Musician born in the 1800s shows off haunting and authentic blues tunes Growing up, we were all influenced by the particular genres of music that we usually hear at home.

Hearing the musical artists who shaped our unique tastes in music perform makes us want to pay tribute and show gratitude. If you love country blues music from the 20th century, you most likely have heard artists like Bob Dylan and John Hurt. Even though we all have different musical heroes, the songs they leave us still linger in our hearts.

Enter Sam Chatmon. He is one of the pioneers of traditional country-blues music.

Mississippi Sheiks was an American country blues group who were inducted in the Mississippi Hall of Fame.

Most of the Mississippi band was formed by the Chatmon family, and he was the band’s guitarist and singer back in the 1930s.

Chatmon was born back in 1897. Videos of Chatmon being interviewed and performing various songs taped back in the 1970s have been uploaded on YouTube. People are now able to watch him perform once again. To those who have heard him before, the videos bring at least a little nostalgia. In this particular video, he performs the blues and folk classic, “Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor.” It’s a song considered to be the standard blues genre.

The interview was taken by Alan Lomax and his company. They shot the video in Sam’s home in Hollandale, Mississippi.

At the beginning of the video, they ask Sam about when he started getting interested in blues music, and when he started to learn to play the guitar. Chatmon describes how he started being exposed to the blues as a very young child.

He remembers hearing his brother play the blues often. The interviewer could not believe it when Chatmon recalls learning his first songs on the guitar at four years old!

They probe him immediately, asking how he was able to do it. Sam casually responds, “I held it…” before going ahead to explain in detail.

As he finishes telling his story, he subtly cues that he is about to start playing the song.

He starts plucking the slightly loose strings on his guitar for the song’s intro. Right away his raspy voice goes well with the syncopated rhythms coming from his guitar. It will be hard not to smile as you listen to him perform the whole song. He is just like everyone’s grandpa who sings wholesome, and nostalgic songs to his grandkids.

Every once in awhile, it’s a pleasant surprise to stumble across a musical treasure like this online.

More of Chatmon’s performances have been uploaded on this YouTube Channel for the viewing pleasure of his fans.

It has been eight years since the video was uploaded on YouTube. It has gotten 2.4 million views and still counting even now.

As part of a PBS series called “American Patchwork,” the YouTube channel Alan Lomax Archives has uploaded most of the historic clips of Sam Chatmon, along with other notable musicians from 1978 to 1985.

If you want to reminisce of traditional and historical scenes during that period, then it is worth checking this out!

Be sure to click through the link below to watch the entire thing:

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Source: YouTube/Alan Lomax Archive