Ironing Board Sam

Ironing Board was born in 1939 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He began playing shows on piano and organ when he was only 14. In the late ‘50s, he moved to Miami — where he got his stage name: He became legendary in the early 1960s for inventing the first portable, electronic keyboard. He called it the “button board.” It was made from upholstery tacks wired to 64 radio tubes and was mounted on a 2×4 that sat on an ironing board. To say that Sam is inventive just doesn’t cut it. In his hometown of New Orleans, he played while floating above Jackson Square in a hot-air balloon, played underwater in his homemade giant aquarium, and rode around in a Cadillac he had fitted with crystal chandeliers. One of his spangled keyboards now sits in the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville.
From Miami, Sam moved to Memphis, where he was backed by a band that included a young Jimi Hendrix. But finally, he settled in the Crescent City, where he was a regular at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and became one of the city’s most beloved characters.
Sam retired after playing professionally for more than 55 years, during which he amassed a staggering repertoire of both originals and classic blues and R&B songs. Sam’s voice was powerful and soulful, and his piano prowess was remarkable. After Sam joined the Music Maker family in 2010, he relocated to Hillsborough, North Carolina. They booked gigs for him until he retired from playing.