Pee wee crayton biography of barack

Pee Wee Crayton was a slightly built man with a stage manner so modest he would seem out of place before an audience were it not for the heaving rhythms and high-pitched emotion his fingers could pull from the strings of a guitar.

“He was the nice man of the blues,” said a fellow musician, one among the 350 admirers who went to a concert in Van Nuys Sunday in honor of Crayton, who died July 25 at the age of 70.

Crayton’s memory and a tradition of holding benefits for the families of performers who have braved the financial rapids of a life in the blues brought about five local bands and 10 soloists to the Valley Club on Sepulveda Boulevard. They volunteered their music, 7 1/2 hours of it.

The event started at 6 p.m. and ended when performances of one of Crayton’s most famous songs, “Blues After Hours,” fulfilled its title. Energetic musicians lent an extra measure of intensity both to that 1949 Crayton hit and such others as “I Love You So” and “Texas Hop.”

Bringing the Music Close

Several of the performers turned to the table at the front of the club’s vast interior and sang or played directly to Crayton’s widow, Esther. Joe Houston, a saxophonist, stepped down from the stage, paused in front of Esther Crayton and then wove a thread of blues cadenzas through the audience. He stopped at every table, taking the music as close to as many people as possible, a goal that Crayton’s widow said was her husband’s:

“He always used to say that God gave him a talent, and the music was playing through him to the audience. He was the medium. He was a giving man, of music and himself.”

It was Crayton’s memory that gave the musicians their audience Sunday. Interviews with many who attended revealed that they had come to hear Crayton’s music, or at least the brand of guitar blues they identified with his name.

One musician after another, asked about his connection to Crayton, recalled a favorite concert or a kindness. “He’s th