The Country Blues The Founder of the Delta Blues: Charley Patton [Part 1]

Charley Patton was a small man, slight of build, and when people who had only heard him on record first saw him, they were surprised that such a big and powerful singing voice could come out of such a small man. In the parlance of the day, he had "good hair", wavy rather curly, and he considered himself a bit of a lady's man.

During his lifetime he had a number of "wives", most of whom he co-habited with until it was time to move on to greener pastures. Two standard reasons for moving were either that the area he was playing in ran dry of places to perform or he was run off for keeping the workers away from their duties, ie, in the juke joints and barrel houses 'til all hours of the night instead of resting up for the next days work.

He fancied himself a preacher and would interrupt barrelhouse performances of the Blues and other popular songs with religious tunes, some of which found their way to record. Son House, a contemporary of Patton, scoffed at any notion of Patton preaching, categorizing this as a flight of fancy.

Charley Patton was all of the above - and more. He left a significant body of recorded works, rich and varied, that secured his place in the history of the Blues. He was in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, the first recorded major practitioners of what we know now as the Delta Blues.

According to information given by his parents to census officials around the turn of the century, he was born in April 1891. His parents, Anne and William Patton, were married in 1884 in Hinds County, Mississippi. In the early 1890's, Bill Patton deserted the family for a period and Anne moved with her children, Charlie and two older sisters, to a small corn and cotton plantation called Heron's place. Heron's was adjacent to the Gaddis and McLauren plantation which was home to the famous Chatmon family (Sam and Lonnie Chatmon, and Bo Chatmon [Carter]). There are some that argue that Charley was actually the son of Henderson Chatmon, the strong willed patriarch of the clan. Sam Chatmon, for instance, insisted that Charley was a half brother. But this has never been, and probably never will be, either confirmed or denied.

By most accounts, he had a natural aversion to plantation labour, which he apparently studiously avoided for most of his adult life. In the surprisingly detailed book on Patton, King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton by Stephen Calt and Gayle Wardlow, it is speculated that this was, in part, due to the fact that as the eldest son of the family, he probably would have been responsible for a disproportionate share of this work as a youngster. This, along with a growing fascination for music, would have no doubt pushed him in the direction of a musical vocation.

Patton's musical career began in the early years of this century, sometime between 1906 and 1909, according to statements he made to Booker Miller, a protege of Patton's who traveled and played music with him in his early pre-recording years. Like most of the first generation of recorded Blues musicians, the roots of Charley Patton's style can not be traced back to those musicians who influenced him and also left behind recordings of their repertoire. Booker Miller stated in a conversation with Patton on who taught Charley to play, Patton replied that it was Earl Harris, a tenant on the nearby Peerman plantation. Harris, who never recorded, is likely destined to be a footnote in the history of the Blues. Other possible influences referenced in the Calt/Wardlow book include Henry Sloan (an older tenant of the Dockery plantation where the Pattons moved in the late 1890's) and two relatives, a maternal uncle, Sherman Martin and "Tee Nicely"

Wade, a first cousin.

There is not much known about his early years of performing. It was more than likely typical of the itinerant musicians of the day - gaining a local following and then traveling farther and farther afield as his reputation grew and demands for his performances increased. His style was no doubt formed in these early years and shaped in the rough and tumble barrel houses in the Mississippi Delta.

By the mid to late 1920's, after the recording successes of such country Blues pioneers as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake drew the attention of the record companies to the genre, Charley Patton had a considerable following in the Delta area and was a natural choice for a recording opportunity. Patton's route to his recording career passed through Henry C. Speirs, a Mississippi store owner who also served as a talent scout for the Paramount Record Company, who also figured prominently in the careers of many other Delta Bluesmen, including Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson.

After an initial audition with Speirs in the spring of 1929, Charley was sent off to Richmond, Indiana for his initial recording date. During that session, he produced, in a single day, 14 sides, more than any other Blues artists had produced in one session. Those sides included Mississippi Bo Weevil Blues, Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues, Down the Dirt Road Blues, Pony Blues, Banty Rooster Blues, Tom Rushen Blues and Spoonful Blues.

In my next column, I will continue with the "Charley Patton" theme and explore his recording career and influence on other artists in more detail.

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