Lonesome Sundown
Cornelius Green III (December 12, 1928 – April 23, 1995), known professionally as Lonesome Sundown, was an American blues musician, best known for his swamp blues recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s. Early life Green was born in 1928 on the Dugas Plantation near Donaldsonville, Louisiana. In 1948, at the age of 18, he moved to New Orleans and worked in various jobs, including porter at the New Southport Club, a casino in Jefferson Parish, at a hotel, a rice mill, and with a construction company. He returned to Donaldsonville by 1948 and, inspired by Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, began taking guitar lessons from a cousin. "Boogie Chillun," by John Lee Hooker was the first song that he learned to play. Music career In 1953, after a brief period as a truck driver in Jeanerette, Louisiana, he moved again to work at the Gulf Oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. By this time he had begun to take his music more seriously, jamming at local clubs. In 1955 he was invited by Clifton Chenier to sit in with his new band, the Zydeco Ramblers, at the Blue Moon Club in Lake Charles. Chenier offered him the post of second guitarist in the band, alongside first guitarist Phillip Walker. Green toured with them as far as Chicago and Los Angeles, where Chenier's recording of "The Cat's Dreaming" was inspired by an incident in which Green fell asleep during a session and by the time Green auditioned for the producer Bumps Blackwell but failed to get a contract. Green married later in 1955, left the Zydeco Ramblers, and moved to Opelousas, Louisiana, where he began playing with Lloyd Reynauld and writing his own songs. He recorded a demo tape and took it to the producer J. D. "Jay" Miller in Crowley. Miller was impressed, gave Green the stage name "Lonesome Sundown", and recorded his debut single, "Leave My Money Alone" backed with "Lost Without Love", which he leased to Excello Records in 1956. The followup, "Lonesome Whistler" backed with "My Home Is a Prison", was more successful, and Sundown became one of Miller's south Louisiana stable of musicians. He never had a chart hit, but he recorded for Miller for eight years, and his records sold in respectable quantities, his output including "Don't Say a Word" (featuring Lazy Lester on harmonica), "I'm a Mojo Man", "You Know I Love You", "I Stood By (And Watched Another Man Steal My Gal)", "My Home Ain't Here", and the much-covered "Gonna Stick to You Baby". Sundown continued to work with Miller into the early 1960s. In 1964 he recorded "Hoo Doo Woman Blues" backed with "I've Got a Broken Heart", recordings which have been described as among "the last ethnic down-home blues 45s aimed exclusively at the Negro market". However, by 1965 Sundown had become disillusioned with his lack of success. He also endured a difficult divorce around this time, retired from the music industry to work as a