why give a god credit for this man's amazing talent? why you gotta take away what he's done and give it to some imaginary illusion...?

Lighten up Francis

You are first person I know whom thinks like I do about history thanks.

Thank you

***** I don't know, maybe because this man was a devout Christian? The second half of the video might give that away :/

I discovered Son in the 60's because Cream credited him for "I'm So Glad". Johnny Winter credited Son House as his inspiration in part as a Blues musician. Johnny covered "Death Letter Blues" on his last album. Played on his '30's resonator. Rest in peace Son and Johnny, thanks for the incredible music for generations to come! Amen

John Lee Hooker is the King too !

And don't forget the folk/blues of Leadbelly also..

Charlie and Robert built the foundation, Son and Leadbelly built the walls, and Wolf and Muddy put the roof on.

Fred McDowell would like a word...

Yup, Son House, John Lee Hooker and Mississippi Fred McDowell. BLISS!

@R W Clawhammer most likely goes back to a very similar style, called "o'teck", used in Africa in Senegambia on the native folk lute "akonting", which is most likely related if not ancestral to the banjo. Clawhammer was adopted (Sometime around the mid 1800s) around the same time the banjo was adopted in blackface minstrel shows. On guitar and lutes, "spanish style" finger-picking would have actually been very common. It was also just as fairly common to finger-pick banjos in a "spanish" way, especially around the time the banjo became a popular household instrument and parlour music became popular. It wouldn't quite be three-finger picking, but it would still be finger-picking, and you'd see a lot of it. The three finger style is just a variation of these pre-existing finger styles, and I'd argue it is nothing as innovative and unique as it is often made out to be. All in all, If nobody finger-picked the banjo in the 1800s, Earl Scruggs would have never picked with three fingers. In terms of guitar and blues specifically, I can only think of three (Four if we count Son House) blues guitarists who used clawhammer or some variation. I suspect it may have been more common in black American string music around the turn of the 20th century, but it probably tapered off a lot sooner. I suspect this because Henry Thomas, who was on the "older" side (Being born in 1874, I believe), was probably the only one who near consistently used clawhammer. The next two, Barbecue Bob and Curley Weaver, were taught to play by Weaver's mother. Barbecue Bob used a mix of spanish-style finger picking and "frailing" (Or "clawhammer"), while Weaver later switched to the Piedmont, ragtimey style, which requires a more spanish-like finger-picking technique.

@@sirloinsteak7870 Totally wrong, "clawhammer" style picking was used by dozens of blues artists, I've been playing blues for fifty years and learned from artists like Son because I was a concert promoter for the Seattle Folklore Society that recorded this concert. I have NEVER heard of finger style guitar called "spanish", however, here Son is playing in open G tuning, which is also called "Spanish tuning".

@@sirloinsteak7870 black people always trying to credit for everything in history with some elaboration back to Africa smfh

although I'm sure he enjoys this as well, I believe it was the song grinnin in your face that is Jack White's favorite. Also just sunhouse is voice and clapping. I saw it on the documentary it might Get Loud

One of thé Best MASTER of Course ❤️🌌❤️

possessed

I don't know what's funny, Son was an old man with a drinking problem and he was exhausted.

Ever hear Phil Keaggy do it?

@@billlantz8751 just listened to it there, very cool. Never realised that Blind Willie Johnson recorded it in 1930 either!!

Vincent Jones Phil is my favorite guitarist. Don’t know if you have listened to much of his stuff

Brenda Mark's, John Mooney, a very good blues and slide guitarist, used to hang with Son House in Rochester New York. I bet John could tell us a few stories!

Oh Son House ain't dead in my eyes, but its a treat to have videos like this

+alex hobbins Yes! Your first comment was two years ago. That means you have it man. You have the blues man!

Unbelievable, Bob Frank! Is this a true story?

+Jawknee RustleYes, as well as I can recall a conversation that took place 43 years ago.

Deaf Letter Blues

I like my KZfaq name.

Stooge - it's strange but true. Before google and YT linked up there was an interview with one of the Lomax family - I think it was A.L's son shortly before he died. We are talking about a documentary I watched more than ten years ago. But I remembered That. Son House had drifted to New York to look for work because his genre of the blues wasn't in fashion any more. Music had moved on. He wanted a job, but because of his age, he was ineligible. He had to lie to get the job. From the lies he told about his age then come the 2 or 3 different versions of his age. Lomax put that one out there before he died. I can't recollect now if he was born in 1882 or 1886 - but I wrote a short biography of him with the date Lomax gave - to a musician friend at the time. Which was silly because the guy was steeped in the blues himself - and had learned every note. If you figure that Son House was the elder and teacher of people like Robert Johnson and Skip James and that he had a whole career as a preacher and drunk before then - he was already the finished article when they were beginning and finding their voices - he was from the previous generation - it gets clearer then.

Also, when Al Wilson searched for SH and had to teach him to play like SH, because he hadn't touched a guitar for ages - he was already far advanced in his alcoholism. He had the beginning of Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease even then. He'd been an alcoholic since he was nineteen. Then he had the glorious year - after six wobbly months of not getting it quite right - then on a tour to England with Al Wilson as sideman and memory nudger, Son House began to fall apart completely. He still had the playing and the presence and the great spiritual power - but he was muddling the songs up. He couldn't tell one song from another. If you watch his performances - even of death letter blues - you'll find him forgetting his own song. Look out for the last verse. I didn't feel so bad till the good lord sun went down, I had no one to throw my arms around..... That goes on to - I went in my room and I knelt down to pray - but the bluuues came along and stole my spirit away. There are few live versions on film in which he manages the last verse. By the time people picked up on him, he was already gone. Wilson came back from the tour and went into a downward spiral. And poor old blind owl took an OD and left before he had to watch any more. And SH started being the only one who wasn't aware of how far he had disintegrated. He played on until people, in kindness and sadness had to ask him to stop please. It's a sad, sad story. A genius who lost his life's work. Then Had this amazing comeback in old age - and blazed across the sky like a comet. And a year was all he really got. And he lived to be 106 or 102 or whatever it was, I can't recall at this moment. It's gut wrenching.