A compilation of old works by Son House. He was quite an interesting character: starting out as a preacher, he detested secular music. He found blues when he was nearing thirty, during the Depression. He was the victim of an injustice when he found himself in the penitentiary, but got away after sitting out just two years of his fifteen years sentence. In fact, he was just an innocent bystander of the shooting.
Somehow all of this can be heard in his voice. Son House is able to put a lot of emotion in his voice. This was probably the reason why we know of him now. In the Depression years his records didn’t sell, and he quit on music in 1943. But many musicians knew of him, and took him as an example. In 1964 he was rediscovered when he was working for the railways. It led to a revival, with appearances at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and New York in 1965. A European tour followed in 1967. He is now called the father of the Delta blues.