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| National resonator guitar. |
I somehow got it in my head that both artists featured in this post plied their trade in Chicago. They did not, so I’ll cover the Chicago blues as a pivot to the second artist and continue on the Delta blues with…
Son House, Between God and the Blues
Edward James “Son” House, Jr. was born in 1902, on a plantation between Clarksdale and Lyon, Mississippi. His parents split when he was young, which, then as now, meant bouncing between households - the Clarksdale area with his father, Eddie House Sr., and various stops in Louisiana with his (for some reason, nameless) mother, including New Orleans. House’s father was a musician - a tuba player - who came in and out of the church as House grew up. When drinking drove at least one of those separations, Eddie Sr. tossed the bottle, straightened out, and became a deacon in the church. Both parents passed down their religiosity to Son House, and his faith weighed heavily and challenged him throughout his life - and it got hold early too; according to Wikipedia, he preached sermons on visits at his mother’s in Algiers, New Orleans, by age 15. To the extent music came into House’s life at all, he didn’t see it as a positive - and that tied to the culture and his upbringing. As a little bio on Musician Guide noted:
“Blues was so disreputable that even its staunchest devotees frequently found it prudent to disown it. If you asked a black preacher, schoolteacher, small landowner, or faithful churchgoer what kind of people played and listened to the blues, they would tell you, 'cornfield n*****s.'"
The heart of the Mississippi Delta didn’t provide many career options, so House, like most Black Americans grew up working on the old plantations, picking cotton, gathering tree moss(?), or whatever came his way. He married quite young, and against his parents’ wishes, to an older New Orleans woman named Carrie Martin. The moved to Centerville, Louisiana to help work her father’s farm, but House soured on both the marriage and farm-work after a couple years and ended both. Preaching became his next calling - he even found paid work for a time, but, like his father, he wrestled between drinking and bringing in the sheaths.
The challenge grew deeper when he got his first real, intoxicating sniff of the blues. It happened in 1927, though the specific accounts differ: the Musician Guide piece frames the moment as a chance encounter, while Wikipedia presents it as hanging out with “drinking companions.” Both sources agree on the two men in question - Willie Wilson and James McCoy - and the broad outlines: Son House saw one of them play bottleneck guitar and decided he’d found his calling. He’d gone from “Just putting your hands on an old guitar, why, looked like that was sin" to “Jesus, I like that! I believe I want to play one of them things” in an afternoon. He ran out and bought a $1.50 guitar, Wilson taught him how to tune with his ear and McCoy gave him a couple before they sent him on his way, and this is where his career starts. Sort of...
Son House, Between God and the Blues
Edward James “Son” House, Jr. was born in 1902, on a plantation between Clarksdale and Lyon, Mississippi. His parents split when he was young, which, then as now, meant bouncing between households - the Clarksdale area with his father, Eddie House Sr., and various stops in Louisiana with his (for some reason, nameless) mother, including New Orleans. House’s father was a musician - a tuba player - who came in and out of the church as House grew up. When drinking drove at least one of those separations, Eddie Sr. tossed the bottle, straightened out, and became a deacon in the church. Both parents passed down their religiosity to Son House, and his faith weighed heavily and challenged him throughout his life - and it got hold early too; according to Wikipedia, he preached sermons on visits at his mother’s in Algiers, New Orleans, by age 15. To the extent music came into House’s life at all, he didn’t see it as a positive - and that tied to the culture and his upbringing. As a little bio on Musician Guide noted:
“Blues was so disreputable that even its staunchest devotees frequently found it prudent to disown it. If you asked a black preacher, schoolteacher, small landowner, or faithful churchgoer what kind of people played and listened to the blues, they would tell you, 'cornfield n*****s.'"
The heart of the Mississippi Delta didn’t provide many career options, so House, like most Black Americans grew up working on the old plantations, picking cotton, gathering tree moss(?), or whatever came his way. He married quite young, and against his parents’ wishes, to an older New Orleans woman named Carrie Martin. The moved to Centerville, Louisiana to help work her father’s farm, but House soured on both the marriage and farm-work after a couple years and ended both. Preaching became his next calling - he even found paid work for a time, but, like his father, he wrestled between drinking and bringing in the sheaths.
The challenge grew deeper when he got his first real, intoxicating sniff of the blues. It happened in 1927, though the specific accounts differ: the Musician Guide piece frames the moment as a chance encounter, while Wikipedia presents it as hanging out with “drinking companions.” Both sources agree on the two men in question - Willie Wilson and James McCoy - and the broad outlines: Son House saw one of them play bottleneck guitar and decided he’d found his calling. He’d gone from “Just putting your hands on an old guitar, why, looked like that was sin" to “Jesus, I like that! I believe I want to play one of them things” in an afternoon. He ran out and bought a $1.50 guitar, Wilson taught him how to tune with his ear and McCoy gave him a couple before they sent him on his way, and this is where his career starts. Sort of...
