Fred McMullen

Country blues singer and guitarist. Born: about 1905, possibly in Hosford, Liberty County, Florida Died: possibly February 1960 in New York He recorded with the guitarists Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss in 1933, after which there is no definitive documentation of his life or whereabouts. McMullen was born in Florida sometime in 1905. Little else is known about his life prior to his recording sessions with Weaver and Moss, except that he spent time incarcerated at a convict camp in DeKalb County, Georgia. McMullen was a regular performer at the 81 Theater in Atlanta, where he first encountered Weaver and Moss. According to Kate McTell in an interview, McMullen was responsible for introducing Moss to her husband, the guitarist Blind Willie McTell, initiating later collaborations between the two. From January 16 to 19, 1933, McMullen joined Weaver, Moss, and Ruth Willis for recording sessions in New York City. McMullen apparently moved on after the sessions concluded, never to record again. The Atlanta city directory listed him once, in 1932, filing his name as MacMullin. Moss recalled very little about McMullen but speculated that he returned to Macon. No record of his death is known, but the blues historian Bob L. Eagle hypothesized he could be the same Fred McMullen who died in February 1960.