Charley Patton | R. Crumb

9:58 PM EDT March 12, 2024:

Charley Patton - "A Spoonful Blues" From the album Founder Of The Delta Blues (1969)

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Charley Patton COMPLETE RECORDINGS 1929-1934

Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Skip James, Son House – Delta Blues

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Lecture 2: Here’s a fascinating mini-documentary about the mysterious Charley Patton. Narrated by music historian Rick Kennedy, it tells the story of Patton’s journey to the Gennett Records/Starr Recording Studio in Richmond, Indiana, in 1929, to record some of his most memorable songs. This brief documentary traces Patton’s mysterious movements, and focuses a great deal on his sessions at Gennett, and discusses the deal between the Paramount label and Gennett to record Parker’s music. All in all, this is a fascinating and lively glimpse into the birth of Delta Blues. Check it out – it’s short yet very informative. 

Charley Patton was considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians. He lived most of his life in the Mississippi Delta and in 1897 his family moved to the Dockery Plantation, a cotton farm and sawmill near Ruleville, Mississippi. It was there that he developed his musical style, influenced by Henry Sloan, who had a new, unusual style of playing music, which is now considered an early form of the blues.

Charley performed at Dockery and nearby plantations and began an association with Willie Brown. Tommy Johnson, Fiddlin' Joe Martin, Robert Johnson, and Chester Burnett (who went on to gain fame in Chicago as Howlin' Wolf) also lived and performed in the area, and Patton served as a mentor to these younger performers. Patton was a "jack-of all-trades bluesman", who played "deep blues, white hillbilly songs, nineteenth-century ballads, and other varieties of black and white country dance music.

He was popular across the southern United States and performed annually in Chicago. Unlike most blues musicians of his time he played scheduled engagements at plantations and taverns. He gained popularity for his showmanship, sometimes playing with the guitar down on his knees, behind his head, or behind his back. Patton was a small man, about 5 feet 5 inches tall but his gravelly voice was reputed to have been loud enough to carry 500 yards without amplification; a singing style which particularly influenced Howlin' Wolf. In May, 2021, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Patton into the 2021 class as an Early Influence.

Born Charlie Patton c. April 1891 in Hinds County, Mississippi and died on April 28, 1934 at the Heathman Plantation, Sunflower County, Mississippi at the age of 43.

Charley Patton - Spoonful Blues (Delta Blues 1929)

Charley Patton

Charley Patton