Son House lived and played the blues alongside Charley Patton and Henry Sloan at Dockery Farms, learning their songs, rhythms and playing styles and introducing them to a larger audience when he was “rediscovered” in 1964.
Born Eddie James House, Jr. in 1902, Son at first avoided the musicians at Dockery, determined to make himself into a Baptist preacher. He eventually learned to play the guitar, and after a short stint in the state penitentiary for a mysterious crime, he dedicated the rest of his life to the blues. He recorded with Charley Patton in 1929 as a side man, and later with Willie Brown and Robert Johnson, and then faded into obscurity, taking a job as a railroad porter in rural New York. He was brought to prominence again in the 1960s as British rock and rollers sought out and paid tribute to the musicians that influenced their sound.