House, Son

House's blues were fierce and personal. His deep, raw, barking voice and heavily rhythmic guitar playing conveyed a passionate, often agonised intensity that ran through his whole body. His hands were fascinating to watch as he slapped the strings rhythmically, pulling on them so the notes cracked, and running his sharply slanted slide cleanly across them. One writer described him as “possessed” by the music while he played and sang it. Both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters learned...