Collections and Resources, Events, Music, Southern Folklife Collection, Special Collections

Blues Musician Son House to Be Remembered in Tribute March 13

Tribute to Son House

Son House poster

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Symposium, Wilson Special Collections Library (Free and open to the public)
5:30 p.m. Lecture by Daniel Beaumont
6 p.m. Photo lecture with Dick Waterman
6:30 p.m. Panel discussion with Rory Block, John Mooney, Joe Beard, Dick Waterman

Concert, Student Union, Great Hall, with Rory Block, John Mooney, and Joe Beard
7:30 p.m.
Purchase concert tickets beginning Feb. 14 from Carolina Union Box Office, ($5 for students with One Card; $15 for others)

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The life of legendary blues singer Eddie James “Son” House Jr. will be celebrated with a symposium and concert March 13.

The tribute is sponsored by the Southern Folklife Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library, which holds a large collection of House’s commercial recordings.

The 7:30 p.m. concert will feature guitarist Joe Beard and guitarist/singers Rory Block and John Mooney, all of whom studied with House in the 1960s.

Tickets – $5 for students, $15 for others – will be available starting Feb. 14 through the Carolina Union Box Office, (919) 962-1449.

Before the concert, a free public symposium at 5:30 p.m. in Wilson Library will feature author Daniel Beaumont discussing his new biography, Preachin’ the Blues: The Life and Times of Son House (Oxford University Press, 2011).

At 6 p.m., photographer and manager Dick Waterman will show photos of House and other blues musicians including Howlin’ Wolf, Mississippi John Hurt, and John Fahey. At 6:30 p.m., Beard, Block, and Mooney will join Waterman for a panel discussion.

House was born in 1902, in Riverton, Miss., and died in 1988. He became a Baptist preacher at 15, and only began to play guitar at age 25. His popularity rose after being “rediscovered” by Waterman and others during the 1960’s folk revival. House’s best-known recordings include “John the Revelator” and “Death Letter.”

The concert is the third and final event in the Southern Folklife Collection’s Blues Legacy Series. Previous events paid tribute to Howlin’ Wolf and Reverend Gary Davis.

Among the Son House items in the collection is a rare 1965 interview of him by John Fahey and Barry Hansen, later known as radio disc jockey Dr. Demento. (Listen to a digitized excerpt of the interview.)

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One Response to “Blues Musician Son House to Be Remembered in Tribute March 13”

  1. Just stumbled across this and I can’t wait to show this to Max when he gets home from playing tonight.We are both nuts over Son House and hope that we can attend the entire evening and just “soak it up”!Sounds like great fun.

    Posted by Max and Theresa Drake | February 17, 2012, 11:25 pm