Charley Patton was the first star of the Delta country blues. His fervent singing voice, fluid playing of the guitar, and unrelenting beat made Patton the original king in the Delta blues. Patton was more than just an itinerant musician. He was a well-known celebrity and a major influence on musicians across the Delta. Patton was not content to just booze his way around town. He would instead be summoned to perform at plantation dances and juke joints. Patton would take his guitars with him everywhere. Workers wouldn’t leave their crops unattended, so he would pack them up like sardines. He was a perfect example of the “sport” blues singer of the ’20s: raffish, easily provoked, capable of downing large quantities of food and alcohol, and carrying a flashy, expensive-looking, strapped guitar that he kept close by. Only when money was involved or good times were he able to open it up. You could hear his records, including “Pony Blues”, which was his biggest hit. He was not the first Delta Bluesman to record but he became a popular figure in the genre. Charley Patton, by late-’20s Mississippi plantation standards was a star and a true celebrity. Patton stood approximately five feet, five inches tall, weighed in at a Spartan 135 lbs. His gravelly, high-energy singing style made him seem twice as heavy and half his height. He was claimed by Sleepy John Estes to be the loudest blues singer ever heard. His voice could also carry outside at dances up to 500 feet away, even without amplifiers. His vaudeville-style vocal asides, which are recorded to give the impression of two people talking to one another — and the sound of his whiskey-and-cigarette-scarred vocal voice would be major components of the vocal style that one of his students, a young Howlin Wolf. His guitar playing was just as impressive. He had a strong rhythmic sense and a powerful beat that helped him to grow into the boogie music of John Lee Hooker. Patton is widely regarded as the first to put blues into strong, syncopated rhythms. His strident tone was achieved when he tuned his guitar one step higher than standard pitch. Patton’s compositional skills are demonstrated by his ability to find and use multiple themes as background music in one song. His slide work was equally inspiring. He could play it in his lap with a Hawaiian guitar, fretted with a pocket knives, or with a brass pipe to make a bottleneck. His bass strings were also popped, a technique he invented 40 years ago. He beat his guitar like an instrument and stomped his feet in order to add or subtract beats. His style was characterized by rhythm and excitement. Patton’s second and equally important legacy was his gift for entertaining. Charley Patton’s popularity in the South is due to his reputation as a consummate entertainer at the barrelhouse. Patton is the originator of many of the guitar gymnastics that we associate with Jimi Hendrix and others. His ability to entertain the people and rock the house with a hell-raising intensity left an indelible mark on both audiences and fellow bluesmen. His music encompassed everything, from blues to ballads to ragtime to gospel. Patton was so good at setting the mood and atmosphere, that he could stop a barrelhouse frenzy by performing a few religious-themed songs and still keep his audience spellbound. Patton was a bluesman at heart with a vaudeville mind. It can be overwhelming to hear him perform for the first time. Patton’s music is strongly rooted in the ’20s and even his religious songs, which is why it has a strong rhythmic beat. In 1929, Patton recorded his first recording for Paramount. Within a year, he became not only the best-selling blues artist, but also, in a whirlwind record activity, the music’s most prolific. Patton also helped to hook up Willie Brown (and Son House) with their first recording opportunities. Listening to Patton’s entire recorded legacy of 60 tracks, which he completed only a few months before his death in 1934, is a good idea. Nobody will ever know the true sound of Patton’s Paramount masters. The company closed down and the metal masters were scrapped. Some of the material was used to line chicken houses. The original 78s are all that remains. They were rumored made from inferior pressing material, which was commonly used to make bowling balls. All of these 78s are scratched and heavily played and it is difficult to retrieve sound using current noise-reduction processing. It is music that is worth looking for, and not only because of its historical significance. Patton’s music is the beginning of the Delta Blues, long before it was homogenized by 12-bar restrictions and turnarounds. Few people were so passionate about it. Allmusic
