Son House "Forever on my Mind"
In 1964 a trio of young, white blues enthusiasts—at a time when that music was largely undiscovered outside an aging African American audience—found their way to the home of Son House. The 62-year-old Mississippi-born guitarist had released a few startling records in the 1930s before disappearing. Those blues enthusiasts helped to promote his “comeback” in the ‘60s, when House became more widely known and respected than when he was young.
Forever on my Mind is a newly released recording of House’s 1964 concert at an Indiana college and includes several songs he rerecorded for his seminal 1965 LP, Father of Folk Blues. It was a raw performance, unadorned and direct, by a soloist loud and bristling with intensity of a full band. His guitar playing was imaginative and in sync with the emotional keys of his words, whether satirizing Evangelical Christianity in “Preachin’ Blues,” dreaming of the Great Migration in “Empire State Express” or dealing with loss in “Death Letter.” The roots of John Fahey are audible.
