Hill played music that was in the tradition of north Mississippi, singing acoustic blues that made use of a broody feeling and subtly varied repetition. The daughter of
Hill country blues musician
Sid Hemphill, Rosa Lee learned guitar from her father and by the time she was ten, was playing dances with him. Several of her songs were recorded by
Alan Lomax in 1959, including "Rolled and Tumbled." Hill and her husband were
sharecroppers and lived in perpetual poverty; when their property burned down, they relocated to a tumbledown shack to live their remaining years. Her
album,
Rosa Lee Hill and Friends, was part of
Fat Possum's campaign to reissue the recordings made by
George Mitchell. It included Hill's niece,
Jessie Mae Hemphill, as well as Jim Bunkley, Catherine Porter,
Will Shade, Essie Mae Brooks,
Precious Bryant, and Lottie Kate. ==Death==