artist ID help: early twentieth century Black folk musician

i'm looking for an early twentieth century Black folk musician who —if memory serves— accompanied his singing with an instrument of his own creation and which was only ever documented on a few recordings and was therefore, literally one of a kind. somebody played it on mumu player years ago and i made a mental note to look for it later and, well yeah, now i'm here.

i tried searching for a catch-all "hey does anybody know what this is?" topic to no avail.

you're probably thinking of Washington Phillips

I AM

THANK YOU

=D

That was fast

on that note: anybody got any guesses as to why this release is blocked for sale on discogs?

I thought Dust-To-Digital might have been deemed a bootleg label, but other releases of theirs are allowed for sale on Discogs, so who knows.

message board thread on that exact album indicates this:

"Release has been blocked from the Marketplace as a result of a legal notice received by Discogs asserting that the release was not licensed by the rights holder. Ref. #259376."

i.e. someone msged Discogs and said that Dust to Digital illegally released this compilation I guess

you can buy it on their website tho lol

https://dust-digital.com/shop/washington-phillips-and-his-manzarene-dreams

yup and on Amazon and quite a few other places

it's entirely possible that they (Dust to Digital) are in violation of copyright even despite selling it on their site, it's also possible the claim is dubious and Discogs is being cautious since someone has submitted a claim.

in any case, washington phillips rules.