He was actually one of the teachers of Robert Johnson. He had been incarcerated at Parchman Farm (Mississippi state Penitentiary) in 1927 for murder. He was playing at a juke joint when a drunken patron opened fire hitting House in the leg. House drew his own firearm and killed the man. He was later judged to have acted in self-defense and released in 1929. He laid down his guitar for many years for which one of his disciples, Howlin' Wolf, never quite forgave him. Muddy Waters considered house to be the finest bottleneck player ever and he is generally regarded as such. Others say it is Mississippi Fred McDowell. Fred and House knew each other and respected each other's talent and both credit Charlie Patton as being the master of bottleneck.
When Al Wilson found him, he had to teach House how to play all his old material, he'd been out of it or so long, he'd forgotten. Luckily Wilson knew every note House played on his old recordings having listened to them incessantly. Wilson was so blind that he once stepped off the stage after playing at a wedding and promptly set his guitar on top of the wedding cake.
House spent his retirement from music in Detroit where he died. The Detroit Blues Society held a benefit concert to raise the money to buy him a headstone. He is buried at Mt. Hazel Cemetery in Detroit in the center of the area known as Brightmoor--the worst slum I have ever seen. When I went to the cemetery to pay my respects to the Master, I decided it was too risky to get out of my car. It's a nice headstone, though.
|