Blues Icon “Little Milton”

Blues Icon “Little Milton”

Milton Campbell recorded with Sun Records & Stax in Memphis. He garnered such honors as the W. C. Handy Blues Entertainer of the Year Award, a Grammy Award nomination, inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, & numerous billboard blues smash hits.


His friends said, “Milton just loved to cook for himself, his family, & his friends.” We have a recipe for “Little Milton in the Tennessee cookbook “Country Goodness Recipes of Tennessee Celebrities”

As I will be doing a book signing Saturday, May 28 at “The Exit 56 Blues Festival” at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, TN (Just east of Memphis) I am doing a blog on blues contributors to the cookbooks. I will do a blog next week on Stax Record Studios, which also sent a recipe.

Milton “Little Milton” Campbell” found an early connection to Country and western music and later fused it with the other two predominant musical influences of the Mississippi Delta: Gospel & Blues. A youthful “Little” Milton began studying what he heard and practiced; mastering songs and reciting them, no matter what the style or difficulty. By his early teens, he was performing in local clubs and bars across the Delta.

He carefully developing his craft and attracting the attention of established acts and local record labels. By the time Ike Turner introduced Milton to Sam Phillips of Sun Records in the early 50's, he was a young but seasoned performer with a momentous live show that created a buzz in every town he played. His debut single Beggin My Baby was recorded and released at the same time Sam Phillips was molding the sound of another unknown talent from Mississippi: Elvis Presley.

He sky rocketed to success with such blues hits as I’m a Lonely Man, Baby I Love You, If Walls Could Talk, Feel So Bad, Who's Cheating Who? and the unforgettable Grits Ain't Groceries.

Little Milton signed with Stax and joined a virtual who’s who of influential black recording artist of the day including Isaac Hayes, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Booker T. & The M.G.'s, Albert King and, Johnnie Taylor. Milton’s legend only grew at Stax, where from 1971 through 1975, he stacked up more mega hits including Walking The Back Streets and Cryin and That's What Love Will Make You Do.

He was the man who made the THE BLUES IS ALRIGHT a national anthem with blues enthusiasts around the globe.