Charley Patton

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Charley Patton, also spelled Charlie, was probably born in April 1891 in Hinds County, Mississippi, near the town of Edwards. He lived most of his life in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta. His ancestry is uncertain: he is said to have been of Black, white and Native American descent. In 1897 his family moved to Dockery Plantation near Ruleville, a cotton farm with a sawmill. There Patton developed his style, under the influence of Henry Sloan, who had a new way of playing that is now regarded as an early form of the blues.

Music and breakthrough

Patton is called the father of the Delta blues by many and inspired most Delta blues musicians. Pony Blues from 1929 is among his early recordings. He played deep blues, but also hillbilly songs, nineteenth-century ballads and other dance music for Black and white audiences, with equal ease. He was popular throughout the South, performed in Chicago every year and in New York in 1934. Unlike many blues musicians of his time he did not travel around, but played regular engagements on plantations and in bars.

Influence

He was known for his showmanship: sometimes he played with the guitar on his knees, behind his head or behind his back. He was small, but his raw voice could reportedly be heard without amplification from five hundred metres away. Patton died on 28 April 1934. The musicologist Robert Palmer counted him among the most important American musicians of the twentieth century.

Listening

• 
  Pony Blues · Charley Patton, 1929
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 2001Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton