My Name Is Leon

While it wasn't unexpected given his advanced age and health, the death of gospel bluesman Leo "Bud" Welch in 2017 felt altogether too soon. The Delta bluesman from Sabougla, Mississippi had been performing for most of his life. He gigged in juke joints, opened for touring artists such as B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, and John Lee Hooker, and played in church, but he didn't release an album until he was 81. 2014's Sabougla Voices was a "Sunday morning" gospel-blues album of songs he'd learned, written, or improvised on the spot. He followed it a year later with his "Saturday night sinner's record," I Don’t Prefer No Blues, and toured the globe. In 2018, he was the subject of the documentary film, Late Blossom Blues: The Journey of Leo "Bud" Welch. Welch cut The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name in Nashville with producer Dan Auerbach and his band the Arcs (that included the late Richard Swift), at his Easy Eye Sound label and studio in Nashville in 2015.