I think America concedes that true American music has sprung from the Negro.

Where the Tennessee River, like a silver snake, winds her way through the clay hills of Alabama, sits high on these hills, my home town, Florence.

I think America concedes that true American music has sprung from the Negro.

With a guitar I would be able to express the things I felt in sounds.

Nature was my kindergarten.

You've got to appreciate the things that come from the art of the Negro and from the heart of the man farthest down.

I knew the whistle of each of the river boats on the Tennessee.