Son House- The Last of the Delta Blues Singers

[Gavin B.]

I love this 1967 video of delta blues singer Son House performing at the American Folk and Blues Festival. Son House was born in 1888 on a cotton plantation in Riverton Mississippi where he played at juke joints with legendary musicians like Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson. He recorded a handful of singles for Paramount Records in the 1930s & then dropped out of sight.

In 1964, blues researcher Al Wilson (later known as Blind Owl Wilson of the band Canned Heat) rediscovered Son House living as a retired public works employee. Al Wilson recorded him; leading to sold-out appearances at the Newport Folk Festival and Carnegie Hall.

He performed frequently from 1964 until 1976 when Parkinson's disease made his hands to shaky to play guitar. He lived another 12 years and died at the ripe old age of 100 in 1988. He was truly the last of the delta blues singers.

[Lord Larehip]

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.

[Gavin B.]

Thanks for the info on Son. He's been a hero of mine for many years. In 2008, female blues singer Rory Block did a tribute album to Son House called Blues Walkin' Like A Man.

Rory was the daughter Allan Block, owner of the Block Sandal Shop which was a Greenwich Village hangout for folk/blues musicians like Dave Van Ronk, John Sebastian and David Bromberg in the mid-Sixties. Rory was a blues guitar prodigy who began playing at age 11. By age 14 she was listening to, transcribing and playing the music of many of the delta blues masters. Son House met her and heard her play at age 15 and was astonished by her skills. So it's kind of fitting that Rory did a Son House tribute album.

Below is a video of Rory do the same song, Death Letter Blues. She is so good at playing Son House's music, it's almost like she's channeling him.