Blues Man? Preacher?

In the middle of the Mississippi Delta is a place called Dockery Plantation. In 1891, a man named Charley Patton was born there. His father, Bill Patton, had hoped that his young son would grow up to be a pastor. And Charley Patton's grandmother wanted her grandson to be a pastor, too. But early on, Charley Patton picked up a guitar. And he was very good at it. So, he set out to be a blues man.

He ended up recording a number of songs. He traveled up to Grafton, Wis., and there he recorded songs for Paramount Records. He made his way over to New York and recorded for Columbia, and he had quite a repertoire of blues songs recorded under his name.

But he always wanted to be a pastor. He struggled with the idea of being a blues man and felt like his calling was actually to be a preacher. From time to time, he would record gospel songs in addition to blues songs. In fact, one of the songs he recorded early on was titled "You're Gonna Need Somebody When You Die." Patton knew what ultimate truth was and he knew what ultimately mattered, and the song revealed that.

In the winter of 1933, Patton began to experience weakness and severe chest pain. He visited a doctor and the news was not good. The doctor told him he would not have long to live. By April 1934, he made his way to the little town of Holly Ridge, Miss. There's not much in Holly Ridge—a general store up by the highway, and further on down the main road is a church. There are a few houses scattered around it, and a big cotton mill. This is where Charley Patton went to die.

He made a little room for himself in the back of the general store. During the day, he would go to the front of the general store and start preaching. His niece told reporters years later that he started preaching on Saturday morning, April 21, 1934. He preached that whole week. He would only stop to go back to his cot at the back of the store to get some sleep, and then he would come back out and start preaching again. His daughter said he preached that whole week, and then the next Saturday, April 28, 1934, he died.

I think Charley Patton was trying to make up for some lost time. He had missed all those years while he was out performing and recording. And he was quite a performer. Those who watched him perform said that he had mastered a particular little trick: he could swing the guitar around his back and grab it in his hands and not miss a single beat—just pick right up with the next note.

This early blues musician wanted above all to be a preacher. In one of his final recorded songs, Charley Patton says this, "Jesus is my God, I know his name, his name is all my trust, he would not put my soul to shame or let my hopes be lost." At the end of his life, Charley Patton made his case that Jesus would remember his name.