Leroy Carr was born on March 27^th, 1905 in Nashville, Tennessee. When his parents got divorced he moved with his mother and sisters to Indianapolis, where Carr lived almost all life. At that time, Indianapolis was the main city for automobilistic industry and for this reason it represented a good place for black people to find a good job. It’s not possible to get a lot news about his childhood, but all we know about it it’s that he learnt playing the piano by himself and when he was very young he dropped out of school. When he was done with the army he got married and changed a lot of jobs. At the beginning of the 20s Leroy Carr decided to work as pianist and singer in night clubs or private parties. For many years, Indiana Av. was a really nice place where to listen to Blues and Jazz musicians. Probably, it was just during one of these crazy nights that Leroy Carr knew the guitar player, Francis “Scrapper” Blackwell. There would be other notable piano-guitar teams throughout the history of the blues, but none exceeded the success or influence of Carr and Blackwell. They showed an almost telepathic sympathy in their duets. They started playing outside Indianapolis as well: Cincinnati, Louisville, St.Louis. In the 1928, their reputation grew more and more, therefore the Vocalion Records suggested them to record their hit “How Long Blues”, a slow blues that was recorded in six variants. This tune got a great success and their popularity was such that they continued to record through the depths of the Depression when other blues artists were silenced. As much as Carr’s molasses vocals and pungent lyrics, Blackwell’s guitar was an essential part of the sound record buyers loved, and Carr knew it, shouting encouragement to Blackwell in the midst of an inspired solo. Blackwell’s crisply snapped treble lines anticipated both Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker. The barrelhouse life-style drove the easygoing Carr to early alcoholism, so for Carr the road was even short: booze got the better of him, and he succumbed to acute nephritis on April 29^th, 1935. Two months later, Blackwell was called to record a tribute, “My Old Pal Blues”. If less commercially successful, Blackwell’s solo recordings of the era were no less impressive than many of his duets with Carr. Blackwell was still living in Indianapolis at the time of his rediscovery in 1958, and remained an able and fiery guitarist. His second musical career was only beginning to gain momentum when he fell to a murder’s bullet in 1962. For a man who drank himself to death at the age of thirty, Carr cast a long shadow: tunes like How Long Blues, Naptown Blues, We’re Gonna Rock, Blues Before Sunrise, Midnight Hour Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama, Shady Lane Blues, Hurry Down Sunshine were rearranged and recorded by T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Rushing, Count Basie, Memphis Slim, Wes Montgomery, Clapton, Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree and many others.