Background
Bracey was born in Byram, Mississippi, and started playing at local dances and parties around 1917.
Bracey was born in Byram, Mississippi, and started playing at local dances and parties around 1917.
With Tommy Johnson, he was the center of a small group of blues musicians in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1920s. His name is incorrectly spelled "Ishman" on almost all of his records and in most older sources. He also worked as a water boy on the Illinois Central Railroad.
He first recorded in Memphis in February and August 1928 for Victor Records, with Charlie McCoy on second guitar.
At that time his style had not fully formed and his performances varied considerably, probably in his attempts to become more commercially successful. In "Saturday Blues" and "Left Alone Blues" he used interesting variations on the usual three-line verse form of blues songs.
Bracey was one of the few Mississippi bluesmen who sang with a nasal tone without embellishment. "Saturday Blues" is based on the conventional theme of infidelity, but he changed the form of the verses to fit a newer melodic concept.
His lyrics loosened up enough to contain references to skin creams and powder advertised as being able to lighten dark skin.
He recorded again in 1931 for Paramount Records with a group called the New Orleans Nehi Boys, which included guitarist Charles Taylor. Bracey"s total recorded output is only 16 songs, and original copies of his 78-rpm records are among the most valued items sought by blues collectors. "Trouble Hearted Blues" and "Left Alone Blues" are his best-known songs.
By the time he was "rediscovered" in the late 1950s, he had become a preacher and a performer of religious songs and was uninterested in recording or discussing his time as a blues performer.
However, he did help in the rediscovery of his contemporary Skip James.