“Pony Blues” - Charlie Patton (1929)
Most of the time when you hear people talking about early blues musicians they mention Robert Johnson as being the greatest of all time. I don’t agree with that thought. In my opinion Charlie Patton was the greatest blues musician who ever lived and while Charlie Patton is well known to serious blues enthusiasts he doesn’t get the pub that Johnson gets which is a shame because Patton was superior to Johnson in every conceivable way. Perhaps Johnson is a more well-known entity because of his murder and the mystique created by his supposed selling of his soul to Satan in exchange for his popularity.
Charlie Patton was born sometime between 1887 and 1891 in either Edwards or Bolton, Mississippi. He spent most of his life living on various plantations in Mississippi but became very popular as a blues musician in his time. Two of his closest musical associates were Son House and Willie Brown, both of whom will also be featured on this blog. Charlie Patton died near Indianola, Mississippi on April 28th, 1934.
“Pony Blues” was recorded on Friday, June 14th, 1929 in Richmond, Indiana for the “Paramount” record label. While “Pony Blues” is not Patton’s greatest song it was his first “signature” song. Many blues musicians of the time had songs that they played at every performance and that the people in the areas that the musician frequently appeared in associated with that artist. These songs would become the artists’ “signature” song.
Patton’s “Pony Blues” became one of the most influential blues songs of all time and hundreds of other musicians would go on to perform songs derived from it either in part or whole.
