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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, our research and journey of discovery 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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Tracks from the Backtracking archives .....
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Baby Boy Warren - My special friend blues |
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Blind Blake - Early morning blues |
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Eddie Mapp - Wicked treating blues |
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Muddy Waters - Blind man blues |
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The Gandy Dancers - Lightning Long John |
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Current production ....
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| Swamp Blues, or Blues on the Bayou, perhaps the more rhythmic variation of the standard Louisiana blues, incorporating elements of New Orleans, Zydeco, soul music, and Cajun. The guitar work is simple but effective, and is heavily influenced by the boogie patterns used by Jimmy Reed, with liberal additions of Lightnin' Hopkins and Muddy Waters. Unlike the heavy backbeat of the more popular urban styles, its rhythm can be best described as laid-back, making even its most up tempo offerings share the same mood and ambience of the most desultory of slow blues. |
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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, he 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.
Also 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 the Hernando neither were professional musicians. They rarely played outside the Hernando area; they avoided the Mississippi Delta, the real heartland of Mississippi blues, they took a 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 tune, 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. Here, due to the close playing of the two, it is hard to say for sure if Callicott was present as a second guitarist. He is not mentioned, but claimed this himself in an interview. Also, at this session, 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 Akers moved to Memphis, and 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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