Tupelo

John Lee Hooker famously brought his dark, hypnotic boogie to the largely acoustic crowd at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival. "Tupelo" was Hooker's haunting retelling of the devastating 1936 Tupelo, Mississippi flood. Sitting alone on stage with his electric guitar, Hooker abandoned standard chord progressions to build a drone-heavy, terrifying atmosphere. He violently snapped his strings and relied on his heavy, rhythmic foot-stomping, speaking the lyrics more than singing them. It was a spellbinding, deeply intense performance that proved traditional Delta themes could carry massive emotional weight without the need for a full rhythm section.