Sylvester Cotton

b. USA. Nothing is known about Cotton except what can be gleaned from 18 tracks that he recorded in Detroit in 1948-49 for Bernie Besman’s Pan American Record Company. Only three of these were issued at the time (although all have now appeared on album), and one of those was credited to John Lee Hooker when leased to Modern Records. The other two appeared, properly credited, on a Sensation label 78 rpm release. All of Cotton’s recordings featured solo guitar and vocal country blues and were very basic and primitive for the period. It is apparent that he extemporized some songs in the studio, most notably the personal lyrics of ‘I Tried’. © TiVo