Asie Payton

Blues musician Asie Payton was born in 1937 in Washington County, Mississippi. Although he sang and played guitar, Asie nonetheless made his living as a farmer. Payton lived below the poverty level in a shotgun shack with no telephone or air conditioner in the small town of Holly Ridge in Mississippi. Asie spent his Saturday nights performing his distinctive and impassioned brand of raw and dirty blues music at a local grocery store. Moreover, Payton also performed at fellow bluesman Junior Kimbrough's club and Jimmy's Auto Care. He appears as himself in the excellent documentary "You See Me Laughin'." Asie's songs are featured on the soundtracks to the films "Big Bad Love" and "Hometown Legend." Payton died of a heart attack while driving a tractor in the fields of his farm in Holly Ridge, Mississippi on May 19, 1997. His sole album "Worried" was released by the label Fat Possum Records in 1999.