What?... Me, Worried?

Asie Payton lived his entire life in the rural town of Holly Ridge, Mississippi. The only recording sessions that occurred in his lifetime were a performance in Junior Kimbrough's Juke Joint and a performance at Jimmy's Auto shop.

Asie spent his Saturday evenings playing at one of the two local convenience stores in town; apparently, it was a family tradition, as his father had spent his weekends doing the exact same thing.

Asie had a fascination with tilling the land on his tractor and on days when it was dry enough to work on the farm, he could rarely be pried out of his seat to do much of anything else. Despite his poverty level- living as a farmer in an old shotgun shack with no phone or air conditioning- he couldn't be lured away to do much recording by the Fat Possum record label. There are only two albums of recordings in existence, even though Asie lived to the ripe age of 60. Here's one of them.


He died of a heart attack on 19 May 1997 while tending to the fields on his beloved tractor.