{{short description|American singer}} {{use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} {{use American English|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Cootie Stark | image = File:American_blues_guitarist_Cootie_Stark.png | caption = | image_size = | birth_name = Johnny Miller | alias = Blind Johnny Miller | birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|12|27}} | birth_place = Abbeville, South Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2005|4|14|1927|12|27}} | death_place = Greenville, South Carolina, U.S. | instrument = {{hlist|Guitar|vocals}} | genre = Piedmont blues | occupation = {{hlist|Musician|songwriter}} | years_active = Late 1930s–2005 | label = Music Maker }}
'''Johnny Miller''' (December 27, 1927 – April 14, 2005),<ref name="Dead"/> known as '''Cootie Stark''', was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter.<ref name="AMG">{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p359927/biography|pure_url=yes}}|title=Cootie Stark |author=Steve Leggett |website=AllMusic |access-date=October 18, 2010}}</ref> His best remembered recordings were "Metal Bottoms" and "Sandyland." Stark was known as the "King of the Piedmont Blues."<ref name="Dead">"Doc Rock" (2011). [http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/2005.html "The Dead Rock Stars Club 2005 January to June"], ''Thedeadrockstarsclub.com''. accessed October 18, 2011</ref>
==Biography== Stark was born Johnny Miller<ref name="Room"/> in Abbeville, South Carolina, the son of sharecroppers,<ref name=jb>Dave Peabody, Obituary in ''Juke Blues'' no. 59, 2005, p. 67</ref> and grew up in Anderson County.<ref name="AMG"/> Stark was given his first guitar by his father at the age of 14,<ref name="Ibiblio"/> having then relocated to Greenville, South Carolina. His poor eyesight meant that he was unable to find regular employment. He began busking on street corners, and learned his art from fellow street performers such as Peg Leg Sam, Pink Anderson and Josh White plus, particularly in his earliest days, from Baby Tate.<ref name=jb/><ref name="AMG"/><ref name="Ibiblio"/> He acquired the nickname, Sugar Man, and continued to work his trade as a songster in the area.<ref name="AMG"/> His performing name of Cootie Stark was an amalgam of a childhood nickname and his grandfather's surname.<ref name="Room">{{cite book | first= Adrian | last= Room | year= 2010 | title= Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins | edition= 5th | publisher= McFarland & Company, Inc. | location= Jefferson, North Carolina | isbn= 978-0-7864-4373-4 | pages= 453/4}}</ref>
His eyesight deteriorated until he was legally registered as blind, but Stark continued to perform across the State and beyond,<ref name="AMG"/> often using the name Blind Johnny Miller.<ref name=jb/> However, by the 1980s, with playing prospects diminishing, Stark settled in Greenville. "By then, the real Piedmont blues was pretty much gone," he stated. "All them guys were dead and gone and I wasn't making no headway."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bluesandhash.com/cootiestark.php |title=Cootie Stark |website=Bluesandhash.com |access-date=October 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006043349/http://www.bluesandhash.com/cootiestark.php |archive-date=October 6, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1997, when Stark was over 70 years old, he was heard playing Fats Domino songs by Tim Duffy, the founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation.<ref name="Ibiblio">{{cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/musicmakers/mm4000b/mm4008.html |title=Cootie Stark |author= |date= |website=Ibiblio.org |access-date=October 18, 2011}}</ref> Their record label released Stark's debut album, ''Sugar Man'', in 1999. In 2003, Stark released his second and final album, ''Raw Sugar'', when he was again accompanied on record by Taj Mahal.<ref name="AMG"/> He received the South Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 2005.<ref name=jb/>
Stark died at the age of 77, in Greenville, in April 2005.<ref name="Dead"/>
==Discography== ===Solo albums=== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year || Title || Record label |- | 1999 || ''Sugar Man''|| style="text-align:center;"|Music Maker |- | 2003 || ''Raw Sugar'' || style="text-align:center;"|Music Maker |}<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/cootie-stark-mn0000104195/discography |title=Cootie Stark | Album Discography |website=AllMusic |date=1927-12-27 |access-date=2015-10-02}}</ref>
===Guest appearances=== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year || Album || Artist || Details |- | 2007 || ''10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads'' || Kenny Wayne Shepherd || Guest vocals ("Prison Blues") |}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/10-days-out-blues-from-the-backroads-mw0000451318|title=10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads - Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards|author=Steve Leggett|website=AllMusic|access-date=28 October 2014}}</ref>
==See also== *List of Piedmont blues musicians
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Cootie}} Category:1927 births Category:2005 deaths Category:American blues guitarists Category:American male guitarists Category:American blues singers Category:Songwriters from South Carolina Category:Singers from South Carolina Category:People from Abbeville, South Carolina Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:Songster musicians Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:Guitarists from South Carolina Category:20th-century American male singers Category:American male songwriters Category:20th-century American songwriters