Some Blues You Just have to Hear Series - Eddie James Son House

Eddie James “Son” House, Jr. was born in Riverton, Mississippi on March 21, 1902, the middle of three brothers. Around 1909 his parents separated and his mother and the three boys moved to Tallulah, Louisiana. House picked cotton as a teenager and by the age of 15 was preaching sermons in the Baptist Church. By the time he was 20, he was the pastor of a small country church south of Lyon. He left the church to follow a woman (10 years his senior) with whom he had been having an affair.

House was a self-taught guitarist who furthered his ability with the help of a little known local musician named James McCoy. He was inspired by the slide guitar work of Willie Wilson. He developed quickly as a guitarist and within a year was playing with Delta musician Rube Lacy.

In 1928 during a party House shot and killed a man, claiming self-defense, after the man shot him in the leg. He was sentenced to 15 years at Parchman Farm Prison but was released after just 2 years when a Clarksdale judge re-examined the case. The judge advised him to leave the area and he moved to Lula where he met bluesman Charley Patton. In 1930 Patton, House, Willie Brown (guitarist) and Louise Johnson (pianist) gathered in Grafton, Wisconsin for a recording session with Paramount Records.

House continued playing solo and with Brown and Patton (died in 1934) during the thirties. After moving to Robinsonville, Mississippi, he met a young Robert Johnson. After Johnson learned to play the guitar, he began playing with House and Brown, picking up some of their styles. In 1941 House, Brown, Joe Martin, and Leroy Williams were recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. House did not make another commercial record until the “blues revival of the 1960s.

In 1943, House moved to Rochester, New York and worked for the New York Central Railroad. He worked outside of music for sixteen years. In the early and mid 1960s he started playing again. That led to touring and more recording. Among the artists who were influenced by him were Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, and Robert Nighthawk.

From the early 1970s, House was plagued by ill health. His playing became infrequent and then stopped all together in 1974. He moved to Detroit, Michigan and lived out the rest of his life. Son House died on October 19, 1988 from cancer of the larynx. He was buried at the Mt. Hazel Cemetery and members of the Detroit Blues Society held benefit concerts to raise money to put a fitting monument on his grave.

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.