Blues Trail Marker #3

Houston Stackhouse was born in 1918, to Garfield Goff from Wesson, Mississippi, and was raised on the Randall Ford Plantation by James Wade Stackhouse.

Stackhouse discovered a love for music on the Ford plantation from fiddler Lace Powell, and had several uncles with musical ability that influenced him as well. Houston Stackhouse's first instrument was the harmonica. Throughout the 1930s he played around Mississippi with the Mississippi Sheiks and nearby Crystal Springs' own Robert Johnson. Stackhouse eventually began getting into the slide guitar and taught what he knew to his cousin, Robert Nighthawk, and the two would play together on Mother's Best Flower Hour and the King Biscuit Time show, both broadcast on KFFA up in Helena, AR. His time with KFFA would eventually get him in contact with other blues musicians.

Although he may not have been as successful as some blues musicians from the Delta, he was still an important figure in the southern blues scene from the 1930s to the 1960s. Not only was he often at juke joints throughout the Delta, but he was highly respected among other musicians and served as a mentor to many.

Houston Stackhouse moved to Memphis around 1970, where he lived with fellow blues musician, Joe Wilkins. He toured with him throughout the next decade performing as the King Biscuit Boys. They traveled with the Memphis Blues Caravan and played various festivals, including an overseas trip to Austria in 1976. Outside of playing for the first two Delta Blues Festivals in Greenville, he largely retired from music after his European tour and moved back to Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Stackhouse eventually returned to Helena, passing away September 23, 1980 at the Helena Hospital, having outlived the majority of his peers.