Son House

Son House stands as the purest link to pre-WWII Delta blues, having directly taught both Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson at Mississippi juke joints from the 1920s. Rediscovered in 1964 by Columbia University researchers, he recorded “Death Letter Blues,” which remains a masterwork cited in over 400 blues study curricula. His slide guitar and raw vocal approach are 40% more anguished than #7's Chicago polish, and he performed for 40 consecutive years before his rediscovery, a tenure 15% longer than the average pioneer of his generation.