Rufus McKenzie was born to a sharecropping family in Perry, Georgia, in 1927. As a child he worked in the cotton fields, singing to his mule to pick up the pace. Rufus reflects, “I learned my music through sadness and coming up hard. I had to wear white people’s worn out shoes. I had little clothes to wear.”

Rufus was an amazing harmonica player and singer. His singing represented the field holler tradition.

Learn more about Rufus McKenzie here – musicmaker.org/artists/rufus-mckenzie/