Biography

John Lee Zeigler of Kathleen, Georgia plays the guitar left-handed, with the strings upside down, striking the bass strings with his index finger and the treble strings with his thumb. John is the most unique and pure Georgia blues artists performing today. He appeared at Blues Estafette in Holland in 1996.

How We Helped:
Music Maker welcomed John Lee Zeigler into the family in 1994, since which time the organization helped him obtain a passport, gifted him with a guitar, and provided him with emergency relief grants and sustenance grants until his passing in 2008. Music Maker issued recordings for Zeigler on several compilation CDs and an unreleased solo CD. With Music Maker’s assistance, Zeigler performed at the Utrecht Blues Festival, and was featured in the book Music Makers: Portraits and Songs from the Roots of America (2004).

His mother raised eighteen children in Peach County, Georgia. Zeigler says, “what little bit I went to school… and I had to walk six miles. But I quit, I had to quit and go to work… I went to work when I was nine. Started on that farm. Plowin’ that mule out there… There was plenty older peoples out singin’ behind the mules. They were singin’ church songs, they were singin’ blues.”