Music
Son House
1902–1988 · blues singer, slide guitarist
Delta blues master who shaped Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, spent his last years in Detroit and is buried at Mount Hazel Cemetery under a monument paid for by local fans.
- Born
Lyon, Mississippi- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 86- Birth name
- Edward James House Jr.
- Detroit years
- 1970s–1988
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Son House was a Mississippi preacher who turned to the blues at 25 and poured a sermon's intensity into his singing and slide guitar. He recorded with Charley Patton for Paramount in 1930 and for the Library of Congress in 1941–42, and he became a formative influence on Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. In 1943 he left the Delta for Rochester, New York, and gave up music until young fans rediscovered him in 1964, launching a second career on the folk-revival circuit. When his health failed he retired, and in the 1970s he moved to Detroit, where he lived quietly for the rest of his life. He died of cancer of the larynx in Detroit on October 19, 1988, and was buried at Mount Hazel Cemetery on the northwest side. For years the grave had only a modest marker, until the Detroit Blues Society raised money through benefit concerts for the large black monument that stands there today.
Highlights
- Recorded with Charley Patton for Paramount in 1930
- Influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters
- Rediscovered in 1964; Father of Folk Blues (1965)
- Spent his last years in Detroit and died there in 1988
- Grave monument funded by the Detroit Blues Society
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1988–
Mount Hazel Cemetery
City-owned cemetery on the northwest side; his large black monument, raised by the Detroit Blues Society, stands in the front section inside the U-shaped drive.