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Charlie Patton (1891-1934) was the most powerful blues recording artist of all time, as well as the most subtle. He was, and re-

mains, a figure of immense significance in blues history. Rural entertainers were basically anonymous figures, or at best locally known,

when Patton took up guitar around 1907 - due to "woman troubles," he later said. At that time, Patton was a resident of Dockery, a

vast Mississippi Delta plantation that housed some four hundred tenant families. He soon eclipsed the notary of the musician, one Earl

Harris, he credited with teaching him guitar, and had (as one contemporary put it) "people just clownin' over him - they'd follow him

everywhere." By 1910 he had already established most of the themes he would record two decades later, including Pony Blues, Banty

Rooster, Down the Dirt Road and Maggie, the latter the template for most of his blues in Spanish tuning. In 1929, Patton auditioned

at Dockery for the Jackson record store owner H.C. Speir, who afterward said of him: "He beat 'em all." Following his recording debut,

he recorded more sides in a single year (43) than any blues singer who preceded him. Although he recycled his most popular themes

under various ti- tles, he almost never slavishly parroted them. Shortly after he became a blues recording celebrity, Patton was expelled

from Dockery. After 1930 he settled in the vicinity of Holly Ridge, Mississippi, living in a variety of nearby plantation towns. Just

before recording in 1934, he was arrested for drunkenness at Belzoni, an event he depicted in High Sheriff Blues. Eighty-five days

after completing his 1934 session, he died in Heathman, Mississippi, of a long-standing heart condition.

Patton's legacy is pervasive and influenced generations of blues musicians. His greatness as a singer and musician is apparent from his

very best, which obviously are among the greatest examples of rural black music ever preserved