The George Mitchell Collection

By George Mitchell’s own estimation, Cecil Barfield was his most extraordinary discovery outside of Mississippi. Born in 1922, Barfield was a farmer all his life until a back injury forced him to retire. He began playing blues at five years old; using a cooking oil can he had rigged up with a neck and one string. He took up guitar at 12, and started out playing rag tunes and dance pieces, though he soon developed the distinctive bottleneck style heard on the Mitchell recordings. When Mitchell recorded him, Barfield performed interpretations of songs by J.B. Lenoir, Frankie Lee Sims, Little Walter, and Tommy McClennan, as well as several of his own strikingly original compositions.