HUNTER, IVORY JOE (1914–1974). Singer, songwriter, and pianist Ivory Joe Hunter was born in Kirbyville, Texas, on October 10, 1914, the son of a gospel-singing mother and a guitar-playing father, Dave Hunter. Ivory Joe Hunter took up piano as a child and by his teen years was playing gigs across Southeast Texas. He made his first recording, for the Library of Congress, under the pseudonym Ivory Joe White in 1933. Subsequently he began hosting his own radio show on KFDM in Beaumont, where he later became program manager.

In 1942 he moved to California. Three years later he started his own label, Ivory Records, in Oakland and produced his first commercial hit, "Blues at Sunrise." Shortly afterwards this label went out of business, but Hunter soon helped start another label known as Pacific Records. Hunter recorded for many labels during his long career, including 4-Star, Excelsior, and King, before finding his professional home with MGM in 1949. During the 1950s he produced a number of hits, such as "I Almost Lost My Mind" and "I Need You So" (1950) on the MGM label; and "Since I Lost My Baby" (1956), "Empty Arms" and its flipside "Love's a Hurting Game" (1957), and "Yes I Want You" (1958) on the Atlantic label. After 1958 his career began to decline. He tried to keep his momentum going, however, by recording with several different labels, such as Dot, Vee-Jay, Capital, Smash, Paramount, Strand, and Veep.

In the 1960s, with the waning popularity of rhythm-and-blues, Hunter ventured into country music^qv––a move foreshadowed by the fact that he had been using elements of this type of music for years. He soon moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he performed at a variety of venues, including the Grand Ole Opry. In 1970 he attempted a comeback with a record on the Epic label entitled The Return of Ivory Joe Hunter, but the album did not have much commercial success. Hunter's declining health brought mounting medical bills which eventually drained his financial resources. He died of lung cancer in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 8, 1974. His reputation rests not only on his impressive string of hit records, but also on his influence, which extended to such important artists as Isaac Hayes and Ray Charles.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Michael Erlewine et al., eds., AMG All Music Guide to the Blues: The Experts' Guide to the Best Blues Recordings (San Francisco: Miller Freeman, 1996; 2d ed., San Francisco: Miller Freeman, 1999). Ivory Joe Hunter (http://www.tsimon.com/hunter.htm), accessed April 8, 2008. Robert Santelli, Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia (New York: Penguin Books, 1993).

Jarad Brown