Horace Sprott

Alabama songster and harmonica player Horace Sprott was born February 2, 1890, the son of former slave Bessie Ford, and his surname was taken from the Sprott Plantation where he was born. He took up guitar and harmonica and was soon playing a mix of blues, work songs, spirituals, and old slave songs at local functions and parties in the area. Sprott reportedly got himself into some trouble, however, and ended up spending a stretch at a prison work farm in Montgomery. Folkways researcher Frederic Ramsey encountered Sprott in Marion, AL, in 1954, and impressed with the musician'...