Photo: Louis Ramirez · CC BY-SA 2.0 · credits
Tier 2 · legacy legend
Sam Myers
Person · male · United States · Laurel · born 1936 · died 2006 · recording since 1980
American blues musician and songwriter (1936-2006)
Also known as Sammy Myers · サム・マイヤーズ
Timeline
11 events▣ Album 8◦ Birth 1★ Debut release 1† Death 1
1930s
1980s
· Debut release
Debut release: Mississippi Delta Blues
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
1990s
2000s
Biography
English biography440 words · 3 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1371004490
Biography
Samuel Joseph Myers (February 19, 1936 – July 17, 2006) was an American blues musician and songwriter. He was an accompanist on dozens of recordings by blues artists over five decades. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James but was most famous as a blues vocalist and blues harp player. For nearly two decades he was the featured vocalist for Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets.
Biography
Myers was born in Laurel, Mississippi, United States. He acquired juvenile cataracts at age seven and was left legally blind for the rest of his life, despite corrective surgery. He could make out shapes and shadows, but could not read print at all; he was taught Braille.
He acquired an interest in music while a schoolboy in Jackson, Mississippi, and became skilled enough at playing the trumpet and drums that he received a nondegree scholarship from the American Conservatory of Music (formerly the American Conservatory School of Music) in Chicago. Myers attended school by day and at night frequented the nightclubs of the South Side.
There he met and was sitting in with Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Lockwood, Jr., and Elmore James. Myers played drums with Elmore James on a fairly steady basis from 1952 until James's death, in 1963, and is credited on many of James's historic recordings for Chess Records. In 1956, Myers wrote and recorded what was to be his most famous single, "Sleeping in the Ground", a song that has been covered by Blind Faith, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and many other blues artists; it was also featured on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour show on "Sleep".
From the early 1960s until 1986, Myers worked clubs in and around Jackson and across the South in the (formerly) racially segregated string of venues known as the Chitlin' Circuit. He also toured the world with Sylvia Embry and the Mississippi All-Stars Blues Band.
In 1986, Myers met Anson Funderburgh, from Plano, Texas, and joined his band, The Rockets. Myers toured all over the US and the world with the Rockets, enjoying a partnership that endured until the time of his death, from complications due to surgery for throat cancer, on July 17, 2006, in Dallas, Texas. Just before Myers died, he toured as a solo artist in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, with the Swedish band Bloosblasters.
Legacy
That same year, the University Press of Mississippi published Myers's autobiography, Sam Myers: The Blues is My Story. The writer Jeff Horton, whose work has appeared in Blues Revue and Southwest Blues, chronicled Myers's history and delved into his memories of life on the road.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 10 | 58.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 11 | 82.8th |
| Studio albums | 8 | 88.9th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 11 | 87.9th |
| Recording span (years) | 24 | 53.9th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (11 release groups · 8 studio albums)
Albums · 8
1980 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 37:47
A1Waiting on You Mama5:28A2Sam, S Boogie4:15A3Trying Hard5:57A4Sad and Lonesome4:00B1Mowing to the Country3:20B2Looking for My Baby3:15B3Remembering Elmore2:45B4Snuff and More Snuff2:15B5Sleeping in the Ground4:14B6Heart Is Crying Out2:181987 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 41:13
A1A Man Needs His Loving3:37A2I’ll Be True2:26A3Don’t Want No Leftovers4:04A4Walked All Night2:48A5My Kind of Baby2:17A6Changing Neighborhoods5:36B1Can’t Stop Loving3:15B2Chill Out3:13B3My Heart4:49B4Trying to Make You Mine2:08B5Sleeping in the Ground4:30B6Hard Hearted Woman2:301989 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 37:34
A1Tell Me What Have I Done Wrong?3:05A2Since We’ve Been Together3:20A3Rack ’Em Up2:17A4Mama and Papa2:42A520 Miles3:06A6Hold That Train, Conductor4:19B1I’m Your Professor2:47B2I’ll Keep On Trying2:55B3All Your Love3:30B4Are You Out There?3:30B5Lemonade3:32B6Meanstreak2:311990 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 43:03
1True Love2:172Suggestion Blues4:253Life Problem1:574Everything's Gonna Be Alright3:245Hep Cats in Big Town4:536What's Wrong, What's Wrong?4:367My Heart Cries Out for You3:048Poor Little Angel Child3:529Wee Wee Hours3:5210Take Me Where You Go2:4511Tomorrow Will Find Me the Same Way4:2612My Love Is Here to Stay3:321991 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 14 tracks · 50:24
1Tell Me What I Want to Hear3:462Ways of Man3:363I Done Quit Getting Sloppy Drunk2:304I Want a Wife4:195I’m Innocent3:266Shedding Tears of Laughter2:457Rent Man Blues4:308I Need You So3:059Waitin’ on You, Mamma3:4710It’ll Do3:5611The Amateur (She’s Gone)3:1412Missing Person3:4413Happy Man3:0414Down at J.J.’s4:421997 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 13 tracks · 45:56
1Lookin' the World Over3:282Oh-Oh2:393The Last Time Around3:264Monkey Around3:085That's What They Want3:456The Dew Is Falling3:387Mudslide4:088I Don't Play2:209I Don't Want You Cutting Off Your Hair4:4710Don't Quit the One You Love for Me3:4611I've Been Dogged by Women3:4012The Meanest Woman3:5013I'm Shakin'3:211999 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 45:18
1Change in My Pocket2:552Young Fashioned Ways3:023Little Girl3:054Single Again3:045$100 Bill3:536Hula Hoop3:587Willie Jo3:028Ain’t That Lonely3:389Highway Man4:3910What Have I Done3:4511You Can’t Be the One for Me3:0412Things Have Changed7:132004 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 14 tracks · 1:08:51
1I'm Tired of Your Jive4:252Ninety Nine3:383I Got a Thing for the Voodoo Woman5:244Burning Fire4:265Waitin' on You Mama4:536I Got the Blues4:487My Daily Wish5:058You Don't Know What Love Is All About4:009Coming From the Old School4:2810Country Boy4:2611Money Is My Downfall5:3712After Hours When the Joint Is Closed6:1313Packing Up My Blues4:5714Let You Slowly Bring Me Down6:31
Album · 3
| Cover | Year | Title | Notes | First release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Thru the Years: A RetrospectiveSearch SpotifySearch YouTube MusicTracklist · 19 tracks · 1:01:501Come On2:44 2Talk to You by Hand3:05 3Keep What I’ve Got3:05 4The Blues Seem to Follow Me2:34 5Tomorrow Will Find Me the Same Way4:26 6My Heart Cries Out for You3:05 7Look What You’re Doing to Me2:23 8Hard-Hearted Woman2:36 9I’m Your Professor2:50 10I’ll Be True2:27 11A Man Needs His Loving3:40 12Changing Neighborhoods5:43 13Tell Me What Have I Done Wrong?3:09 14I Done Quit Getting Sloppy Drunk2:29 15Since We’ve Been Together3:23 16Make a Little Love Tonight3:09 17Tell Me What I Want to Hear3:47 18Meanstreak2:34 19Down at J.J.’s4:41 | Compilation | 1992 | |
| 1995 | Live at the Grand EmporiumSearch SpotifySearch YouTube MusicTracklist · 15 tracks · 1:09:251Sidetracked5:33 2Understand4:29 3Ways of Man4:40 4It’s You4:24 5Turning My Life Around5:04 6Peace of Mind4:57 7Empty Arms3:32 8Wild Cherry3:25 9Tell Me What I Want to Hear4:40 10The Drifter3:41 11Every Thing’s Gonna Be Alright5:08 12Shedding Tears of Laughter5:22 13Trying to Make You Mine4:57 14Make a Little Love Tonight4:39 15Backstroke4:54 | Live | 1995 | |
| 2001 | Blues Harmonica WizardsSearch SpotifySearch YouTube MusicTracklist · 22 tracks · 54:081Wine, Women & Whiskey2:12 2Jump the Boogie (instrumental)2:22 3Mean ol' Train2:30 4P L Blues (instrumental)2:23 5When the Saints Go Marchin' In (unissued)2:34 6Blue Lights (instrumental)2:26 7Mean ol' Train (version 2)2:12 8Wild Fire (instrumental)2:23 9Jumpin' With Jarvis (instrumental)2:16 10Rub a Little Boogie2:27 11Mr. Ticket Agent2:40 12Coming Back Home2:39 13Creole Gal Blues2:32 14She'll Be Mine After a While2:58 15Mean ol' Train (version 3)2:13 16Sleeping in the Ground2:36 17My Love Is Here to Stay2:31 18You Don't Have to Go2:31 19Sad, Sad Lonesome Day2:54 20Look on Yonder Wall2:29 21Poor Little Angel Child (unissued)2:33 22Rhythm With Me (instrumental)1:47 | Compilation | 2001 |
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Sam Myers head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 10 | 58.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 11 | 82.8th |
| Studio albums | 8 | 88.9th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 11 | 87.9th |
| Recording span (years) | 24 | 53.9th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Awards & honours
Line-up
| Name | From | To | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi Delta Blues Band(band) | — | present | harmonica |
| Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets(band) | — | present |
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sam_Myers.jpgaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7d1829ee-5305-4662-9bc9-216953bb5e7ddiscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7d1829ee-5305-4662-9bc9-216953bb5e7dcore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q725900genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q725900seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Myersbiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Myers
Why this artist is in the database
- List of blues musicians — rank #158
| 1936 | 2006 | Mississippi | Electric blues |
Tier rule: genre canon: blues
Image: Louis Ramirez · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q725900 · MusicBrainz: 7d1829ee-5305-4662-9bc9-216953bb5e7d
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