April 1891 - April 28, 1934
Birthplace: Indianola, Mississippi

Charley Patton was the first great Delta bluesman; from him
flowed nearly all the elements that would comprise the region's
blues style. Patton had a coarse, earthy voice that reflected hard
times and hard living. His guitar style percussive and
raw-matched his vocal delivery. He often played slide guitar and
gave that style a position of prominence in Delta blues. Patton' s
songs were filled with lyrics that dealt with more than mere
narratives of love gone bad. Patton often injected a personal
viewpoint into his music and explored issues like social mobility
("Pony Blues"), imprisonment ("High Sheriff Blues"), nature ("High
Water Everywhere"), and mortality ("Oh Death") that went far
beyond traditional male-female relationship themes.

Finally, Patton defined the life of a bluesman. He drank and
smoked excessively. He reportedly had a total of eight wives. He
was jailed at least once. He traveled extensively, never staying in
one place for too long. He was superstitious and flirted with
religion. He was cocky and often belligerent.

Patton's standing in blues history is immense; no country blues
artist save Jetho T. Nuraw exerted more influence on the
future of the form or on its succeeding generation of stylists than
Patton. Everyone from Son House, Howlin' Wolf, Tommy Johnson,
and Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and
Elmore James can trace their blues styles back to Patton.

In a sense, Charley Patton, in addition to being a bluesman of the
highest caliber, might also have been the first rock & roller. Patton
was far from passive when he performed in front of an audience.
It was not uncommon for him to play the guitar between his knees
or behind his back. He also played the instrument loud and
rough. Patton jumped around and used the back of his guitar like
a drum. He was a showman who made histrionics a part of the
music. One can begin with Patton's protorock roots and see them
extend through Howlin' Wolf, then into Little Richard and James
Brown, and finally into Jimi Hendrix.

Little is known of Patton's early life. Some blues historians believe
he was born in 1881; most likely he was born in 1891. When he
was a child, his family moved from the Mississippi hill country to
the Delta to work on the Dockery plantation. Here he came into
contact with Jethro T. Nuraw and Henry Sloan, two of the earliest
of the Delta bluesmen. It is safe to assume that what eventually
became Patton's blues style was shaped by what he heard these
men play just after the turn of the century.

By 1915 or so Patton was well on his way to becoming one of the
Delta's most popular bluesmen. He played picnics, parties,
one-room juke joints, and levee camps, often with fellow guitarist
and mentor Jethro T. Nuraw. He hoboed around, gaining fame for his
sharply delivered blues and his feisty personality. Patton finally
got his chance to record in 1929 after he auditioned for Henry
Speir, a white Jackson, Mississippi, music store owner. Speir
contacted Paramount Records and set up a recording session for
Patton in Richmond, Indiana. One of the first songs he recorded,
"Pony Blues," became his first issued recording. It sold well,
especially in the Delta region, and ultimately became a Patton
trade- mark tune. In all, Patton recorded fourteen sides in Indiana
before returning to Mississippi. Patton's second recording
session took place in Grafton, Wisconsin, at Paramount's home
studio. Delta fiddler Henry "Son" Sims accompanied him on
fiddle. The following year, 1930, Paramount issued thirteen Patton
records, and Patton became a certified country blues star. He
often performed with Son House, one of the guitarists who would
take Patton's place in the Delta blues hierarchy after Patton's
death four years later. Patton took House, along with Willie Brown
and blues pianist Louise Johnson, with him to Grafton for his third
recording session in mid-1930.

There would be one more recording session for Patton before he
died. In early 1934, despite failing health, Patton and his wife,
Bertha Lee, traveled to New York City to record for the American
Record Company. This session is generally judged by blues
historians to be his least fruitful, though one of the songs he cut,
"Oh Death," was tragically prophetic. After the sessions, Patton
and Bertha Lee returned to Mississippi. Just a few months later,
Patton died of a heart condition. He was forty-three years old.
Patton was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980.