I'm glad you did ramble on, Brian. I think the point about the influences of Robert Johnson is a very good one.

I think there is a style that one can call "First Generation Delta Blues". It consists of the guitar style described by Roger plus often the use of the bottleneck. I also associate it with singing with a very tight throat. In Patton's case it is a hoarseness while in House's case it is a throatyness. There are a number of blues singers that come out of the Delta that don't have that style. For example Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy.

I would put Son House, Charley Patton, and Bukka White in the category of First Generation Bluesmen. I would also put Blind Willie Johnson there, although I don't know where he comes from.

Alan Lomax claims that Son House learned indirectly from Blind Lemmon Jefferson. I can hear the Jefferson influence in Patton too, and yet of course he is from Texas.

There are some people who use a wider definition of the Delta which includes parts of Texas and Louisiana and this classification puts Leadbelly and Jefferson in the Delta. Neither are what I would call First Generation Delta Bluesmen.

Murray