Charley Patton

Fifty years after Charley Patton's death in 1934, a team of blues experts gathered five thousand miles from Dockery Farms at the University of Liege in Belgium to honor the life and music of the most influential artist of the Mississippi Delta blues. This book brings together essays from that international symposium on Charley Patton and Mississippi blues traditions, influences, and comparisons. Originally published by Presses Universitaires de Liège in Belgium, this edition has been revised and updated with a new foreword, new images added, and some chapters translated into English for the first time. Patton's personal life and his recorded music bear witness to how he endured and prevailed in his struggle as a black man during the early twentieth century. Within this book, that story offers hope and wonder. Organized in two parts, the chapters create an invaluable resource on the life and music of this early master. The book secures the legacy of Charley Patton as the fountainhead of Mississippi Delta blues.