Updates: Week beginning: ... Saturday 2nd December 2023
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 to 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, we take this moment to thank them all.
 
 
   
Every Friday we have the blues. Our production is about the privilege of bringing these legendary artists, together with the more obscure ones and their music to a worldwide audience.

What are for you, the authentic blues? ... On 'Backtracking' we play the music from as far back as a 100+ years, that's what this production is all about. By contrast, we dip a toe, tentatively, into the 50s / 60s and even the 70s. They too, have a message for us - listen and know the blues. We reflect, that as we travel back in time, are we not listening to the stories of those who KNEW the blues..
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Featured artist of the week .... Barbecue Bob Hicks
    Barbecue Bob - Mississippi heavy water blues  
 

Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931), was an early American Piedmont blues musician. His nickname was derived from his working as a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the three photographs of him that exists shows him playing a guitar and wearing a full-length white apron and cook's hat.

 During his short career he recorded 68 78-rpm sides, the first was ‘Barbecue Blues’, that was in March 1927. The record sold no less than 15,000 copies and made him a best-selling artist for Columbia's race series. Following this initial success, his next release firmly established him in the race market. At his second recording session, in New York City in June 1927, he recorded ‘Mississippi Heavy Water Blues, apparently inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

Robert developed a flailing style of guitar playing usually associated with the traditional claw hammer banjo. He regularly used a bottleneck on his 12-string guitar, playing in a style that relied on an open Spanish tuning, similar to Charley Patton. He had a strong voice, which he embellished with growling and falsetto, and a percussive singing style.

Bob's 'Motherless Child Blues' was recorded by Eric Clapton and Robert's elder brother, Charley Lincoln,recording under the name of Laughing Charley Lincoln, sadly, he never received the same acclaim as his brother.

 

   
Load featured track - Barbecue Bob - Mississippi heavy water blues Next week: .. Black Boy Shine
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Everyday we have the blues - Get some more  
From the PD Productions archives ...
 
Featured lady blues artist
Bessie Smith - Trombone Cholly
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Gospel Blues Train
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Jesus is here today
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North Mississippi blues / Hill Country Blues
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Worried Mind
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Zydeco Blues
Gib Guilbeau - Happy Cajun Man
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Appalachian blues trail
Brownie McGhee - Pawn Shop Blues
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Blues on the Bayou
Tabby Thomas - Don't say
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Prison work songs / The spirituals connection
Pickin' Cotton, all day long
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The Blues shack / Artists we'd almost forgotten
Clifford Grandpappy Gibson - Bad Luck Dice - 1929
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Sawmill Gravy Blues - Special Productions - December 2023
SMGB - The Legends
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Railroad Blues
Cannon's Jug Stompers - Big railroad blues
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Jazz - Moods in Shades of Blue
Cleo Laine - I gotta a right to sing the blues
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Mississippi Moaners
Mississippi Bracy - You scolded me and drove me from your door ... (1931)
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The Sea Island Singers - Special feature
An American folk / blues music ensemble from Georgia, United States.
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Soul - in Shades of Blue - Guest production
The sweetest soul in shades of blue from the latter part of the 20th Century ... and sometimes, from the Noughties, presented by Umm Leila.
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