Henry Sloan

Henry Sloan (January 1870 – 13 March 1948?) was an African American musician. He played the Delta Blues and is known for teaching Charlie Patton to play the blues, and moved to Chicago after World War I.

Early life

David Evans says that Sloan was born in Mississippi in 1870. He moved to a Plantation near Indianola at between 1901 and 1904.

Career

There is a rumour that Sloan was a hobo which was seen by musician W.C. Handy playing guitar at Tutwiler train station in 1903. Handy describes him as

A lean, loose-jointed Negro [who] had commenced plucking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar. ... The effect was unforgettable... The singer repeated the line ("Goin' where the Southern cross the Dog") three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard.