Bman's Blues Report

Elder Roma Wilson (born December 22, 1910) is an American gospel harmonica player and singer. A clergyman, Wilson discovered he had a degree of notability later in his life, having originally been unaware of interest in his work. Wilson was born in Hickory Flat, Mississippi, United States, and his father was one-half Muscogee. Wilson was a self-taught harmonica player in his early teens, having utilised the discarded instruments of his elder siblings (he had five brothers and four sisters). He developed an unusual "choking" style, based around the difficulty of soliciting sounds from his well-worn equipment. By the age of fifteen, Wilson was working on the railroad and later at a local sawmill. Wilson married at the age of nineteen. His faith saw him become an ordained minister in the Pentecostal church in 1929, and he joined with the self-styled Reverend Leon Pinson, who played the guitar, in traveling across North Mississippi, both playing and preaching. They developed a...

Elder Roma Wilson was born December 22, 1910, in Tupelo, Mississippi, one of 10 children raised on his parents' cotton farm. When Wilson was 15, he taught himself to play the harmonica, using an instrument that his older brothers had discarded. He was ordained when he was only 17 years old and became an evangelist, preaching at different churches until he was appointed pastor of his own congregation. When his children were still young, he and three of his sons, whom he had taught to play harmonica, often performed their unique style of religious music on the streets of Detroit. Joe Van Battle, owner of Joe's Record Shop, covertly recorded their street playing in 1948 and sold his recordings of "Lily of the Valley" and "Better Get Ready" to the Gotham label. These now legendary 78 rpm releases introduced the music of Wilson to audiences in Europe and the United States. It wasn't until the 1980s that Wilson learned of these records, and eager gospel music ...