ROSA LEE HILL

                

 
                

Sam Collins

Data de publicació: 7 de jul. 2012

Rosalie Hill 

Recorded by Alan Lomax at the home of Fred McDowell on September 25, 1959.

Photo: Lomax collection, Rosalie Hill on Fred McDowell's porch, Como, Mississippi 1959

              

Rosa Lee Hill (September 25, 1910 – October 22, 1968) was an American blues musician. She was born Rosa Lee Beeland in Como, Mississippi, United States.

She married Napoleon Hill, the self-help writer, in 1937, after he divorced his wife Florence in 1935.She assisted him in writing one of his better known books, Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1940, and the profits of Think and Grow Rich went with her, per their pre-nuptial agreement, written when he had no money.

Her album, Rosa Lee Hill and Friends, was part of Fat Possum's campaign to reissue the recordings made by George Mitchell. It included Hill's niece, Jessie Mae Hemphill, as well as Jim Bunkley, Catherine Porter, Will Shade, Essie Mae Brooks, Precious Bryant, and Lottie Kate.

Hill played music that was in the tradition of north Mississippi, singing acoustic blues that made use of subtly varied repetition. The daughter of Sid Hemphill, her song "Bullyin' Well", which was recorded by Alan Lomax, has been included on a number of releases over the years.

Death

Hill died in October 1968, aged 58, in Senatobia, Mississippi.

Nacida un 25 de septiembre de 1910,  en Como, Mississippi, EE. UU., D.  murió el 22 de octubre de 1968, Senatobia, Mississippi, EE. UU. La hija de Sid Hemphill, Rosa Lee Hill creció en una familia musical, tocando un amplio repertorio para blancos y negros. Sus grabaciones se limitan al blues, que cantó "de mi boca, y no del corazón", sintiéndolas incompatibles con su fe religiosa. Sus Blues  son típicos del condado de Panola, donde pasó toda su vida: acompañados por una guitarra zumbante, sus canciones tienen una sensación interior, melancólica, comparable a las de Mississippi Fred McDowell. Hill y su esposo eran aparceros y vivían en una pobreza extrema, particularmente hacia el final de sus vidas, cuando su casa se quemó y tuvieron que mudarse a una choza destartalada.

George Mitchell Reflects on Rosa Lee

Monday, August 5, 2013

By George Mitchell, Photographer and Guest Blogger