Son House
Clarksdale Moan 1930-1942

The life of Eddie James "Son" House was anything but calm and linear. Born in Mississippi, he worked in the fields and did other humble jobs, then around the age of twenty he became a Baptist preacher, but soon after became a heavy drinker and womanizer, therefore leaving the church.
I add a non-secondary detail: for religious reasons, he had never tolerated the blues, which he considered secular music. But at 25, while listening to a drinking buddy, the bluesman James McCoy, who played guitar with a bottleneck, 'Son' was struck as if on the road to Damascus, converting to the "devil's music"(!) and rapidly became one of its major exponents.
After purchasing a guitar, he began performing around the town where he lived and one evening, while playing in a venue, a drunken man shot him in the leg, House fired back, pulled out his gun and killed him. He was imprisoned for two years, then as soon as he got out, he decided to leave the city and took a train to Lula.
Penniless, House decided to play in front of the station to make some money and attracted a lot of people, including the woman who would become his wife (the 2nd, he was already married). But more extraordinarily, passing by was the professional bluesman Charley Patton along with another musician Willie Brown, the two kept their distance and after the performance Patton approached and invited "Son" to play concerts with his band.
From that day, as you might imagine, things changed for House who, again thanks to Patton, had the opportunity to record his first singles, even though they would not achieve commercial success.
In this double CD "Clarksdale Moan 1930-1942" are collected (on the 2nd disc) all 9 tracks he recorded for Paramount in May 1930. The session opens with the beautiful "My Black Mama Part 1 & 2", the song that converted House to the blues and that he learned from his drinking partner James McCoy. Right away, you understand the simple yet incisive and passionate style of "Son's" guitar, based on the use of the bottleneck and an alternation between the lower and higher notes, enhanced by his voice, swirling, powerful and turbulent, probably derived from his past as a preacher. These characteristics stand out strikingly in the influential "Preachin' The Blues, Part 1 & 2" which can be considered a true milestone of blues (yes, it was also reinterpreted by a "certain" Robert Johnson to pay homage to his musical father). Other precious tracks are the stinging "Mississippi Country Farm Blues" and the melancholic "Clarksdale Moan" (this latter being heard in this 2013 compilation for the first time).
The first CD opens with 7 recordings from 1941 made by the itinerant musicologist Alan Lomax at the back of a liquor store, "Klack's Store" in Lake Cormorant (Mississippi), here House is in the company of other musicians (sometimes they play all together sometimes they alternate) and they are: the already mentioned Willie Brown on guitar and vocals, with Leroy Williams on harmonica and Fiddlin' Joe Martin on mandolin and vocals.
The suffering "Delta Blues" in duo with the excellent harmonica of Williams as a backdrop to the entire piece, concluding with a beautiful duet with "Son's" guitar is magnetic, and in my opinion, this track could be one of the most representative manifestos of Mississippi blues. Another gem is the long "Walking Blues" in a trio, with Martin on mandolin, a piece of prodigious emotional intensity.
A beautiful version of "Walking Blues" is also found in the recordings of '42, again recorded by Lomax, but here "Son" House records solo. Essential yet expressive is "County Farm Blues" (different version of the already mentioned "Mississippi Country Farm Blues"). From this session, I also highlight the beautiful interpretation of "The Pony Blues" by his friend and mentor Charley Patton, who died in '34.
I realize I've already written too much so, to conclude, if you're curious to know the splendid beginnings of the father of classic delta blues, this double CD has what you are looking for.
Which, when you think about it, could be summed up with a concise phrase by Muddy Waters about "Son"? namely: «That man was the king».