Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bobby Blue Bland and James Cotton are brothers?

mjames cotton

In the New York Times obit for Bobby Blue Bland, who passed away in June 2013, it says that Bland discovered, not too long before his death, that he and James Cotton were half-brothers. Born in 1930, Bland was fathered by I.J. Brooks, who then abandoned the family. Cotton was born five years later in Tunica, Miss. Apparently, Bland found out that Cotton’s father was also I.J. Brooks, who also bobby_bland1soon left that family. Cotton was taken in as a kid by Sonny Boy Williamson II, the more famous one. The story600px-James_Cotton_2007_2 was always that Cotton had been orphaned but later he admitted that story wasn’t true.

No denying that there’s some resemblance.

 

6 thoughts on “Bobby Blue Bland and James Cotton are brothers?

  1. They certainly look alike. Growing up separately without the knowledge of their common paternity, they both became excellent blues musicians. That says a lot about heredity, how musical talent was in their genes

  2. John Lee Williamson was not joke!
    Rice Miller stole his name and became Sonny Boy II
    Good story story about some talented dudes!

  3. Both Sonny Boys were superb (not just “good”). The facial resemblance between Cotton and Bland is certainly obvious; if you listen to some of Cotton’s early LPs, he croons ballads in a voice that’s also very remindful of Bobby.

  4. I was at a Blues club in Baltimore Maryland. and James Cotton told me he and Bobby Bland were brothers it was about 1983 don’t know why he told us we were just folks talking to him after the show small venue didnl’t’have a place they could get away from the crowd so we just talked to him

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