Furry Lewis and John Lee Hooker represent generational markers in the development of traditional blues in Memphis and Mississippi. Furry, born around the turn of the century, incorporated ragtime, ballads and other types of secular black music in his repertoire along with blues. John Lee Hooker born in 1917 in Clarksdale, the heart of the Mississippi delta was suffused with the blues that by then had become the predominant music of the area. yet his approach was totally unique and became one of the building blocks of rock and roll.