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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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Current production ....
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| No, Not the Rolling Stones .. The songs of the Rolling Stones, but covered by the Blues artists we know and love |
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Gandy dancers - Jesse Fuller - Lining Up the Track & Railroad Blues. |
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Gospel revival - Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Down by the riverside. |
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Memphis Jug Band - Minglewood Blues. |
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Zydeco - Jimmy C Newman - Louisiana man. |
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Artists long forgotten – Robert Wolfman Belfour - Hobo Blues. |
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Published research articles - WC Handy - The father of the Blues. |
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Featured artist of the week .... Howlin' Wolf
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Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, As an entertainer, as an individual, and as a bluesman, he was outsized, unpredictable, and always his own man. He was a great blues singer who possessed that quality of egocentric self-absorption that is the mark of the true showman.To many people this may seem contradictory, but the Wolf proved that to its natural audience blues is not all pain and suffering, but is instead a kind of release.
Chester was brought up on a cotton plantation in Mississippi, the music he heard in his youth was the traditional tunes of the region. He started singing professionally in the 1920s and ’30s he performed throughout Mississippi, playing in small clubs. He was influenced by the music of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the second Sonny Boy Williamson (formerly known as Alex or Aleck Rice Miller), and Charley Patton.
In the 1940s Chester went to Arkansas, here he formed his own group, which included James Cotton and Little Junior Parker, both of whom became noted blues performers in their own right. Chester accompanied himself on guitar and harmonica, but his main instrument was his guttural and emotionally suggestive voice, which gave his songs power and authenticity. After his first record, 'Moanin' at Midnight” (1951), became a hit. Chester then moved to Chicago, where he, along with Muddy Waters, made the city a center for the transformation of the (acoustic) Mississippi Delta blues style into an electrically amplified style for urban audiences. His work was known only to blues audiences until the Rolling Stones and other British and  American rock stars of the 1960s and ’70s acknowledged his influence.
Chester was noted for his brooding lyrics and his earthy, aggressive stage presence. His other notable songs included 'Smokestack Lightnin' and 'Killing Floor' Howlin’ Wolf was inducted into both the Blues Hall of Fame (1980) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1991). |
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