The 13th volume of the “Blues At Home” Collection, this anthology features various blues artists whom I met during my field research from 1976 to 1982 in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. None of the performers are featured on previous Mbirafon CDs, and they happened to play only one or a few tracks. The following biographical information is a summary of the notes found in the CD booklet and PDF eBook, both forthcoming. Mott Willis, born in 1896 in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, has been associated with Tommy and Mager Johnson. After a long period of travels, Willis returned to his hometown of Crystal Springs, where he was discovered in the summer of 1967 through the referral of Mager Johnson; Willis was then making a series of extensive recordings scheduled but not released yet for Advent and Mimosa Records. In 1978 at Mott's home in Terry, Mississippi, I had the chance to record a remarkable, archaic version of “Baby Please Don't Go” that I have gladly featured on this CD. Lum Guffin, born in 1902 in Memphis, Tennessee, was a multi-instrumentalist; he played guitar as well as fife and drum music at picnics in the east Shelby County area, keeping this tradition alive until the '70s. Discovered by Swedish researcher Bengt Olsson in the late '60s, Guffin had a Flyright Records LP devoted to him. In August 1978, I recorded a whole session with Guffin playing guitar in his yard; some of those performances are featured on this CD. Walter Cooper was an underground figure in the Brownsville, Tennessee, blues scene, performing at local social gatherings with Sleepy John Estes. No biographical information is available at the moment on this artist. He was discovered in July 1976; and the two tracks released on this CD, “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Peach Tree Blues,” both in the key of G and featuring the harmonica accompaniment of Hammie Nixon, are the best examples of his music that I was able to capture. William “Do-Boy” Diamond was born near Canton, Mississippi, in 1913. One of the most important Mississippi blues artists on record, he was discovered in the '60s by journalist George Mitchell. When I met "Do-Boy" in the summer of 1978 in Madison, Mississippi, he was living in an isolated house with his wife Sally and various relatives. "Do-Boy" recorded some fragments, including versions of “Catfish Blues” and “My Babe,” plus three songs from his own repertoire, “Shaggy Hound Blues,” “Black Mama,” and a blues that he titled “Mississippi Flat.” Charlie Taylor, nephew of Mott Willis, played blues for his whole life in the Crystal Springs, Mississippi, area along with his brother Willis. He was discovered there in 1970 through the referral of Mager Johnson. The track “I Got The Blues So Bad,” which I recorded in August 1978 at Mager Johnson’s home, has a sample walking bass accompaniment with a sequence of blues verses sung in Taylor's usual heartfelt style. Mager Johnson was born in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, in 1905. He was a younger brother of Tommy Johnson and lived all his life in the area of Crystal Springs, where I met him in 1978. He performed “Catfish Blues,” in a unique but old traditional way, probably learned from his brother Tommy. Mager proved to still be in practice, also performing a couple of additional songs, “Traveling Man Blues,” and “Big Road Blues” (the last not included in this collection). Roosevelt Holts was born in 1905 near Tylertown, Mississippi, and developed his musical skill with Tommy Johnson. Discovered in the '60s, he made several recordings released on LPs and on a 45 rpm. When I first met Holts in August 1978 at his home in Bogalusa, Louisiana, he had two electric guitars and a small guitar amplifier in excellent working condition. He performed five songs, all featured on this CD. The first, “Big Road Blues,” was done with a Harmony Sovereign acoustic guitar; the remaining tracks were made on electric guitar. Clay Pittman was born in 1929 in Franklinton, Louisiana. Very little is known about this performer. On the morning of August 20, 1978, after I had spent the night at Roosevelt Holts' home in Bogalusa, Louisiana, Clay Pittman dropped in to say hello to Roosevelt. He blew a solo piece on a harmonica in a traditional, itinerant style, singing the verse that gave a title to the fragment, “I got the blues this morning, wonder where my little girl she gone.” Asie Payton never moved out of the Holly Ridge, Mississippi, area where he worked as a farmer and tractor driver for most of his life. Born Asie Reed Payton in 1937 in Basin, Mississippi, near Jackson, he moved to Holly Ridge in 1948 and learned to play guitar at age 12, performing occasionally with local musicians since the late '40s in the Holly Ridge and Leland areas. In the '90s he played on various occasions that led to the recording of some demo tapes eventually released on two Fat Possum Records CDs. In August 1976, I met Payton near the corner of Holly Ridge Road and Holly Ridge Holmes Road, actually in front of the small local grocery store where he used to play quite often. He played some on the Harmony Stella guitar I was carrying and then agreed to go to his house for recording. From this session I have selected for tracks, including “Catfish Blues,” and the remarkable “Blind Man.” Memphis Willie Borum was born in 1911 in Memphis, Tennessee. As a child, he learned how to play guitar from his father, who was a musician, and from local bluesman Jim Jackson, whom he used to listen to in the streets. Borum had a central role in the jug band scene, actually playing with all the major groups and blues artists active in the River City. Influenced by harmonica players Hammie Nixon, Noah Lewis, and John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, during the ‘30s he often traveled in the nearby Mississippi Delta areas, where he played with legendary figures such as Robert Johnson, Garfield Akers, and Willie Brown. He was rediscovered by Sam Charters in 1961, recording two LP albums for Prestige Bluesville, and appeared in Charter's 1963 film The Blues. Borum was still living with his wife at 740 Alma Street when I met him the first time in August 1978 and recorded "61 Highway Blues” and "Army Blues" in the back room of his house. Jacob Stuckey was born in Bentonia, Mississippi, in 1916. A cousin of Henry and Aaron Stuckey, who taught him some of his guitar playing and repertoire, Jacob spent most of his life in Bentonia working as a farmer. He also learned directly from Skip James. I met Jacob in August 1978 at Blue Front Café while recording a blues session with Benjamin “Bud” Spires and Tommy Lee West. The next day, on his front porch, Jacob performed some fragments of “Catfish Blues” and “It Must Have Been The Devil.” I met him again in 1982, recording more fragments and an interview dealing with the origin of Bentonia blues, which still remains uncertain. All tracks have been fully digitally remastered from the original tapes in 2013. —Giambattista Marcucci ALBUM CREDITS Phonographic copyright & © 2013 Giambattista Marcucci All rights of the producer and copyright owner reserved Recorded, edited, and produced by Giambattista Marcucci Image caption: Mott Willis on his porch, Crystal Springs, Mississippi, 1978 Cover photograph © 1978-2013 by Giambattista Marcucci