Page 27 - BiTS_01_JANUARY_2021

tailing it down to Mississippi in 1942 and recording twenty two of

Hemphill’s performances as well as an interview. Lomax was to make a
similar trip in 1959.

Sid never recorded commercially, although the Lomax recordings have
been widely-circulated. Among his many achievements, he wrote the
song “The Eighth of January” which was taken by Jimmy Driftwood and
became the hit “The Battle of New Orleans” for Johnny Horton.

Sid Hemphill is honoured with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
He died in Senatobia in 1967, aged 89 or 91!

Sid Hemphill - "The Carrier Line"

Sid’s daughter was Rosa Lee Hill, born in Como in 1910. She was
briefly married to a Napoleon Hill, whose name she kept as well
as all the income from his book that she assisted him in writing,
“Think and Grow Rich”, on the basis of a pre-nuptial agreement
signed when he was broke.

She went on to write her own book, entitled “How To Attract A
Man and Money”.

She recorded the album “Rosa Lee Hill and Friends” for Fat
Possum Records, music that was in the North Mississippi tradition. Her song, “Bullyin’ Well”,
recorded by Lomax, has been released several times over the years. Rosa Lee Hill died in Senatobia

in 1968, aged 58.

Rosa Lee Hill - ‘Bullyin' Well’

The man often referred to as the perfect example of Hill Country
Blues, though he referred to it as "Cottonpatch Blues", was born in
1930 in Hudsonville. His childhood friend, country and rockabilly

star Charlie Feathers described him as “the beginning and end of
all music”, a statement that is engraved on the tombstone of the
singer and guitarist referred to, Junior Kimbrough.

Born David Kimbrough, he first picked up guitar as a child,

influenced by the playing of his father, who was a barber by
profession. Junior said that his main influences were Mississippi
Fred McDowell and a certain Eli Green, said to be a dangerous
Voodoo man!

27