Leon Pinson & Elder Roma Wilson When I Lay My Burden Down Live Chicago Blues Fest 1994 VIDEO

Elder Roma Wilson (December 22, 1910 – October 25, 2018) was an American gospel harmonica player and singer. A clergyman, Wilson discovered he had a degree of notability later in his life, having previously been unaware of interest in his work. Wilson was born in Hickory Flat, Mississippi, United States. His father was one-half Muscogee. Wilson was a self-taught harmonica player in his early teens, using the discarded instruments of his elder siblings (he had five brothers and four sisters). He developed an unusual “choking“ style, derived from the difficulty of soliciting sounds from his well-worn instruments. By the age of fifteen, he was working on the railroad. He later worked at a sawmill. Wilson married at the age of nineteen. He became an ordained minister in the Pentecostal church in 1929, and he joined the self-styled Reverend Leon Pinson, who played the guitar, in traveling across north Mississippi, both playing and preaching. They developed a strong church following. Wilson