Charley Patton

Charley Patton
The only known photograph of Patton (cropped)
Background information
Also known as	The Masked Marvel Elder J. J. Hadley
Born	Unknown Hinds County, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	April 28, 1934 Sunflower County, Mississippi
Genres	Delta blues country blues gospel blues
Instruments	Guitar slide guitar
Years active	1916–1934
Labels	Paramount Vocalion

Charley Patton (died April 28, 1934), also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. 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. 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."^[1]

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.^[2] 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 whose children became popular Delta musicians, as solo performers and as members of groups such as the Mississippi Sheiks.^[3] Biographer John Fahey described Patton as having "light skin and Caucasian features."^[4] Patton was considered African-American, but because of his light complexion there has been speculation that he was Mexican or Cherokee (a theory endorsed by Howlin' Wolf). It is now generally agreed that Patton was of mixed heritage, with white, black, and Cherokee ancestors (one of his grandmothers was Cherokee).^[5] In "Down the Dirt Road Blues", Patton sang of having gone to "the Nation" and "the Territo'", referring to the Cherokee Nation's portion of the Indian Territory (which became part of the state of Oklahoma in 1907), where a number of Black Indians tried unsuccessfully to claim a place on the tribal rolls and thereby obtain land.

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.^[6] 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.^[7] Patton performed at Dockery and nearby plantations and began an association with Willie Brown.^[8] Tommy Johnson, Fiddlin' Joe Martin, Robert Johnson, and Howlin' Wolf also lived and played in the area and Patton served as a mentor to the younger performers.^[9] 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".^[10] 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 the guitar down on his knees, behind his head, or behind his back. Patton was a small man, about 5 feet 5 inches tall,^[11] but his gravelly voice was reputed to have been loud enough to carry 500 yards without amplification. He influenced the singing style of his young friend Chester Burnett, who went on to gain fame in Chicago as Howlin' Wolf.

Patton settled in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, with his common-law wife and recording partner, Bertha Lee, in 1933. He died on the Heathman-Dedham plantation, near Indianola, on April 28, 1934, and is buried in Holly Ridge (both towns are located in Sunflower County). His death certificate states that he died of a mitral valve disorder.^[12] 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.^[13]

A memorial headstone was erected on Patton's 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 Mt. Zion Memorial Fund in July 1990. The spelling of Patton's name was dictated by Jim O'Neal, who also 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.^[14] Another collection of Patton recordings, The Definitive Charley Patton, was released by Catfish Records in 2001.^[15]

Patton's song "Pony Blues" (1929) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006.^[16] The board annually selects recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In 2013, Jack White's Third Man Records teamed up with Document Records to reissue The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order of Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and the Mississippi Sheiks.

Historical marker

The Mississippi Blues Trail placed its first historical marker on Patton's grave in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, in recognition of his legendary status as a bluesman and his importance in the development of the blues in Mississippi.^[17] 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.^[18]

Tributes

• Canned Heat (with Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson) covered Patton's songs "Pony Blues", "Shake It and Break It" and "Yellow Bee".
• Bob Dylan dedicated "High Water (For Charley Patton)", on his 2001 album "Love and Theft", to Patton.
• The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, American country blues recording and touring artists, produced a tribute recording, Peyton on Patton, released on July 19, 2011. The album entered the Billboard blues album chart at number 7.
• French singer-songwriter Francis Cabrel refers to Patton in the song "Cent Ans de Plus" on his 1999 album Hors-Saison.
• The indie rock band Gomez recorded "Charley Patton Songs" for their 2006 album How We Operate.
• A picture of Patton in the recording studio used for the White Stripes' album Icky Thump can be seen in the background of the short demo video on their website.
• Jule Brown^[19] recorded an updated arrangement of Patton's "Green River Blues" on their 2006 release Smoke and Mirrors.
• Robert Crumb narrated Patton's life in a comic book.^[20]
• The 1980s New York punk/blues band Hi Sheriffs of Blue^[21] (which included visual artists Mark Dagley, George Condo and Elliott Sharp) was named after the Patton song "High Sheriff Blues".
• Alvin Youngblood Hart covered Patton's songs "Pony Blues" and "Tom Rushen Blues" on Big Mama's Door and Down in the Alley, respectively.
• Corey Harris covered "Pony Blues" on his debut album, Between Midnight and Day.
• Paul Geremia covered "Pony Blues" and "Shake It and Break It" on Love, Murder & Mosquitos and Self Portrait in Blues, respectively.
• Paul Rishell covered Patton's songs "Some of These Days" and "Down the Dirt Road Blues" on Swear to Tell the Truth and Talking Guitar, respectively.
• Paul Rishell and Annie Raines covered Patton's songs "Some of These Days" and "I'm Going Home" on their album Goin' Home.
• Rory Block covered Patton's song "Elder Green Is Gone" on her 1983 album Blue Horizon.

Discography

Paramount Recordings

Henry "Son" Sims on fiddle, Patton with vocals and guitar

Willie Brown on accompanying guitar

1929 Henry "Son" Sims Vocals, Patton accompanying guitar

Vocalion Recordings

Vocal duet with Bertha Lee

1934 Bertha Lee Vocals, Patton accompanying guitar

Citations

References

• Calt, Stephen; Gayle Wardlow (1988). King of the Delta Blues, The Life and Music of Charlie Patton. Newton, N.J.: Rock Chapel Press. ISBN 0-9618610-0-2. LCCN 87072899. 
• Fahey, John (1966). A Textual and Musicological Analysis of the Repertoire of Charley Patton. M.A. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles. LCCN 67003863. 
• Fahey, John (1970). Charley Patton. London: Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-70030-2. LCCN 70548903. 
• Palmer, Robert (1981). Deep Blues. New York City: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14006-223-8. 
• Wardlow, Gayle Dean (1998). Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues. Edward Komara, ed. San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-552-5.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charlie Patton.

• History of Charley Patton recording on Paramount Records
• Charley Patton by R. Crumb
• Charley Patton Biography (Allmusic)
• Southern Music Network – Charley Patton
• The bluesman – Charley Patton (by Cub Koda)
• Charley Patton – Delta Blues
• Charley Patton Profile
• Works by or about Charley Patton at Internet Archive
• 1980 Induction into Blues Foundation Hall of Fame
• "Charley Patton". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 28, 2010. 
• Mount Zion Memorial Fund.
• Milestone Charley Patton recordings at Three Perfect Minutes
• Works by or about Charley Patton in libraries (WorldCat catalog)