Mississippi Fred McDowell

Fred McDowell was a Mississippi hill country blues guitarist and singer whose raw, powerful slide guitar style and uncompromising artistic integrity made him one of the most respected figures of the blues revival. He was not recorded until 1959, when folklorist Alan Lomax found him in Como, Mississippi, already in his mid-fifties. His recordings for Arhoolie, Testament, and other labels revealed a deeply traditional artist whose bottleneck slide technique and droning, modal guitar style were rooted in the oldest layers of the Mississippi blues tradition. His insistence that 'I do not play no rock and roll' became a famous declaration of blues authenticity. His song 'You Gotta Move' was covered by the Rolling Stones on 'Sticky Fingers,' and his influence on Bonnie Raitt, who studied with him, was direct and acknowledged.