Charley Patton

Biography

Charlie Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues×Father Of The Delta Blues1 January 2025 · Album · CompilationSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Pony Blues2:592Banty Rooster Blues3:053Shake it and Break It3:084I Shall Not Be Moved3:055Down the Dirt Road Blues2:546Jesus Is A Dying Bed-Maker2:567Lord I'm Discouraged3:088I'm Goin' Home3:059Some Summer Day3:0010A Spoonful Blues3:1211Elder Greene Blues (Take 2)3:0212Some These Days I'll Be Gone3:15", he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians. The musicologist Robert Palmer considered him one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century.
Patton (who was well educated by the standards of his time) spelled his name Charlie, but many sources, including record labels and his gravestone, use the spelling Charley.

Biography

Patton was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, near the town of Edwards and lived most of his life in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta. Most sources say he was born in April 1891, but the years 1881, 1885, and 1887 have also been suggested. Patton's parentage and race also are uncertain. His parents were Bill and Annie Patton, but locally he was regarded as having been fathered by former slave Henderson Chatmon. Several of Chatmon's children became popular Delta musicians, as solo performers and as members of groups including the Mississippi Sheiks. Biographer John Fahey described Patton as having "light skin and Caucasian features."
Patton was considered African-American, but because of his light complexion there has been much speculation about his ancestry over the years. One theory endorsed by blues musician Howlin' Wolf was that Patton was Mexican or Cherokee. It is generally agreed that Patton was of Black, White, and Native heritage. Some believe he had a Cherokee grandmother; however, it is also widely asserted by historians that he was between one-quarter and one-half Choctaw. In 1897, his family moved 100 miles (160 km) north to the 10,000-acre (40 km2) Dockery Plantation, a cotton farm and sawmill near Ruleville, Mississippi. There, Patton 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. Patton performed at Dockery and nearby plantations and began an association with Willie Brown. Tommy Johnson, Fiddlin' Joe Martin, Robert Johnson, and Chester Burnett (who later became famous in Chicago as Howlin' Wolf) also lived and performed in the area. Patton served as a mentor to these younger performers.
Robert Palmer described Patton as 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 with equal facility". He was popular across the southern United States and performed annually in Chicago; in 1934, he performed in New York City. Unlike most blues musicians of his time who were often itinerant performers, Patton played scheduled engagements at plantations and taverns. He gained popularity for his showmanship, sometimes playing with his guitar down on his knees, behind his head, or behind his back.
Patton was about 5 feet 5 inches tall (1.65m), 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 (even though Jimmie Rodgers, the "singing brakeman", has to be cited there primarily). Patton settled in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, with his common-law wife and recording partner, Bertha Lee, in 1933. His relationship with Bertha Lee was a turbulent one. In early 1934, both of them were incarcerated in a Belzoni, Mississippi jailhouse after a particularly harsh fight. W. R. Calaway from Vocalion Records bailed them out of jail and escorted them to New York City, for what would be Patton's final recording sessions (on January 30 and February 1). They later returned to Holly Ridge and Lee was with Patton in his final days.
Patton died on the Heathman-Dedham plantation, near Indianola on April 28, 1934. He is buried in Holly Ridge (both towns are in Sunflower County). His death certificate says that he died of a mitral valve disorder. The death certificate does not mention Bertha Lee; the only informant listed is one Willie Calvin. Patton's death was not reported in the newspapers. A memorial headstone was erected on his grave (the location of which was identified by the cemetery caretaker, C. Howard, who claimed to have been present at the burial), paid for by musician John Fogerty through the Mount Zion Memorial Fund in July 1990. The spelling of Patton's name was dictated by Jim O'Neal, who composed the epitaph.

Recognitions

Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton, a boxed set collecting Patton's recorded works, was released in 2001. It also features recordings by many of his friends and associates. The set won three Grammy Awards in 2003, for Best Historical Album, Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and Best Album Notes. Another collection of Patton recordings, The Definitive Charley Patton, was released by Catfish Records in 2001.
Patton's song "Pony Blues×Pony Blues25 December 1992 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 18 tracks1Tom Rushen Blues3:062A Spoonful Blues3:123Shake It and Break It3:084Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues3:085Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues3:056Down the Dirt Road Blues2:557Pony Blues2:598Going to Move to Alabama3:009Hammer Blues3:1510Rattlesnake Blues2:4511Running Wild Blues2:5512Moon Going Down3:1413Bird Nest Bound3:0914High Sheriff Blues3:0915Stone Pony Blues2:501634 Blues2:5817Revenue Man Blues2:4118Poor Me2:58" (1929) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006. The board annually selects recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
In 2017, Patton's story was told in the award-winning documentary series American Epic. The film featured unseen film footage of Patton's contemporaries and radically improved restorations of his 1920s and 1930s recordings. Director Bernard MacMahon observed that "we had a strong feeling that the music of Patton and his peers reflected the local geography, and I was struck by the extent to which that belief was already shared by people who were living in the Delta back then, when it was a center of musical innovation. Listening to interviews with H. C. Speir, who owned a furniture store in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1920s and was responsible for virtually all the recordings of early Delta blues, he clearly linked the music to its surroundings." Patton's story was profiled in the accompanying book, American Epic: The First Time America Heard Itself.
In May, 2021, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Patton into the 2021 class as an Early Influence.

Historical marker

The Mississippi Blues Trail placed its first historical marker at the cemetery where Patton's grave is in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, in recognition of his legendary status as a bluesman and his importance in the development of the blues in Mississippi. It placed another historic marker at the site where the Peavine Railroad intersects Highway 446 in Boyle, Mississippi, designating it as a second site related to Patton on the Mississippi Blues Trail. The marker commemorates the lyrics of Patton's "Peavine Blues", which refer to the branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad which ran south from Dockery Plantation to Boyle. The marker notes that riding on the railroad was a common theme of blues songs and was seen as a metaphor for travel and escape.

Vocalion recordings

‡ Vocal duet with Bertha Lee

1934; Bertha Lee (vocals), Patton accompanying guitar

Relevant literature

Sacré, Robert, ed. Charley Patton: Voice of the Mississippi Delta. 2018. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi