December 2009

The convoluted oral history of the blues has as many contradictions as vast insights. Players generally recount the same occurrence in any variety of ways over time with dates and places changing with each telling. And after the first wave of notable performers being rediscovered in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s it seemed that performers no longer possessed the ability to lucidly illuminate their pasts.

Of course, there were exceptions – Mississippi John Hurt was one. But a lesser known and longer living Henry Townsend proved to be an indispensible compendium of information. His life began at the most southern tip of Illinois, but an abusive father eventually pushed Townsend out on the road with the young guitar player eventually winding up on St. Louis after jumping a few trainss.
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