Henry Sloan – The Real Father of the Blues

By Jason // Blues, Delta Blues, blues history // 1 Comment

Some believe Henry Sloan to be the Father of the Blues. Is it true?

Is Henry Sloan the father of the blues? new research points to the possibility that Sloan may be the hobo that W.C. Handy observed at the train station playing those old blues with a knife for a slide.

Read more of this post to get as much detail – what is known anyway – of Henry Sloan, the personal guitar instructor to Charley Patton and others.

enry Sloan (b. January 1870 – d. ?) was an African American musician, one of the earliest figures in the history of Delta Blues. Very little is known for certain about his life, other than he tutored Charlie Patton in the ways of the blues, and moved to Chicago shortly after World War I. There are no recordings of him.

According to researcher David Evans, Sloan was born in Mississippi in 1870, and by 1900 was living in the same community as the Patton and Chatmon families near Bolton, Mississippi. He moved to the Dockery Plantation near Indianola about the same time as the Pattons, between 1901 and 1904. Patton received some direct instruction from Sloan, and played with him for several years. Two of Patton’s later accompanists, Tommy Johnson and Son House, both stated that Patton “dogged every step” of Sloan’s.

One unprovable possibility is that Sloan was the mysterious hobo observed by musician W.C. Handy playing guitar at Tutwiler train station in 1903. Handy wrote in his autobiography of being awakened by “… a lean, loose-jointed Negro [who] had commenced plucking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar. … The effect was unforgettable… The singer repeated the line (“Goin’ where the Southern cross the Dog”) three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard.”

Jul
22

Facts Around Johnson's Poisoning – Killers Revealed

By Jason // Blues, Delta Blues, Robert Johnson // 4 Comments

Read how Robert Johnson died that fateful night – including causes, names, locations and more.

Robert Johnson

Using the research of Barry Lee Parson, Bill McCullack, Mack McCormick, Gayle Dean Wardlow, and Steve LaVere, coupled with testimony from Luther Wade, Rosie Eskridge, and several other eye witnesses, combined with facts from Cencus records, city directories, case studies, and other professional testimonies, we have finally pieced together what happened that fateful night in August, 1938.

Read more to learn the timeline of events, including names, places, locations, and more. Find out how Robert Was poisoned, who did it, why it was done, and the events before and after the murder. Much of this will contradict Honeyboy Edwards various testimonies, but no more than he has already contradicted himself.

This has been a long time coming.

Jul
13

Should the 2009 Trip be Tweeted?!?

By Jason // Blues, blues trip // 2 Comments

Should the 2009 trip be tweeted?

[polldaddy poll=1779911]

Jul
8

508 Park Ave – Set to be Destroyed?

By Jason // Blues, Robert Johnson, blues history // 4 Comments

It’s true – the permits are filed. Can the building be saved?

508 Park Ave

This is an update to a previous post on this site, entitled “Robert Johnson’s Dallas Session – A Letter and a Building.”

The legendary building where Robert Johnson recorded in Dallas Texas is a historical building to those into the blues. To this site, it is another historical location in not only the blues, but in american history that is set to be lost forever.

The building, long for sale (but with little interest) is not going to be saved. Nothing short of a miracle can do it – the permits have been filed to tear this beautiful building – along with its history – down to the dirty ground.

Read more to find out more details and see if there is anything that can be done to save this precious monument.