Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Charlie Patton

In Southern Mississippi in April 1891, Charlie Patton was born to sharecropper parents. When he was nine years old his family moved to the Will Dockery Plantation located in the Delta. The Mississippi Delta is a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, the Mississippi River on the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The Delta is famous for its fertile soil and extreme poverty making it the ideal location for sharecroppers.

Henry Sloan was an African American musician who moved to the Delta area around the same time as the Patton’s. Although Sloan is considered one of the earliest performers in the history of Delta Blues he never recorded any music. His claim to fame is that he tutored Charlie Patton on the guitar in the ways of the blues. Charlie dogged his every step and played the blues with him for several years.

It was said that Patton defined the life of a bluesman. He had an earthy voice many considered course and it was attributed to hard times and harder living. He drank and smoked excessively. It’s not known for sure but it thought that he had eight wives. He moved around a lot and never stayed in one spot long. He even spent a short time in jail.

Patton made his first recording in June of 1929 for the Paramount label. He recorded fourteen songs for them, all recorded on 78’s. His first session was so successful that he was invited back just four months later and recorded an additional twenty eight tunes.

He played the slide guitar too making it a popular instrument in the playing of the blues. Patton is at the top of the list in blues history. He influenced the style of the blues and the performers in the succeeding generation. Performers that can trace their blues style back to Patton include Son House, Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson. It’s even been suggested that Patton may have been the first rock and roller. He was a real ham while performing on stage, playing the guitar loud and rough while holding it between his knees or behind his back. He jumped around, tapping the body of the guitar or using the back of his guitar as a drum.

In February of 1934, Patton had his last recording session in New York City. That was just two months before his death on April 28, 1934. He is buried in Holly Ridge, Mississippi and his major role in developing the Delta Blues is noted on his tomb stone. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson was among the most famous of the Mississippi Delta blues musicians. He was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazelhurst, Mississippi to Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson. Because they were not married he had his mother’s name, Dodds. His stepfather changed his name to match his, and he used Spencer until his late adolescence when he took the name of his birth father, even though he had never met him. He spent much of his early life in the northern delta region while his parents lived and worked on plantations and then lived in levee camps during construction of the levees.

The family spent four years in Memphis and at the age of seven his stepfather sent him to the Abbay and Leatherman Plantation near Robinsonville, Mississippi. There he learned how to play the Jew’s harp and the harmonica and started hanging around the older blues musicians. Johnson occasionally played with Willie Brown and his partner Charlie Patton. In 1930 Son House was released from Parchman Farm Prison where he served time for killing a man that he claimed was self defense. Johnson was so impressed by House’s guitar playing that he gave up his harmonica and took up the guitar.

He returned to Hazelhurst, married and kept practicing his guitar and learning new songs. He started imitating Ike Zinnerman, a local guitarist. Several months later he returned to Robinsonville playing a combination of shuffling rhythms and slide guitar leads that outshone other musicians. Some believed that he traded his soul for his new found musical ability. He was a traveler and played in many places including taverns, speakeasies, levee camps, and even coal yards. He traveled the Midwest, East Coast and Canada.

Johnson’s first recording was in San Antonio, Texas in November, 1936 and included the songs “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, “Cross Road Blues” and Walkin’ Blues” as well as many others. His second recording was in Dallas, Texas in June, 1937. There were a total of twenty nine songs recorded during those two sessions.

His popularity grew quickly after the recordings. His success and his life were cut short after he died on August 16, 1938 from poison at the young age of 27. His music style and original songs have influenced such musicians as Muddy Waters, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Johnson was ranked fifth in the Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is also an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series – John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker, although a blues man, gave blues a different style, he brought the boogie into blues. Who loved him; everyone loved him. He was the inspiration for many rockers such as the Rolling Stones and White Stripes. Born in 1917 in Clarksdale Mississippi, Hooker began singing in his church.

Hooker’s early beginnings started like many of the other Mississippi Delta blues artist, being a son of a Baptist preacher/sharecropper, with 10 siblings of meager belongings. Hooker did not go to a public school, rather was taught in his home by mother. He grew up illiterate. His first introduction to music was the spiritual music that was played religiously. His father (William Hooker) and mother (Minnie Ramsey) divorced when hooker was 4 years old. His mother got married a year later to a blues singer, William Moore. Moore was the one that taught Hooker how to play the guitar as well as Moore’s friends Charlie Patton, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

In the early 30’s at the age of 15, Hooker ran away from home, never to look back again. His first destination was Memphis Tennessee, however his luck as a blues artists didn’t pan out as well as he would have liked and he moved on to Cincinnati where he played for a while with a group called the Fairfield Four. Still not making the money he wanted, Hooker found himself drawn to Detroit in the late 40’s due to the work availability in the auto industry for Ford Motors. It was in Detroit where Hooker finally felt at home with his blues style and began to make a name for himself. “Boogie Chillen” was Hookers first hit single. Back in the 50’s, when Hooker started making a name for himself in the Blues Industry, blacks were still paid pennies compared to white artist. Contracts made it impossible for artist to pick up extra recordings so due to the meager earnings hooker was receiving; he would record songs under various aliases like “John Lee Booker”, “Johnny Hooker”, and “Johnny Cooker”.

Hooker went on to record over 100 albums, open the nightclub “John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room”, located in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, and received many awards from having his own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame to the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. John Lee Hooker left us at the age of 83. He passed away after taking ill in 2001 however he left behind eight children, 19 grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren, one nephew and an amazing blues music legacy.