Now Big Bill Broonzy was the real deal. He started playing a homemade fiddle at age ten, and he and a friend would play church functions, many of which had racially segregated dance floors. At seventeen, he quit music to become a preacher. According to legend, he returned to the blues after his wife spent a wage he’d been offered to perform before he could refuse to play. He first learned guitar in the 1920′s from Papa Charlie Jackson. He shifted his style briefly in an attempt to be more appealing to white audiences, but went back to playing folk and blues during the 1950′s. He died of throat cancer in 1958. His distinct, uncompromising blues sound is just insanely good. I want to post a couple of his tunes, one because I like the sound, and another because it deals heavily with the racial discrimination that prevailed throughout his life.