After spending the first fifty years of his life working for the railroads after a brief stint as an actor, Jesse Fuller decided to become a professional musician. Born March 12, 1896 in Jonesboro, Georgia, Fuller established his guitar chaps growing up, and retained a body of songs in his head that he would perform occasionally to raise a little money by busking. He settled in San Francisco, and in the early 1950s began developing a music career, standing out from the crowd by playing multiple instruments live all on his own. He started writing songs based on his experiences, and one of those compositions, “San Francisco Bay Blues”, got him a record contract. That song would establish him, as would the “fotdella”, a contraption he invented himself in order to get a stronger sound during his one-man-show appearances. He recorded and performed steadily, becoming an icon in the San Francisco area and an influence on rock and folk artists like Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jim Croce, and the Grateful Dead who were just a few of the many acts who paid tribute to Fuller by recording his songs. He became so beloved that after his death on January 29, 1976, the Smithsonian Institute took possession of both his favorite guitar and his fotdella.
