⬇️ SAM CHATMON ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1976-2006 (10CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Sam Chatmon (January 10, 1897 – February 2, 1983) was a Delta blues
guitarist and singer. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks. He may
have been Charlie Patton's half-brother.
Chatmon was born in Bolton, Mississippi. His 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 3, laying it flat on the floor and
crawling under it. He regularly performed for white audiences in the
1900s.
The Chatmon band played rags, ballads, and popular dance tunes. Two of
Sam's brothers, the fiddler Lonnie Chatmon and the guitarist Bo Carter,
performed with the guitarist Walter Vinson as the Mississippi
Sheiks.
Chatmon played the banjo, mandolin, 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, in the early 1940s and worked
on plantations there. He was rediscovered in 1960 and started a new
chapter of his career as a folk-blues artist. In the same year he recorded
for Arhoolie Records. He toured extensively during the 1960s and 1970s.
While in California in 1970 he made several recordings with Sue Draheim,
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 in Washington, D.C., in 1972, the
Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto in 1974, and the New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival in 1976.
A headstone memorial to Chatmon with the inscription "Sitting on top of
the World" was paid for by Bonnie Raitt through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund
and placed in Sanders Memorial Cemetery, Hollandale, Mississippi, 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. (Wikipedia)