In Memory: Sugar Harp

We are deeply saddened to share that bluesman Charles “Sugar Harp” Burroughs passed away this Saturday, June 6. A much-loved pillar of the Birmingham blues scene, Sugar Harp was known for his extraordinary skill on the harmonica and his “down-in-the-gutter, back-alley, storytelling blues.”

“Sugar was a dear Music Maker family member,” says Tim Duffy, Music Maker co-founder and Executive Director. “He loved the blues and was a beloved musical figure in his adopted home of Birmingham, AL. Sugar was a Vietnam-era Army veteran who served his country and navigated the turbulent ’60s era with grace and joy, embracing a vision of loving all of humanity. A remarkable spirit – he will be sorely missed.”

Sugar’s music was all his own, and in his songs, you could feel the places he’d been. He received his first harmonica at age 8 from his great-grandfather, who played the blues harp and a handmade guitar built from an orange crate and broomsticks. By 1969, he found himself hanging out with Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore East and hitched a ride to Woodstock on a whim. The following year he was drafted into the Air Force and began serving in the 56th Fighter Wing in Vietnam. His experiences from New York to Vietnam, the partying and the struggling, shaped Sugar’s character and his music.

After losing most of his belongings, including his harmonicas, in a car fire in 2019, Sugar gained a new lease on life in 2021 when he joined Music Maker. We’re proud to have recorded and released his 2022 debut album, Sugar Is My Name, and connected him with fans from around the world at Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. His wit, enthusiasm, and deep passion for the blues moved everyone who met him.

We are so grateful to have been a part of this incredible artist’s story. Rest easy, Sugar.