and playing guitar with Patton and others in the neighborhood of Drew. Informants with conflicting memories led Gayle Dean Wardlow and Steve Calt to conclude that this was a different Willie Brown. Evans rejected this conclusion, believing that the singing and guitar style of the 1931 recordings is in the tradition of other performers from Drew, such as Patton, Tommy Johnson, Kid Bailey, Howlin' Wolf and artists not commercially recorded. Alan Lomax, writing in 1993, suggested that the William Brown he recorded in Arkansas in 1942 was the same man as the Paramount artist. The recording was for a joint project between Fisk University and the Library of Congress documenting the music of Coahoma County, Mississippi, in 1941 and 1942. Writing over fifty years later, Lomax seemed to have forgotten that he had actually recorded Brown the previous summer with Son House, Fiddlin' Joe Martin and Leroy Williams. Brown played second guitar on three performances by the group and recorded one solo, "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor". Willie Brown also played "Ragged & Dirty". According to Lomax, after Willie played "Ragged & Dirty" for him, Brown quoted, "That's the blues, that's the Delta blues." The later biography is more clear. Brown lived in Robinsonville, Mississippi from 1929 and moved to Lake Cormorant, Mississippi by 1935. He performed occasionally with Charley Patton and continually with Son House until his death. Brown died of heart disease in Tunica, Mississippi, in 1952. Discography Brown recorded six sides at a 1930 recording session in Grafton, Wisconsin. They were released on three 78-rpm shellac discs, of which only one has been found. Paramount 13001: "Grandma Blues" / "Sorry Blues" (no copy has been found) Paramount 13090: "M & O Blues" / "Future Blues" (only six copies are known) Paramount 13099: "Window Blues" / "Kicking in My Sleep Blues" (no copy has been found) Library of Congress recording by Lomax: "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" See also Crossroads (1986 film) List of Delta blues musicians References External links "Cross Road Blues" lyrics Illustrated Willie Brown discography Willie Brown biography 1900 births 1952 deaths Musicians from Clarksdale, Mississippi African-American guitarists American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Blues musicians from Mississippi Country blues musicians Delta blues musicians Paramount Records artists 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Mississippi People from Drew, Mississippi People from Tunica, Mississippi