Context is always important when you’re assessing documentary work. Who was doing the interviewing? If the interviewer was white, it’s important to remember that no one — literally no black person— who grew up in the Clarksdale, Mississippi of JLH’s time would think of forcefully contradicting a white interviewer. JLH also had a vested interest, once he had identified this new audience and crossed over, in flattering that new white audience by telling it what it wanted to hear. Great blues performers know how to read and play to a range of audiences.