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Pete Cassell was born on August 27, 1917 in
Cobb County, Georgia. He died on Jul 29, 1954. A blind country
minstrel content to perform on radio broadcasts rather than
record his material, Pete Cassell impressed many listeners
with his near-perfect pitch and self-taught musicianship.
Born in near Atlanta, Georgia, Cassell was
blinded in his infancy, and received his education at special
schools in Georgia. He specialized in law, but turned to
performing after teaching himself to play guitar and sing. He
first appeared on radio in the late '30s for WSB-Atlanta, and
spent the rest of his life in roughly yearlong stints for
stations in Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Missouri and Wisconsin.
Between the migrations, Pete Cassell
recorded sporadically for Decca, Mercury and Majestic, from
March 1941 to 1949. None of his sides became popular; though
Cassell was a hit for nearly every station he performed with,
including Wheeling, West Virginia’s talent-packed WWVA. He
died of coronary thrombosis in 1954. In 1993, Old Homestead
released a collection entitled Pete Cassell, Blind Minstrel.
John Bush
Talent On Display
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