Son House-Complete Library of Congress Recordings 1941-42

Son House - The Complete Library of Congress Sessions, 1941-1942 [Original recording remastered]


Personnel includes: Eddie James "Son" House Jr. (vocals, guitar); Willie Brown (guitar); Fiddlin' Joe Martin (mandolin); Leroy Williams (harmonica)


Any history of the blues has to place Son House at the very pinnacle. Along with Charlie Patton, House was one of the prime exponents of the Delta blues and few recordings match the sheer emotional impact of his first sides cut for Paramount in 1930. Despite his lofty stature House's recorded output is scanty with sides cut by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941-1942 and, after a long gap, a full length album for Columbia in 1965.

Dick Waterman, House's manager, put his place in blues history in perspective: "He was the mentor for both Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, who are clearly acknowledged as two of the most influential bluesmen on not only urban blues but ultimately the modern music scene. If in his prime he had been recorded as much as Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson or Robert Johnson, he would be considered the pre-eminent artist of his time. He would have his proper appreciation."

He was born Eddie James House, Jr., on March 21, 1902, in Riverton, Mississippi a hamlet south of Clarksdale since absorbed into the town. Son House's year of birth is listed as 1902 in most sources however, Waterman believes that Son was considerably older, possibly as much as seven or fourteen years older. House’s father played horn and guitar and played in a band with some of his brothers although they played no blues.

House didn't care for blues as he related later, "I just hated to see a guy with a guitar. I was too churchy!" By his accounts at the age of 15 or 20 he was preaching the gospel in various Baptist churches. He didn't pick guitar until his mid-20's when he saw a guitar player playing bottleneck on the street.

Around this time House came under the influence of Rube Lacy and James McCoy. It was the latter who supposedly taught House the songs "My Black Mama" and "Preachin’ The Blues", songs he would later record. By the late 20's House was performing around the Clarksdale area in juke joints and house parties.

Even though he had launched head long into a blues career he continued to preach for awhile. The conflict between religion and blues would remain a central theme in House's life articulated in one of his signature tunes, "Preachin' The Blues."

House's career was interrupted when he shot a man dead at a house part in Lyons, MS. and was quickly sentenced to imprisonment at the notorious Parchman Farm. He ended up only serving two years of his sentence and was released in 1929 or early 1930. After hitchhiking and hoboing the rails, he made it down to Lula, MS, about twelve miles north of Clarksdale, where he met Charley Patton for the first time. The extent to which Patton and House actually played together in is uncertain and certainly their temperaments were different.

Patton was described as a funny, loud mouthed boisterous showman while House was gloomy by nature and guilt-ridden about playing the blues and working in juke joints. Many of the things House would later say about Patton are better left unprinted.

One of the results of this trip was a long musical friendship with Willie Brown. He and Brown played all over the Delta as well as Arkansas and Tennessee for the rest of the 1930s. He was still tight with Brown when Alan Lomax knocked on his door in 1941 to record him for the Library of Congress on a tip from Muddy Waters. House rounded up Willie Brown, Fiddlin’ Joe Martin and Leroy Williams for the session. They cut six numbers that day and next summer in July, House recorded, unaccompanied, ten more songs for Lomax.

These 1941-1942 recordings are the only ones ever made of Eddie "Son" House playing with a band, and this 19-track disc collects all 15 songs originally issued on Biograph's "Delta Blues" album and adds four more tracks, none of which are sung by House ("Fo' Clock Blues", "Camp Hollers", an incomplete "Special Rider Blues", and the instrumental "Key Of Minor").

Folklorist Alan Lomax came to Mississippi in late August 1941, bringing with him a 300-pound "portable" disc-cutting machine, and cut five acetate masters - the first four tracks on this album plus "Delta Blues".

Perhaps the chatter of the other three musicians on the first three tracks, and the sound of Joe Martin picking his mandolin, dulls the raw intensity of Son House's music a little, but you can still hear why Muddy Waters was so much in awe of Son House, stating that "back where I came from, down in the Delta, Son House was the king!"

The 1941 recordings were cut in the back room of Clack's country store in Robinsonville by Lake Cormorant in Mississippi, with guitarist Willie Brown (another former playing partner of Charley Patton), "Fiddlin'" Joe Martin - who actually played mandolin - and harpist Leroy Williams. At one point, you can actually hear a train passing by outside.

The remaining numbers (which include a longer version of "The Jinx Blues") were cut the following summer, and on these tracks, House performs alone. This is where the power and intensity of House truly shines through, showcasing what an effective guitar player he really was. Son House may not have been Charlie Christian, but his loud, grinding, strongly rhytmic playing, filled with wailing slide riffs, was the perfect background for his huge voice and emotionally charged singing.

Among the highlights of this collection are "Delta Blues", superbly performed with only Leroy Williams backing House up, "Low Down Dirty Dog Blues" and "Depot Blues", which features some of the most impressive guitar playing House ever comitted to tape, "Walking Blues" (especially the 1941 version), and "The Jinx Blues", set to an effective shuffle beat. Just listen to the way House snaps his bass string against the fretboard.

This collection is one of the all-time great documents on early Delta blues.






1. Levee Camp Blues
2. Government Fleet Blues
3. Walking Blues
4. Shetland Pony Blues
5. Fo' Clock Blues
6. Camp Hollers
7. Delta Blues
8. Special Rider Blues
9. Special Rider Blues
10. Low Down Dirty Dog Blues
11. Depot Blues
12. Key of Minor
13. American Defense
14. Am I Right or Wrong
15. Walking Blues
16. Country Farm Blues
17. Pony Blues
18. Jinx Blues, Pt. 1
19. Jinx Blues, Pt. 2