Roosevelt ‘Booba’ Barnes; Leader of Blues Band

Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes, 59, a Mississippi Delta blues harmonica player and guitarist who had his own band and club. Barnes was featured in the 1983 documentary film “Mississippi Blues,” and a set performed at his Playboy Club in Greenville, Miss., was included in the 1992 documentary “Deep Blues.” Bob Santelli, education director for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, where Barnes last performed, described Barnes’ style as “country juke joint and urban blues bar music.” A native of Longwood, Miss., Barnes began playing the harmonica when he was 7 and started performing with bands as a teenager. He taught himself to play the guitar when he was in his 20s. Barnes established a band called the Playboys in Greenville in 1972 and opened his club in 1981. He achieved national popularity with the release of his 1990 album “Heartbroken Man.” On April 3 in Chicago of lung cancer.