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Michigan Heritage Awards
Arts Nomination Form
Community Leadership Nomination Form
^ MHA Awardees List ^
Photo by Al Kamuda
Photo by Al Kamuda
1986-1987 awardee, Flint (Genesee County), blues musician
Isiah Ross--"Doc Ross"--of Flint, is one of Michigan's most well-known and
admired blues musicians. Born in Tunica, Mississippi in 1925, Doc Ross,
"The Harmonica Boss," started playing the harmonica when he was six years
old and by his teen years was performing in public. His father, a harmonica
player, recognized his son's talent at an early age, telling him, "God sends
talent. You hit some keys I never heard before." (1) At age 13, Doc
joined The Barber Parker Silver Kings band with Willie Love and shortly
after began touring regionally on his own. By the early 1950s, Doc Ross
and his Jump & Jive Boys appeared with harmonica legend Sonny Boy Williamson
and other blues greats on local radio shows. Doc Ross recorded songs for
many record labels during the late 1940s and early 1950s and cut his first
record in 1949, on Chess, called "Dr. Ross Boogie." He then went into the
armed service, where he picked up his nickname "Doctor" because of his medical
position and also because of his compassion for others. He also learned
other instruments so that he could play as a one-man band, simultaneously
playing guitar, harmonica, bass drum, and cymbal. Because Doc Ross was left-handed,
he learned to play the guitar upside down and backwards, just as he learned
the harmonica backwards for the same reason. The idea for forming a one-man
band stemmed from both the lack of other musicians in the service and from
having seen Joe Hill Louis, a one-man band from Memphis. (2)
Returning from service, Doc Ross recorded "Chicago Breakdown" and other
songs for Sun Records. In addition to harmonica, drums, and guitar, he also
used instruments such as washboard and broom on his records. However, difficulties
with the recording industry in Memphis in the 1950s led him to seek employment
in Flint for General Motors where he worked for more than 30 years. Doc
Ross continued to play music, touring the United States and Europe and performing
at blues concerts and festivals until his death in 1993. According to Doc
Ross, "Blues is truth. If it didn't happen to you, it happened to someone
else."
(1) Ross, Isiah in Alan R. Kamuda. "The Doctor Is In." Detroit Free Press.
7 October 1987.
(2) Ross, Isiah in Alan R. Kamuda. "The Doctor Is In." Detroit Free Press.
7 October 1987.
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