FALLARTS s a 14-year-old, John Dee Holeman stayed up late into the night to watch over a barnful of tobacco as smoke cured the plants, pulling the green from their leaves. His guitar helped keep weariness at bay. Inspired by popular blues artists like Blind Boy Fuller, he learned guitar chords with the help of his uncle. John Dee was born in Hillsborough on April 4, 1929. He left school after fourth grade to help his father work on the family’s farm. He moved to Durham in 1954 and found a job at the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. By then he was a talented guitarist and an expert at buck dancing and “patting juba,” a hand-patting musical tradition, performing at house parties and gatherings with Durham blues men. That’s when he met pianist Quentin “Fris” Holloway, and the pair played tours throughout the South and abroad. John Dee’s performances became a staple of Bull City’s music scene from the time of his set during Durham’s 1976 Bicentennial Folk Life Festival, and he regularly appeared at the Bull Durham Blues Festival as well as every Festival for the Eno until his death. John Dee’s music reached audiences around the globe – from Hong Kong to Thailand, Canada and Africa; at Carnegie Hall; and during the National Folk Festival. He was the recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship in 1988. John Dee recorded albums with artists such as Taj Mahal through various labels, including Hillsborough’s Music Maker Relief Foundation. Cool John Ferguson performed alongside John Dee for nearly 20 years and remembers him cracking jokes backstage before showtime. “I loved his jokes,” Cool John says, adding that he also “learned a lot from [ John Dee] musically. I learned to appreciate his style of picking and playing … he reminded me of the oldtimers I grew up with.” His favorite John Dee song is “One Black Rat.” “It was comical, but it was truthful … he had [that way of ] song delivery,” Cool John says. John Dee died on April 30, 2021, at the age of 92, and his funeral was held on May 6 at Obie’s Chapel UHC in Timberlake, North Carolina.
remembering john dee holeman 56
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durhammag.com
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august 2021
By R e n e e Ambro so P hoto by be th man n