Henry Sims

Delta bluesman Henry "Son" Sims is best known as the fiddler who played with Charley Patton. Born in Anguilla, Mississippi in 1890, Sims was taught to play the violin by his grandfather, a former slave named Warren Scott. He eventually learned to play the mandolin, guitar and piano, as well. Although he led a rural string band called the Mississippi Corn Shuckers for several years, the first recording that Sims did was with Patton, who asked him to come along to Wisconsin for a 1929 Paramount session. Sims also recorded under his own name on two separate occasions -- during the Patton session when he cut four songs, including "Tell Me Man Blues," and several years later with guitarist and singer McKinley Morganfield, (who later became known as Muddy Waters). ~ Joslyn Layne