Death Letter

One of the most powerful songs by Son House, in my opinion along with John The Revelator. 

Son House was born in 1902 im Mississippi, in a share cropping family. He became a Baptist preacher at the age of 15, but then veered off and took up the ungodly profession of a blues musician. He was a big influence on Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. He recorded during the 30's and early 40's, then disappeared for many years and was "redicovered" in the early 60's working for the New York Central Railroad. He began to record and toured constantly, encouraged by the blues revival in the 60's. He moved to Detroit and died there in 1988. 

Here is a piece written about a performance by House in 1967 in England, It gives a hint of the power of the music and the mystery of the man.

"It is difficult to describe the transformation that took place as this smiling, friendly man hunched over his guitar and launched himself, bodily it seemed, into his music. The blues possessed him like a 'lowdown shaking chill' and the spellbound audience saw the very incarnation of the blues as, head thrown back, he hollered and groaned the disturbing lyrics and flailed the guitar, snapping the strings back against the fingerboard to accentuate the agonized rhythm. Son's music is the centre of the blues experience and when he performs it is a corporeal thing, audience and singer become as one."