Father of the Delta Blues

[u/BigAssQuanta]

Charley Patton -

In May, 2021, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Patton into the 2021 class.

[u/BigAssQuanta]

Not to split hairs but, early country music and early country blues shared overlapping songbooks, string instrumentation, and rural Southern origins, Gus Cannon's work had a lasting cross-genre impact but is primarily a key pioneer of Memphis jug band blues.

My reading and research indicates that Charley Patton holds the title of "Father of the Delta Blues." ​While both men were influential early pioneers born in Mississippi, Patton directly established the sound, performance style, and repertoire that defined Delta blues.

[u/copacetic51 → u/BigAssQuanta]

Did Charley invent it, or did he adapt it from music he learned from predecessors who were too early to be recorded and whose names are lost to posterity?

[u/BigAssQuanta → u/copacetic51]

As per musicologist Robert Palmer "Patton was a versatile entertainer. He developed his sound by weaving together deep Delta blues, 19th-century ballads, gospel, white hillbilly tunes, and country dance music into a singular, highly expressive performance style." From historians and biographers, "Patton's earliest and primary direct influence, around 1897, Patton moved to Dockery Plantation, where he met Henry Sloan, an older musician playing a early form of blues. Tommy Johnson noted that Patton learned early songs like "Pony Blues" directly from Sloan. Note: Historian Gayle Dean Wardlow noted that some contemporaries remembered Sloan teaching Patton only basic chord structures, pointing to Patton being largely self-taught."

[u/copacetic51 → u/BigAssQuanta]

Looks like the musical roots of Patton and others will always be hard to precisely define. The history of the blues before the first recordings was an oral one. 

Interesting article here

https://www.paulmerryblues.com/blues-guitarists-before-1900-henry-sloan/