This year’s honoree was born and raised in the Delta town of Ruleville, Mississippi. As a child in the farm fields, he was influenced by the rhythmic chants of the workers as they picked cotton. As he grew older his preference for music strongly leaned toward the Blues. He would steal away from his family home at night to stand outside “house parties” and peek in the window to watch the musicians playing the Blues. He would listen to Hossman Allen of WLAC with the earphone in his transistor radio at full-volume. One night, the earphone came unplugged from the radio waking his father. He got a “whuppin” for that!
