Son House

Son House made blues music before people started naming it 'the blues.' His influence on blues in the 20th century is impossible to overstate, see Blues Online or Wikipedia for a more thorough discussion. He was born around the turn of the century, recorded through the 1940's, was lost to the public eye for a while through the '50s and '60s, and returned to blues recording and performing in 1964. He killed a man in 1928 and died himself in 1988. And the 14 years he spent out of the public eye? He was working at New York Central Railroad and living at 61 Grieg Street in Corn Hill. House lived in Rochester from 1943 to 1964, and allegedly stopped playing music during that time.