Charles Hunter (1876–1906)
A ragtime composer from Nashville, blind from birth, Charles Hunter wrote lively rags such as “Tickled to Death” and “Possum and Taters”.
Born in 1876 in Tennessee and nearly blind from birth, Charles Hunter learned piano tuning at a school for the blind in Nashville and then worked for a piano dealer in the city.
From 1899 he published a series of rags that were among the genre’s first successes in the South: Tickled to Death, Possum and Taters (1900), Cotton Bolls, Why We Smile…
He later moved to St. Louis, where he died young in 1906. His small output is valued by ragtime lovers for its humour and folk-flavoured melodies.
His rags, often simpler than Joplin’s, are a good way into the style: clear syncopation, direct harmony and a Southern “folk” flavour.
Piano sheet music (1)
- Possum And Taters · level 4