BLUES: WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

Sam Phillips’ Sun Records has a special place in rock history as the musical birthplace of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. But Phillips had released plenty of Sun records before he recorded these rock ‘n’ roll pioneers.

The Memphis label’s first crop of artists featured black blues performers like Howlin’ Wolf, Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm, Rufus Thomas--and Doctor Ross, who released “Chicago Breakdown” and “Boogie Disease” for the label in 1954.

More than 30 years later, Doctor Isaiah Ross survives as one of the few remaining links to the vital Delta blues tradition.

Ross, who makes his local debut on Friday at the Lingerie, doesn’t have fond memories of his Sun experience. He feels he was shunted aside when Phillips realized his dream of finding a white man who could sing black.

“Sam Phillips didn’t do right by us,” Ross said during a phone interview from his home in Flint, Mich. “I was one of the first guys on that label, but they pushed Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash and put them over. I decided I would leave because it wasn’t getting me anything.”

Ross had been a popular performer in the Mississippi-Arkansas area during the fertile late ‘40s-early ‘50s era, when the blues exerted an enormous influence on early Southern rockers. In addition to recording for Sun, Ross appeared on harmonica wizard Sonny Boy Williamson’s influential “King Biscuit Flour Hour” radio program (which also featured Arthur Crudup, the writer of Presley’s first single “That’s All Right”).

“You had to be a real good musician to get accepted on those radio shows,” recalled Ross, 60. “It was way better than television is today because people loved all the music. They would be on the farms or working different jobs and they would go somewhere every night.”

Music was never far away from Ross’ childhood home in Mississippi. His father and uncle were musicians, and prominent early blues artists Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Boy Fuller often performed at house parties thrown by Ross’ sister and her husband. By the time he was 12, Ross was playing harmonica at parties and juke joints.

He joined the Army during World War II, acquiring his nickname by poring over medical journals. He began experimenting with one-man band performances--playing harmonica, guitar and bass drum--at USO shows while stationed in Wyoming. After leaving the service in 1947, he returned to the South and formed a quartet that played local clubs and hosted a few shows on small radio stations.

Ross rejoined the Army in 1950 and two years later hooked up with Phillips. After leaving Sun, Ross moved to Flint, put his recording career on hold and landed a job with General Motors (as a steamer and cleaner working with die makers) that he’s held for more than 30 years. He assembled a band to play local gigs, but unreliable backing musicians led him to adopt the one-man band approach that has become his trademark.

“Right now, they say I’m the best in the world,” Ross declared. “I have a funny style of playing. There aren’t too many people who can stay with the style that I play if I’m working with a band.

“I always say being a one-man band is like typewriting: There may be a few places where you miss one of the keys with your finger. I just keep my same beat, but if I get off beat with the drums I lose a beat on the guitar, too. That’s a mistake, and I don’t hardly ever make any mistakes.”

Ross resumed recording in the late ‘50s, but his career surged when he was rediscovered during the ‘60s folk-blues boom. Cream and Jethro Tull both recorded his “Cat’s Squirrel,” but Ross never received writer’s royalties or credit because a mix-up with the original label had left the song uncopyrighted.

Ross has released nine albums and regularly tours Europe. While he betrays a residue of bitterness over the lack of financial reward and recognition, his overall outlook is philosophical.

“A lot of people the record companies put money on are in the ground somewhere and Doctor Ross is still living,” he summarized.

“I got my health and my spirit and that means more than anything in the world. You can always get some more money but you can’t get another life.”