Son House

The lonesome howl of Son House strikes one of the defining notes in the history of the blues and echoes the earthy soul of the Mississippi Delta. Born near Clarksdale in 1902, Eddie House became a preacher at 15 before being jailed for two years when he killed a man who had shot him in the leg during a juke joint brawl. On his release he performed with legendary bluesmen Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Willie Brown, where he was spotted and recorded by archivist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. He drifted out of public view, working as a railroad porter and chef, before being rediscovered during the folk boom of the early 1960s and spent the next decade touring with the likes of Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White, Skip James and later Buddy Guy. His tracks John The Revelator, Death Letter Blues and Grinnin' In Your Face became landmarks of the genre inspiring generations of artists from Muddy Waters to Canned Heat to Rory Gallagher to Bonnie Rait to Depeche Mode, and most famously Jack White. House died in 1988 from cancer of the larynx but his recordings stand as a timeless influence.