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20 years in jail. It's said that after seven years he was released because he wrote a song to the governor appealing for his freedom. This is a true display of the power and the steeply increasing popularity of blues music at the time.

After becoming a free man ha was taken under the wing of O.K. Allen' who helped him harness his musicianship and make a name for himself in New York but Lead Belly did not get any fortune from his new found fame.

Such bands as Nirvana' have covered many of his songs most famously "Where did you sleep last night". This is a song I (Graham) have covered at my own gigs thinking it was a Nirvana song not learning until now that its actually more than six decades old!

Edward James Son' House: 1902-1988
Yet another blues man in trouble, Son' was a preacher since the age of fifteen but even though condoned by the church could not escape the lure of the sweet, sweet blues sound and decided to teach himself guitar in his mid-twenties.

Killing a man allegedly in self defense he spent a couple of years in Mississippi State Penitentiary which is also known as Parchman farm' because it's located in the town of Parchmen and has a farm which the inmates had to work on.
An inspiration for many blues tunes from the early to mid 1900's a man called Bukka White' wrote a famous song called "Parchmen Farm, Farm Blues". Son recorded a cover of the song in 1939.

After recording selectively from 1939 to 1942 Son faded from the public eye and retired from music walking the railroads for many years. When Country Blues was revived in the 1960's people became aware of his earlier recordings thus a following for his music grew and he toured America and Europe extensively.

He was a big influence to musicians such as Muddy Waters' and Robert Johnson' who later took his music to new levels with their virtuosity.

Elizabeth Libba' Cotton: 1895-1987
One of the rare female country blues players in the early 1900's had a unique technique when playing guitar. Being left handed she picked up a right handed guitar and played it upside down playing bass lines with her fingers and melodies with her thumb.
Coupling this with the fact that she had no knowledge of standard tuning (EADGBE) gave her a very unique sound. The term Cotton Picking' was derived from her style of playing.

She became well known in her teens but by the age of fifteen she got married and settled down only playing occasionally in Church performances for the next twenty-five years. Like Son House she was musically

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