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| PD Productions. Media, Broadcasting and Radio productions for stations worldwide |
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Back to where it all began ... Thank you for taking the time to visit us. My name is David Howard, PD Productions is based in the South West of the UK, but that isn't where our journey into the blues began .... It all started in a small town bar in Louisiana; it was like travelling back in time, dusty, rickety tables, chairs, and a bare wooden floor. Sat on a little platform was a lady and a guy with a guitar, and then the lady began to sing the blues. I could have closed my eyes, although I didn’t realise it at the time, I could have been listening to Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith. Quietly listening, and with encouragement from others we joined with the ‘Tell us your story’...
We knew and felt the songs were telling us of a deep sadness, borne of a deprivation beyond our comprehension. I was listening to the 'Blues' long before that, but never really understood, until then, what was meant by 'Feeling the Blues' ... Each time I produce ‘Backtracking’ I try to show my love and respect for the people and the lives these songs are about, this deprivation, sadness and misery. We are honouring them by keeping their presence and their simple music alive and well.
Each time, we are taking a journey back in time to the abomination of slavery, the depth of the spirituals and of course the expressive blues from all those years ago. Our research and journey since that day has been a discovery of the ‘Blues’ that never ends, of a culture and history that has faded in the mists of time, but remains for us to find. We're honoured and privileged to share with you this great music and its history, back a hundred years and beyond, a genre so rich, so vast so diverse and so real.
Now based in Somerset (UK) What started all those years ago with a handful of blues tracks, a few faded photographs and books has grown exponentially with the help of our good friends, Alan, Terry and Graham, the ‘Doc’ even my dear late cousin Len (Houston) the never ending patience of Pam and so many people from around the world, far too many to mention, Backtracking has become a library of music and resources so vast it’s often difficult to keep track of it all, as it continues to grow.
Thank you for listening to ‘Backtracking’ from here in the UK. At PD Productions, we extend our best wishes to you all.
David – PD Productions (UK) |
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Every Friday we have the Blues ... At PD Productions, every Friday we release our latest 'Backtracking' production, a result of our research and journey of discovery that never ends, simply because the culture of the blues never ends. We're honoured and privileged to share the music within the genre of the Blues back in time a hundred years and beyond, a genre so vast and so diverse.
So many people from around the world have contributed to our research, and indeed, our library of music, far too many to mention by name. Released every Friday, we invite you to join Backtracking, the blue time machine as we go back to the Roots of the Blues, back, to where it all began. |
| Featured on Backtracking .. |
- The lady sings the blues.
- Blues on the Bayou.
- Gospel blues train.
- Featured artist of the week.
- Spirituals – The blues connection.
- Prison work songs.
- Myths and Legends of the blues.
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The Blues Club Showcase
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This section is for our friends in the UK, Europe and the US to showcase their stuff, including the gems they have discovered. Look out for some exciting clips coming down the line in 2025. Showcasing Interviews, video clips, audio productions and much more. In short, the very best of the blues.
Send your file to us at: ... Attach file link. |
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Review / Download page ..... Gospel Blues Train
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Gospel music and the blues share a unique relationship, reflecting two sides of the same coin, some have said, the blues and the spirituals flow from the same bedrock of experience, and neither is an adequate interpretation of black life without the other. Spirituals and hymns preceded gospel, a genre that evolved through the work of Thomas A. Dorsey, a former blues singer and composer often called the father of gospel music, and others. The influence between religious music and blues has long been mutual. While both genres have their own distinct characteristics, many gospel songs have been transformed into blues or soul songs, and vice versa, by simply changing a few words in the lyrics. |
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Current production ....
Appalachian blues
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The Appalachian Mountains are only now beginning to be recognised as one of the primary cradles of African-American music, especially the blues tradition, relatively recently Appalachian blues has gained the label as the Mountain cousin of Mississippi blues, the genre comes in a plethora of styles—vaudeville blues, piano blues and boogie, string-band dance blues, guitar and harmonica-based down-home blues, ragtime blues, East Coast rhythm and blues, and so-called white mountain blues.
Moreover, it includes such celebrated artists as Bessie Smith, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Cow Cow Davenport, Pinetop Smith, Josh White, Rev. Gary Davis, Jaybird Coleman, Luke Jordan, Dinah Washington, and James Brown. Why, with such an array of blues legends—the Empress of the blues, the Queen of the blues, and the Godfather of soul—why has the region's blues tradition received so little attention?
There have been several suggestions, the one I find particularly intriguing has to do with demographics, this theory held that there wasn't a sufficient black population in the mountains to sustain a viable blues tradition, in contrast with the cotton belt of the Deep South. One result of this bias was to associate the region almost exclusively with the country-music industry, which historically excluded black musical participation. |
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Featured artist of the week .... Garfield Akers
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Garfield Akers (possibly born James Garfield Echols, probably 1908 – c. 1959) He in addition, occasionally performed under the name ‘Garfield Partee’. Garfield remains a shadowy figure; knowledge of his life is based almost entirely on reports of a few contemporary witnesses.
The extent of his recordings consists of just four sides, which are nonetheless historically significant. His most well-known song was his debut single 'Cottonfield Blues', based on a song performed by Texas blues musician Henry Thomas.
In the 1920s, he met guitarist Joe Callicott, with whom he played well into his 40s and who was his second guitarist. they performed on weekends in their local area. They rarely played outside the Hernando area, avoiding the Mississippi Delta, they took the view it was too dangerous for them there and their local popularity in Hernando ensured better income for less effort.
Cottonfield Blues was Garfield’s' trademark song, which he had practiced continually on his own as well as with Joe Callicott since about 1926/27; the recording accordingly clearly illustrates how well the Akers/Callicott team was attuned to each other. Garfield’s second recording, was in February 1930, consisting of Jumpin and Shoutin' Blues / Dough Roller Blues, the latter being a variation of Hambone Willie Newbern's Roll and Tumble. Joe Callicott recorded his only contemporary release as a soloist, 'Travelling Mama Blues', for which Akers is credited as the author.
 In the 1940s, Akers and Callicott ended their musical work together, and Garfield moved to Memphis, amongst other places, he worked in a flour mill. He often played weekends on Beale Street and performed around Memphis in juke joints. There are conflicting accounts about the date of his death, most often giving the year 1959, Only a few years after his death, in 1962, the compilation Really! The Country Blues 1927-1933 was released and included both parts of Garfield’s Cottonfield Blues. |
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