The Passing of another Blues Legend

Sam Myers Passes

Monday July 17 2006

Blues vocalist and harmonica player Sam Myers died on July 17 of throat cancer, in Dallas. He was 70.
A native of Laurel, Mississippi, Myers went to school in Jackson, where he played trumpet and drums and got a non-degree scholarship to the American Conservatory School of Music in Chicago. At an early age Sam was attending school by day while hitting Chicago's South Side at night where he met and sat in with Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, and Elmore James. He played drums with (Elmore) James from 1952 to 1963. In 1956, he wrote and recorded his best-known song, "Sleeping In The Ground," which has been covered by Omar & The Howlers, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and others.
In 1986 he joined the Texas band Anson Funderburgh and The Rockets, and the band collectively won nine W.C. Handy awards; their last album was Which Way is Texas? in 2003. Myers' last release was his 2004 solo album, Coming from the Old School. In February he was presented the Blues Ambassador Award by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.
He is survived by a sister, a brother, a son, and two grandchildren.