fields all week, they'd come to Uncle Ray's. The Kids would play outside while the grown-ups danced to the jukebox. They listened and danced to everything from Elvis to Chuck Berry, Fats Domino to Gospel.
"Sometimes us kids would look in, and they'd be crying. We guessed they had the blues."
He eventually took up a guitar. And he was soon inspired to also reach for the harmonica.
"I worked at Old Country Store, and the Bluegrass players would come out and play. I'd hang around behind the counter. And while they played, I'd play along 'til I could make my sound fit theirs."
In Shine's autumn years, he operated a Memphis shoeshine stand. But he could on a moment's notice produce a harmonica and give free, loud, and stirring vent to real-world feelings familiar to all.
Some said he was closely associated with Jaxon Records, located just down the street from his shoeshine stand. But accounts differ as to whether he personally recorded for the label. (An email query sent to Jaxon was not answered by presstime. Perhaps the label is now inactive.)
Underscored by Shine's story is the vital connection everyday people have to music. It belongs to those unheralded by fame machinery, no less than the limousine fortunate.
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