Born into in rural, baptist Mississippi in 1902, Son House felt called to be a preacher at the young age of 15.

But it just wasn't meant to be. As he matured into adulthood, he developed an affinity for alcohol. It proved to be a strange mix of ideals.

The one evening, while drinking and gambling with friends, House tried his hand at singing the blues. The die was cast. The preacher’s booming voice filled the room, the bottleneck guitar answered, and a bluesman was born.

Son House became the touring partner of Willie Brown and Charlie Patton, the father of the Delta Blues. The three played all over the Mississippi Delta and influenced countless musicians, including a young Robert Johnson.

Son House became one of the most important figures of the folk revival in the 60’s. As one of the last living links to Patton and Johnson, he found himself surrounded by admirers and in demand around the world on the festival and coffeehouse circuit. To an entire generation of blues lovers, Son House was the blues.

This is his story.

Honeyboy Edwards was Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen.

Born to a poor, but very musical family, his early life consisted of hard labor in the fields. His prodigious talents soon took him away from all that, and his life became a journey through the pages of blues history.

Edwards was Robert Johnson’s close friend and travelling companion. In fact, he was with Johnson the night he was poisoned and died in 1938.

Honeyboy Edwards called many of the first generation of bluesmen both friends and collaborators. He played with Charlie Patton, Tommie Johnson, and Johnny Shines. He later played guitar behind John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Williams, and Muddy Waters.

Edwards believed in the blues and he believed in doing things without all the flash. He was humble, understated, and consistently great at working alongside the superstars of the delta blues for 8, long decades.  

This is his story

Ray Charles, blind since the age of 7 and orphaned at 14, did blues, jazz, and gospel as well as anyone before or since.

And, by doing them all together at once, he pioneered what we soon came to recognize as Soul.

That’s right. Ray Charles is the father of that whole genre.

Furthermore, he took these forms of Black American music, mingled them just enough with contemporary pop sounds and had massive crossover success. Ray Charles was one of the very first African American artists to be granted full, creative control of his career by a major record label.

Ray Charles had a nickname. Some say it was given to him by Sinatra himself. However he got it, it stuck, and people referred to him as "The Genius."

Pretty appropriate, don’t you think?

This is his story.

Fats Domino was born into a musical, French Creole family in the Lower 9th in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1928. His first language was Creole French.

His talents blossomed early. His musical gifts, along with with his laid back and easygoing demeanor, created a lot of demand - everybody wanted to work with Fats.

He had his first hit by the time he was 21, and he invented New Orleans-style rock n roll with it. That 1949 hit for Imperial Records - "The Fat Man" - sold over a million copies by 1953 and is considered the first rock n roll record to achieve that feat. A succession of hits soon followed: "Aint that a Shame", "Blueberry Hill", and "I’m Walkin’".

By the end of his career, Fats Domino had sold more records than any other 1950’s rocker except for Elvis Presley.