Algia Mae Hinton

Photograph: Algia Mae Hinton performing at the Wheatland Music Festival in Remus, Michigan, September 1990.

"Algia Mae Hinton was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and vocalist, she was born on August 29, 1929 in Johnston County, North Carolina. Her parents, Alexander and Ollie O’Neal, were farmers who raised tobacco, cotton, cucumbers and sweet potatoes. Mother Ollie could play many stringed instruments a talented multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, accordion, autoharp, harmonica, and jaw harp. By the time Algia on had reached her mid-teens, she was playing the guitar for local dances and house parties. .Her mother began teaching Algia when she was just nine years old. Her father was a dancer and taught her buck dancing and two step.

Algia was best recognized for her ability to merge buck dancing and Piedmont fingerpicking, often playing behind her ahead as seen in the photograph above.
She was the youngest of fourteen children and worked the fields from an early age. Her musical and agricultural upbringing set the stage for her adult life. Algia married Millard Hinton in 1950. Her husband died in 1965, forcing Algia to raise her seven children alone by working long hours on the farm. Despite these trying circumstances, Algia kept the music alive and passed it on to her children. Together, they fought off the hard times by entertaining the people of their community. Over the years Algia’s music has gained international recognition."
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Algia Mae married Millard R. Hinton in 1950. They subsequently moved to Raleigh, where they had seven children. The marriage lasted until 1965, when Millard Hinton was killed. At this point, Algia Mae moved with her children back to the O'Neal township and earned income as a field laborer. In the meantime, she played at house parties in Johnston County, North Carolina and for her children.

Hinton met the folklorist Glenn Hinson in 1978, who arranged for her performance at that year's North Carolina Folklife Festival. She subsequently performed at the National Folk Festival, the University of Chicago Folk Festival, and in 1985 at an event called "Southern Roots" at Carnegie Hall that featured Delta and Piedmont blues artists.'

In 1998, she made her only trip to Europe performing for the Blues Al Femminile series in Turin, Italy. She became known for her guitar playing and her buck dancing, often playing her guitar behind her head as she danced. In 1983, she demonstrated these skills in the Mike Seeger produced film Talking Feet; Solo Southern Dance - Flatfoot, Buck and Tap released by filmmaker Les Blanks in 1992.

Hinton received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1992. She was a beneficiary of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, who also released her 1999 release, Honey Babe.
She died on February 8, 2018, at home in Middlesex, North Carolina

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Source:https://musicmaker.org/artists/algia-mae-hinton/

Source:https://pinecone.org/artists/algia-mae-hinton

Source:Newspaper Obituary: https://www.newsobserver.com/.../article199182894.html

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algia_Mae_Hinton