Willie Brown, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Bukka White, Big Joe Williams, Pop Staples and David ‘HoneyBoy’ Edwards all came under Patton’s influence in some way. They may have played with him, known him as a friend, seen him perform or quite simply they aspired to be both as good and as well known as he was. He was particularly close to Willie Brown who travelled with him throughout the 1920’s playing house rent parties, picnics, juke joints, and workers camps. They often played for white audiences, especially in Lula. They initially used Dockery Farms as their base, it was where Patton’s Father had moved his large family in 1912.
Charley was confident in his ability as a musician, he even got some people’s backs up with his demands to be addressed as ‘Mister Patton’ – might uppity in some folk’s eyes. Whether it was arrogance or confidence we can never know, but as Paul Oliver attests "Charley Patton is without question one of the most impressive and important of Bluesmen on record..." – and what must have it been like to have seen him live? He was a showmen, of that there is no doubt, but it was also what was required of these entertainers, in no way should it undermine our view of Patton’s musicianship or his status. What is clear from listening to his records that he was an original, he wrote wonderful songs and interesting lyrics; he also delivered them with a great deal more panache than most of his contemporaries. Amongst Delta musicians there was a degree of competition, they made their living from playing live, not from their record sales. With no royalty payments from their records, it was playing to their Delta audiences that earned them their living; records just helped to ‘spread the word’. A player had to give the audience a show and that is what Charley Patton did better than anyone.
After his first session at Paramount’s Grafton studios in June ‘29, Charley went back and added to the 14 sides he’d recorded with another 24 sides in October. Henry Sims a violin player went with him on his trip north and accompanied him on 4 of these sides. Some of these earlier sides were in fact religious, including the powerful, two part, Prayer of Death; these Paramount released as Elder J.J. Hadley. For Charley’s third release Paramount got highly creative in their marketing, and did his career no harm. They released Mississippi Boweavil Blues and Screamin’ and Hollerin’ The Blues as ‘The Masked Marvel’ and asked record buyers to guess who the artist was, their prize was another Paramount record of their choice ….for free.
A little over 6 months later Patton headed north once again, this time accompanied on the trip by Willie Brown, Son House and Louise Johnson. The consensus is that Charley and Louise were an item at the start of the trip, by the end she had switched her favours to Son……..life on the road! At this session Charley cut just four sides, it may have been that the cream of his material had been used up; the 1920’s equivalent of that difficult third album. The Depression was also underway and it may also have been the case that Paramount was limiting what it recorded, they did in fact have a backlog of unreleased Patton sides. Nearly four years were to pass before Charley got to record again. He went to New York to sides for Vocalion. He cut 36 sides over three days, ten of which were released at the time. These performances are not as good as Charley’s earlier work – he had a serious heart condition, he was just three months away from his death and he had a knife wound in his neck. His latest wife Bertha Lee accompanied him on some of these sides; sadly the masters of the unissued sides are missing.
Patton and Bertha Lee left New York and went back to Mississippi. Three months later on April 28th the 43-year-old Patton died at Holly Springs near Indianola. At his last recording session he recorded the prophetic Oh Death…….
Oh, hush, good Lordy, oh hush, somebody is callin’ me
Lord I know, Lord, I know my time ain’t long.
"Well my stepfather came home and told me. I was sitting on the front porch rocking in a rocking chair and he said, ‘Rosetta, I have something to tell you’. He said, ‘Don’t get upset, I have something to tell you’. And Momma, she rushed to the door, she said, ‘What is it? What are you going to tell her?’ He said, ‘Her father’s dead’. And I know that they say he had asthma and a heart attack. He went out to play that night, a Saturday night, he took a real sick attack and they rushed him home and he died before he got to the doctor back there."
Rosetta Patton in 2001
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