Henry Franklin "Dick" Justice (April 2, 1903 – September 12, 1962) was an American blues and folk musician, who hailed from West Virginia, United States.

Biography

Born Henry Franklin Justice, ^[2] he recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. Justice was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan, who recorded in 1927 and 1929 for Victor Records. ^[3] Justice's "Cocaine" is a verse-for-verse cover of the Jordan track of the same name recorded two years earlier. ^[4] The song "Brownskin Blues" is also stylistically akin to much of Jordan's work but stands on its own as a Justice original. ^[5]

Justice is musically related to Frank Hutchison (with whom he played music and worked as a coal miner in Logan County, West Virginia), ^[6] Bayless Rose and The Williamson Brothers.

His recording of the traditional ballad " Henry Lee" was the opening track of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. ^[7] Justice recorded four sides ("Guian Valley Waltz" and "Poor Girl's Waltz", "Muskrat Rag" and "Poca River Blues") with the fiddler Reese Jarvis. ^[8]

References