In 1913 the educated black composer W.C. Handy heard a strange music being played at a railwaystation in the Mississippi Delta by an unknown musician, that was soon to be known as the Blues. While Handy successfully tried to compose a number of Blues Songs later, the music was largely confined to the Delta, where travelling singers would play at dances, parties and fish-fries. One of the better known of those singers was Charley Patton. The redhaired black singer was born around 1890, and started to make music when health problems occured in his youth. Though he was quite small he had a powerful voice, and an unusually large repertoire. Though he was popular in the Delta it was not before 1929 that he made his first recordings. His songs are a dense social description of rural life in the Delta.
His life remains largely unknown, and the most of the accounts on him seem to be dominated by envy of fellow musicians. But it seems quite clear that he was a heavy drinker who was violent too. Still he was popular with audiences both black and white.
Unfortunately many of his recordings are barely audible as they were cheaply recorded for local audiences only. He died in 1934, never seeing his songs making their way into the charts when played by bands like "Cream".