Asie Payton

Asie Payton dedicated the majority of his six decades to farming rather than music, operating a tractor across his Holly Ridge, Mississippi acreage despite his parallel identity as a bluesman. A shotgun shack served as his home, and tending the fields consumed nearly all his hours, yet he still composed and delivered original blues material at venues including the neighborhood grocery, Junior Kimbrough's club, and Jimmy's Auto Care. Fat Possum Records captured two of those live club sets specifically to serve as demo material for a planned studio project. Strong attachment to his land ultimately prevented the label from securing studio time, and Payton died of a heart attack in 1997 before any further recordings could occur. Fat Possum issued the existing tapes two years afterward as Worried, the artist's sole album.