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THE TRUTH OF THE BLUES - BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN ... Our Company is PD Productions based in the South West of the UK, but here isn't where our journey into the blues began.... It all started, way back in the 1980’s 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' - and oh yes, we know.
We knew and felt the songs were telling us of a deep sadness, if you will the truth of the blues, 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 we produce ‘Backtracking’ we try to show our 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 inviting our listeners to journey back with us in time to the abomination of slavery, the depth of the spirituals and of course the expressive, authentic 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 there, sleeping 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, my dear friend, Graham, the ‘Doc’ my late cousin Len (Houston) and Bob (Humble Texas) the never ending patience of our group 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.
Our radio production, ‘Backtracking’ is available to blues stations around the world, totally free and non contractual. We upload the latest production to subscribing stations direct from our UK offices every Thursday. We cordially invite you to visit our website and review the latest show, we hope you will choose to join our friends around the world, as we go ‘Backtracking’ to the Roots of the Blues’ Back, to where it all began.
David R Howard – PD Productions (UK)
Get in touch at: ... syndicatingtheblues@gmail.com |
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Every Friday we have the blues: 18th April 2025 - Thank you for visiting with us, we cordially invite you to review and download the current production below. 'Backtracking' is a result of our research a journey of discovery that never ends, and our love of the Blues. All this simply because the music, the history and 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.
Backtracking is streamed online and is broadcast worldwide. It's free to join the 'Backtracking' time machine - Get the authentic blues on your radio station ..... |
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| 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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Bessie Smith - St Louis Blues (1929) - As far as is known, this is the only film production in which Bessie took part, apparently at the request of W C Handy. Bessie arrives at her rooming house where the participants of a hallway craps game tell her that her man, Jimmy, has just gone to her room with a beautiful young woman.
When she confronts the couple, Jimmy knocks her to the ground, and leaves with the other woman. Bessie begins to sing the blues. Later, in a nightclub, Bessie mournfully continues her song, accompanied by the band and the patrons.
Jimmy enters, laughing, glad-handing, and dancing up a storm. Everyone is delighted to see him. When the song ends, Jimmy calls out to Bessie, who turns and smiles, happy to have him back. They begin to dance. After a few minutes, Jimmie reaches down, steals Bessie's bankroll, and shoves her back to the bar. Holding up her money, he exits laughing, as Bessie returns to singing her sad song. Bessie Smith - St Louis Blues
There may well be licensing / copyright issues regarding this production, consequently, we are unable to offer an option to download, and would request that visitors refrain from doing so. |
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Current production .... Her name was Hattie Ellis
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.... some of the earliest blues artists are such a mystery, one such lady is Hattie Ellis. Like so many of the women who came to the Goree State Prison Farm in the thirties, she is indeed a mystery. All that can be known about her comes from meagre scraps of information—a trial transcript, the few references to her in the transcripts of the WBAP radio show Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls, and some reference of her in the Echo, the newspaper written and edited by Texas prison inmates.
Hattie was a black woman living in Dallas, she has been described as ‘a bootlegging sister’—which probably meant that she worked for a bootlegger or was a bootlegger herself. Another indication of her lifestyle comes from a statement she once made in court: ‘I never have paid any fines for being a prostitute’
When she was just twenty years old, Hattie was sentenced to thirty years at Goree for murdering another black woman named Henrietta Murphy. Henrietta and some other women had shown up at Hattie’s house, wanting to buy whiskey for a dollar from Hattie’s boyfriend. Hattie wouldn’t sell them whiskey, and she and Henrietta got into an argument. Hattie allegedly drove up to Henrietta’s talked to her for a few minutes while sitting in Hattie’s car, Hattie then drew a pistol, and shot her in the stomach and then in the back |
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Review / Download page ..... Zydeco Blues
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Zydeco is a music genre created in rural Southwest Louisiana by French speaking, Afro-Americans of Creole heritage. It blends African and Caribbean rhythms, Rhythm and blues with music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles. The main instruments are accordion and a zydeco rubboard, washboard, scrubboard or vest frottoir.
If you're exploring the Zydeco music artists look no further than Sean Ardoin he's an American Creole musician and singer, the grandson of Louisiana Creole music patriarch Alphonse 'Bois Sec' Sean is the son of Creole accordionist and band leader Lawrence Black Ardoin, and older brother of hip-hop zydeco accordionist. |
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Featured artist of the week .... Georgia Tom Dorsey
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Georgia Tom Dorsey, later to become the Reverend Thomas A Dorsey first gained recognition as a blues pianist in the 1920s and later became known as the father of gospel music for his role in developing, publishing, and promoting the gospel blues. He was born on July 1, 1899, Thomas was first exposed to music in church, where he heard shape-note singing and moaning spiritual songs.
In 1908 the family relocated to Atlanta, on Decatur Street, he worked at the Eighty-One Theatre, where he saw performances by Ma Rainey, met Bessie Smith, From the age of twelve to fourteen Thomas played at house parties and brothels, gaining the nickname ‘Barrel House Tom’
Throughout the 1920s Thomas’s rising fame derived from his blues music, beginning with a job in Will Walker’s Whispering Syncopates.
He continued playing the blues as well as, Religious music, in 1924 Ma Rainey chose him to organise and lead her Wild Cats Jazz Band. However, his greatest blues success came in 1928 with the song “It’s Tight like That,” an instant, bawdy hit. Under the name Georgia Tom, he recorded more than sixty sides with Tampa Red, in addition to accompanying many famous blues performers, including Scrapper Blackwell, Big Bill Broonzy, Frankie Jaxson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, and Victoria Spivey.
 During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Thomas worked extensively with Mahalia Jackson, establishing her as the preeminent gospel singer and Thomas as the dominant gospel composer of the time. His work with Mahalia and other female singers, including Della Reese and Clara Ward, ensured his continued prominence.
Thomas died in Chicago on January 23, 1993, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Although he didn’t invent gospel blues, he was one of its earliest performers during the genre’s transition from performance by guitar evangelists to performance by large choruses. Furthermore, his foresight in deciding to publish all of his material coupled with the large audiences for his music at some of Chicago’s prominent churches and at the National Baptist Convention, helped him to become an icon.
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Copyright: PD Productions ... All rights reserved .. Registered 2021 |
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