The music of the stern-looking man on the sleeve of this Rough Guide is the closest connection we have to the birth of the blues, and therefore to the making of pop as we know it. Born in 1891, Patton grew up on the Mississippi delta plantations at a time when the music was likelier gospel or country hoedowns than that new-fangled fad, the blues. Becoming a local star, though, he was formidable in shaping the genre. By the time he recorded these songs (from 1929 until just before his death in 1934) he had already popularised a compelling style that would spread through younger men like Son House, Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson, all the way to the 60s blues boom.