Notes about Son House
Born near Lyon, Mississippi, March 21, 1902, Son House
chopped cotton as a teenager while developing a passion
for the Baptist church. He delivered his first sermon at
the age of fifteen and within five years was the pastor
of a small country church south of Lyon. His fall from the
church was a result of an affair with a woman ten years
his senior, whom he followed home to Louisiana. By 1926,
House had returned to the Lyon area and began playing guitar
under the tutelage of an obscure local musician named James
McCoy. He developed quickly as a guitarist; within a year
he had fallen in with Delta musician Rube Lacy
and began emulating his slide guitar style.
House shot and killed a man during a house party near Lyon
in 1928. He was sentenced to work on Parchman Farm, but
was released within two years after a judge in Clarksdale
re-examined the case. Having been advised by the judge to
leave the Clarksdale vicinity, House relocated to Lula and
there met bluesman Charley
Patton while playing at the Lula railroad depot for
tips.
PHOTO: Son HousePatton befriended House, who began working
as a musician around the Kirby Plantation. In 1930, Patton
brought him, guitarist Willie Brown, and
pianist Louise Johnson to Grafton, Wisconsin, for a recording
session with Paramount Records. House's influence on the
Delta School of musicians can be judged from a handful of
recordings made in Grafton. His song "Preachin' The
Blues Part I & II" was a six-minute biography of
his life and served as inspiration for Robert
Johnson's "Preaching Blues" and "Walking
Blues." House's powerful vocals and slashing slide
guitar style established him as a giant of the Delta School
but did not lead to commercial success. House continued
playing with Willie Brown during the 1930s and developed
a relationship with a young Robert Johnson after moving
to Robinsonville, Mississippi. After Johnson had learned
to play guitar, he began to gig with House and Brown, learning
the older musicians' licks.
House, Willie Brown, Fiddlin' Joe Martin, and Leroy Williams
were recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax
near Lake Cormorant, Mississippi, in 1941 for the Library
of Congress. Lomax returned the next year to record House
in Robinsonville, but the musician did not make another
commercial record until the "blues revival" of
the 1960s. His influence, however, would be felt through
the recordings of Johnson, Muddy
Waters, Howlin'
Wolf, Elmore James, Robert Nighthawk, and other successful
blues artists.
Son House died October 19, 1988.
