Maillist
FOCUS ON: Charley Patton
- Official Website >>
- Label: Revenant >>
- Genre: Jazz, World & Blues
"If I made records for my own pleasure, I would only record Charley Patton songs." - Bob Dylan
Historical revisionism has writ large the name of Robert Johnson in blues annals while according Charley Patton a comparative footnote. One of the founders of Mississippi Delta blues, Patton (1891-1934) was already the long-reigning kingpin of Delta bluesmen when Johnson was still in short pants. Take a listen and hear why many consider Patton the best there ever was.
Possessor of a driving, percussive guitar style, a gravel-encrusted holler, often improvisatory lyrics, complex rhythmic dynamics, an unequalled talking bottleneck and a deep reservoir of melodic hooks, Patton conjured up songstuffs that gave vent to both a restless artistic temperament and a palpable, lingering rage. Hear why John Fahey posits him as a pilgrim of the ominous, one of the earliest progenitors of Fire Music, powered by something wholly other which Patton himself did not understand. And, though less romantic than the oft-trod portrait of Patton as an ego-ruled sociopath, David Evans painstaking new research into Pattons personality reveals why folks like Bukka White and Pops Staples considered Patton a "great man."
