Sign Up for Our Email Newsletter

Gift Certificates

Charlie Patton - The Best Of Charlie Patton


Label:

Yazoo

Genre:

Blues

Product No.:
AYAZ 2069
UPC: 016351206916
Availability:
In Stock
Category:

Vinyl Record


New Arrival

$28.98

or Add to Wishlist





Charlie Patton — The Best Of Charlie Patton 

Classic blues recordings from the 1920s and '30s!

Charlie Patton (1891-1934) was the most powerful blues recording artist of all time, as well as the most subtle. He was, and re- mains, a figure of immense significance in blues history. Rural entertainers were basically anonymous figures, or at best locally known, when Patton took up guitar around 1907 — due to "woman troubles," he later said. At that time, Patton was a resident of Dockery, a vast Mississippi Delta plantation that housed some four hundred tenant families. He soon eclipsed the notary of the musician, one Earl Harris, he credited with teaching him guitar, and had (as one contemporary put it) "people just clownin' over him — they'd follow him everywhere."

By 1910 he had already established most of the themes he would record two decades later, including "Pony Blues," "Banty Rooster," "Down the Dirt Road" and "Maggie," the latter the template for most of his blues in Spanish tuning. In 1929, Patton auditioned at Dockery for the Jackson record store owner H.C. Speir, who afterward said of him: "He beat 'em all." Following his recording debut, he recorded more sides in a single year (43) than any blues singer who preceded him. Although he recycled his most popular themes under various titles, he almost never slavishly parroted them. Shortly after he became a blues recording celebrity, Patton was expelled from Dockery.

After 1930 he settled in the vicinity of Holly Ridge, Mississippi, living in a variety of nearby plantation towns. Just before recording in 1934, he was arrested for drunkenness at Belzoni, an event he depicted in High Sheriff Blues. Eighty-five days after completing his 1934 session, he died in Heathman, Mississippi, of a long-standing heart condition. Patton's legacy is pervasive and influenced generations of blues musicians. His greatness as a singer and musician is apparent from his very best, which obviously are among the greatest examples of rural black music ever preserved.



Side A
1. Down The Dirt Road Blues
2. It Won't Be Long
3. High Water Everywhere--Part 1
4. High Sheriff Blues
5. Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues
6. Lord I'm Discouraged
7. Shake It And Break It

Side B
1. Rattlesnake Blues
2. Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues
3. A Spoonful Blues
4. Pony Blues
5. Jim Lee Blues - Part 1
6. Moon Going Down
7. I'm Goin' Home

Be the first to write a review for this item OR just rate it