
January 12, 1904 · 122 years old
Fred McDowell, a seminal figure in Mississippi hill country blues, was one of the most vibrant performers of the 1960s blues revival. He was a sharecropper and local entertainer in 1959 when he made his first recordings at his home on a farm north of Como for noted folklorist Alan Lomax. The depth a…

In the segregated Memphis of the 1960s, blues masters and beatniks created a music festival that rocked the foundations of a conservative world.