Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Furry did not begin as a musician, But rather worked as a comedian, sold corn medicine and liniment oils, or did vaudeville sketches, often in blackface. During these travels, he continued to develop his guitar skills and probably learned how to play bottleneck style. He was also exposed to many of the best-known Blues musicians of the time; people such as, Memphis Minnie, Texas Alexander, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and often he would play alongside noted guitarist Jim Jackson.

His guitar work began to pay off for him and he had no problem making money. But, in 1916, he found himself attempting to jump a freight train outside of Du Quoin, Illinois. He didn't need to ride the rails in this manner, as he had about $200 - $300 in his pocket at the time and could've purchased a ticket, but Furry wanted to save the cost and while trying to jump the train, he caught his foot in a coupling and was struck, losing his leg. He spent the next month in a railroad hospital in Carbondale. Illinois, recuperating from the injury. He was later fitted with an artificial leg that took him nearly a year to become comfortable with wearing.

It was too much of a hardship to try to work as an itinerant musician with an artificial leg, so Lewis returned to Memphis. He took up performing on street corners with the local jug bands, often with popular favorites such as Will Shade's Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers. But, Furry made his living more often doing a variety of odd jobs including freight hauling from riverboats, yard work or delivering groceries. In 1923, he took a position with the Memphis Sanitation Department, sweeping streets around Beale; a job that he would hold for the next 43 years.

Mississippi John Hurt

"I wasn't allowed to bother Mr. Carson's guitar. I would wait until he feel asleep at my house, then I would slip his guitar into my room and try to play. There I learned to play the guitar at the age of nine years old. After that, my mother bought me a second hand guitar at the price of $1.50! 1 can tell you there was no beautiful sound than my own guitar. I was playing for country dances at the same time working very hard on a farm near Avalon, Mississippi."

Sleepy John Estes

"Now, Mist' Clark is a good lawyer, he good as I ever seen/
He's the first man that prove that water run upstream/
Boys, you know I like Mist' Clark, yes, he really is my friend/
He say if I just stay out the grave, poor John, I see you won't go to the pen..."

Mailman Blues

Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock

Hobo, brakeman, sailor, gospel singer, goldminer, mule driver, trade unionist, radio DJ, actor, veteran of the Boxer Rebellion and the Spanish-American War - Mr Harry McClintock the Great American Bum.



“When I was fourteen I ran away from home to join the Gentry Bros. Dog and Pony Show. When season ended, I hoboed to New Orleans where I was lucky enough to meet Captain and owner of a small stern-wheeler steamer that was laid up for the winter...

“It was in New Orleans that I found singing in saloons could be profitable. A bunch of Limey sailors were having a bit of a sing-song and I ventured in and shared in one of the choruses. I was immediately asked to grab a glass and sit it. Someone called on me for a song and I obliged. I scored a hit. I sang, it seemed, for hours. I'll never know how I got back to the boat, but in the morning I shook something like three bucks in nickles, dimes and quarters out of my pockets. I had made a discovery that shaped my life. No one who can sing need ever go hungry. They kept dropping coins in my pockets.”

- Bluegrass Messengers

Norfolk Jubilee Quartette

Norfolk Jubilee Quartette - Daniel in the Lions' Den

Son House

Don't never follow your first mind, cause that's the one that's wrong. 'Cause the Devil beats God to you every time.

John the Revelator

Death Letter Blues

Yonder Comes the Blues

Jack White on Son House

Elizabeth Cotten

Nobody did teach me, everything I know, I learned all by myself, so, I give myself all of the credit.

Shake Sugaree

Mama, Your Papa Loves You

Spanish Flang Dang / Untitled Jig

Who is the Masked Marvel?

Mississippi Boll Weevill Blues by The Masked Marvel ?!?

Bessie Smith

No time to marry, no time to settle down; I'm a young woman, and I ain't done runnin' around.

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair

Reverend Gary Davis - Children of Zion

"There is absolutely no controlling or guiding him. He says what he pleases, when he pleases to say it, all very pontifically. I think the resemblance to the authoritative African wise man or witch doctor is striking... Rev. Davis is a wonderful, poetic, old gentleman. He is also as bitter and grieved a ghost of human decency and dignity as ever haunted this weary strumpeted old earth."

Death Don't Have No Mercy

The Bill Broonzy Story

I guess all songs is folk songs. I never heard no horse sing 'em.

Key to the Highway