|
 |
|
PD Productions. Media, Broadcasting and Radio productions for stations worldwide |
|
|
|
|
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) |
Click here to close
|
|
 |
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.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Blues Club Showcase
...
|
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. |
|
|
 |
|
 |
Review / Download page ..... Follow the Drinking Gourd
|
|
|
According to the legend, the song was used by a conductor of the Underground Railroad, called Peg Leg Joe, to guide fugitive slaves; many of the lyrics are simply cartographic directions to advise the runaways on their escape route. While the song may possibly refer to some lost fragment of history, the true origin and context is effective lost in the mists of time and remains a mystery.
Two of the stars in the Big Dipper line up very closely with and point to Polaris. Polaris is a circumpolar star, and so it is always seen pretty close to the direction of true north. Hence, according to a popular myth, all slaves had to do was look for the Drinking Gourd and follow it to the North Star (Polaris) north to freedom. |
|
 |
|
9th Feb 2025 |
|
Current production ....
Henry Qualls
|
Unlike most of our research articles we didn’t write this account, but feel it worth sharing this incredible person with anyone considering themselves a lover of the blues.
Truth be known, it's as real as it gets, this where the story starts, with the sound of an old guitar breaking the so called silence of the night with a strained, lonesome chord. An old vanilla extracts bottle, sometimes a hot sauce bottle, slides on the frets, distilling the essence of some higher blues knowledge. There is truth in the sound, the truth of the soul.
Some kind of collective unconsciousness shared by all of us, but appreciated by only a lucky few. This is the story of an encounter with Henry Qualls..... We can only envy the experience of writer ... There’s an old calendar on the wall, a beat up amplifier, taped up microphone stand that looks like it could fall apart at any moment. There’s an old 58 Marquis Montgomery Ward guitar named Mabelline in the corner of the room and outside in the corridor, a drum kit. This is Henry’s stage. This is where it happens ...... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Featured artist of the week .... Jazz Gillum
|
|
William McKinley 'Jazz' Gillum (September 11, 1902 or 1904 – March 29, 1966) was an blues harmonica player and singer.
William away from home at age seven and for the next few years lived in Charleston, Mississippi, working and playing for tips on street corners. In 1923 he moved to Chicago, where he met Big Bill Broonzy, together they started working in nightclubs around the city. By 1934 William was recording for both ARC and Bluebird Records.
William's recordings, under his own name and as a sideman, were included on many of the Bluebird beat recordings produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1940, he was the first to record what has now become the blues classic, 'Key to the Highway' utilising the now-standard melody and eight-bar blues arrangement. (The song had first been recorded a few months earlier by Charlie Segar, with a different melody and a 12-bar blues arrangement.) William's version of the song was covered by Broonzy a few months later, and his version has now become the standard. Personally, I find that phrase detrimental to the others, perhaps somewhat unfair.
William's records were some of the earliest featuring blues with electric guitar accompaniment, when the 16-year-old jazz guitarist George Barnes played on several songs on William's 1938 session that produced Reefer Headed Woman and others.
After the Bluebird label folded in the late 1940s, he made few recordings. His last recordings were on a couple of 1961 albums with Memphis Slim and Arbee Stidham,
On March 29, 1966, William was shot in the head during a street argument and was pronounced dead on arrival at Garfield Park Hospital, in Chicago. on March 29, 1966.
He is buried at Restvale Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|