b. Alvin Hankerson, 1923, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Nicknamed ‘Nubbit’ following the loss of the tip of his right thumb at the age of three in a hurricane, Hankerson grew up in Georgia, relocating to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1945. Taking up guitar in 1948, he was unable to teach himself and abandoned the instrument after a year, only resuming in 1954 when he took some lessons. In the early 60s, he recorded for the local Bluestown label and, being a young, original blues singer, caused some excitement among the attentive white audiences. His isolation from the mainstream of blues led to some remarkable lyrics (‘I whistled to my shotgun, and it crawled down off the wall’), but heard at length, his music lacks variety. After a brief exposure on the local folk scene, Nubbit returned to obscurity. However, in 1990 he released a 12-inch single, ‘Reliving The Legend’.