RUBIN ''RUBE'' LACY BIOGRAPHY: (born January 2, 1901, Pelahatchie, Miss.; died c. 1972, Bakersfield, CA)
An important influence on blues great SON HOUSE, Rubin Lacy was part of the Jackson, Mississippi, blues scene in the 1920s -- a scene that also included ISHMAN BRACEY, TOMMY JOHNSON, and CHARLIE MCCOY. LaCY recorded only two sides during his career as a bluesman, but his chiseled vocals and rummaging guitar style played a role in the early development of Delta blues.
Lacy was raised by his grandfather, a preacher. After learning how to play guitar, he left home and worked Mississippi juke joints. He drifted as far north as Illinois in the mid-1920s before returning to the Jackson area, where he frequently performed with the above-mentioned blues musicians and the popular Chatmon family. His two recordings --- ''Mississippi Jail House Groan'' and ''Ham Hound Crave'' --- were cut for Paramount in 1928, although he reputedly played on a number of other recordings made by Mississippi bluesmen. Sometime around 1932 Lacy quit the blues and became a Baptist minister. For the next two decades he preached in Mississippi churches. In the late 1950s Lacy moved to Los Angeles, and later settled in Bakersfield, where he died in or around 1972. -- by Robert Santelli
