Hugh Omar Benjamin Ezekiel Laurie was born albino, on an unkown date, to poor sharecroppers, literally on the banks of the Mississippi River, just outside the hamlet of Oxford, Arkansas. In an accident that was to foreshadow the misfortune he suffered throughout his life, minutes after leaving the womb he tumbled into the river and was washed downriver. He managed to free himself from the rapids by clinging onto a stray branch, finding himself in the village of Eatin', Mississippi. Here the infant was brought up by a she-wolf until he was discovered by an aged minstrel show performer, Stephen "Big Nose" Fry, who taught young Hugh all he knew on the guitar: the chords G and C. This was not enough to play the blues, but thankfully Hugh was a natural on the instrument and by the age of 5 had