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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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This week on the review /download page
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Coot Grant - Socks Wilson - Uncle Joe 1929 |
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Birmingham Jug Band - Giving It Away |
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Railroad Blues - Crowder Brothers - Depot Blues |
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The lady sings the blues: Hattie Ellis - Cap'n Don't 'low No Truckin' round in Here |
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Gospel blues: Blind Gussie Nesbit - I’ll just stand and wring my hands and cry |
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Current production ....
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| Etta Reid known to us as Etta Baker was born in 1913 in a family of African American, American Indian, and Irish ancestry. As a child, she awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking and the sound of her father's guitar. She said that she began to pick the guitar when she was so small that she had to lay the instrument on the bed, stand on the floor, and fret from the top. Her grandfather was a banjo player; her father played banjo and fiddle as well as guitar; her mother, harmonica and Jew's harp. Her sister Cora was also a superb instrumentalist, and many of her cousins played and sang.
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Featured artist of the week .... Edna Hicks (1895 - 1925)
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Edna Hicks (1895 - 1925) was a blues singer and musician. Her recordings include Hard Luck Blues and Poor Me Blues. In addition on the Brunswick label in 1923, she recorded Down Hearted Blues, and Gulf Coast Blues.
Edna was born in New Orleans, most research resources give her birth name was Edna Landreaux, however, other sources suggest that her birth name was Lucille Landry. In 1910 she is listed as working as a nurse and still living at home, but on 10 June 1912, as Edna Landry, she married vaudeville performer and touring company manager Will Benbow, she regularly performed in his shows, but sadly their relationship was short lived.
She was a popular artist in the black vaudeville shows that toured the American Midwest in the late 1910s and 1920s, Edna, appeared often in Chicago and Cincinnati, and made recordings for seven different record labels in 1923 and 1924. Anecdotally, some of her recordings featured accompanists Porter Grainger and Lemuel Fowler. In 1916, she appeared in a show called Follow Me at The Casino theatre in New York City. She also appeared in Billy King's musical comedy Over the Top, and the musical comedies The new American, A T
Trip around the World, and A Derby Day in Dixie, all at The Lafayette Theatre in New York City.
 The story of her sad demise is almost as unbelievable as it is legendary, cross referencing the story reveals some minor variations, but the basic story is true. In August 1925, while assisting her husband in filling their car's petrol tank; she was severely burned after she spilt petrol which was ignited by a lit candle she was holding. She died in a Chicago hospital two days later, on August 16.
In 2023 The Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Edna Hicks at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Chicago. |
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