Finally!

In my previous post, I remarked on the lack of plot in Delta Blues, by Ted Gioia, saying that it was mainly an anthropological look at the Delta Blues. This was interesting, but at times quite monotonous and textbook like. But, finally, in chapter three, it starts recounting the lives and stories of major blues players. Chapter three starts out describing the history of the previously unmentioned Mississippi plantation of Will Dockery, dating from the mid 19th century. Gioia describes it as an relatively upstanding plantation, "The late Will Dockery - who had abstained from smoking and drinking, and always dressed in an austere black suit - had aimed to uplift, not corrupt, his black workers, taking care of their needs, both earthly and eternal. Instead of jukehouses, he could boast of two churches (one Methodist, the other Baptist) and two elementary schools on his land, as well as a commissary, a sawmill, and a blacksmith's works. When he learned that town practitioners were overcharging his tenants, he hired a white physician to reside on the plantation and take care of all patients, whether black or white." (46) When reading this, it seems totally unrelated, but Gioia soon introduces blues great Charley Patton. As Gioia says, Patton was a "hard drinking, loose living, work shirking field hand hanging out among the ramshackle cabins and broken-down boxcars that passed for living quarters on the northern end of the plantation. " (48)
Patton is painted as a rough, uneducated man, “Patton could only spell one word, his first name; and even that he couldn’t write down, but merely name the letters.” (52) Gioia points out an interesting observation, “He was proud and boastful, and often contentious. H.C. Speir, the talent scout responsible for Patton’s first recordings, remembered him as “kinda forward” for a Southern black man of his day.” (48) Because of this forwardness, he gives a new face to the black, southern blues musician, not as an entirely suppressed, being, but an intense, fun-loving, outgoing person. Now that I have the information and background that the first textbook-like chapters gave me, I have something to relate the stories of individuals to, as well as a context for their lives. I’m looking forward to reading about more blues this week.