Sam Chatmon (born Vivian Chatmon; January 10, 1897 – February 2, 1983) was a

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of t ...

guitarist and singer. He was a member of the

Mississippi Sheiks The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues but were adept at many styles of popular music of the time. They recorded around 70 tracks, ...

. He may have been

Charley Patton Charley Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American musi ...

's half-brother.

Life and career

Chatmon was born in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...

, Mississippi, United States. Chatmon's family was well known in Mississippi for their musical talents; he was a member of the family's string band when he was young. In an interview he stated that he started playing the guitar at the age of three, laying it flat on the floor and crawling under it. A year older and he recalled singing a song including the lyrics "Run down to the river thought I'd jump an' drown / I thought about the woman I lovin' and I turn around". He regularly performed for white audiences in the 1900s. The Chatmon band played rags,

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s, and popular dance tunes. Two of Sam's brothers, the fiddler Lonnie Chatmon and the guitarist

Bo Carter Armenter (or Armentia) Chatmon (March 21, 1893 or January 1894 – September 21, 1964), known as Bo Carter, was an early American blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts and on a few of their recordings. He also ma ...

, performed with the guitarist Walter Vinson as the Mississippi Sheiks. Chatmon played the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

and harmonica in addition to the guitar. He performed at parties and on street corners throughout Mississippi for small pay and tips. In the 1930s, he recorded with the Sheiks and also with his brother Lonnie as the Chatman Brothers. Chatmon moved to

Hollandale, Mississippi Hollandale is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,323 at the 2020 census. Deer Creek flows through Hollandale, and the Leroy Percy State Park is west of the city along Mississippi Highway 12. The Hol ...

in the early 1940s and worked on

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s there. He was rediscovered in 1960 and started a new chapter of his career as a

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

- blues artist. In the same year he recorded for

Arhoolie Records Arhoolie Records is an American small independent record label run by Chris Strachwitz and is based in El Cerrito, California, United States (it is actually located in Richmond Annex but has an El Cerrito postal address.) The label was founded by ...

. He toured extensively during the 1960s and 1970s. While in California in 1970, he made several recordings with

Sue Draheim Sue Draheim ( ; August 17, 1949 – April 11, 2013) was an American fiddler, boasting a more than forty year musical career in the US and the UK. Growing up in North Oakland, Draheim began her first private violin lessons at age eleven, having ...

, Kenny Hall, Ed Littlefield, Lou Curtiss, Kathy Hall, Will Scarlett and others at Sweet's Mill Music Camp, forming a group he called "The California Sheiks". He played many of the largest and best-known folk festivals, including the

Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, launched in 1967, is an international exhibition of living cultural heritage presented annually in the summer in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is held on the National Mall for two weeks around the F ...

in Washington, D.C., in 1972, the

Mariposa Folk Festival Mariposa Folk Festival is a Canadian music festival founded in 1961 in Orillia, Ontario. It was held in Orillia for three years before being banned because of disturbances by festival-goers. After being held in various places in Ontario for a ...

in Toronto in 1974, and the

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...

in 1976. Sam Chatmon died on February 2, 1983, in

, aged 86. A headstone memorial to Chatmon with the inscription "Sitting on top of the World" was paid for by

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporate ...

through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund and placed in Sanders Memorial Cemetery,

, on March 14, 1998, in a ceremony held at the Hollandale Municipal Building, celebrated by the Mayor and members of the city council of Hollandale, with over 100 attendees. Chatmon was later honored with a marker on the

Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) ...

Discography

Studio albums

*''Sam Chatmon: The Mississippi Sheik'' (Blue Goose, 197?) *''Hollandale Blues'' (Albatros, 1977) *''Sam Chatmon's Advice'' (Rounder, 1979) *''Sam Chatmon & His Barbecue Boys'' (Flying Fish, 1981)

Compilations

*''Sam Chatmon 1970–1974'' (Flyright, 1999) *''Field Recordings from Hollandale, Mississippi (1976–1982)'' (Mbirafon, 2009)

References

External links

Illustrated Sam Chatmon discography
*

Sam Chatmon biography at Allmusic Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional c ...

The Land Where the Blues Began DVD
1978,

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...

/Worth – Long documentary that has a section on Sam Chatmon plus eight complete song performances.
Mount Zion memorial Fund

Sam Chatmon interview on YouTube
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatmon, Sam 1897 births 1983 deaths People from Bolton, Mississippi American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues harmonica players American blues singers Blues musicians from Mississippi 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Mississippi People from Hollandale, Mississippi 20th-century American male singers Mississippi Blues Trail