Editing Sam Chatmon (section)

==Life and career==
Chatmon was born in [[Bolton, Mississippi|Bolton]], Mississippi. His family was well known in Mississippi for their musical talents; he was a member of the family's string band when he was young. He may have been [[Charley Patton]]'s half-brother.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/49 49]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/49}}</ref> In an interview he stated that he started playing the guitar at the age of three, laying it flat on the floor and crawling under it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkEhtfPN084|title=Sam Chatmon: Make Me A Pallet On the Floor (1978)|date=November 16, 2011|publisher=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> A year older and he recalled singing a song including the lyrics "Run down to the river thought I'd jump an' drown / I thought about the woman I lovin' and I turn around".<ref name="Devil">{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/41 41/2]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/41}}</ref>  He regularly performed for white audiences in the 1900s.<ref name="Devil2">{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/51 51/2]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/51}}</ref>

The Chatmon band played [[ragtime|rag]]s, [[ballad]]s, and popular dance tunes. Two of Sam's brothers, the [[fiddle]]r Lonnie Chatmon and the guitarist [[Bo Carter]], performed with the guitarist [[Walter Vinson]] as the Mississippi Sheiks.

Chatmon played the [[banjo]], [[mandolin]] and harmonica in addition to the guitar. He performed at parties and on street corners throughout Mississippi for small pay and tips. In the 1930s, he [[sound recording and reproduction|recorded]] with the Sheiks and also with his brother Lonnie as the Chatman Brothers.

Chatmon moved to [[Hollandale, Mississippi]] in the early 1940s and worked on [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]s there.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/189 189/190]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/189}}</ref>  He was rediscovered in 1960 and started a new chapter of his career as a [[folk music|folk]]-[[blues]] artist. In the same year he recorded for [[Arhoolie Records]]. He toured extensively during the 1960s and 1970s. While in California in 1970, he made several recordings with [[Sue Draheim]], [[Kenny Hall (musician)|Kenny Hall]], Ed Littlefield, Lou Curtiss, Kathy Hall, Will Scarlett and others at Sweet's Mill Music Camp, forming a group he called "The California Sheiks".<ref>UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive (Lou Curtiss San Diego Folk Festival Collection 1962–1987). [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8f59s1t5/dsc/. Box 3, item 2007.04sdff070: "Sweets Mill Music Camp – The Original Musical Meeting of 'The California Sheiks' 1970"].</ref> He played many of the largest and best-known folk festivals, including the [[Smithsonian Folklife Festival]] in Washington, D.C., in 1972, the [[Mariposa Folk Festival]] in Toronto in 1974, and the [[New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival]] in 1976.

Sam Chatmon died on February 2, 1983, in [[Hollandale, Mississippi]], aged 86. A headstone memorial to Chatmon with the inscription "Sitting on top of the World" was paid for by [[Bonnie Raitt]] through the [[Mt. Zion Memorial Fund]] and placed in Sanders Memorial Cemetery, [[Hollandale, Mississippi]], on March 14, 1998, in a ceremony held at the Hollandale Municipal Building, celebrated by the Mayor and members of the city council of Hollandale, with over 100 attendees.<ref name="Early">{{Cite web|url=http://earlyblues.org/resting-places/|title=Resting Places|website=Earlybues.org|access-date=March 1, 2021}}</ref> Chatmon was later honored with a marker on the [[Mississippi Blues Trail]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/sam-chatmon|title=Sam Chatmon|last=|first=|date=|website=Mississippi Blues Trail|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-02}}</ref>