Hezekiah Early’s first harmonica cost 50 cents. He assembled his first guitar using a cheese box and “some strings.” And his first set of drums was covered with patches.

But Early never let those humble beginnings derail his passion for music His talent, perseverance and achievements were honored with induction into the Louisiana Folklife Center’s Hall of Master Folk Artists during the 30th annual Natchitochces-Northwestern State University Folk Festival.

Early is an internationally- known blues musician, who along with his band The Houserockers, has traveled the world playing music.

Early, a Natchez native, discovered his love for music as a young boy when his father would bring harmonicas home after trips into town.

“He’d bring one for me and one for my brother. They couldn’t have cost more than 50 cents at the time,” he said. “I’d play, and play and finally I mastered me a couple of tunes.”

While Early’s first love was the harmonica, he said he always had a nagging desire to learn to play the guitar. But at that time, Early didn’t have funds to go in to town to buy a guitar and he couldn’t afford lessons either.

“Daddy would bring these big boxes of cheese home, and I took me one of those empty boxes and made me a guitar,” he said. “That’s what I learned on.”

Early took the chords he learned on his make-shift guitar and began to play locally with a few other musicians, and that, he said, is when his passion for creating music really blossomed.

“I started playing with these two guys and they’d come to the house and get me and we’d stay up half the night just a playing,” he said. “Those were some good times.”

But Early wasn’t finished learning.

“We finally got us a set of drums, a real set of drums,” he said. “Now they were a raggedy set of drums with patches all over them.”

But never mind the condition of the instrument, Early sat down behind the drums and, just like he did with the harmonica and guitar, taught himself to play.

Dr. Pete Gregory, co-founder of the Louisiana Folklife Center said one of the main criteria for induction in the center’s hall of fame is that the artist be a self-taught traditional artist. And Early is just that.

“He exemplifies what we desire in a folk artist,” Gregory said.

Louisiana Folklife Center director Dr. Shane Rasmussen said the center is actually gaining respect after inducting such a prolific artist as Early.

“The fact of the matter is we are honored that Mr. Early accepted our induction,” Rasmussen said. “He is honoring us, more than we could ever honor him. He encapsulates what a traditional folk artist is.”

But as appreciative as Rasmussen is of Early, he is just as thankful for the Folklife Center and festival.

“For a long time I felt like I was just going in circles and didn’t think my music would ever get out of Natchez,” Early said. “But things started changing when we recorded that record “Since Ol’ Gabriel’s Time” (at the Folklife Center).

That was Early’s first record and the first record recorded at the center.

Early said after learning to play the drums, he felt like he had finally found his home and put the harmonica and guitar down.

But the hiatus, at least from the harmonica, didn’t last for long.

Early was in Natchez when Muhammad Ali was filming “Freedom Road,” and Early heard the film needed someone to play a harmonica.

After audtioning a large number of players before Early, it didn’t take long for the filmmakers to pick Early.

“They said I was just what they were looking for,” he said.

And the filmmakers were the only ones that took notice. Ali was also impressed with Early’s talents.

“He took my harmonica and blew it a couple of times but couldn’t do anything with it,” Early said. “Then he asked me how long I’d been playing. I told him I learned when I was younger but didn’t play too much anymore. He said “don’t ever put it down.”

Early took that advice to heart and began taping his harmonica to a microphone and would play both the drums and the harmonica.

“And I had another microphone on the other side, that I’d sing into,” he said.

Early’s talents have led him and his band mates on 13 tours abroad and numerous tours on both the east and west coasts of the United States and stops at many jazz and blues festivals across the South.

But now, Early doesn’t play as much — “Now all I have to do is keep the grass cut and do a little gardening,” he said.

But the music is still in his blood.

“I never stop long enough to let it get away from me,” he said. “And when I pick it back up, it’s like coming home.”